I wonder how many other girls get excited when given a dead grey squirrel. Especially one that still needs his fluffy winter coat removing.
He had been pilfering peanuts from Mum’s bird feeder, and that’s classified as a suicide mission round here.
As he was an old boy, frying or roasting would have made him inedible. So the most fitting end involved the slow cooker, that wonderful gadget that renders even the toughest meat delightful.
Poachers Squirrel Pie with Mixed Root Mash
- 1 squirrel (once skinned, I slow cooked him in water on high for around 4 hours, by which time the meat was falling off the bone. I let it cool before stripping the meat from the bones. For those that are interested, there was 4oz cooked meat on a well fed, winter male squirrel)
- ½ bulb of garlic, peeled but cloves left whole
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 savoy cabbage leaves, chopped. Add any veggies you have available
- Various root vegetables for the mash (I used Potato, sweet potato, carrot, swede and parsnip)
- Butter for the mash
Chop the root vegetables, and boil then mash with the butter.
Fry the onion until it has a little colour. Add a ladle at a time of the water the squirrel was cooked in, letting it reduce before adding the next. Add the cabbage with the last ladle of stock. Simmer down a little and add gravy powder/cornflour to thicken it.
Mix the cooked squirrel meat with the onion and cabbage gravy and tip into a casserole dish or individual pie dish. Top with the root mash and bake until the top is golden brown.
I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to source squirrel meat, as it is quite fiddly and has a small meat to carcass ration, but I’d certainly never turn one down!
Shared with Frugal days, sustainable ways
In my past life (as a city girl) I would have given you the old hue and cry about that squirrel…as a newly aware country girl who has been trying to grow vegetables out in the sticks and who has been fighting a losing battle against the most determined nocturnal natives (read – getting up to carnage) I am thinking about slow cooked possum and wallaby haunch in garlic butter! Revenge would surely never taste so sweet! ;)
Mmmm, Possum Pie with a side order of Wallaby Wedges! If you ever get them plonked on your back doorstep, let me know & I’ll be there in a flash!
:)
Good one Janie, I hate those (grey) squirrels!
Just don’t try toad tortellini thanks.
x T.
Hahaha, deal!
:)
Sounds lovely….how did you catch the wee fella Jane?
Kieron recently posted..What a load of pollacks
Hey Kieron, my brother shot him mid peanut-heist!
Do you eat squirrel? If so, what’s your favourite way of cooking them?
Janie x
Why? Why in the 21st century do people feel they need to kill and eat everything, still? I understand hunting for deer, and elk – but really – squirrels? Maybe if I was starving and needed food to survive and squirrels were the only thing around at the time – but again, it is the 21st century. Besides that, squirrels are scrawny…how much meat could they possibly have? I mean, it must take half a dozen squirrels to make a decent stew. How long before the squirrel population drops to zero at that rate of killing them? Just as bad as the guy pushing people to eat pigeons in NYC.
Kathie Burks recently posted..No last blog posts to return.
Hey Kathie, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
There was a time a time I would have agreed with you, but as I now choose to eat meat I figure that wild, unfarmed, ‘free range’ meat is not only the kindest meat to eat, but makes the most sense environmentally too.
Since being introduced to the UK, the American Grey Squirrel has almost wiped out our native red squirrel. It damages our native trees, can raid wild birds nest for eggs, and is classed as vermin in the UK.
This squirrel was shot on our own land, and rather than allow that animal to be wasted we choose to eat it.
The Hedgecombers is a blog dedicated to farm living and foraging and this includes the rearing, cooking & eating of meat.
Kind regards, Janie x