We spent last Sunday night with a squirrel – two actually. I bought these at our farmers’ market (Ealing) and they were sold cleaned and skinned.
Butchering is obviously not my strength. I managed to get off the haunches and some of the forearms and various other bits of meat but couldn’t deal with the main chest cavities. Nothing I read online prepared me for the strong odour of one of the animals; while it certainly wasn’t a rotten meat smell, I just wonder if the squirrel’s scent glands had been accidentally activated.
They were stewed using my default stew recipe. Onions, carrots, (we didn’t have celery), a herb (this time dried oregano), flour, red wine, vegetable stock and a long slow braise.
The flavour? Well, while some of the meat had too much of that scent (discarded), other pieces were totally fine. It’s extremely lean and gamey and well, a bit chickeny. I won’t be rushing to have them again but at least I can say I’ve tried it!
Tamarind and Thyme 