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| Photo copyright 2011 by Jackson Landers. |
Very few new adult hunters start out looking to eat squirrels. More often I find that novice hunters start out hunting deer for food and then get interested in expanding their culinary horizons. Once you have the hunting license and possess either a .22 or a shotgun you've already got the basic tools to hunt squirrels for food.
Why hunt squirrels? They taste pretty good. Eastern grey squirrels are like the dark meat on a chicken. Red squirrels taste a bit more like the white meat. I've made Brunswick stew containing both squirrel and chicken meat and I could not tell the difference from one bite to the next. A pair of mature squirrels provides about the same amount of meat as a moderate chicken.
Squirrel hunting is also good practice for deer season. It tests your stealth, marksmanship and your ability to predict and time the movements of your prey in order to judge the ideal moment to take the shot.
Shot placement should be focused on the chest at first. Take head shots at closer range or after you are very confident in your shooting. When hunting with a .22, be sure that there is a tree trunk, heavy limb or a hillside providing a safe backstop behind the squirrel before taking the shot.
Like most wild game, you do not need to learn how to cook all over again. Squirrel only tastes 'gamey' if you wait too long to butcher it. So long as the animal is skinned, gutted and cooled down quickly then its going to taste like free-range chicken of the tree. If you know how to break down a whole chicken and cook with it then you will find that you can use squirrel as a straight substitute for chicken in nearly any recipe.
Deer hunters can skin and butcher a squirrel like a miniature deer and get by just fine. My own technique for skinning and gutting squirrels involves the following steps (after the jump):
1. Chop off all four feet.
2. Make an incision of about three inches in length between the tail and anus, crossing from the back of one hindquarter to the other. This incision should go down completely through the hide but should not cut into the muscle.
3. Use the opening of the cut that you just made to start pulling the hide off of the squirrel like a sock. You should be turning the hide inside out. Use your hands and pull as much as possible, cutting the tissue that connects the hide to the body only when absolutely necessary. Don't be afraid to really squeeze and pull on it.
4. When the hide comes up around the neck you should cut the head off in order to remove both hide and head in one stroke.
5. Pull out the internal organs all the way up into the chest cavity either with a small knife or with your fingers. It is really easier to just use your hands. This isn't much different from gutting a big bass.
6. Refrigerate the meat as quickly as possible. This can easily be accomplished by carrying a soft collapsible cooler in your pack when you go hunting, along with a couple of freezer packs like you would use to keep food cold for a picnic. Bring some gallon-sized baggies to keep squirrel blood off of your freezer pack.
The end result is something that will look sort of like a long chicken. Quarter it and fry it like chicken, or slice off the meat and make a sesame oil stir fry. Run it through a grinder and make squirrel burgers. What you should not do is go scouring the internet for 'squirrel recipes.' Use recipes for chicken from sources that you already trust.
Special squirrel recipes usually involve strong-tasting ingredients meant to mask the gamey taste of poorly-handled meat. You don't need this because you are going to handle your meat properly, right? The people who need special squirrel recipes are the guys who spend three or four hours out hunting squirrels in the heat, throwing them one by one into an increasingly warm game bag and waiting until the end of the day to gut and refrigerate them.
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