Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
The other day my four-year-old daughter asked if we could keep a live animal as a pet. She thought either a dog or a squirrel would do. Clearly she takes after her paternal grandfather, who once kept both a porcupine and a deer. While he was a Marine stationed out at Pickle Meadows.
Anyway, it's squirrel week. I'm sure you're all celebrating in your own way. Are any of you celebrating this way, though?
Any serious discussion of squirrel — which is what we do during Squirrel Week: discuss squirrels seriously — must address the subject of eating squirrels. For much of our country’s history, squirrels were not cute little critters seemingly put on Earth to amuse us with their antics. They were food. In some places, they still are.
That was in the Washington Post, where the columnist goes on to describe the skill required to properly kill squirrel. He explains that many parents used to train their children to hunt squirrel before moving on to larger animals. It includes this line: "... the real divide between old school and new school is whether or not you eat the brain."
My mother is one of the more refined women I know. She's reserved, always perfectly dressed, just all around lovely. So when she told me about how she used to eat squirrel -- during her childhood in Missouri -- I had a hard time believing it. Apparently she's not alone.
It almost makes me want to try some. Any tips for how to secure some squirrel meat or how to prepare it?
What other food should I try? My husband tells me that fried scorpion is good. The most adventurous I've gotten is scrapple.
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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Always a good idea to squirrel some away for hard times.
Apr '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
The revenge of the squirrels...
"In the last four years, 11 cases of a human form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have been diagnosed in rural western Kentucky, said Dr. Erick Weisman, clinical director of the Neurobehavioral Institute in Hartford, Ky., where the patients were treated.''All of them were squirrel-brain eaters,'' Dr. Weisman said."
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/29/us/kentucky-doctors-warn-against-a-regional-dish-squirrels-brains.html
Feb '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Viator: The revenge of the squirrels...
"..Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease...''
See?!? I told you not to eat brains! Those prions are sneaky little pathogens.
Mollie: I grew up secular, so I very much miss shrimp and lobster. Can't say that I've ever been tempted to try squirrel, though.
May '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
If you don't want to eat the little critter, here's another idea of something fun you might do with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16fG1sDagU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
May '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Cannibalism never tasted so good!
Apr '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show did a whole episode on "critters": http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods/episodes/appalachia-trip
Dec '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Squirrel is the traditional protein in Brunswick stew.
(recipe steps to follow)
Dec '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Steps for Brunswick stew recipe:
Clean, dress and cut up squirrels and chickens. If your folks are not ardent squirrel hunters, increase the number of chickens. If you use all chickens, this recipe will take 24 stewing chickens.
Bring 4 gals. water to boil in 30-gal. iron kettle. Add squirrel and chicken pieces. Cook, stirring often, until meat comes off the bone. (Take out pieces of bone before serving to small children.) Add remainder of water, as needed.
Chop salt pork, fry out and add pork and drippings to boiling mixture. Add beans, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and corn in order as each is prepared. Continue cooking and stirring until vegetables are tender.
Add cabbage and seasonings, and cook, stirring, 1 hour, until stew is thick and flavors well blended. Remove kettle from coals to serving area by hooking handle over a heavy pole, several helpers carrying each end. Makes 15 gallons.
Dec '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Or, you can enjoy the flavor of squirrel without causing harm to squirrels:
May '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Stuart - You know, you can clean and dress a squirrel but you simply can't take them any where. Boorish little critters who can't dance a lick...
Aug '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Stuart Creque:
Holy moley! That's a lot of squirrels.
Aug '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
By an amazing coincidence, I've been searching for a good recipe to go with my 30 freakin' gallon iron kettle.
Dec '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
The way we hunt it takes two men (or a grown-up and one trustworthy kid), a repeating rifle chambered in .22LR (preferably with a scope or other magnifying optical sight), and a very steady hand.
When you find a tree with a squirrel in it, the grown person with the rifle (the shooter) posts up in a solid and at least partially concealed position. When they're ready to shoot, the other person (the flusher) walks a big circle around the tree to get on the other side directly across from the shooter (remember not to shoot directly at your flusher, obviously).
If the flusher has done his job properly, the squirrels will all have paid attention to him as he noisily made his way around the tree, edging their way around the circumference of the trunk as he went so as to always keep the tree between them and him.
When the flusher is all the way around the tree (180° from the shooter), the squirrel will now be exposed to the shooter, but unaware of this fact. Then it is just up to the shooter to properly plug the little buggers (head shots only please).
Continued . . .
Dec '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Once you've kilt the critter, gut and skin him in the usual way. I was always partial to just grabbing the pelt at the neck (where the head used to be), and just pulling toward the hind feet until the whole thing peels off like coveralls. Then you just cut off the feet, peel off the glands, and you're done.
We mostly just pan fried them like chicken. Dredge in a little flour and fry in a cast iron skillet (with about an inch of bacon grease or other fat in it) until both sides are golden brown and delicious.
It tastes like a greasier version of dark meat chicken. Not my favorite wild critter by far, but better than starving to death if it came to that.
They're a lot of trouble to kill, and it takes a fair sized batch of them to properly feed a group of adults.
The line from O Brother Where Art Thou where Everett declines Delmar's offer of 1/3rd of a gopher comes to mind.
May '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
I am SO with Dr. Bean! But anyone who wants them is welcome to all of the infernal birdseed eating, garden terrorizing vermin in my back yard. Rats in fur coats indeed.
May '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
This is sort of a story of exotic eating. My best friend at one time was a devout 7th day adventist who prided himself on never having eaten meat. My wife and I were dining with him in a darkened restaraunt when his wife noticed that he seemed upset. She asked him what was wrong and he grabbed an item from his salad and ran to the front of the restaraunt to confront the manager. He came back sheepishly and dropped the offending item on the table. A small banana pepper lay on the tablecloth. " I thought it was a mouse", he said. We lauughed because we were not sure sure if he was offended by a small rodent in his salad or just that it was meat.
Edited on April 12, 2012 at 10:58pmAug '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
“I'm a level 5 vegan—I don't eat anything that casts a shadow.”
May '11
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Another squirrel story I can tell is that another friend of mine had a father who was eccentric about his garden and was at war with the squirrels who pilfered from it. So he set out a Have-a-Heart trap to capture the squirrels. Whenever he caught one he would drop it into a pillow case, swing it round and round and then pound the squirrel onto the pavement. He used the Have-a Heart trap because he wanted the pleasure of killing the rascal with his own hands.
Jun '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Vermonster
As a retired pathologist, I agree with Doctor Bean about avoiding the consumption (and handling without gloves) of mammalian neural tissue.
I remember eating squirrel one time. It reminded me of chicken, except you had to avoid biting down on the lead shot remaining in the meat.
So make sure you extract all of the lead from the meat to avoid both mental and dental damage! · 8 hours ago
Edited 8 hours ago
Well, that's just great. And I just bought the 25 gallon drum of Squirrel Brains from Walmart. Now, I have to think of something else to serve my dinner party guests. You know a little spoonful of Squirrel Brains on a Carr's cracker with a shot of Stolichnaya is really quite tasty. And I always thought it was the Stoli that was making me depressed and disoriented. It's a good thing I read Ricochet.
Aug '10
Re: Do You Eat Squirrel Brains?
Coolhand
I can always tell if someone is from round here.
We used .22 shorts and longs ( middle of the city )' and sometimes were forced to shoot their feet to get them out of a tree crotch.
I wanted to be the sixtieth post in this squirrel brain swirl, we'll see if Mollie gets her c-note with this one.
Bet we could get 200 at home on morels though.
Edited on April 13, 2012 at 12:28am