My garage smells better than yours.

[Kingcreek]

Cabin fever alert. 6" of new and fiercely blowing snow. Already spent some time on the loader tractor clearing hip deep drifts from the drive. The temp is about 6 above and headed to minus 20. The wife is cleaning and putting Christmas away and told me I could be in charge of supper.
I shot 4 squirrels from the front porch yesterday.
The old Coleman camp stove is on the welding table with a cast iron pot bubbling away. The goal was to use nothing that wasn't grown and or harvested here. Frontier subsistence style today. Browned the squirrel and added our own garlic and onion and some wild forest mushroom I had in the freezer. Carrots apples and potatoes from the root cellar and I'll add some winter buttercup squash later. Seasoned with herbs that we grew in the greenhouse and dried this fall.
The road is impassable even with my f250 4x4. I'm not getting much other work done but it's a good day to lay back, keep a fire going, and just kinda putter around. I haven't shot or cooked squirrel in over 25 years but even my civilized wife is looking forward to supper. Enjoy your day!

 

[BearCuda]

Sounds like a tasty meal. I think I could eat four squirrels on my own though. What's the wife having? I bet that would really be good with some butter battered morel mushrooms.

 

[ddawg16]

Well...I could quickly ruin the smell in your garage...just give me beer and Mexican food....damage to follow within an hour.

 

[kj_mustang]

Next time try this, cut up the squirrels, parboil then flour and fry the pieces and make some gravy with the drippings. Nothing better than squirrel gravy and biscuits.

 

[ddawg16]

Next time try this, cut up the squirrels, parboil then flour and fry the pieces and make some gravy with the drippings. Nothing better than squirrel gravy and biscuits.

I have to disagree.....frog legs and rice....

 

[mobilus]

Next time try this, cut up the squirrels, parboil then flour and fry the pieces and make some gravy with the drippings. Nothing better than squirrel gravy and biscuits.

I'm with KJ on this one. Growing up in Alabama, every winter meant squirrel hunting, followed by (usually) fried squirrel, gravy and home-made biscuits. There was probably some squash or okra or something from the garden. Wish I had slowed down enough to learn how Mama made those biscuits...too late now. Great memories, thanks for bringing this subject up!

 

[rubberrodder]

Good old Bisquik has never failed me! I just follow the directions on the box. I make a gravy out of cream of 'shroom soup{Campbells is the best} and most any kind of sausage. I prefer wild pork, bison, or venison. Brown up the sausage, pour in the soup, add a little liquid of choice{a nice dark beer is good} dump it on said bis-kits. and devour!

 

[jkwilson]

Next time try this, cut up the squirrels, parboil then flour and fry the pieces and make some gravy with the drippings. Nothing better than squirrel gravy and biscuits.

Amen! My grandmother's biscuits and squirrel gravy was some good eating.

 

[DpSyChO]

No one else is going to reply with "pics or it didnt happen" ?

 

[NUTTSGT]

I haven't had squirrel forever.

 

[Gary S]

My garage has that wonderful gear lube smell. It makes you hungry.

 

[BudgetRacing]

My garage has that wonderful gear lube smell. It makes you hungry.

The oil i use in my bike smells like bananas.

 

[madison069]

I'm with KJ on this one. Growing up in Alabama, every winter meant squirrel hunting, followed by (usually) fried squirrel, gravy and home-made biscuits. There was probably some squash or okra or something from the garden. Wish I had slowed down enough to learn how Mama made those biscuits...too late now. Great memories, thanks for bringing this subject up!

Self rising Flour, buttermilk, and shorting are the only ingredients for homemade biscuit. I use a cast iron skillet to make these biscuits.

If you kneed it a good bit, the biscuit will be easier to split into two after it's cooked. If you just pinch off a piece of the dough and roll it before putting it in the pan it will be a good crumble style biscuit.

 

[bczygan]

Brings back childhood memories.
We had 7 1/2 acres backing up to the Chadds Ford Battlefield, so lots of woods and wildlife.
We had a very modern house with a wall of glass 8' high and 40' wide, overlooking a ravine and stream. A tree halfway down the hill often had squirrels.

Dad would get up in his skivvies, step outside and blast then with a .22.

We would run down and grab and skin them.

YUM!

 

[KellyfromVA]

Amen! My grandmother's biscuits and squirrel gravy was some good eating.

Reading this thread, the theme from the movie Deliverance' was playing in my head. Don't need photos thanks. The image of cooked squirrel and squirrel gravey was enough.

