A moose muffle or mouffle or moufle is the nose and the pendulous, overhanging upper lip of the moose eaten boiled, baked, or fried as a delicacy. It was prized among the Cree who boiled it and cut the muzzle into very thin slices.

In 1754, Anthony Henday, exploring for the Hudson ’s Bay Company, wrote in his diary: “I dressed a lame man’s leg. He gave me a Moose nose, which is a delicate dish, for my trouble.”

Tracing the Origin of the Word Muffle

Canadian English moose muffle was borrowed from Québec French muflet from Standard French mufle ‘an animal’s muzzle.’ Old French borrowed mouflet from German Muffel, perhaps itself from a Medieval Latin word muffula ‘fur-lined glove,’ ‘woolen mitten,’ ‘protective covering.’

Is it possible that the loose muzzle and lips of an animal were considered as “protective”? The late etymologist Eric Partridge in his book Origins suggests that muffula and the name of a European sheep called in French mouflon are cognate or related. In some Italian dialects the sheep is a muflone. In Corsican Italian it is muffolo.

The mouflon, ancestor of some modern sheep, does not have a fleecy coat and its magnificent horns make it appear goat-like.

Mouflon have brown, short-haired coats. Their large spiral horns that cause them to be mistaken for goats are treasured by trophy shooters. But the mouflon is a sheep.

The English words muff and muffler certainly stem ultimately from mouflon. Perhaps even the kitchen’s muffin was named because its shape resembled that of an early muff.

Several recipebooks of Aboriginal cooking tips warn of moose nose and lips being “an acquired taste.” Beware of any nutriment for which the eater must acquire a taste. Such a phrase implies that the eater must acquire the taste because the food lacks it.

Although highly esteemed of yore, the spectacle of a moose’s nose and upper lip from which the large bristles and hairs have been uprooted violently with a pair of giant pliers does not inspire in the novice diner any great confidence. Ditto with moose-muffle soup, although it has one advantage: the moose’s muffle has been chopped and diced until no longer recognizable as the flappy-lipped snout of a large, adorable Canadian mammal. We don’t want to eat poor little moose, do we? Let us consign this recipe to our history and, instead, make a nutritious broth from the boiled carcasses of used politicians.

                                                                     © 2005

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