They remind me too much of my pet hamsters to eat them.
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
Squirrel isnt bad if you get it right after its hit and before it gets run over again. After the 2nd hit it isnt much good for anything but soup.
3 squacks cut up and parted
2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
2 diced green bell pepper
1/2 diced cyan pepper
6 cellery sticks sliced
6 carrots sliced
4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
4 peices mashed garlic
Mix olive oil garlic squack and cyan pepper in a good pan preferably an iron skillet fry ata very low simmer till squack and other ingrediants are fully coooked set seperate bones from meat and gently blend mixture keep covered and warm
In a large stew pot bring 3 quarts of water to a rolling boil and add all other ingrediants add squack ingrediants and to pot saving the olive oil lefovers and simmer till vegies are tender
In the same pan you cooked the squack in add 3 tablespoons self rising flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt mix under low heat until flour is browned add 1 cup of vitamin d milk and make a semi thick gravy this ahould take about 6 to 10 minutes while the mixture is still hot add it to the squack stew and stir occasionally boiling the stew down to about 2 quarts or desired thickness
this is my recipe i've made it for years and it's delicious ! to me anyway
A_P
Good Golly i use a wrist rocket slingshot whats the rifle for ?
I only Use a 22 rifle for raccoon
There are times when I wonder why John put in a spellchecker.
My girlfriend's male cat used to catch squirrels. Now that they're older, he and his sister don't even catch rabbits anymore.
Sounds like Shermy is having trouble controlling the squirrel population around his house. Maybe shermy is not getting mad, just getting even with a few squirrels.
The L.L. Bean Fish Game and Fish Cookbook doesn't have a swan recipe. Probably a goose recipe would work.
Marlin 917m2s, 17 Mach2 (.17 caliber, 17 grain bullet). Scope is 4-12 x 50. Head shots are easy. I luv grey squirrels.
If you eat this stuff, I have a great recipe for Finger Chili...
Ping?
Gee, the Libs already think that conservatives are all a bunch of rednecks. I can't wait until one of them comes sniffing around and sees this post.
I normally Cook thoroughly until tender
Jake
Squirrel recipes ping.
Ummmm! Ain't nothin' better than Daddies squirrel and dumplin's.
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