Dealing with tree rats

[jmoore]

Young ones I'll fry. Also the hearts and sometimes the livers.

Old ones usually go into the crock pot after quartering and are stewed until the meat falls off the bones. Ribs and all. Other ingredients are whatever's handy or needing to be used.

Squirrel dumplings are just too messy for me.

Sometimes baked with a little olive oil and light spices.

[vintage hunter]

My favorite way to fix them is fried. Cut them into pieces and drop them in a zip loc bag with 1 cup of seasoned flour, shake until evenly coated, fry for 7-9 minutes then into the steamer they go for another 10 minutes max. Don't over do it or all flavor will be lost. Meat will fall off the bone, old tough ones included.
Once in a while I'll simmer them in onion gravy. Start out same as above and while they steaming drain all but a couple table spoons of oil from the pan and mince an onion or two in and cook until almost done, sprinkle in enough left over flour to absorb the oil then stir in water until the desired consistency is reached, add rats and simmer on low heat for 5 or so minutes until gravy is done. Serve over rice.
Then there's barbequed rats, but only young tender one will do. Fixed this way the old ones can probably be used as a boot to repair a blown out skidder tire.
I also have recipes for squirrel stew and squirrel perlo.

[jmoore]

fry for 7-9 minutes then into the steamer they go for another 10 minutes max.

Vegetable steamer? Pot on top of a pot sort of thing? Would have never thunk it AFTER frying!

[vintage hunter]

Yeah that's the idea. A bit more elaborate than I use but the end result is the same.
Same thing KFC does to their original recipe yard bird, fry then steam.

[jmoore]

Same thing KFC does to their original recipe yard bird, fry then steam.

Can't do KFC or many other chicken places unless I want a migrane combined with a hangover that drugs won't touch! MSG, I think.

Have the squirrels scheduled for consumption tomorrow, so may give your tip a try.

[vintage hunter]

Yep let me know how it turns out. I really interested in finding out if the one with the pine nut fat tastes like turpentine.

[jmoore]

Friday's squirrelinating:




This area is a fixin' to get cut, and considering the failure of the acorn crop, our squirrels may have a hard time of it until spring.



Head shots don't always work the first time. This one needed two, but there was zero meat damage. IIRC, this was the fat one.


A pitiful rub and scrape. But an improvement over the complete lack of sign for the past month. None of the surrounding properties is getting any action either. I reckon all the deer moved out Vintage Hunter's way...

[WarPig1976]

That's a good idea.! Steam them up after frying, gotta give that a try too. I do the crock pot with onion soup mix as the base.

[jmoore]

Squirrel fat is super fantastic! As tasty or maybe a bit better than the porcine variety. Fried the "non-fat" squirrel in bacon drippings, but the baked fat ones were even better.

The steamer trick didn't do much in the first test. Timed it right at 10 minutes.

Have photos of the cooking session, but haven't uploaded them yet.

[vintage hunter]

What troubles did you have concerning the steaming part. Maybe I can help you sort it out. Once you do I guarantee you'll like it.