Originally Posted by Brent Francis (Post 54026)

David, I was told that the squirrels in the UK are an introduced species. After recieving English Sparrows the Americans retaliated with grey squirrels. Is this true? One thing you may want to concider is keeping the tails. They are highly prized by those that tie flys for trout and salmon. also as ornamentation for pickup truck antennae.

Originally Posted by Destry L. Hoffard (Post 53956)

Charlie has it right as far as I'm concerned though I usually use bacon grease rather than cooking oil.

You can usually tell the old ones from the young by the lack of hair on the sack of the boars and the lack of hair on the belly of the sows. The young ones will have hair in these spots.

If you get older squirrels and younger ones in the same hunt leave a foot on the old ones when you freeze so you'll be able to tell the difference when you go to cook them.

The old ones need a good parboil before you fry them. Or, the best way, is to fry them then put inside a pressure cooker for a few minutes. That will make even the most tough old squirrel as tender as a yearling.

Roger Giles would fry them in advance then put them in a baking dish in the oven with chicken broth for a few hours to slow cook further.


Destry

Originally Posted by Destry L. Hoffard (Post 54181)

From what I was told by some British friends on my visits over that way, the american grey squirrel is one of the big reasons that the native red squirrel has become so scarce in the UK. The only place in lower England they haven't infiltrated is Brownsea Island (Birthplace of the Boy Scouts) in Poole Harbor. You still see the occasional one up in Scotland though they're scarce even that far north. Do you still have any reds in your area Dave?


Destry