'em squirrels are good tasting !

[Shytheed Dumas]

Anybody ever try smoking them slowly at low temp (<200)? I did most of my deer like that and it is sooo tender! I haven't squirrel hunted since I was a kid, but am planning on taking my son out for his first ever hunt when Kentucky's season opens and have been thinking about trying them on the smoker.

 

[cleardiddion]

Personally I like to get all the bone off them and batter and fry.
Like little squirrel nuggets.
A little coleslaw or potato salad and I'm all set.

 

[AStone]

I'll probably bring a cooler with ice to put
the field dressed game in and keep it cool

That's an excellent idea, RB.

 

[Supertac45]

I love them.

 

[Crazy Carl]

Love tree rat! Gramma'd fry 'em up w/some bacon grease & a dasho o' salt & pepper. YUM!

 

[AStone]

Gramma'd fry 'em up w/some bacon grease & a dasho o' salt & pepper.

Now that's good eatin', right there.

Lay in a side of mashed potatoes with squirrel gravy,
black eyes, corn on the cob (with extra butter), fresh tomatoes & greens.

Add good beer.

Blackberry or pecan pie with homemade ice cream.

Gets no better.

 

[Crazy Carl]

That's a fact. Makes me hongry, just thinkin' 'bout it.

 

[crazycliff200843]

I like the young ones best. The older ones have more meat on them, but they can get kinda oily. I have heard that the ones in the south east get some kind of worm in them once a year, but you can still eat them.

 

[wombat13]

Brunswick stew!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew

 

[Leanwolf]

PUBLIUSS - "Nothing better than some squirrel gumbo. they are a pain to clean though b/c you are going to get hair on the meat and it's tough to get it all off."

So what's wrong with that??? That's what you call "roughage."

I haven't the faintest idea how many Red Fox and Grey squirrels I and my brother killed while growing up in a tiny town in north central Arkansas. My mother breaded them in seasoned flour, fried them in bacon grease, drained the grease and made gravy. The fried pieces went back into the gravy, simmered awhile, then was as tender as fresh biscuits... which also went along with dinner.

Same with Cottontail rabbits.

While living in California, I killed a few, but never could match the amount we killed in Arkansas.

L.W.

 

[Crazy Carl]

I think you're mom & my grandma might've been kin. She cooked squirrel & rabbit up, the exact same way. She also had a knack for fryin' up frog legs just right. THAT's some good eatin', right there.

 

[MCgunner]

like caviar that lives in trees.

I like that.

 

[tactikel]

quarter and dredge 'em in flour and pan fry until lightly browned and place in baking dish add 1/2 c dry white wine, cover with foil and bake (its called fricasseing) until tender. Make a gravy with the drippings and serve with wild rice or potatoes and cold beer. Outstanding!

 

[qajaq59]

The first time I ate squirrel I was about 10 and we cooked it on a stick over a campfire. My guess is that it was as tough as a boot, but at that age I doubt that we cared. LOL

 

[trapperjohn]

i do not understand people saying they would never try "tree rat". Squirrel meat is some of the safest meat there is. they eat a lot of acorns which is high in tannin which is anti-parasitic.

 

[dagger dog]

One way to tell if they will be tender enough to pan fry, is when your skinning, if the hide slips off the tail , he is still a young un , so you can dredge him in seasoned flour and fry him like a chicken.

The older ones where you have to fight to get their shirt and pants off 'em, 10 minutes in a pressure cooker in salted water make 'em ready for the frying pan.

But my all time favorite is poochie gravy, dredge in seasoned flour, pan fry in bacon grease till brown, then make milk gravy out of the drippin's, put Rocky back in the gravy and simmer 'till he's falling off'n the bone, pick out the bones and ladle him over two or three big cathead biscuts.

I like to use a .22 and try for head shots, but if your a shotgunner, then the guy that eats the most squirrel and poochie gravy, spits the most hair and shot

 

[LonGr]

... Squirrel meat is some of the safest meat there is. they eat a lot of acorns which is high in tannin which is anti-parasitic.

That's interesting!

 

[Sam Cade]

Since I don't want to get Prion disease or tapeworms (which no amount of ingested acorns will cure) I think I will continue to pass on the Tree-Rats.

 

[nathan]

Fry them hot and deep at 180 degrees until brown.

 

[crazycliff200843]

I haven't had much in a while, but since the last time I did, I hear that if you get the oil glands just above their knees as quick as possible when skinning, it helps to keep the oil it from spreading to the rest of the meat.

 

[wankerjake]

Since I don't want to get Prion disease or tapeworms (which no amount of ingested acorns will cure) I think I will continue to pass on the Tree-Rats.

If you're worried about prion disease, then you should stay away from meat/parts containing CNS tissue and animals that have been fed such tissue (meat from the store). Eating squirrel does not put you at greater risk for either disease than does eating beef you buy from the store, at least to my knowledge.

 

[Mr. T]

OMG - my mouth was watering just looking at those pictures...especially the BBQ one. Anyone who won't eat a squirrel is missing out....but that's OK, it just leaves more for he rest of us!

 

[EatBugs]

I make squirrel pot pie out of em... it was a hit at our recent wild game dinner.

 

[DammitBoy]

You guys should try our Mississippi squirrels



Ribs, backstrap and steaks fer the whole family!

 

[Maj Dad]

DaggerDog, you took me back home to Louisiana... Used to see the little naked babies marinating in the fridge (with the coil on top) and Mama would cook them as you described (we just didn't call it poochie gravy)... Almost as good as the coon my late Mother in Law cooked up. We'd go out early in the morning & find one sleeping in a tall tree in the swamp and "harvest" him. My 2 daughters would fight over the last piece... Ah, the good ol' days... Laissez-les bons temps roulez encore un fois, Cher!