The Return of the Squirrel as a Game Animal?

[alfreda89]

Allie both ate squirrels and took advice from them -- until very recently, it was the American thing to do. Then commercial farming made chickens more plentiful, and eventually the chicken replaced the squirrel as the bottom rung in the protein list.

But people are starting to eat squirrels again.

In the south, they've never stopped.

But don't eat ground squirrels, like chipmunks and prairie dogs. They carry Bubonic Plague. Don't eat squirrel brains, either, no matter how tasty -- because apparently squirrels can carry Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant. Truth is, don't eat animal brains, period. Lots of critters can carry Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant. Save those brains for tanning skins.

I used to have terrible trouble with squirrels destroying my feeders. If I'd only had this instructional tape, I'd have started working up a squirrel repertoire! (The article's author suggests braising squirrel in white wine and chicken broth.)

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Young pigeons (aka "squab") reach a size that's worth the effort of collecting before they're capable of flight. Treat them like any other fresh-killed bird.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I'm sure my frontier family went after them, too. As a girl, Annie Oakley kept her family fed by selling pigeons to a local restaurant. The owner paid more for birds shot through the head, so Annie learned how to shoot them in the head!

[originalkitsune.livejournal.com]

ah squirrel...rats in the trees! Brunswick stew used to be made with squirrel instead of chicken.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I have a cookbook where they are still the preferred form of meat for that dish!

[sheilagh.livejournal.com]

just don't eat the ones near campus. they steal tons of junk food!

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

I'd steer clear of city squirrels and city pigeons. All the pollution in urban areas has to contaminate them.

That said, an undergrad I knew years ago lived rather well on the pigeons that he lured to his window sill and shot with an air rifle. (His shooting station was his bed!)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Clever boy!

A friend swears the local squirrels living on Live Oak nuts are tasty, but I have seen the little devils go dumpster diving at campus, so I would not eat a college squirrel!