preparing squirrels?

[UplandObsession]

Just started keeping squirrels this fall and wondering what are some good ways to prepare them for the plate? The only thing I have heard is after boiling them make a wildrice stew with them in it. Lets hear some good recipies you guys got?

[HD]

We just 1/4 them up, and fry um in a pan with flour, salt and pepper. 

[UplandObsession]

still boil them first?

[HD]

Nope, we don't boil um...just cook um slow.

Just dredge um in the flour mixture and fry...just like a fish filet...just slower

[HD]

Oh yea, I forgot...the wife cooked um in a slow cooker a few times with chicken stock and a soup mix...that was pretty tasty too!

[UplandObsession]

It sounds like frying them will be the quickest as I am gonna be cooking them for a Game Feed.

[Tyler Rother]

I just grill em on indirect with salt, pepper, and a bit of lowrys.

MmmMMmm

[JohnWester]

crock pot, crock pot, crock pot...

potatoes, carrots and some Campbells soup (cream of mushroom, celery, what ever) cook them til the meat falls off the bones.

[dakids]

slow and low is the key

[corny13]

Just dont cook them the Okie  way.... thats to keep the head on the body so you can eat the squirrel brains.  There have been documented cases of hunters getting the equivalent of Mad Cow disease from eating squirrel brains down south..

[MnSportsman]

2-3 Squirrels cleaned & cut up
Soak a few hours or overnite in salted water to reduce blood. Pour off water & rinse.
6-8 minutes in a pressurecooker with 1/2 to 1 cup Chicken broth/boullion. & if ya want add some onion/garlic powder or the real veggies. Even some salt & pepper if ya like...or wait til after...
Eat. or debone & make into a soup/stew..
Tastes like chicken lol

 Just learned that method a year ago , used to panfry/crockpot & even BBQ them, but I like the pressure cooker way the best. Wished I had one years ago.
G'luck & have fun.

[kenhuntin]

Just dont cook them the Okie   way.... thats to keep the head on the body so you can eat the squirrel brains.  There have been documented cases of hunters getting the equivalent of Mad Cow disease from eating squirrel brains down south..

Isn't it the other way around corny? It seems to me you must have Mad Cow first in order to want to eat squirrel brain.

[UplandObsession]

Well i have more than enough squirrels I might just try acouple of these. I am gonna need a way to sneak them in somewhere for the fiancee to eat them, one of these should work.   She refuses to eat wild game, even grouse...

[Tyler Rother]

Get er' to try some pheasant Upland, best bird out there sides grouse and turkey.

[JECAMERON]

Are all squirrels OK to eat?
When I was younger I brought a red squirrel home asking ma to cook it. She claimed she was told not to eat red squirrels for one reason or another.

[UplandObsession]

Yeah I have tried everything from Grouse, Pheasant, Duck, Goose, Dove, the only thing she will eat is heavily battered deepfried fish. Oh well more for me I guess... LOL

[kenhuntin]

Yeah I have tried everything from Grouse, Pheasant, Duck, Goose, Dove, the only thing she will eat is heavily battered deepfried fish. Oh well more for me I guess... LOL

Mine is the same way. She won't eat that "rocket fuel natural protein" but will eat a chicken that has had it's feet stapled to a board fed by a conveyor belt brimming with growth hormones and feed.
 Fast food to her is not a mallard but a big mac.
 I feel that alot of women lack the conservationalist gene.They do not understand that hunting seasons and limits are determined by the excess populations of which an ecosystem can provide for.

[Go Big Red!]

Yeah I have tried everything from Grouse, Pheasant, Duck, Goose, Dove, the only thing she will eat is heavily battered deepfried fish. Oh well more for me I guess... LOL

Mine is the same way. She won't eat that "rocket fuel natural protein" but will eat a chicken that has had it's feet stapled to a board fed by a conveyor belt brimming with growth hormones and feed.
 Fast food to her is not a mallard but a big mac.
 I feel that alot of women lack the conservationalist gene.They do not understand that hunting seasons and limits are determined by the excess populations of which an ecosystem can provide for.

My wife is the same way, but she never grew up around it.  She's a city gal from Duluth and no one in her family hunted or fished.  On the other hand, my kids love it.

