Squirrel skinning and cooking.

November 27, 2005 5:47 PM

Squirrel hunting, skinning and recipes?

With deer firearm season over, we are still looking for meat. I'm interested in some good squirrel skinning and recipe tips. Unfortunately, my aged cookbook is still beyond the time when they used to have skinning/cooking information.

How many bagged squirrels is a good meal? Any good tips on skinning for an effective mount or display? Thanks!

posted by sled to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 answers total)

I'd avoid the brains; you might catch mad squirrel disease.
posted by glibhamdreck at 6:20 PM on November 27, 2005

Check out the Joy of Cooking, as per this recent thread.
posted by acoutu at 6:28 PM on November 27, 2005

They say I'm a mad squirrel, Barton, but I'm not mad at anyone. Honest, I'm not. Most guys I just feel sorry for...
posted by squirrel at 6:30 PM on November 27, 2005

Wow! I haven't eaten squirrel since I was a wee lass and my hillbilly pa would shoot them from our back steps with a .22. And we lived in a housing development. I'm sure our neighbors just adored us.

The gastronomical endpoint of this hobby was something called "squirrel gravy over rice." All I honestly remember about it was that it was gamey and gray and involved tiny little squirrel bones. I ate a lot of plain rice on squirrel nights.

But a google search of "squirrel gravy rice" turned up this recipe, which looks like it might be a close match to what my dad cooked up. Here's a much simpler slow cooker version. This link has a lot of squirrel recipes.

I can't help you with the skinning and cleaning, although I do remember watching that happen on the back steps, too. I'm sure a google search will turn up some advice, but I'll leave that up to you since I'm a little queasy after finding all the squirrel recipes. (Not to cast aspersions on your choice of meat in the least - I just hated HATED hated squirrel as a kid and am a little skeeved by the culinary trip down memory lane.)
posted by jennyb at 7:22 PM on November 27, 2005

Uh, Yahoo turns up lots of useful results for 'skinning squirrel'. The banana peel method sounds efficient. Lots of recipes and mounting info, too. Did you try there first?

- one-time squirrel soup eater
posted by mediareport at 7:32 PM on November 27, 2005

I am a deer hunter. A couple years ago, a friend killed a squirrel and had me over to butcher it, because he figured I came closest to having any idea how to go about it.

I didn't really know what to do, though, so I skinned and butchered it exactly like I would have a deer, right down to cutting little teeny tiny roasts and steaks. Heh. The total amount of meat came out to something less than a regular hamburger.

The hardest part was skinning it. You need it to be held firmly in place when you start pulling on the hide, but you can't really hang it like a deer. I had my friend to hold it, but if you're doing it yourself, you might want to tie the forelegs to a table leg or something so you have some traction. From that point, I skinned it just like a deer or elk: a slit down each leg, and one down the belly, then peel the hide starting from the front legs. I found the hide to be attached about as, or maybe a little more, firmly than deer hide.

Also, I found a regular hunting knife was too big, so I used an Exacto knife.
posted by event at 9:15 PM on November 27, 2005

Learn to recognize the signs of tularemia and bubonic plague. In many areas, squirrels are healthy carriers of these diseases.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:59 PM on November 27, 2005

[a few comments removed, please take "bloodlust is sad" type comments to metatalk or, preferably, email]
posted by jessamyn at 2:40 PM on November 28, 2005

In college a buddy of mine made "stir fried squirrel chunks" which involved a lot of soy marinade to hids some of the gamey taste.
posted by plinth at 8:31 PM on November 28, 2005

Our family always made squirrel sauce piquant. The recipe doesn't mention it, but you serve it over white rice.
posted by turbodog at 10:23 AM on December 1, 2005