I found a dead squirrel on the side of the road, how can I cook this?

Question

Ya, it is defintely dead. Smells like rubber (hit by a car?) I'm looking to make some sort of stew and/or pot roast type of a meal. Suggestions?

Thanks for all the replies. I believe this little guy was hit by a motorcyle tire. The smell is bad, but it appears to have been hit just this morning.

I'm gonna chance the whole rabbis thing, and hopefully the bad stuff will "cook off" when I boil it.

I really like the idea of a shredded BBQ meal. Thanks for the tip. I'll be trying that tonight if nothing tastier comes up.

Thanks again guys. And this sure beats paying for food at Walmart!!!!

Answer 1

Well I went looking for you after you decided that you wanted to BBQ your roadkill squirrel. And this is what I came up with.


BARBECUE SAUCE, ROADKILL INN

Recipes for barbecue sauce, the epicurean symbol of summer, are legion. This recipe resulted from several years of experimenting - and we're still experimenting with it. There's no perfect barbecue sauce, only good ones, bad ones and commercial ones. Use the below recipe as a guide. Alter the measurements to your taste, add new ingredients or delete some until you achieve that almost perfect barbecue sauce. To that end we offer one suggestion: don't use ketchup as many recipes call for. Ketchup is already heavily seasoned, therefore depriving you of control over the ingredients.

5 cups Tomato sauce ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ cup dark molasses 4 basil leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
2 tablespoons cider vinegar 4 bay leaves or 2 dried
½ cup dark brown sugar 2 teaspoons powdered mustard
1 medium onion, diced 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 cloves garlic, diced 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup chopped parsley 2 to 4 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon chili pepper

Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until they become translucent. Don't allow them to brown. Add the tomato sauce and bring to a simmer. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt. Simmer for at least 3 hours to reduce sauce by about 20 percent. Taste, adjust seasonings and add the salt. Simmer for a half hour. Bottle and store in refrigerator until needed.

Answer 2

The mention of this little beastie having rabies is not really a reason for not using it, but there are other considerations.

First of all is taste. When an animal as small as a squirrel is hit by a car, the intestines generally rupture and taint the meat, giving it an really bad taste.

Next we look at the fact that the time of death is unknown and meat starts to spoil from the moment of death. Now mammals are not as bad as crabs, because if a crab dies before being cooked it's flesh becomes poison very quickly and it takes a while longer for squirrel meat to get to that point, but even then, it is best to use meat only from animals you know have been processed at the time of death.

What I am saying is leave the road kill for the animal scavengers whose systems are not as tender as the human and get your squirrels fresh from the tree. A 22 does nicely for that.

Answer 3

You're kidding, right? I am seriously LMAO here. If you want to eat squirrels, you should hunt them, not eat road kill. Damaging the guts/intestines of any animal you intend to eat usually makes any portion of the meat that touches the damaged guts inedible because of the contents of the stomach/intestines.

Just in case you're not kidding, here's two recipes I have. These are from a book called "White Trash Cooking" by Ernest Matthew Mickler:

Broiled Squirrel:
Squirrel is one of the finest and tenderest of all wild meats. Its flavor is mild, rarely gamey. There is no need for soaking, and seldom any need for parboiling. They should be cleaned as soon as possible after shooting, but skinning may wait until they're ready to be cooked.

Clean squirrels and rub with salt and pepper. Brush with fat and place on hot broiling rack. Broil 40 minutes, turning frequently and basting with drippins every 10 minutes. Serve with gravy from drippins and season with 1 to 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Fried Squirrel:
Make sure all the hair is cleaned off the squirrel. Cut it up. If it's old and tough, put it in the pressure cooker for about 15 - 20 minutes. Salt and pepper it. Cover with flour and fry in a cast iron skillet on a medium fire until brown and tender. This is a real sweet meat. You can smother a squirrel just like a chicken.

