Skin'n a squirrel

[leapin lunker]

Looking for suggestions on skinning a squirrel and any recipes you may like.

[woodie slayer]

cut em up ,roll in flour,pan fry till brown ,place in oven pan with can of cream of chicken soup and cup water bake covered 3 hours at 300 degrees

i also add potatoes and carrots


awesome

[Shoeman]

Cut the feet, head and tail off, then cut a slit in the hide about midway down the back, just enough for 2 fingers. Insert the index fingers and pull the hide right off the critter.

Heavy duty scissors (florist type) work great for quartering.

[deepwoods]

I pull the fur off around the rear of the squirrel and then slice the skin down the back of each leg. I then break the back bone and attaching tendons where it is attached to the base of its tail. Next I stand on the tail and pull up on his back legs. As goofy as it sounds the top half of the hide will pull off like a sweater. I pull it up under his chin and pull the arms out and snip them off. I then cut the lower half of the hide free at the belly and pull it down like trousers around his feet and then snip them off. Then I gut them and soak em'.

It is hard to explain unless you've seen it done but it works. Good luck.

[john warren]

heres how we do it. lay the squirrel on its belly fold the tail back over its back. cut threw the base of the tail from underneath but not threw the skin on top. leave as much attached as you can. slice down the top of the thigh a short way to get the skin started.
now flip the squirrel over and place your foot as tight to his rump as you can on top of the tail. take hold of his hind feet and pull up. his skin will peal off like pajamas. pull him up till only his front feet and head are still covered. you may have to help the front elbows threw.now while still holding him down with your foot, peal his pants off with one hand. now with a pair of side cutters remove front feet , rear feet and head.
you should now have a naked squirrel with very little hair on it.rinse your hands and knife, and gut the squirrel.
the whole process after a few for practice should take about 60 seconds from begining to finished skinned and gutted squirrel.
there is a video of this on the web and i only wish i knew where it was to clue you in.

[john warren]

as to cooking them, i find the front half a bit tuff so i save the front for soups and casaroles, and the back legs for frying up.
one of my favorites is is squirrel and rice. cook up some rice boils slowly thr front of the squirrel then debone. add a can of cream ofmushroom soup and stir it all together. or use chicken soup or experiment and find something else.theres about billion ways to cook it and if it works with chicken it will work with squirrel. just remember they are very athletic and need tenderising while cooking.

[Backwoods-Savage]

Looking for suggestions on skinning a squirrel and any recipes you may like.

PM me with your email address and I'll send you a short video on skinning a squirrel and you won't believe how simple, easy and quick it is! (I may have to skip out so if you do PM me and don't get the video right away, look for it this evening.)

[theredmission]

Here's a vid:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1085246824

[john warren]

thats the one...

[Bachflock]

Great video. Makes it look easy. Now if I can just get SwizelChest to eat'em we'd all be better off!

[Yarcher]

I have used the method John Warren described, and haven't found anything faster or easier yet.

[English]

First of all I skin squirrels like John Warren does. I'm not sure if the video shows it but if you dunk your squirrels in a bucket of water before you start you really cut down on the amount of hair you get on the meat.

Here's my recipe for Squirrel and Dumplings. I'm pretty sure John Warren, EdB, and Shawn Wemple from on here have tried this and approved of it. :corkysm55

It's a pretty easy recipe and you can add other things to make it suit your tastes.

Ingredients:

6-8 squirrels cleaned, and parted. (I discard the rib cages when I clean the squirrels)

I can of Grands biscuits...NOT THE FLAKY varietey...I usually use butter milk or butter tasting variety. Although the original works just fine too.

1 beef and 1 chicken boullion cube.

1 can cream of mushroom soup.

Dried minced onions OR 1 small fresh onion diced.

garlic powder to taste

season salt to taste

pepper to taste

Instructioins:

Place the squirrel parts in a slow cooker or crock pot and cover with water. Add the boullion cubes, onion, garlic powder, season salt, and peppper. Cook on high until squirrel starts to flake off the bones easily. With gray squirrels about 4-5 hours. Some fox squirrels will take 5-6 hours.

When squirrel is done take the squirrel out and set it aside to cool. (Usually it's falling apart so much I use a slotted spoon to remove the squirrel.) Pour the broth from the crock pot into a large heavy pan and place over low heat on the stove. You will need to add some water to the broth at this time. Add just enough to make it taste like soup broth. IT will be too salty if you do not do this. Usually 2-3 cups will be enough but it may vary depending on the crock pot and the amount of squirrels covered so you must taste!

Add the cream of mushroom soup and whisk in. Once the squirrel has cooled enough to debone it pick all the meat off the bones and add the meat back to the broth. Bring the mixture to a slow boil. Cut the grand biscuits into 1/4s or 1/6s and add to the slow boiling mixture. Reduce the heat so that it just simmers and with a spoon gently dunk all the peices down into the mixture a couple of times. Now loosely cover the pan and allow to cook for approximately 10 minutes...or until the "dumplings are done". During this 10 minutes gently dunk the dumplings down once or twice. This helps thicken the broth to a more gravy like consistancy.

OPTIONS

Sometimes when the squirrel is about half way done I'll add chopped carrots or diced potatoes for variety. IF your family likes mushrooms you can add a can or two or some sliced fresh mushrooms...we really like this. Another thing I like to do sometimes is when I put the broth on the stove is add a drained can of corn. I'm sure you could add mixed vegies when you put it on the stove or???

Like I said you can play with it to suit your family's tastes. Hope this is clear as I'm not Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart!

[john warren]

ok,mike, now you have my mouth watering and it isn't even lunch time yet!

[sigman]

I like them fried but tender. I put them in a pressure cooker for a few min. Not till its off the bone of course. Then roll em flour and fry them. If I want after frying I take em out and add flour for gravey then put them back in and simmer till VERY tender and put over some mashed potatoes.