Squirrel Casserole

[luckytrim]

Squirrel Casserole
4 Squirrel; quartered
4 Ham slices; very thin
4 md Onions; thinly sliced
4 Carrots; thinly sliced
4 lg Potatoes; thinly sliced
4 sl Bacon
4 oz Apple cider
4 oz Applejack
4 tb Flour
Salt and pepper
Water
Rub the squirrels with salt and pepper. In the bottom of an earthenware casserole with a
tight lid, arrange the slices of ham, then a layer of squirrel, then a layer of onion, a layer
of carrot, and a layer of potato. Continue building up layers, seasoning each with salt and
pepper until casserole is filled. Arrange slices of bacon across the top. Add the cider and
applejack. Place the lid on the casserole and seal it with a paste made of flour and water.
Place the casserole in a 250-degree oven for 3 hours.​

 

[buckytom]

how does squirrel taste? i'm guessing like a gamier chicken thigh.
the casserole looks pretty good. i like the idea of capping it with dough. i'm thinking this would taste good if cooked in a cast iron dutch oven, buried in the coals of a camp fire.

 

[Constance]

That's a good looking recipe, Lucky. I'll bet it would be good with wild rabbit, also.

Bucky, that's a pretty good guess. They actually are not strong tastiing at all, and very tender and juicy if cooked properly.
HB jokes that if worse comes to worst, he'll trap our squirrels for food. They are very well fed, as we have lots of oaks and a black walnut tree, not to mention the stale bread and cornbread I feed them.
My backyard wildlife is off limits, though. I did let him shoot a groundhog once, that was working on my vegetable garden, but it made me feel bad.

 

[pdswife]

Constance.. I have the same rule for Paulie. He can go to the woods and shoot anything he wants ( as long as he brings it home to eat) but.. my animals are my friends. He can't hurt them! NOPE!!!!

 

[jkath]

That really sounds good, although, I'm too sheepish to try squirrel, but I think I may use chicken. How much chicken would you suppose would equal 4 squirrel?

 

[buckytom]

it depends on who you ask, the chicken, or the squirrel.

 

[jkath]

bucky, on a roll, extra cheesy with some spice.

 

[luckytrim]

four critters equal four and a half chicken breasts

 

[Piccolina]

how does squirrel taste? i'm guessing like a gamier chicken thigh.
the casserole looks pretty good. i like the idea of capping it with dough. i'm thinking this would taste good if cooked in a cast iron dutch oven, buried in the coals of a camp fire.

My granny grew up in the Yukon and tells stories of how they would eat beavers that her brother would catch in his traps (oily, sort of chewy meat, she said), but I can't say as though I've head first hand what squirrle tastes like. Not exactly topping my list of foods I want to try, but I'd imagine it's not that awful....

 

[Constance]

four critters equal four and a half chicken breasts

Are you talking whole breasts? That would be some pretty big squirrels, Lucky. You must be talking Fox Squirrels. We have gray squirrels here, except in the deep woods, and one of them would equal a couple of thighs, at most.
Fox squirrels are much larger, though...and so pretty! My daughter rescued a baby after hunters killed the mother, and raised it to adulthood, feeding it peanut butter.

 

[cara]

You are note really eating this poor little squirrels, are you??

 

[luckytrim]

sorry!
that's four and a half HALVES-

 

[SizzlininIN]

Ok....Ok....I will admit I have ate this before.......in my youth though. And yes rabbit too! But if you had grown up with my mothers cooking you'd of ate it too. She was the best cook I have ever known. Granted you wouldn't get me to eat squirrel now.......nor will you ever get me to eat rabbit again. Moms gone now. In fact, mom sent me home with a frozen rabbit about a year before she passed away. I told her I didn't want it but she insisted and I ended up throwing the thing out after several months of being in my freezer. Yes I could eat the rabbit she prepared but there was no way I was going to cook that thing. It was awful seeing that thing skinned.
Since you seem to be on the wild side lucky I'm going to post a recipe I found in her recipe box.

 

[cara]

hmm.. rabbit is delicious....
but I can't imagine eating squirrels.... have never heard of this in Germany...
even if their are hunted, nobody eats them... just like racoons or foxes...

 

[luckytrim]

we ate EVERYTHING we killed, except polecat (skunk)
then we stretched and dried the skins and sold them to mr. cooley, three miles up the road......
don't give up on rabbit; it's farm-raised now-a-days!


LT

 

[cara]

do you differentiate between home rabbits and wild rabbits?
How do you call the smaller ones with the shorter ears and legs?

 

[luckytrim]

There are over 50 species of rabbits but it is the Domestic Rabbit which has been developed into the many different breeds of rabbits kept as pets.

click and read more............

 

[cara]

I just discovered you call the bigger one with long legs and ears hare or jackrabbit..
that is what my dictionary says... in Germany that one is much more common to eat as a wild animal...
rabbits usually are domestic ones to be bred for slaughtering *what a hard word*, we had them when I was younger but my Dad didn`t want to any longer..

 

[buckytom]

do you differentiate between home rabbits and wild rabbits?
How do you call the smaller ones with the shorter ears and legs?

you have to yell a lot, and wait a little longer for them to come...

 

[cara]