No Special prep needed if you use a crock pot...yum!

QuoteOriginally posted by cahaba:
I soak squirrel as well as venison in coffee. I don't know what the coffee does but it takes all the gamey taste away and gives it a great flavor. If it wasn't for squirrel we would have had a lot of meals without meat when I was growing up. I really like eating them.

I use coffee in marinades too, it's slightly acidic and has enzymes that help tenderize meat, I love the flavor it adds too. Ground coffee also works really well in spice rubs.

I love 'em.  A great cold weather meal.

I par boil them for awhile and pull the meat off the bones. Toss all the meat in a crock pot with a can or crème of chicken soup and a can of crème of celery soup.  Add some chicken broth to thin the soup out some.  I cook it for a couple of hours and then make dumplings out of bisquick.

Awesome!

Haven't had squirrel since the passing of my grandparents.  They always wanted me to bring them squirrels.  Their recipe is what I always called southern fried.  Using the stove top my grandmother would dredge in flour and brown on both sides in butter.  After browning she would add chicken broth and thicken with a cornstarch and water mixture.  Slow cook it for hours until it nearly falls off the bone.  Always served with rice and the gravy would go on top of rice.

I drives me nuts when people talk about adding BB sauce and other stuff to kill the "gamey taste"                    ...What gamey taste?           It's called FLAVOR! If you don't like wild game then eat chicken, pork and beef          

squirrel is my absolute favorite small game. It has a sweet flavorful meat. Young squirrels will fry up tender and older squirrels need more cooking. I try to keep the old ones and the young ones seperate when I'm cooking them.

The guys in my Shrew Haven deer camp love my fried squirrel, in fact one night during our annual deer hunt is squirrel night.

It takes 8 squirrels to feed our group so as soon as the season opens on Sept 15yh the hunt begins. I usually use a .22 rifle or a .32 flintlock muzzleloader to get the squirrels that I need.

This is how I cook them, cut them into 7 pieces, flour and brown in oil or bacon grease if I have it. put them in a cast iron pan, our camp pan is 14" with a cover. After the meat is browned, I add a little water, put on the cover and place in a 300* oven for about two hours. When the meat is falling off the bone tender I take out the meat and make gravy in the drippings

Eight squirrels just out of the oven

   

Makin the gravy

   

Enjoy!

 

Another batch in the big cast iron skillet

 

Sounds good Ron.  I just tried a new recipe that I posted a video earlier.  Brown in hot oil then cover and simmer for an hour.  Was good but a little too dry.  Next time I.m going to pressure cook for 15 minutes on 10# dip in seasoned corn starch and fry to golden brown.  Should be tender and moist.

I'm with Ron; wild game needs no special sauce...if it does, something's wrong with the way you're handling it after the kill, or the way you're cooking it (with very few exceptions in my experience)...
I can't tell you how many times we have had friends over for dinner, and when I say I am cooking venison, they say "oh, I don't like venison"...I say "well, at least try it, and if you still don't like it, we'll make you something else"...with maybe two exceptions, the reaction is usually; "THIS is venison?!? This is fantastic!"
And the two exceptions were city dwellers who couldn't wrap their mind around eating anything that didn't come from a store, in a rectangular package covered in plastic...

I'm with Ron too. I've been eating wild game (more squirrel and rabbits than anything) all my life and I have no idea what people are talking about when they say "gamey taste".

My Aunt Rose used to take my squirrels and make Squirrel Cacciatori and spagetti for me.  It was one of the most fabulous dishes I think I have ever had.  That was in the 60'/70'ss. Haven't eaten a squirrel since she passed away.

No squirrel has passed these lips. I'm sticking to those 600 pound squirrels with a white rump.

I know what you mean Ron, i just cant understand how not everyone likes just plain black coffee, if they need to add sugar or creamer then they just shouldn't drink coffee at all...  

I enjoy eating squirrel and all wild game, in fact we dont even eat beef, i dont see the big deal if someone likes BBQ sauce... it's their taste buds, why knock what they like???

I think that the comments weren't as much "knocking" what people like, as much as they were defending the taste wild game possesses...
There most likely are some folks reading these threads who don't have a ton of experience with some aspects of hunting/woodsmanship, two of which are taking care of meat, as well as cooking it after the killing of an animal...
A person could read this thread and think that it's necessary to soak/marinate/brine/smother/slather wild game meat with some other substance before it is palatable...this couldn't be farther from the truth...

QuoteNo squirrel has passed these lip. I'm sticking to those 600 pound squirrels with a white rump.

I remember as a kid in SK you could only shoot squirrels if you had a fur-bearer permit and a trap lease, so surprise there.  

Don, that makes sence. Yes, wild game does not "need" any other seasoning then what you would use on anything else. Just thought we were talking about preferences.

Love em, I call it backyard grocery shopping. My Mom used to make a stew called "Hopkins county" stew. I still make it.

I wait til it gets cold to shoot em amend then shoot enough to last me on into summer. Been gettin fat ones lately!

Steven Rinella made a great point in that folks get away from certain things - like society is changing its tastes. What we would have or did love to eat in past generations we seem to look down our noses at. Just a sign of more disconnected we are getting.

Squirrel cooked over coals at camp is delicious, as is venison, trout, rabbit or whatever game we chase. Those same meats also can are excellent ingredients is more elegant dishes. Brining, marinating, sauces etc. all should accentuate the natural flavors of a meat and improve texture, the goal is not to hide the flavor. For example, A thin glaze of a slightly sweet sauce on a grilled squirrel enhances the flavor to some people, which is no different than what a light flour dredge does when cooking in bacon grease as shown in the pics of that delicious looking squirrel above

I'll second that! I am full from dinner at the moment, and I look at that picture of Ron's and I start to drool...
 

My point was simply that I don't know what "gamey taste" is. I've eaten a lot of game but I've never experienced anything that I could relate to the term.

Prepare your meals how you like them but I don't think squirrel tastes any "gamier" than beef or pork.