Squirrel Ideas

[BigBoreBLR]

I got a dozen grey squirrels quartered in the freezer.

I have them marinated in salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.

Any reciepe ideas? Preferably gluten free. It worse than being a southpaw back then.

I usually do pan fried in a bed of collard greens. But, used to love squirrel and dumplings. Need some new receipe ideas.

 

[Black Hand]

I got a dozen grey squirrels quartered in the freezer.

I have them marinated in salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.

Any reciepe ideas? Preferably gluten free. It worse than being a southpaw back then.

I usually do pan fried in a bed of collard greens. But, used to love squirrel and dumplings. Need some new receipe ideas.

Braise in wine/stock and serve over Polenta. If they were unseasoned, I'd make a stew with Barley (my usual squirrel preparation).

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Around here, squirrel pot pie is the traditional way to serve it up. But not a pot pie with a crust like some of you think. Pot pie here is sort of like dumplings down south. Big square fresh made egg noodles cooked in the gravy with the meat.

 

[George]

If they are youngish, I pan fry them and serve with biscuits and gravy.


If they are older, I do them some way which involves more cooking time. Baked in a clay pot:




Simmered until very tender, meat removed and glazed with terriyaki sauce:


Or made into dumplings and gravy/soup:


I have a cast iron chicken fryer with a lid, and for the really tough ones I dredge them in seasoned flour, fry them in that until nicely browned, add a little water and clap on the lid, bake for an hour or more until very tender. Pan gravy, of course.

Spence

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Zimmerstutzen is correct,
A pie is one of the best ways to serve squirrel. I like to slow cook them in a crock pot. Onions, salt, pepper, garlic, and a little red wine. Remove the meat from the bones, and save the broth.

Then make a Cottage Pie*, by thickening the broth with either some flour or corn starch, return the meat to the broth which is now thick gravy, and pour this into your pie pan.

Cover the meat and gravy with a layer of mashed potatoes, and then bake the pie in a hot oven or your Dutch Oven (with lots of coals on the lid) until the potatoes start to brown. Serve.

Some folks like to add peas to the meat, some like to add whole kernel corn, some like to add a layer of corn between the meat and the taters.

*I've been informed by a very knowledgable British cook, that this dish is a "Cottage Pie" with any type of meat, unless lamb or mutton is used, and only then it becomes "Shepherd's Pie".

LD

 

[satx78247]

100% CORRECT.
(My ex-housemate, who was as Canadian as people come, called any such dish Shepard's Pie. - Roxie said that Shepard's Pie is "The National Dish of Canada.")

Personally, I treat squirrel just like chicken in recipes & in point of fact, IF I'm "short of bushy-tail", I supplement the squirrel meat with shredded chicken.

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Duplicate post deleted. Mea Culpa.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Use to have an annual squirrel feed cooked by my friends sister.....

Don't have the full recipe but it involved a crock pot and Lipton onion soup mix.

 

[satx78247]

YEP. - That's likely an "easy version" of bushy-tail fricassee.

yours, satx

 

[Curt]

I think Spence gets my vote,course im sure the others are just as good, that looks alot like my grandma cookin and squirrel and venison was on the menu purty regular. Curt

 

[tenngun]

Built the meat and strip it off the bone. Use as litter water as possible so you get a broth. Melt butter in a frying pan add some sliced onion and fry till translucent. Mushrooms if you like them and some salt and pepper. Add that meat and cook till browned, remove from pan. Take 1/2 a cup of the broth and 1/2 scup of dry red wine and pour on to the drippings on bottom of frying pan. Bring to a light boil then add back the meat and onions, let simmer for a few min then serve over noodles or toast.

 

[Vaino]

Of all the replies, yours is the only one that mentioned segregating the squirrels according to age.....that displays a liking for cooked squirrels. Your recipes likewise display how squirrels could be cooked.

I'm not for camouflaging the taste of meat of any game animals and you know what they say about game meat that's been heavily seasoned or marinaded....either the people eating it don't like the taste of game or the game meat is not "fresh" to put it mildly and needs a big coverup. Ate some marinaded venison cooked on the grill and actually wondered what I was eating.....anybody's guess.

I simply braise most game meats in onions and garlic w/ a slight seasoning of salt and pepper. The gravy is delicious and the braising yields tender meat.