 

[chuckh_02]

Real recipes!!??
My favorite is Skeeter Skelton's Squirrel Fricasee....easily googled!
Would love to try some real southern squirrel gravy n bisquits. Have a new to me Black Mouthed Cur dog and super accurate .22, but injured my right hand and I'm atta commission this winter.

 

[dbabicky]

You don't have to be from the South to have had to eat squirrel to survive as a kid. Us poor Northern Folk did it as well. But ya' know what, I ate enough squirrel for a lifetime as a kid, and I don't have to anymore. I'll take a nice Beef Roast now-a-days.

 

[BearCuda]

You guys are making me hungry (and I just had a huge plate of spaghetti). My mom's yard is overpopulated with squirrels. I might take out a few next time I go over and fry em up.

 

[BD1]

You had to shoot them ? Couldn't you go out there and act like a nut and catch them ? Sorry, I'm old.

 

[Farleyfan]

Well...I could quickly ruin the smell in your garage...just give me beer and Mexican food....damage to follow within an hour.

Haha, I spewed my coke when I read that!
Anyway squirrel dumplins are my favorite.

 

[onewaydave]

... Wish I had slowed down enough to learn how Mama made those biscuits...too late now. Great memories, thanks for bringing this subject up!

I'd bet it was something like this.

Or, at least, this is my version of cat heads.

2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt to taste
a couple of shakes of black pepper

In a iron skillet pour enough olive oil to drown the biscuits. Mix the above ingredients until you can pick up a wad about the size of a lime. But before you pick up the dough, diddle your fingers in the oil in the skillet and wipe your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough around in your hands until it makes a smooth ball. Press it flat into the skillet and flip it to coat it real good. There should be about 1/4" of oil in the skillet when it goes into the oven.

Bake at some really hot temp, 325-400 'F will do. The bottoms and sides should be turning light brown when they are done.

If you want to get really wild and crazy, add shreaded cheese.

Dave, now you can't say I never gave you nuthin.

 

[uniballer]

I wish I was your neighbor!
I just ate and am now hungry again!!!

 

[Pathfinders]

Haha, I spewed my coke when I read that!
Anyway squirrel dumplins are my favorite.

x2 Love it.

 

[RalphInCA]

City boy here. How much meat do you get off of a squirrel, and how hard is it to clean them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chuckh_02]

Eatin' squirrels are Fox, Black and Greys . . . Red or Pine squirrels are too small. Figure about 1 squirrel per person. Their hides are on pretty tight, the best way we've found is to make a cut crossways over the back just behind the shoulders. Work fingers from each of your hands under the skin on opposite sides of the cut and pull hard both ways. Once the skin's off, it's easy to eviscerate them. Just rinse and soak overnight in salt water before freezing...

 

[crepr12]

How many squirrels does it take to get full...never seen any fat squirrels...oh well enjoy

 

[Kingcreek]

These were the big red fox squirrels. I had not hunted or ate them in probably 30 years. This all started as punishment (for the squirrels that is). After living here 17 years in a house in the woods they suddenly started eating my 60' cedar porch, tearing the hell out of several turned posts and spindles. We don't know why we never had a problem until this year. We theorize they may have become overpopulated (or have cross pollinated with beavers?) hence the new desire to reduce their numbers. And if I'm shooting them, we might as well eat them.
They are a little work to clean but they were good eating.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

IDK if you're aware, but Fox squirrels are on the Endangered list. Eat all the grey & black squirrels you want. They're pushing the red & Fox squirrels out of existence & they're not native to the USA anyway...

Tommy

 

[tcianci]

My garage smells like Bondo and sometimes pizza. As kids we plugged plenty of squirrel (they basically ate nearly anything we grew) but we never ate the ones we plugged.

 

[chuckh_02]

Fox Squirrels are NOT endangered. The only endanger squirrel in the US is a subspecies in Chinquotoge.

 

[69bigblok]

Having some squirrel brings back memories hunting with my papaw. We would shoot them and have them for dinner and they were great. Been years ago and he has been gone a long time now.

I still laugh about the one we shot up so bad trying to get out of a tree that we still found buckshot in it after we cooked it ha ha.

 

[Kingcreek]

The ones chewing on my porch are certainly endangered!
I live in a hardwood grove of black walnut and oaks. Plenty of food for squirrels without eating my cedar porch.
Finished the leftovers tonight. Pretty good but not so much to make me want to get serious about hunting them again. My wife is real fussy about her kitchen and especially frying anything in it. That's why I fired up the old Coleman camp stove and cooked in the shop. Also so I could do other things while cooking on the welding table.