Squirrels on the Menu

Hey! Do I see a market at last for my pesky gray squirrels? Anybody want a recipe for Brunswick Stew? Actually, I haven’t seen as many squirrels around as I used to – maybe somebody in the Minneapolis area has them on the menu! V-E-R-Y interesting! 

And by the way, I too would be interested in locating a venue for Judging School III. Ethel Smith in MN

4 comments for “Squirrels on the Menu

  1. Hi Fran – my grandmother’s copy of “Housekeeping in Old Virginia” (1879) has four recipes for Brunswick stew, using beef, squirrel, and/or chicken, plus one for barbequed squirrel and others for various wild game. Same game, different name!  Awful pun – sorry!

     I guess back then you needed to know how to cook whatever was brought in, although I doubt Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes or several senators’ wives endorsed the book especially for that! Ethel Smith in MN

  2. I grew up in Arkansas and there, we ate them like fried chicken, or in a stew with dumplings (for the tough squirrels).  However, cleaning them is where I currently draw the line.
    I just shoot them now when they try to get my bird seed.
    Clay

    Clay Higgins
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  3. That was not uncommon in Indiana. My hunting friends during high school and the electronics department faculty would keep them, sometimes in brine, and pool them with other game for a once per winter feast. 

    When Mary and I were in St. Petersburg a couple of years ago, we visited Peterhof, an incredible Czarist palace with many fountains. See http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/peterhof/gallery/ if you don’t know anything about this place.
    While strolling the lovely grounds we noticed about 15 animated people clustered about a small tree. We approached and saw that they were WATCHING A SQUIRREL! It was a red one with pointy ears, like a pic shown here recently.
    This winter, again, we are sharing our cedar clad house with a family of squirrels in the wall. The don’t bother us and they are pretty well socked in there until spring. They entered through one of the woodpecker holes which were installed last summer. I hired a young man who used some wicked spray to evict the squirrels, then filled the void with a special polyfoam, then closed the holes with wood filler. Unbeknownst to us, a young squirrel went down into the insulation instead of coming out the hole. It took him almost a week to dig his way out. Then he returned with his friends to excavate the foam and move in for the winter. I used to hang out on my roof often when I was installing ham radio antennas, but those days are gone forever, especially when it’s cold. So we are sharing with the squirrels.
    I would be glad to introduce you if you visit. I would be even pleased to serve a fricasee of them as your evening meal.
    I intend to have them evicted before Peeping Tom, my usual first bloom, crops up in the spring. (I only wrote that to justify using daffnet bandwidth for this inconsequential chit-chat.)

  4. There are several videos available on Utube on how to skin squirrels and a good skinner can accomplish it in less than a minute. For those of you who, like me, can’t shoot them in the city, live trap them and imerse the trap and squirrel in a 55 gallon drum of water.

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