Tree Rat Tutorial

Yesterday weather was to nice to go sit in the duck marsh. So my son and I took the rifles for a morning walk. Went to a farm I trap walked along bean field with oak woods on the edge. My son carried my 17 HMR I took my 22 mag.
Was windier than we would have liked, being on ridge seemed worse.
But we managed to score couple nice grey squirrels. I intend to fix them right away yesterday. The wife already had egg rolls on the menu.
So I figured I do the squirrel tonight and bring you all along. My wife hasn't eaten squirrel since she seen one carry and old bandage out of the dumpster where she worked. Guess she doing a pizza. LoL she don't know what is good for her.
So here we go.

My son and his best buddy on edge of woods.



My son shot the first squirrel with the 17 then I scored one with the 22mag. Then my son shot one more giving us a total of three. Not a lot but enough for me to have nice meal.
We field dress squirrels as each is shot so I don't have a tail gate picture of squirrels. Did have one field photo but it says it's to large to load??


Picture of them all cleaned and out of soaking in saltwater overnight. We try to make head shot and managed to shoot all three that way. Look nice and clean shot like that.



From there I quarter them into our small pressure cooker.

Then 10 minutes at 10 psi in the cooker they looked like this. The meat is not quite falling off the bone. My mother never had a pressure cooker and would have probably par-boiled them couple hours.



From the Cooker they got rolled I flour with just some salt and pepper. Just like my mother used to do.



From the flour they go into the hot oil in fry pan.




Once they were browned up nice it on to some paper towels.



Was thinking I would nuke a potato to go with my fried squirrel. Wife says I have some mushrooms in fridge. Well their you go I grabbed couple them and a onion. Fried them up in little butter and olive oil.



When got my plate made up looked like this.



This is how it looked after chowed down watching Gold Rush.



Good Stuff

The End..

Mac

Thats fine eating there for sure. Great way for a father and son to spend a day together.

Nice, cook mine just about the same.
Catfish in front skillet.

Surf and turf.
Or maybe, Tree and Sea?

Are you cooking the spine and mid section of them or just the legs? I’m going to have to try this, thanks for sharing

Wonderful!!

I fried the back and rib cage too. Didn't show them in first post because their not as pretty. Eat just fine though.




Mac

Tree rats can be cooked many ways, but I think you have cornered the best way ! I use the same process and have never been disappointed.

Never had it but it looks good. 1st time my kids saw a lower48 gray squirrel they thought it was a giant.

I'd even spit out my snuff to eat that

Great eating but where is the gravy? Side of bread and milk gravy really tops it off.

Oh yes, that is some fine eating for the masses.

Pressure cookers(and Instant Pots) have given me a whole different outlook on squirrels from what I use to have.

My wife doesn't have an insta-pot she does have some sort of cooker?? I'm not allowed to use what ever it is because I'm a putz?? LOL
I actually bought the little 5 quart pressure cooker with the idea of using it to vaccum marinate with it. Doppy me didn't realize it easier to draw and hold the needed vaccum on one gallon glass jar. Than try to seal a pressure cooker made to hold positive pressure.. So I have since used it as it was meant to be used for cooking. Pryor to having it I just par-boiled squirrels like my mother always had in pot water.
I did Google it and there is lots of insta-pot game info.

Mac

Squirrel is by far my favorite.

me too, but I figure thats a good thing as it keeps her in the kitchen and me napping on the couch wait for supper.

Those look good. Have some put back for dumplings but may need to kill a few for frying.

Good deal and great pics! Thanks for the share.

I like them fried like that,,but also pressure cook them so the meat will fall off the bone,,then take the meat and make Squirrel Pot Pies.

That does sound good UpstateNY

I'm pretty sure if I would have run this batch for 15 minutes it would have fallen off the bone. I ran my small cooker with two cups of water. That's more that really need but I just can't get used to the 1/2 cup idea. Anyways I dumped out some real good smelling broth. I may have to go shoot some more squirrels. Just to see if that broth would be as good as it smelled in a stew. Or for gravy in a pot pie.
I've always just fried it like my mother did. Only shoot a dozen or so any given year now. Not like when I was kid and ma was feeding five of us kids.

Mac

For those that don't have a PC. You can bread how you like and brown in a skillet, CI is best. Then get some of these little SS condiment thingy's, fill with water and spices, then bake covered. They come out just as good as doing them with a canner.

Get some more,,and instead of putting water in the cooker with them,,use some beef broth or beef stock.Or you can use water but throw a couple beef bouillon cubes in there.That makes real nice gravy broth after.

Boy and I decided to go back out see could we shoot a few more squirrels. Walked about 3 time farther than the other day. Again the wind was not nice to us. But we still managed to shoot 4 squirrels
. I should say my son shot 3 and I shot 1. I took couple more pictures but for some reason T-man says their to big to post. Only thing I can figure is one I try to post saying to big. They have way more leaves in back ground. I don't know what else is different to make file bigger???
Anyways after reading all the post by others on this thread. I think these 4 are going to become stew. Their soaking in saltwater for the overnight. Then I will decide if Im going to make some stew right away. Or freeze them for now see can snipe couple more add in, do the stew for deer camp.
Anyways here is the one photo that would let me load. First big fox squirrel we bagged in a while. Was actually two reds and a grey grab arssing when first spotted them.



Mac