I've never tried squirrel, so I couldn't tell you what it's like. But the book the recipes are from is an excellent, authentic cookbook from the panhandle of Florida, so I'd be willing to bet the recipes are the real deal. Happy eatin'.

Answer 4

Are you serious?

If you are, I would make sure that it hasn't been dead too long or would otherwise be bad and might make you sick. My grandmother used to skin and clean her squirrels, then shred the meat (like pork) and mix it in BBQ sauce (maybe you could do a BBQ Squirrel Chili or something). Squirrel is a very greasy meat, so this is only way I would ever eat it.

And you better hope it was hit by a car and didn't die of disease, cause it will make you sick if it did. We used to always kill our own squirrels so we knew where the meat was coming from. Anyway, good luck.

Answer 5

South West Squirrel

A simple and easy recipe!



After skinning and cleaning your catch place in salt water and bring to a boil. Should be at least two large gray squirrels, one large rabbit, or two large chicken breasts. (better if you can soak the meat a while first) De bone meat after it is cooked well enough to come off the bone easy by hand, and making sure to remove all shot shell and bone fragments. Set ready to use meat aside to mix with the next batch of stuff below.

Ingredients needed:

2 cans cream of celery soup or you can mix and match cream of anything soups depending on personal tastes. ( If you prefer chicken as your meat, obviously the cream of chicken is the best choice) Doesn't matter which, just use two 10.75 oz cans of one or the other and you'll be fine. I've used Cream of Chicken, Brocolli, Asparagus, Celery and Mushroom and they all work and mix well together just fine.
3 or 4 good size mild or even better medium to hot jalepenos, banana, or pepperoncini peppers diced up small.
Dice up half an onion of choice. I like the Texas sweet onion but a yeller one will do too.
1/4 teaspoon of Emirils Essence (I use more cuz I like spicy)
1/4 teaspoon of Cavenders (optional)
1/4 teaspoon of course ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice (lime juice will also work)
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Spray Pam in the skillet or oil the skillet with olive oil or some other oil, about a spoon full of oil should do.
Cook the onion in the skillet until it looks clear or toasty brown on the edges.
Add the peppers of choice to the skillet and stir in with the onion.
Add the meat and the soup and then mix it all up good.
Select a baking pan and pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
Using Mission Yellow Corn Tortillas cover the bottom of the pan by overlapping the tortillas so the bottom isn't showing and pour the above ingredients in on top of the tortillas. (you can substitute taco shells or nachos if you like)
Cover the top of the mix with grated pepper jack cheese or colby cheese
Bake at 300 degrees uncovered for half and hour or until the cheese is startin' to get brown.

You can eat this by itself and it's great or you can pour it over rice or steamed vegetables. I've even filled soft tacos with it for a double decker type of meal and I've also used doritos instead of tacos or tortillas. They are all great, as it is a very forgiving and flavorful recipe. Congrats, you've just taken a basic Cream of something soup dish and then taken it up a couple notches. Delicious dish that won't leave leftovers. For those that don't like spice, simply leave out the peppers. It is still delicious, and very quick and easy.

Answer 6

In the skillet.A lot of fresh garlic and fresh onion.Mix some chianti wine with tabasco sauce,might help to kill the rubber flavor.For the side dish,you van have roasted ants with olive -oil sauce.

Answer 7

Skin and clean look for worms in the entrails and flesh. If there are worms do not eat it.

If there are no worms. Flour salt pepper and fry in oil - open all the doors and windows cause cooking squirrel stinks to the stratosphere (my cousin's husband was Cajun and he loved cooked squirrel - that is how I know how to cook it but I cannot eat the stuff).

Answer 8

Not a great idea, may have rabies. Otherwise a pot roast in the crock pot.

Answer 9

well i seqqgest trowing it away it could have 'carbulocuis' (it means car disese that to many cars ran over it!!!)
if you still want to cook it boil it for 1 hour than you could put carrots in the stew

Answer 10

Uh-huh. That's disgusting. Rabies anyone?