AMAZING GRACE: The Molineres sit down to supper for the “Swampsgiving” special airing tonight on History. (Action News)
For the families featured on “Swamp People,” Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without turkey, stuffing . . . and swamp rat.
The large, furry creatures — called “nutria” in North America — look like a beaver with a rat’s tail and are an ingredient of last-resort in the Cajun cuisine indigenous to the “Swamp People.”
The show, which is the highest-rated program on History, follows a group of close-knit families who live off the land in the Atchafalaya Swamp of South Eastern Louisiana as foragers, fishermen and alligator hunters.
Typically, the action on the show revolves around alligator hunting — but for their “Swampsgiving” special tonight (9 p.m.), the alligator off-season will be on display as the swamp-families put together a Thanksgiving feast with a list of ingredients you’d never find at your local Food Emporium.
For example, instead of heading to the meat department, Troy Landry and his mom Miss Teresa will go on a wild turkey hunt while R.J. and Jay Paul Molinere stalk a feral hog they’ll use in an ancestral Houma tribe recipe.
Meanwhile, Bruce Mitchell will troll the swamps for a gigantic prehistoric-looking fish called a Gar, which he’ll cook up with a side of fried frogs legs.
What tops it off is footage of the Guists — the goofiest family on the show — trying their hands at squirrel hunting before scrambling to get anything on their Thanksgiving table.