How to Cook a Squirrel

Published on Monday, October 4, 2010, by James Norton / Edit Post

Here's what happens when garden cooking sessions go wrong: You get a recipe for squirrel with red wine and juniper. A Telegraph (UK) writer recently headed over to cook some fruit and veg with the director of a reconstructed Victorian kitchen garden; as it turns out, the guy spotted a better opportunity and seized it.

"An enthusiast for anatomy and wildlife, he happened to spot a gray squirrel by the side of the road, still warm after being hit by a car. Did I fancy cooking it? Well, of course I did."

The victim, a medium-sized gray squirrel, is a not-very-popular pest in England—gray squirrels threaten the native red variety and generally just cheese people off with their cheeky antics, much as they do all over the world.

The Telegraph story also contains an informational video that will be of interest to particularly morbid or carnivorous viewers. WARNING: Do not click on this link unless you are ready to see a dead squirrel dismembered and turned into delicious-looking vittles.

Image source: Telegraph.co.uk

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  • I dunno, seems it would be like eating rat.

  • Squirl is the traditional ingredent in Brunswick stew.

  • I have never heard of eating squirrel. It would defiantly be different..

  • Squirrel, like frog legs, tastes like chicken. My older brother, Peter, used to hunt them in the woods, then clean and fry them when we lived in Kansas City.

  • This half Scottish half Portuguese Canadian girl grew up eating haggis and octopus and loving it! BUT SQUIRREL? YUK I REPEAT YUK and oh, so mean.They are too cute to eat and way to small on the meat. Can't imagine how many needed to feed a family of four! Did I say yuk?

  • Well, the taste can't be too different from rabbit or something. It's probably a little gamey. Seems good for a classical fricasee.

  • Re: plague - here in California, tree squirrels are not major carriers. Ground squirrels are, by AFAIK nobody eats them.

  • I'm all for eating roadkill - but I know squirrels can also be carriers of the plague. Don't you also need to take precautions there?

  • Now I know what to do next time my dog brings me one -- although if she won't eat it, then maybe I shouldn't either!

  • Classic Brunswick Stew is made with squirrel.

    Carl Hiaasen's Double Whammy features a half-blind, half-mad hermit who regularly eats roadkill.

    That's all I got.

  • Mmmmmmm. Tastes like ..... rat?

  • Squirrel is good. Puppy is even better. Yum.

  • What, you don't have a copy of Joy of Cooking, pre-1980s? Nothing new or surprising in what you're saying.

    JoC tells all when it comes to dressing and cooking small game. Some large game, too, as I recall from my 50's/60's vintage copy of JoC as a child.

  • Do I really want to know how to cook a squirrel? Really, not so much.

  • We ate much squirrel in my childhood, but that was in Illinois, where they are the size of a healthy cat. They also get a steady diet of nuts and acorns, which does the flesh about as much good as a similar diet does for pigs. The ones in my grandpa's back yard also got a lot of peanuts every day, but he'd have not been happy if we'd eaten one of his hand-fed darlings...

    A fricassee was my...+READ

    We ate much squirrel in my childhood, but that was in Illinois, where they are the size of a healthy cat. They also get a steady diet of nuts and acorns, which does the flesh about as much good as a similar diet does for pigs. The ones in my grandpa's back yard also got a lot of peanuts every day, but he'd have not been happy if we'd eaten one of his hand-fed darlings...

    A fricassee was my mother's standard method for cooking small game, both squirrel and rabbit, and once a young raccoon (which was insanely delicious, poor thing!). She'd season and flour them and then brown them all over, and put them in a covered baking dish with some liquid and I believe onion. The meat came out quite succulent and tasty, and the dish made its own gravy.-COLLAPSE

  • Rather a novice at the "slaughter" step. Best way: Start by making a cut on the back of the neck just through the skin. Then get your fingers in and pull the skin off cutting around the neck. You leave the skin on the head---assuming you are not going to eat the brains. Much faster and neater. Do all the skinning then do all the prep.

    Young

  • I had squirrel my grandfather and father hunted. I was about 5 or 6 but I remember enjoying that squirrel. It wasn't bad at all. My grandmother fried it like fried chicken.

  • My friend has a Southern Living cookbook with a recipe for Fricassed Squirrel. I was shocked, but maybe it's better than possum...which people also eat.

  • One squirrel hardly seems worth the effort; I always figure two per person. To ApprenticeGourmet - yes, you need a hunting license for tree squirrels in California. The season starts in August (?) and runs through January. Areas are limited. A shotgun w/ #7 shot, an air rifle, or a .22 will all work just fine.

  • Step one - run down squirrel...

  • I've always wondered if it's OK to eat a city squirrel. For some reason it seems unclean to me if it lives in the city (same deal with pigeons). Legality aside, does anybody think it's safe to just go down to the local park and club a few of these for supper?

  • I believe you should avoid eating squirrel brains because they might have a disease similar to BSE (Mad Cow). Oldunc, you're right about Nero Wolfe, the book in which Archie has squirrel stew (he eats it but it's not his favorite) is "The League of Frightened Men" (1935)

  • As far as I know, squirrel stew was the only dish prepared by Fritz that Archie Goodwin didn't like- I think I'll trust him on that.

  • I live in southern California, and there are way too many rabbits and ground squirrels around. Do you need a hunting permit for such small game? Where can you hunt? What type of gun/ammo should be used? This would be cool to try!