Pennsylvania Game News - August 2011 - 22

Are there any other advantages to squirrel hunting? Yes. It’s less physically demanding than, say, beating the bushes for bunnies or a determined drive for deer. It’s ideal for younger hunters, older hunters and those with limited mobility. Expensive, fancy equipment isn’t needed, either. A single-shot shotgun (my preference in built-up areas) or a .22 rifle is all that’s needed. It’s a relaxing way to hunt, if you want it to be, but has lots of action. I think the real reason most folks don’t hunt small game is that it’s just not “cool.” There’s a certain mystique about going into the woods with a high-powered rifle or a bow with razor-sharp arrows for deer. Small game hunting lacks this mystique. A hunter’s buddies are not as impressed by a 20-gauge shotgun as by a .30-06, and squirrels don’t have antlers. To get more people back into small game hunting, we need to make the quarry more interesting and worthwhile. It’s time to turn to Paul Prudhomme for inspiration. Paul is a TV chef noted for his Cajun cooking. He single-handedly changed

Brunswick BarBeque with squirrel meat is nearly foolproof, and uses ingredients and utensils found in virtually every Pennsylvania kitchen.

the lowly red drum from a trash fish to a valuable species with his recipe for Cajun Blackened Redfish. It is very good. Demand for redfish grew so much that limits had to be enacted to prevent overfishing. Fishermen, chefs and diners were thrilled. The redfish were not so happy. I’m certainly not suggesting Cajun Blackened Squirrel. Squirrel is a unique meat and must be dealt with properly. It is, as mentioned above, a tough animal. My cookbooks (I have quite a few) all suggest frying tender young squirrels (there’s no such thing) and various kinds of stews or soups for older animals. Fried squirrel is tasty, but unless it’s fried for a very long time, eating it makes you feel like a wolf ripping meat from an elk carcass. It’s quite an exercise. This is why most books end up with some boring variant of a soup or stew. A college buddy of mine told me years ago that you must first boil a squirrel for an hour just to make it tender. Notice that “boiling” and “boring” share a lot of the same letters. As a society, we don’t much go in for stew anymore. Meat was scarce in Grandpa’s day. Stew meant meat, so stew was good. Now we want something with more pizzazz. Enter Brunswick Barbeque. Brunswick Barbeque is nearly foolproof, uses ingredients and utensils found in virtually every Pennsylvania kitchen, and packs enough flavor to have folks coming back for more. It’s a simple recipe with thousands of variations. Every winter I watch the squirrels in my backyard. These squirrels are huge; you might call them “squirrelzillas.” They ought to be big, as they’ve eaten enough birdseed intended for our resident wintering birds. They’ve defeated every so-called “squirrel-proof” feeder I’ve tried. They’re brazen, too. They sit on my birdfeeder post and taunt me, knowing they’re safe and untouchable. Despite this, we’ve achieved balance in a “circle of life” sort of way. These squirrels eat my birdseed and I eat their wilder cousins. It’s a balance I can live with.
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Pennsylvania Game News - August 2011

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