River Cottage Squirrel recipe

[Johnny Appleseed]

I was once in a shooting syndicate whose only rule was if you shoot it you've got to eat it.Well to cut a long story short one of the lads shot 2 grey squirrels at the request of a farmer,I was dissapointed , I thought they'd taste of nuts.

So long as they don't taste of chicken.........

[Hilary B]

Someone has already said squirrels are just Tree-rats but so far I've resisted the tempation (?) to try either

Hugh may have just tipped the balance on that one though.......

Yeah, there isn't a LOT of difference between squirrels and rats, but squirrels perhaps have a more hygienic diet. There isn't much a rat won't eat, but squirrels at least don't eat carrion, or rotten stuff.....


My daughter (now 30) used to help with skinning etc of sheep when we had the farm, and a few years ago she and her (then) soon-to-be husband arrived at our place with a deer carcase in the back of the car, roadkill that they could tell was fresh (and it was, it still had live 'keds' on it!). so she and I set to and did the necessary (removing of unwanted bits), wrapped it in an old sheet and hung it in the garage for 3 days before cutting into joints. LOTS of meat for both households!

[BrideXIII]

well i would try it, no problem, Hugh said there was quite a bit of meat on one, he was surprised.
now if any of you are considering trying it, please bear this in mind ( as was pointed out in the show)
if you trap a grey squirrel it is ILLEGAL to re-release it, so you had better be prepared to kill it even if you don't eat it.

[HotStuff]

Never say never, but personally I would have to be pretty hard pressed before eating squirrel or rabbit. Big fan of HFW and watched the River Cottage Autumn episode. Prefer watching the red squirrels doing the assault course on Autumnwatch.

BTW had zebra at an "exotic meats" restaurant when living in RSA, not bad.

[HayleyB]

Saw a squidge today that would feed a whole family right little fatty

[womble]

Never say never, but personally I would have to be pretty hard pressed before eating squirrel or rabbit. Big fan of HFW and watched the River Cottage Autumn episode. Prefer watching the red squirrels doing the assault course on Autumnwatch.

BTW had zebra at an "exotic meats" restaurant when living in RSA, not bad.

You don't mind eating zebra, but you won't eat rabbit weird.

[HotStuff]

Yeah, you're right Womble, it is weird. I eat all the regular stuff, cow, pig, sheep, chicken but for some reason I can't bear the thought of eating squirrels or rabbits. I think the zebra thing was just novelty value and the company I was with at the time, also tried Ostritch & Alligator in the past. Have had people sitting next to me eating rabbit and it doesn't offend me, it's down to personal choice.

Very much agree with the thing HFW did the other year about making people aware of where their meat comes from where he took all those junk food addicts to an abatoir.

[bubblewrap]

I was once in a shooting syndicate whose only rule was if you shoot it you've got to eat it.Well to cut a long story short one of the lads shot 2 grey squirrels at the request of a farmer,I was dissapointed , I thought they'd taste of nuts.

What's got a hazelnut in every bite? .........................squirrel s**t

[burnie]

Used to scrump hazelnuts near the triangle in Swithland woods as a kid,not found any up here yet,probably eaten by squirrels

[Johnny Appleseed]

well i would try it, no problem, Hugh said there was quite a bit of meat on one, he was surprised.
now if any of you are considering trying it, please bear this in mind ( as was pointed out in the show)
if you trap a grey squirrel it is ILLEGAL to re-release it, so you had better be prepared to kill it even if you don't eat it.

Quite right BrideXIII - not an easy choice to "kill humanely" but we did not release them back into the wild.

If we catch any more the River Cottage recipe may get a try out.

[Kayt]

If the credit crunch continues maybe we'll all be eating squirrel. I did ONCE give my kids rabbit and told my daughter it was turkey, I don't think she'll fall for it now if I tell her squirrel is turkey

[FionaH]

Squirrel is a bit too close to rat for my taste. Mind you I would try any food once. Well almost any, would draw the line at horse meat. Had my own pony for ten years, bit too much like eating a friend

[Alison]

The only meat I've refused to eat was dog when we were in China last year. Ate the donkey though which was surprisingly nice (bit lamby / beefy). Regularly eat goat and ostritch, occaisionally rabbit as well as the more standard British fair. Would have no probs with squirrel or many other things so long as it was fresh and properly prepared. It gets me how many people I know would quite happily eat a factory farmed poor little chook but would turn their nose up at something much more naturally reared such as, say, venison.

[di]

Oooh!Don't know that I could eat donkey...but then they've always been my most wanted pet!But I'm totally with you re;~how people are almost down on you for eating an "oh so cute bunny""it's cruel"....yet like you said they'll happily eat a cruelly reared chook or pig!
BTW!Has anyone on here actually managed to source some squirrel meat....sorry my downfall is thay I'm too squeamish to pop to the park & do the deed myself!It really is next on the list of 6 yr old DD's next new thing to try & TBH I'm intrigued too!!I was appalled a while back as to how many are culled each year to keep the numbers down & then either burnt or buried!

[Kayt]

I suppose we could all look for squirrel 'roadkill'. There is one on the road outside my office this morning but is a bit squashed! People are funny about what they eat. I grew up on home-grown veggies, wild rabbit, hare and pigeons that my dad shot or tame rabbit that we kept for eating (we did have pet ones as well) and chickens for our eggs and then meat when they stopped laying. Basically, if we didn't grow it, catch, shoot or rear it we didn't eat it. Other things came from family friends and usually involved a swap of produce.