[grampaTom]

We ate plenty of squirrel and rabbit growing up in NE Oklahoma. Good stuff. Of course we preferred quail when in season. Ate a lot of ducks too -- Mallards mostly. It's just whatever folks get used to. It's not like the Beverly Hillbillies. (or is it???)

[DubbleT]

Rabbit, squirrel and a few other small game animals used to be pretty standard fare not all that long ago. My grandparents put them on the table in Indiana up until at least the 1960's and 70's.

[simbared]

Link to the CBS Sunday Morning piece:

​A taste of the World Champion Squirrel Cook-Off - CBS News

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by PhxBarb

Is this true?? I just saw this on the news this AM and it seems to be some type of festival or something with everyone cooking squirrels and making different dishes. Sorta like a contest.

It seems like some people would object to this but they all seemed very happy, eating their squirrel food.
Not a dish I would ever try, for sure. LOL

Yep, it is true and from what I have heard it is very good. I only had it once, when we spent a few days with my moms family in Seneca, Kansas and the men went hunting.

As much as I love to watch the squirrels around here, if you lived where they take over your entire yard you might be happy to have a couple for dinner. What we eat depends on where we live and how we were raised. I grew up in a home where dad hunted a lot and fished a lot. I guess I have tried a lot of things many people have never and would never try. Heck, after dad graduated from college and he moved to S. Cal it wasn't easy to go hunting, so he raised his own rabbits, slaughtered them and made a pretty decent second living for several years. We had rabbit almost every Sunday for dinner.

[PeachSalsa]

I've eaten squirrel when I was a kid. Pretty good, as I recall.

These days, I have so many dang squirrels scrambling across my deck, chewing on my flower pots and deck chairs, eating my tomatoes. I would LOVE to be able to pull out the .22 and pick a few off for dinner. Unfortunately, that's illegal here in suburbia. So, I wait for the hawks and eagles to swoop down and grab one now and then.

[grampaTom]

Originally Posted by PeachSalsa

I've eaten squirrel when I was a kid. Pretty good, as I recall.

These days, I have so many dang squirrels scrambling across my deck, chewing on my flower pots and deck chairs, eating my tomatoes. I would LOVE to be able to pull out the .22 and pick a few off for dinner. Unfortunately, that's illegal here in suburbia. So, I wait for the hawks and eagles to swoop down and grab one now and then.

My retired neighbor (when I lived in Fayetteville, Ar) thinned 'em out on a pretty regular basis with a pellet gun. Could barely hear it.

[bornincali]

Non lead pellets?

Meat->work ratio?(they seem like theyd be more favorable than bullfrog since you eat more of it...tnose guys are hardly worth the trouble)

Zoonotic potential compared to other meats?

I am embarrassed to admit to varmiting many squirrels and a few rabbits without the idea of eating em crossing my mind.

[edmiii]

Have been squirrel hunting over 55 years (since age 10). Still enjoy it, but today I'm primarily a duck/deer hunter. Cousin and her husband had a cattle operation with plenty of woods near Heber Springs, most of his relatives deer hunted there, but my father and I joined him every year just before deer season for "squirrel camp". Lots of mature trees and both gray and fox squirrels.


Both my father and cousin-in-law have passed - the last time we hunted together was 3 years ago. My father, at 88, killed 3 sitting in a camping chair (not as mobile as he once was). One rule was that the youngster (me at 62) got the chore of cleaning them. Breakfast after hunting was eggs, squirrel, home-made biscuits, and fabulous squirrel gravy.

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by grampaTom

My retired neighbor (when I lived in Fayetteville, Ar) thinned 'em out on a pretty regular basis with a pellet gun. Could barely hear it.

^^^
This right here.

[Vision67]

Do they serve squirrel at Cracker Barrel?