Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation gutting a squirrel

Hello all,

I hope to get a squirrel or two tommorrow. I have never gutted and prepared a squirrel, but I got a lot of information off the Internet and "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook. Of course there are holes in any instructions, so let me describe my plans and see if I have this right:

1. Skin and gut the squirrel in the field after shooting it. I don't want to squeeze the urine out first, because I am using a shotgun and won't know if the bladder is punctured on the inside. Squeezing could release all of the urine into the body.

2. Put the squirrel body into a cooler with ice at the truck. Should I put it in a plastic bag or not?

3. Can I use Shake and Bake instead of flour to fry the squirrel in a skillet? It says it is for baking. I would like to fry it and I like Shake and Bake.

Thanks!

44henry

44henry,

I usually wait until I get out of the woods to clean my squirrels as I am usually done in less than a couple of hours. I keep a 5 gallon bucket in the truck and fill it in a creek if I'm not going home right away or water hose if I am at home. I dunk the squirrels in the water to get them wet as this aids it keeping the hair off of the meat. Skin and gut, I usally put in ziplock and leave in color to I get home or put in a bowl of salt water if at home to soak overnight.

I think Shake and Bake should work fine. I don't know why it wouldn't.

CK

I usually gut the squirrel in the field, and carry them home in a cooler. I skin them at home.

I clean them as soon as they hit the ground. Take an old bread bag or two. Skin them then gut them as you would a deer, split the hips and around the vent.

Best way I have found is to quarter them up, let them soak in salt water over night. Lots of salt, to get the blood out. Wash them really good. A deposible roaster, I spread out the quarters, slow cook them about all day on about 300dg. I put in some butter onion, garlic and assorted spice. Tony Chachere's rocks. Let them cook until they are falling off the bone. pour off the liquid and put your favorite BBQ sauce on them. Let them bake about an hour. 10 or 12 big greys or fox squirrels works best. Kids will eat them becuase they do not look like a rat.

I've always waited until I was through hunting to skin & then gut.

Soak them with or with out the salt, I cant tell that it makes much difference.

If they are young they get fried in a pan. If they are old they are squirrel & dumplings.

It makes skinning a lot easier if you have a helper to hold the little rascal by the hind legs. I make a cut under the tail and an inch or so down both legs. I carefully cut the tail bone from underneath being sure the tail and skin stay attached. Then I stand on the tail and pull up on the hind legs until the skin comes off down to the head. Separate the head and front feet and discard. Skin out the rear legs and you got it. I use either a torch or a piece of newspaper to singe off any hair that sticks to the carcass. Then gut and rinse thoroughly.

Personally I pressure cook all my squirrels and make squirrel and dumplings. Hint: If you don't want to make dumplings from scratch, use flour torts cut into strips or cheapo canned biscuits quartered.

I skin them as soon as possible by cutting through the underside of the tail (not the hide) and upa couple inches along back of both back legs. Holding squrrel with belly away from you, step on tail then pull up on back legs. Then gut them and put them in a plastic bad in my hunting coat until I get back home (hunt out back).
Then I sort them by age. Older males have large ...what males have. And the older does will have teets. Both will be larger and darker red color. The younger squrrels will be smaller, have whiter meat and the leg bones will bend somewhat. The younger ones I fry like chicken. The older ones I make stew from. Believe me, age will be obvious when you fry older ones. Talk about tough!
My mom used to soak them as indicated above, then parboil them before frying in flour/egg wash/breading, then bake them covered. Putzy but gooood.

Here's a link to the Small Game section that explains it all.

Cleaning Squirrels

SQUACKS posted a link to a demonstration video that makes it look SO easy.

Hey, I started that thread.

Excellent! Now all I need is a squirrel...