Posted on 05/11/2008 8:20:25 AM PDT by Daffynition
t's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate.
The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.
At Ridley's Fish and Game shop in Corbridge, Northumberland, the owner David Ridley says he has sold 1,000 - at £3.50 a squirrel - since he tested the market at the beginning of the year. 'I wasn't sure at first, and wondered would people really eat it. Now I take every squirrel I can get my hands on. I've had days when I have managed to get 60 and they've all sold straight away.'
Simpson likens the taste to wild boar. Ridley thinks it is more a cross between duck and lamb. 'It's moist and sweet because, basically, its diet has been berries and nuts,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk ...
Squirrels here are brown and the size of chipmunks. Not enough to make a sandwich.
Great pic.
I don’t know about squirrels, but last year our neighbor had a woodchuck that would have fed a family of 6. The big guy would just sit upright on the lawn, watching the world go by.
Ground hog [woodchuck] isn’t too bad.Stuff it like a turkey.
I have fat grey and red squirrels right outside my back door. And they are very tasty, although a little chewy.
For a small investment of one 22 caliber shell, squirrel is flat out a bargain meat dish! mmmmmmmmm
Armadillo anyone? We have more than we need here. I guess you can boil them like lobster and dip them in butter?
My yard is over run with squirrels, but I hadn’t thought of eating them. hhhhuummmmmmmm
We used to have a bunch of squirrels, chipmunks, and a groundhog. Then a fox decided this was his ecological niche. He keeps down the stray cat population as well
I do think the the number of squirrels we have are in direct response to the four giant pecan trees on our lot....
Gee squirrel could be the main course and pecan pie for dessert.
Kevin Viner's recipe for two pasties
140g squirrel meat cut into 1cm cubes;
100g sliced potato; 100g sliced swede; 50g diced onion; 30g smoked bacon;
15g chopped hazelnuts; 75g butter;
5g chopped parsley; a good pinch of salt and pepper
Method
· Egg wash edges of pastry circles.
· Place the potato, swede, hazelnuts, parsley and seasoning on to each circle followed by the bacon, squirrel meat and, finally, the onion.
· Place butter in each pasty, then fold over the pastry and crimp the edges.
· Put the pasties on to a greaseproof baking tray, egg wash both pasties well, place in a pre-heated oven at 180C or gas mark 5.
· Bake for 45-50 minutes. The juices should start to boil and the pasties should be able to move on the tray with ease.
I don't know about you guys but I ain't eatin' anything with 100 grams of sliced swede in it.
There isn’t enough meat on them to be worth the trouble, even if you put ‘em on a stick and nibble the meat off. Just throw ‘em in a Brunswick stew.
When my son was small and in the Disney stage, we went over to a friend’s house, where she served a traditional Brunswick stew. Eventually he figured out what was in the stew and from that point on we all referred to the animals running around in the back yard stealing bird seed as “Brunswicks.”
Try some hedgehog....roll it in clay...bake...remove clay shell and spikes....add seasoning and eat...yummy.
I thought “pasties” were something worn by strippers in New Orleans nightclubs.
I’ve lived to see it, 60 yrs of UK Socialism has driven our UK brethren to desperate measures, including the consumption of large tree dwelling rats with furry tails.
The Economic Hardships being inflicted on the UK people are shameful, next up...”Is Squirrel Halaal?”
Now people will be hunting squirrels and the squirrells will migrate to a sanctuary city with fewer guns in the hands of honest folk. New York City will be even more overrun with them then they are already!!
I'm telling you, with the population of squirrels in City Hall park, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel -- except for being jumped by all the fuzz (of the uniformed variety). They are afraid of nothing. They laze in the sunshine and you can't chase them away, short of getting close enough to one to kick it.... and you don't want to get that close. They can be nasty little critters and if you manage to get yourself bit, you'll be in for a nice series of rabies shots, just in case.
Which one's hungrier...the moose or the cat?
Squirrels got more of my garden than I did last year, to the point that I’m not having one this year. I hadn’t thought of eating them. I’m not a squirrel hunter but isn’t there a health reason, like parasites, why you can’t eat them in the summer?
Sorry, I’ll eat almost anything but I ain’t eatin’ no tree rat! Gack!!!
Now then, how much did they say them limeys is willin’ to pay fer ‘em?
In this case, "swede" refers to what most Americans call "rutabagas".