[UplandObsession]

My fiance is like Big Reds wife, just never grew up around hunting or willd game, so she just stubborn and says she wont eat it. I took her out grouse hunting this last fall and she brought a camera along and took pictures for a class she had but she doesnt enjoy the nature very much. What she calls camping is pulling a massive RV into a camp site and being pampered , when I think of camping I think of grabbing just my sleeping bag, a cook kit and whatever i can fit for food, beer and sleeping underniether the stars. Hopefully get a little runt around soon so they can share a passion for the outdoors as I do.

[GRIZ]

Well goldielox isn't against eating wild game but she sure is fussy about it. Only likes panfish and walleye. We cut up our own deer. I bone it out and bring the stuff into the house where she does the trimming an cleaning. She don't trust me to trim as she thinks I leave too much junk on it when in reality she takes too much off. She likes turkey and pheasant but don't care much for waterfowl.

Now me on the other hand I eat absolutly anything or at least try it once. I just grew up that one doesn't let anything go to waste. I have always scaled my panfish until she refused to eat them with the skin on. Now that I don't get as the flavor is in the skin. Anyway enough with my ramblings and to the point. They will eat it if they don't know it.

I got mine to eat beaver. What I did was to clean it real well and grind it up. Then I took some of the ground up lard left from when we had a hog butchered and ground that in with the beaver.
I packaged it in the same bags that the butcher uses and packs our burger in. Now to make sure she don't catch on I told her I was grinding up some of them venison roasts into burger which I did also. That way when it don't taste like beef it's not an issue. So now we have burger in the freezer that could be beef, venison or beaver but nobody knows which until we open the bag(including me). Venison and beaver are darker. She don't know beaver is in there at all but it was about 45 pounds of free burger. I still don't know if it's beaver or venison.

[kenhuntin]

You do not feel at all guilty for tricking her into eating beaver?

[GRIZ]

Should I? Others have asked me the same thing. She likes it OK.

So the way I look at it is this. She wouldn't have tried it if she knew what it was. If I could have talked her into it, which wouldn't be impossible she wouldn't have tried it with an open mind. She already knew it was going to be different and therefore a mindset that it prolly wouldn't be good. So now she likes it and I don't see what the difference is at this point. If she would have said said something to the effect that it taste funny or don't taste the best, I wouldn't do it again.

That is something alot of people can't do is try something with an open mind. Case in point if I cooked up some skunk how many people would/could honestly try it with an open mind? Do I cook up skunk? NO. Have I? NO Yet I have ate it, it taste like coon. I was at a stew feed once where the guy used skunk for meat in the stew. Now there were about 50 people there and all thought the stew was good. There were 3 of us that knew what was in it. The guy who put the feed on, the chef and the guy who cleaned the skunks. Incase your wondering I'm the one who cleaned the skunks. Should I feel guilty about that? Nobody was told what it was other than stew and nobody asked what was in it. It was stew an they liked it what's the problem.

[GRIZ]

Just to clarify my previous post I wasn't trying to trick her into eating something that she didn't like. Rather just getting her to try something with an open mind. I think there is a big difference but I realize not all will agree with me on that.

So you coming to my stew feed this summer ?

[kenhuntin]

Did you watch her eat the beaver? I do not know how I would react to my girl experimenting like that.

[HD]

I have eat'in skunk before, and thought it twer'nt to bad....and I knew what it was, cause I cleaned it. 

[UplandObsession]

I wouldnt feel guilty at all if I could do something like that but mine will only eat something from the store or from there butcher that they buy 1/4 of a cow from every yr.  You think little squirrel jerky bites would turn out ok? I think that will be a good way to make her try it. I can just tell her its from a local meat market.

[GRIZ]

I think jerky could fool just about everyone no matter what it's made from. On that note I think anything properly prepared could be good, just not that everyone knows how to prepare it all.

[UplandObsession]

very true GRIZ, I guess if people can make amazing goose jerky it wouldnt be had to mad amazing squirrel jerky.lol

[Bobby Bass]

How to prepare squirrels!

Well I usually like to gather them all together and sit them down, I usually try not to shock them as we know that an event can change their little lives, well anyone's life for that matter. O wait my wife is tugging my shirt sleeves, it seems this string is about preparing them to eat...    My mistake

[GRIZ]

Yes BB it did get off topic. It did however get back on the topic by going to squirrel jerky.