What do grey squirrels taste like?

C

Cabin Fever

New member
Took the kids out and shot a few grey squirrels (28 in the past couple of weekends!). We usually skin them and give them to a 92 year old friend that loves to eat them, but can no longer hunt. My son wants me to keep a couple, so he can try them. I honestly have "no" (zero, zippo, nadda) desire to eat them, but I also don't want to discourage my son from trying them either, so I'm trying to go along with it.

What do grey squirrels taste like? What are the best ways to prepare them? Favorite recipes??
 
They taste fantastic.

We have found that the best way our kids eat them is in pot pie form and the recipe is quite simple.

1-Boil the squirrel whole or quarted for a couple of hours (longer if they are older animals) until tender with whole carrot,celery,onion,garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
2-Remove squirrels and let cool long enough to work with it.
3-Strip all of the meat off of the bones. (at this point you can freeze it in bags for later use)
4-Either make homemade pie crust or cheat and get the ready crust from Pillsbury and line bottom of pie pan with one and save the other for the top.
5-Add meat with fresh or frozen veggies of your choice with one jar of gravy (chicken or turkey is best)
6-Top it off with the other crust and pinch the edges all the way around the top.Trim off excess crust and poke a couple vent holes with a fork.
7-Bake at 375 for one hour or to desired crust appearance.

Enjoy.

An alternate method is using a crock pot or slow cooker to cook and soften the meat.
If you get a big-sacked old ridge runner of a tree rat the crock pot method will make his tough old meat fall off of his old bones.

I save the veggies that are boiled to death and smash them up and use it along with Bisquick for making dumplings.

I save (freeze) the water as soup base or for flaovoring egg noddles.

Kenny.
 
+1 for the pot pies.

Use the squirrels like chicken. Anyway you prepare chicken, you can substitute squirrel, like chicken make sure that it is well done, no rare meat. Bar-b-que, roast, shake and bake, unlimited. We've servered it to many folks and they can't believe it was squirrel.

We gave the neighbors a couple of squirrel pot pies one year for letting us hunt their woods and they said later that they will be hunt the squirrels themselves and that we couldn't hunt them anymore. Of course they where just kidding, fortunately.
 
Definitely pot pies!
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To me they taste just as bad as they smell when thier cooking. The one bite of grey squirrell I has was the last bite I'll ever take.

t/c223encore.
 
i fried some, it was tough as [beeep]. I am gonna try a different method next year im done with the tree rats this year.
 
If you find squirrel or rabbit a bit tough when it's fried try this:
Do not fry it until it is done, only pan sear the dredged outsides in butter or olive oil in a cast iron skillet and transfer it to the oven in a covered dish with taters, carrot and onions with a little bit of water and finish it off for 2-3 hours at 325-350 degrees or until the veggies are done they way you like them.

For enhancing the flavor of rabbit and squirrel a little Mrs.Dash or chicken seasoning on the skin itself before you flower it goes a long way. It has to be put on before the flour against the skin or meat to prevent the delicate spices from burning during frying.
 
I grew up eating grays. mom would fry them and then make gravy with the grease/cracklins. we ate them for breakfast most of the time. good stuff.
 
I asked the Mrs. what she thought Gray Squirrels tasted like, and she said "a lot like Fox Squirrels."
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What can I say? Country Girls!
 
Luv'em fried...Par boil till the meat just about falls of the bone.Let cool pour canola oil in a good size skillet..when hot put in enough butter to make a good froth "Dont burn the butta" dip pieces in egg wash then in italian bread crumbs "I like progresso" frie until golden brown.
 
I love fried and gravy. But if you are fixing them for someone who may not be sure they will like them try this recipe.
Cut in pieces and place on Aluminum foil with onion, bacon, and your favorite Bar-b-Que sauce and either put it in the oven or on the grill. When done it falls off the bone.
 
quarter em up
wrap in bacon
add salt,pepper, garlic
sliced onions and mushroms wrap in some foil and stick in a nice bed of coals for a couple hours
or doo the same recipe and put in dutch oven on 300 for 2 hours or so
its good stuff there
 
Cabin Fever,
Once you skin one and you pull off all that hide off that long skinny tail, and hold it out in front of you, the first thing that comes to mind is....why am I going to eat a RAT...you will throw it in the trash or give it to the dog. Not worth the effort believe me. Just my 4 cents worth.
 
Originally Posted By: peterjcCabin Fever,
Once you skin one and you pull off all that hide off that long skinny tail, and hold it out in front of you, the first thing that comes to mind is....why am I going to eat a RAT...you will throw it in the trash or give it to the dog. Not worth the effort believe me. Just my 4 cents worth.

:) Yeah, that pretty much sums up how I feel! I commend the boy for wanting to try them and want to try them for his sake. If we can find a recipe that makes the critters edible, it'll give us a good reason to hunt them. They destroyed my corn foodplots last fall, leaving nothing for the deer, so now it's payback time!
 
Cabin,
Actually your last post is not exactly true. Did you ever watch a squirrel eat corn? They just eat the little heart out of each kernel, its like cutting a "V" out of each kernel and they leave the rest lay. The deer will eat whats left. Its kinda neat how they do that. Unless they carry off the whole cob somewhere the deer can't get to it.
Just my observation over the years.
 
Originally Posted By: peterjcCabin,
Unless they carry off the whole cob somewhere the deer can't get to it.

That's the problem! I sat in stands overlooking the cornplot during bow season and it would be a all day constant parade watching squirrels go in, grab an ear, and carry it off to God knows where, then come back for more! I only have a 1 1/2 acre corn plot and each stalk only produced 1 ear of corn. Didn't take long for the mass of squirrels to carry off 90% of the ears! I seldom saw squirrels eat the kernels in the field, they just carried off the ears. I remember being in stands 400+ yards away from the corn plot and saw squirrels hopping by me with an ear of corn in its mouth!

We shot 28 in the past couple of weeks. By the looks of the tracks in the snow out around camp, we haven't even put a dent in the population yet. It probably cost me $200 to plant the corn (lime, fertilizer, seed, gas, weed killer), not to mention tractor repairs and my time. And all I did was feed the squirrels.
 
Originally Posted By: Cabin FeverOriginally Posted By: peterjcCabin,
Unless they carry off the whole cob somewhere the deer can't get to it.

That's the problem! I sat in stands overlooking the cornplot during bow season and it would be a all day constant parade watching squirrels go in, grab an ear, and carry it off to God knows where, then come back for more! I only have a 1 1/2 acre corn plot and each stalk only produced 1 ear of corn. Didn't take long for the mass of squirrels to carry off 90% of the ears! I seldom saw squirrels eat the kernels in the field, they just carried off the ears. I remember being in stands 400+ yards away from the corn plot and saw squirrels hopping by me with an ear of corn in its mouth!

We shot 28 in the past couple of weeks. By the looks of the tracks in the snow out around camp, we haven't even put a dent in the population yet. It probably cost me $200 to plant the corn (lime, fertilizer, seed, gas, weed killer), not to mention tractor repairs and my time. And all I did was feed the squirrels.

I'll bet the coons did worse damage at night.
 
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