From the weblog of Canut Reyes, founding member of the Gipsy Kings.

Recipe from my mother, on How to Prepare a Hedgehog.

She made a hole in the hedgehog's hind leg, there to insert the valve from the bicycle tire pump, in order to fill the hedgehog with air.
Afterwards, when the carcass was all swollen with air, Maman tied a string to the hedgehog's tongue, and used the string to bind up the muzzle and mouth so that air would not escape.
Then she used a razor to remove any remaining quills.
She dunked the carcass in boiling water.

With a knife she removed the fuzzy stuff ("duvet") from the hide.
With a scissors, she opened the abdomen in order to gut the carcass, and would then clean it four or five times with boiling water.
After cutting off the four legs and the head, Maman cut the meat into small pieces.

She got a stew-pot and -- uh-oh -- "le faisait revenir"? "made it come back?!" HELP ME MONIQUE! well, whatever she did, she did so with:
garlic
salt
pepper
thyme
bay leaves
onions

She cooked the hedgehog in the stew-pot for half an hour.
It was our favorite dish.

entered February 2006
the translation from the French is keberoxu's fault