After cleaning the squirrel, take a piece of tin foil big enough to enclose the critter completely. Salt and pepper the meat, ( a touch of hot sauce or chili pepper if you like), and then quarter an apple and stick two quarters lengthwise inside the ribcage cavity. Close up the tinfoil tightly and place at the edge of the campfire for about an hour, turning about every 15 minutes so the same side is not always towards the fire. You can stick some onions and carrots in with it as well if you like. Don't eat the apple as it sucks up the gameyness from the meat.

 

Thanks for the ideas everyone, it's going to be a good weekend. Going to give these a try.



Sounds a lot like the way we used to make stew in scouts. We called it 'hobo' stew. Simple and tasty, great idea. One of those it's so simple why didn't I think of it ideas I'm going to add the bacon idea Silas has to this. Bacon always makes everything better and I never go camping without it.

...Thai peanut sauce is fairly simple to make from scratch but to simplify things for camping I'd just buy it in a jar. The one I like is House of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce: http://www.houseoftsang.com/products/bangkok-peanut-sauce/

....If your plan is make some manner of stew with the wild game it never hurts to serve it up with dumplings. Canned biscuits are the lazy man's method for making dumplings. Simply tear the raw biscuits into dumpling sized pieces & drop into your boiling stew.

Pre-cooked squirrel or rabbit meat can also be added to fritter batter or even Stove Top stuffing and formed into patties & fried in a skillet.

Peanut sauce I will be trying out and I am going to give those dumplings a go. Cooking while winter camping is always a good non-hunting activity because... well ... it keeps you warm and it usually means you are eating good food

For the skillet, the cook kit is oriented to 1-2 people and usually I have to pack super light. The little pan was originally for deep dish pizza and holds two decent sized sirloins very well. That's the common meal my son and I have when we are in the backwoods on the first night. Also, nesting is a big issue when I am backpacking. Depending on the specific trip, I may even drop the pan from the kit and use flat rocks and tin foil.

Rice will be easy, I will use the boil in bag variant and I can keep it warm in my GSI Space saver Mug with Ti lid. My wife crocheted me a coozie so it can stay warm while the rest is done cooking.

PigButtons: What an excellent recipe! I will try that on my grill next year. However, the squirrels I have shot during my life have never tasted "gamey." Must be the hickory and acorns they eat on my place.

Pat G

I'm only 3 months new to squirrel hunting. The guy who taught me has a trick to remove the gamey-ness of the meat. So I actually have not experienced the gamey-ness of the squirrel. It's hard to explain as I have only dressed/cleaned squirell twice, he did it the other times. Here is a brief writeup, but I will try and get some details next weekend with pics if they are not too gory. Although, perhaps this is something known by many.

There are two glands in the lower leg portion of the squirrel one on each leg. It looks like a tiny BB of round fat. These should be removed. The front legs have glands that look like a little white-ish fading to black tiny sliver of I don't know what. It looks like a little hair or whisker about .5" long. If I recall these are located above the 'wrist' joint. Remove those and you are golden. Does this really work? I cannot say for sure. I'm not eating a squack leaving these intact

This is for Greg squirrel by the way. I have not eaten nor cleaned fox squirrel. I have about 4-6 foxies playing in my front yard daily and they are super fat, but where I hunt up north it's all grey.

 

For something out of the ordinary you could give Mole sauce or Thai peanut sauce a try.

Mole sauce is available in a concentrated paste that is added to water/broth to make the sauce. It can be found at the grocery store in the Mexican food section or you can score it online. The Herdez brand Dona Maria Mole sauce is the one I usually use: http://www.herdeztraditions.com/dona-maria-products/dona-maria-mole-original/

Thai peanut sauce is fairly simple to make from scratch but to simplify things for camping I'd just buy it in a jar. The one I like is House of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce: http://www.houseoftsang.com/products/bangkok-peanut-sauce/

With either one the first thing is to simmer the meat (works with squirrel or rabbit) in a pot of water until fork tender and then de-bone. The de-boned meat is then browned a bit in a skillet with some bacon grease & chopped onion. Mix the browned meat with either of the sauces and serve over rice (you can do the rice in the pot & then wrap it in foil so it can be re-heated with a camp fire when the meat/sauce concoction is done). They both can also be used to make a tasty taco. The peanut sauce makes a mighty fine stir fry too. I would add a 10 inch non-stick aluminum skillet to your cooking kit to add versatility because a 6 inch skillet is mighty small.

If your plan is make some manner of stew with the wild game it never hurts to serve it up with dumplings. Canned biscuits are the lazy man's method for making dumplings. Simply tear the raw biscuits into dumpling sized pieces & drop into your boiling stew.

A simple plan for squirrels is to wrap them individually in foil with some frozen vegetables along with some butter or a piece of bacon spiraled around the squirrel and slowly cook them at the edge of a camp fire. Try not to get them screaming hot so that you can cook them for an hour or so to get them tender enough.

Pre-cooked squirrel or rabbit meat can also be added to fritter batter or even Stove Top stuffing and formed into patties & fried in a skillet.

 

Tin Foiled Squirrel

PigButtons: What an excellent recipe! I will try that on my grill next year. However, the squirrels I have shot during my life have never tasted "gamey." Must be the hickory and acorns they eat on my place.

Pat G

 

Squirrel sushi. Show it a picture of fire, then pour some Teriyaki over it........

 

Good thread, tagged for interest. I love hunting small game with a .22RF but I've never known anyone who was able to teach me the ropes for squirrel.

OP, I do like your idea of squirrel field cookery rather than bringing them home though.

 

Here are a couple pics of the type of squirrel cooker. Really easy and light setup and doubles as a bush/billy pot hanger. Works with other game or your packed in food.

With Squirrel:

Grouse:

Kettle:

Few guys I know make them out of what they call "Republican Wire" which is simply the iron/steel frames of political yard signs reformed for the purpose. They say GOP metal is more stout than Dems But they are also available online for 20-30 bucks.

 

I hope you parboiled that squirrel before sticking it over the fire. Otherwise you could use some rawhide strings to sew up the cavity with the squirrel wrapped over your feet and have a pair of squirrel moccasins that would last all winter. What you wouldn't have is anything that could reasonably be described as edible. You could cook a pair of old leather boots with the same effect.
Crow Feather

 

I don't know about other places in the country, but squirrel cooked like this over the fire is just fine, no boiling needed. Keep the squack rotated every min or so and cook slow and low. Juicy and tender. Kind of like eating chicken wings in a way, not the taste, but the consistency and the tenderness..

I will give the parboil a try just to see what it does, but this method has proved yummy so far.

 

Grandma put the big old tough ones in a pressure cooker. I've had snowshoe hare on a stick over the fire and it was excellent. I think a big gray on a stick would make me glad I still have teeth.
edit-maybe Yooper squirrels are just tougher. )

 

Well my harvesting grounds are a little less than an hour south of the bridge, so I imagine that we have similar Grey's. I will give the parboil a try. Who knows maybe I have been missing out on some much better eating.

I'll report back after next weekend.

 

Harmonica Bruce and squirrel on a stick

 

uhh..wow......mine don't look like that afterwards.... also I don't look like that afterwards either![emoji1]

 

Especially if it's one of those squirrels that's been climbing trees so long it has forearms like Popeye and when you skin it the meat looks dark red.
Crow Feather