I was in a British restaurant which featured mashed rutabagas with potatoes in a dish that was a perfect match with the restaurant's roast beef. (Apparently the rutabaga/potato dish itself was also called "swede", though my conversation with the waiter wasn't a model of clarity and perhaps he was only giving me the main vegetable's name rather than the dish's.)
No need to make noise (gun) to get a squirrel in inner city areas, You could probably bag them with rat traps, sling shots, blow guns, pellet gun, or just throw a rock. These guys just catapult their squirrels into their neighbors yard! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRR4bOquEKQ&feature=related
Goooood with a cold beer , fried okra and caramelized parsnips !!
Here's the guy who ate them.
Now none to be found.
Beware of squirrels wielding light sabers.
You can eat squirrel year round.
Try this recipe:
2 or 3 squirrels cleaned and halved
flour for dredging
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion chopped fine
1 stalk celery chopped fine
1 carrot chopped fine
2 cups beef stock (chicken stock can be substituted)
1/4 cup red wine
3 Tbsp Olive Oil (not extra virgin)
Salt and Pepper
Heat the oil in a heavy iron skillet over high heat.
Season the squirrel liberally with S & P and dredge them in flour and shake off excess. Quickly brown the squirrel on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
Lower heat to medium.
Add the vegetables and garlic to the pan. Cook vegetables until soft.
Deglaze the pan with the red wine. Make sure you get all the little brown crunchy bits dissolved in the wine.
Add the beef stock and the squirrel to the pan and simmer over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by 1/3 and the meat reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees. (That’s hot enough to kill any little nasties that may be in the meat.)
Serve beside garlic mashed potatoes and the veggie of your choice.
Serves 2
Yummy.
L
We used to eat squirrel when we lived up in New Hampshire, you would either go in the woods and hunt them or put up a bird feeder and they would come to you. Anywhere near a city or big suburban area where they can get at food scraps and garbage I wouldn’t want to take a chance on them but country squirrels are great eating.
I’ve had woodchuck during survival school training... it was awful tasting. Maybe we shoulda gutted it.
You’ve got to be NUTS to eat a squirrel!!
It is virtually impossible to “get rabies” from a squirrel.
Researchers have had to literally inject the virus directly into the brains of squirrels to induce rabies infection, which subsequently resulted in death so rapid there was *extremely* little chance of the squirrels transmitting the virus to anything else.
Due the anatomy of a squirrel’s mouth, they also have what is referred to as a “dry bite’ which involves no transferral of saliva.
Licensed squirrel rehabbers never even give rabies a second thought and they get bitten quite frequently.
Researchers have also discovered why possums don’t get rabies.
Their body temperatures are too low to allow the virus to survive long enough to induce active infection.
They are trying to apply this knowledge to future methods of treatment in human rabies cases.
From the CDC:
What is the risk of rabies from squirrels, mice, rats, and other rodents?
Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and chipmunks, ) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area. However, from 1985 through 1994, woodchucks accounted for 86% of the 368 cases of rabies among rodents reported to CDC. Woodchucks or groundhogs (Marmota monax) are the only rodents that may be frequently submitted to state health department because of a suspicion of rabies. In all cases involving rodents, the state or local health department should be consulted before a decision is made to initiate postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).
For more information about rabies in rodents and lagomorphs, see: Childs, J. E., Colby, L., Krebs, J. W., Strine, T., Feller, M., Noah, D., Drenzek, C., Smith, J.S., & Rupprecht, C. E. (1997). Surveillance and spatiotemporal associations of rabies in rodents and lagomorphs in the United States, 1985-1994. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 33(1), 20-27.
AWESOME !!!
Ha, one of my favorite old sayings is “He’s nuttier than squirrel sh!t”.
Squirrel dumplings... mmmmmmmmm
Who are you trying to kid posting a picture of a porkupine for a fisher.
I caught that also. That,s what those of us in West TX, call Desert Beavers.
That's a joke right? have you ever seen a porcupine with tail like that?
I had a state biologist out here checking him out, yeah, it's a Fisher.
Have you ever seen a live fisher or a porkupine.
Have you ever seen a fisher with a flat face.
Your state biologist needs a new career.
Did you ever successfully ID the critter as a Fisher?
There’s a postage stamp park on 2nd Avenue that sits on one of the cross streets that goes to the FDR in the LES I use frequently ... it has a colony of black squirrels. I love it. ;)
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