I know some people who have their venison ground and use it for only sausage and chili so they won't taste the "gamey taste"......Fred

 

[zimmerstutzen]

There's far too many folks that have no idea how to field dress game to preserve the best flavors. Decades ago there was an Austrian Chef on PBS who regularly covered dressing and cooking of game. The man clearly despised the way many Americans treat the game they harvest. My Dad was very fussy about the way a deer was handled. Bled out, musk glands cut off, gutted and split open to cool within minutes and before the trek back to the truck. We once both connected within a few minutes of dawn and had the deer "skun" split and hung in a cold garage within ten minutes of shooting them. The venison was so much better.

 

[tenngun]

I do believe the'gamey taste' is tainted meat. I field clean everything I kill. I think bleeding and gutting are very important to the taste.

 

[satx78247]

100% SPOT ON. = "Gamy venison" is a SURE sign of half-spoiled meat.

yours, satx

 

[Black Hand]

I do believe the'gamey taste' is tainted meat. I field clean everything I kill. I think bleeding and gutting are very important to the taste.

Poor flavor is a sign of poor/improper treatment. In the last 25 years, I've never had a gamey tasting animal (except for a package of venison someone "gifted" to me - nasty and tough). I gut and cool the meat as quickly as possible and age venison for at least 2 weeks (hanging whole if the temps were cool enough or the primals were aged in the refrigerator) before cutting and wrapping. The results are tender, mild and flavorful meat more akin to lean beef than meat that resembles old tires in texture with a pervasive funky/off-putting flavor.

 

[Brokennock]

Overall I agree with what most are saying about off tasting game meat being the result of poor handling. But, sometimes it's the animal's diet. A good friend of mine who is o.c.d. about cleaning and cooling the game he shoots got to go to one of these giant game ranches where they manipulate the herd and the herd's diet for big antlers. He wasn't real keen on the premise but that's another story. He shot a huge buck, absolutely beautiful looking, perfect coat, big body, etc. He did his usual due diligence with the meat. The stuff was basicly inedible. Whatever was in the feeders and food plots made the meat horrible.

As to the question at hand,, squirrel recipes? Pot pie was usually my favorite. We do make some "squirky." I was hoping for some more interesting answers when the o.p. stated a preference that the recipes try to be,

GLUTEN FREE,

meaning no noodles, toast, dumplings, bisquits, and of course (and sadly for me) no pie crust. I having been trying the kick the s.a.d. rat/bird food grain habit. Was really hoping some good ideas would come forth.

 

[Black Hand]

Good point - Diet can indeed influence the flavor.

Gluten-free was why I suggested Polenta (cornmeal). Rice would also work, the flour has been used to make bread, cookies and dumplings.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I do believe the 'gamey taste' is tainted meat.

Or simply bloody meat. :wink:
Or as mentioned, the diet of the animal.

Most folks have not encountered tainted meat that was rendered "safe" to eat, and know that flavor (the true "gamey" imho) vs. somebody who got too much blood on the meat when processing it, or a ham handed "meat cutter" who didn't remove the tissue damaged by the bullet/arrow and simply chunked that in with the rest of the burger meat to be ground. :shocked2: Not to mention what diet will do to the meat..., thinking that anything that doesn't resemble corn fed beef to be "gamey". :shake:

I have had ground venison with blood in it, and I've had venison that lived in a pine barren. The former was very "rusty" in taste, and the latter tasted like it was marinated in pinesol. :barf: I've also had "gamey" beef..., which was actually beef that had started to turn, and was very odd in flavor even after the addition of curry.

LD

 

[Vaino]

My Dad was raised on a survival dairy farm in northern Minnesota and at milking time one of the Brown Swiss cows didn't come in. After milking he searched the pastures and didn't find the cow because it had gottn through the fence and wandered off quite a ways w/ a broken leg. He shot the cow and hauled it in w/ the horse and butchered it immediately.

When they ate the first meat from that cow, my Dad noticed a "funny" taste and smell. It was the adrenalin from being wounded for a period of time.

60 years later he bought half a steer from a beef processer and noticed the same "funny taste" and talked w/ the processer who told him to bring all the meat back. Yes indeed....the steer had been injured......Fred