Posted on 05/06/2005 5:16:42 PM PDT by Shermy
On The Water With Vernon Summerlin
Call’em tree rats or bushy tails — squirrels are rodents.
Before you say “Eee-uuu,” about eating squirrels, I know a lady who ate lab rats. She hated to waste food, and she prepared rattail soup and testicle shish kabobs.
She was from England where I don’t know much about their eating habits, but in America, we like squirrel meat – it’s a tradition since humans moved on to this continent.
Squirrels belong to the order Rodentia, with 1,650 species; it is the largest group of living mammals. It also comprises 40 percent of all present day mammal species.
There are over 365 species of squirrels in seven families.
They include the tree squirrel, ground squirrel, and flying squirrel, plus many squirrel-like mammals such as the gopher, ground hog, and prairie dog.
The gray squirrel is probably the most common of the tree squirrels in the northern hemisphere.
Gray squirrels come in many colors. Shades of gray are the most common followed by shades of brown. There are also pure white and pure black squirrels, but both are variations of the gray squirrel.
Every fall, the gray squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), gathers nuts and seeds and then hides them so it will have enough food to last through the winter.
The squirrel buries its food in hundreds of different places, supposedly if another squirrel or animal finds one, will not find them all.
The squirrel cleans each nut or seed before it is hidden to leave its scent on it so that the squirrel can find it later, even through heavy snow. Squirrels are responsible for planting more trees than all of mankind.
The average gray squirrel is 15 inches long and weighs about one pound. Its diet consists of nuts, seeds, and fruit. Their life span is about six years.
Most urban squirrels do not reach their first birthday because they like to play in the street. If you’ve ever come upon a squirrel in the road, you’ve probably noticed that most of them change their mind about which way they want to run.
Last week, I ran over one. I couldn’t stop in time but saw it fake to the left, to the right, and left again. I waited for the “thump” that didn’t come.
I looked in my rearview mirror to see that critter decided to stay between my tires. Maybe it knew how to play “chicken” with cars. Reminds you of that TV commercial where a squirrel runs a car off the road, doesn’t it?
Squirrel incisors (front teeth) are extremely sharp. They grow continuously throughout its life.
To keep the teeth sharp and clean, the squirrel will chew off a small branch from a tree. As it bites through the branch it will turn its head so the branch will rub against each tooth, cleaning the surface.
The final process is to sharpen the point of the tooth. This is done similarly with the squirrel chewing on the hardest part of the branch.
This cleaning process can take up to an hour and is preformed daily. The squirrel does not have enamel coating on its teeth as humans do.
Gray squirrels will mate in the late winter or early spring. This mating ritual willing began with a chase, where several males compete for one female.
The males will chase each other through the trees jumping from branch to branch, and around and around tree trunks.
The female will watch and then choose the male she believes is the strongest. That male will follow her until she is ready to mate.
After the copulation, the male will return to its territory, leaving the female to raise the litter. The gestation period varies between 44 and 46 days for gray squirrels.
There are normally four to six born in the litter. The female squirrel will nurse the babies for their first 10 weeks.
During this time the babies will not leave the nest and are completely dependent on mother for milk.
At 10 to 12 weeks, the baby squirrels will be removed from the nest and the mother will teach them all the skills they will need to survive on their own. Once these babies leave the nest they are referred to as juveniles.
The juvenile squirrels will play together, practice nest building, find and store food. They will also feed in the same area and remain a family unit with their mother for the next few months.
In the early fall each squirrel will move away to establish its own territory. After 12 months, they will become breeding adults. The mother squirrel will return to live a solitary existence until the next mating season.
Every hunter or huntress has several packages of squirrels in the freezer. It’s time to get a pack or two out for this Southern Fried recipe. Happy Cooking!
2 squirrels disjointed to serving size
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 sprig parsley
Drop pieces slowly into boiling water to cover. Cut up and add onion, carrot, celery, and parsley.
Cool thoroughly until tender. Dry squirrel pieces between towels. Prepare batter (below).
Dip each piece into batter, then drop into deep hot fat, and fry until pieces are golden brown.
Batter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup milk
Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Beat egg lightly. Add milk. Stir liquid into dry ingredients.
Originally published Friday, May 6, 2005
Have a nice weekend!
I'll save this for this fall. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
Don't eat the brains:
"Squirrel Brains May Be Unsafe":
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/sqbrain.html
"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and eating squirrel brains"
http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/victim23.html
Ralph! I had squirrel gumbo once and wanted to die after eating it. Greasy little things they are.
Heck, almost anything tastes good deep-fried! Where's that picture of that deep-fried chicken head that turned up in someone's bucket at KFC?
Yeah - can't wait for a time in life when I can have the time to squirrel hunt again. I like to cold smoke them but this recipe sounds great.
That almost sounds like a cult.
Not I. The squirrels around here are no bigger than mice.
Rodent recipe
Our rottweiler hunts squirrels. They tease a lot, while they're up in the trees. Once, one made the mistake of staying on the ground and chattering. Angel (the rotty) tore after it. The squirrel ran towards a clump of trees a short distance away, but Angle was faster. The squirrel was just climbing up the tree when Angel got there and ripped it right off. Tore the squirrel to shreds. Flung it, ripped it, ate it, etc.
Angel went around with that squirrel's tail in her mouth for a good two weeks.("You see this? You see what happened to this guy? This could be you, buddy.") The squirrels stopped teasing her for quite a while...
They interviewed a retired revenuer and one story he told was about one old moonshiner they had caught several times. They had caught him so many times they were friends.
Once the revenuer had a young trainee with him and the old moonshiner asked them for dinner. He said his wife was cooking squirrels and rice. Well the young agent loved squirrels and rice so they agreed.
After they had eaten a good bit the young guy noticed something in his rice and asked about it.
"That is the squirrel's head" was the reply.
Model 52?
Lots of light in that scope, too
any good squirrel brain eater will tell you that this junior high conclusion is false:
The squirrel cleans each nut or seed before it is hidden to leave its scent on it so that the squirrel can find it later, even through heavy snow.
I've been looking for a good swan recipe if anyone has one. Got clearance to take out a pair.
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