What is the best way to make tough old squirrels tender?

i do a lot of squirrel hunting, and usually salt/pepper/flour/brown them good, then 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. they are great eating.

i like rice and gravy with squirrel, so how do you get those older squirrels tender (as in "falls off the bone"), and still have soemthing for gravy?

thanks

I run mine over with the truck, saves on ammo too.

- marinate maybe

Meat can be 'stewed' until its soft. Start with enough water to cover just the meat and simmer it til its tender. This may take hours.

When the meat gets soft then add the vegetables in the order that they need to cook. Carrots usually go in first.

Braising is the traditional method to tenderize tough cuts. Works great with squirrel as well.

.....and then there is GRAVY

Originally Posted by Spotshooter

I run mine over with the truck, saves on ammo too.

Yep.

Sounds like you never hunted for a meal.

parboiling is the best thing to do with a old fox or gray rat

parboil or butter milk marinate

meat tenderizing mallet.........

Make BBQ sandwiches. Slow cook them in BBQ sauce until they are soft and cooked. Thats how my buddies mother always did ours and I ahve continued that tradition ever since. If it isn't broke don't fix it. As for the truck hunting guys, try it you might like it.

Dood them truck huntin' guys sucked you in....

thanks for the advice men. i boiled a few last afternoon for 2 hours. then salt/pepper/flour/fried em'. they were excellent!

thanks again. good eating!

some say that there was once a time that a squirrel could take to a tree on the atlantic coast in Virginia, and never touch the ground again until touching down on the banks of the Mississippi river.

i don't know if that was true or not, but sounds like it could be.

as an aside, we always parboiled our squirrels, then battered and fried, and eat with biscuits, and maybe green beans or black-eyed peas. Good protein, cheap, and readily available.

once in a while, Grandma would serve them up as squirrels and dumplings, sans the chicken.

Originally Posted by cutNshoot

Sounds like you never hunted for a meal.

Sounds like you don't know chit about me..

Hotsoup- I can relate, alot of those older Gray's can be like eating a tennis ball if they're fried. Here's a recipe I've used for a number of years for tasty and tender squirrel.

1. make certain the sucker is truly DEAD before putting it in your vest.

2. Once I've cleaned and cooled the meat,usually soak overnight in salt water. I brown it like I were going to fry, doesn't need to get golden brown. Then I place squirrel pieces in crockpot.
Crock pot will all ready contain as follows, 2-3 cans chicken broth. Sliced carrots, quartered new red potato's, large sweet yellow onions- Vidalia's if I can lay hands on them.
Add 1-2 bottles BBQ sauce. Then stand back and let cook on LOW for 4-6 hours. Had friends that've eaten fried LIMBRATS their whole lives state: NOW THAT'S HOW YOU COOK A SQUIRREL.
Also, this recipe has been known to CURE male pattern baldness, croup and benchrest flinching. A fact! MountainJam

Originally Posted by mountainjam

make certain the sucker is truly DEAD before putting it in your vest.

That's [bleep] funny!

Originally Posted by Rancho_Loco

Originally Posted by mountainjam