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The New York Times reports on Britain’s squirrel-eating boom:

[I]n farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in.

While some have difficulty with the cuteness versus deliciousness ratio — that adorable little face, those itty-bitty claws — many feel that eating squirrel is a way to do something good for the environment while enjoying a unique gastronomical experience.

Stranger readers will remember Brendan Kiley’s Urban Hunt, in which he hunted, slaughtered, cooked, and ate squirrel and several other city varmints. And of course there’s this eternal classic from The Huntress.

In other news: Blet.

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

24 replies on “Today in Edible Varmint”

  1. Our neighbors were related to this rich and very eccentric rancher who would periodically come in and terrorize the kids of the neighborhood with scary things (shrunken head, for example), so it should have been immediately questioned why he wanted to throw a barbecue for my friends, their family and some of us neighbor kids.

    Well, Mr. First Hummer In South Texas hauls out a huge cooler of meat and begins cooking it. They looked to me like Cornish Game Hens and tasted a little gamey. Turns out he had shot some pigeons at his sister’s house, plucked and then cooked them.

    Later on, he attempted to get us to eat squirrel. No dice, not after eating pigeon.

  2. “good for the environment”? squirrels are part of a health environment. removing them from it will hurt the quality of the environment, not help it. what an ignorant comment.

  4. It is good for the environment … if hunters are killing the imported grey squirrels, which are displacing the native red squirrels.

  7. One day every comment on the internet–especially those that castigate others as ignorant–will be written by people who didn’t bother getting any context. Instead of 98%, like now.

  9. For further enjoyment, see the latest Wholphin DVD, which features an amazing little doc on the grey squirrel invasion in the UK. Highly recommended.

  11. When I was a kid, my parents would try to serve us squirrel and claim it was chicken which we never fell for because squirrel DOESN’T taste like chicken and they always gave the squirrel tail to the dog…

    parents can be so dumb….

  12. i really don’t see a huge problem with eating squirrel, but man, talking about it’s cute little butt when you’re cooking it and then mixing it with pecans, cheap mayo and shredded cheese? that’s disgusting. at least make something tasty out of it.

    i mean, it really can’t be that different from rabbit right? i love rabbit! it’s delish.

  14. It’s about time.

    We’ve been trying to get your attention for years about the Grey and Brown Squirrel menace, but you just thought we were being cute while we tapped against your kitchen windows in morse code.

    Thanks for finally listening!

  15. Having eaten squirrel myself, I don’t envy the patrons of the British establishments serving this fine culinary experience …

    Can we get a recipe? I’m thinking squirrel curry.

  16. I’m more worried the crazy squirrel in my yard is going to eat me. Yes, yes the wild eyed terrorist managed to live through both the storms and the coyote. He looks at me from outside the window and I can see it in his eyes, he’s saying “I’m coming for you.”

  17. 1) Have you ever seen drunk squirrels eating rotten fruit? Amazing.

    2) I grew up near Mechanicsburg. A great family friend used to walk across town with a shotgun over his shoulder to our house to collect my brother. “Mom says it’s time for more squirrel pie.” I’m told you can also shoot them in town with an air rifle if you hide in the garage with the garage door up a few inches.

  20. @1 in “reputable” restaurants, it’s called squab. Granted, it’s domesticated pigeon, but it still holds true: squab=pigeon. Just like the Patagonian Toothfish: you know it as Chilean Sea Bass. Branding is everything.

    Unrelated, the only “sporting” way to take a squirrel is with a .22. A shotgun (20-gauge as it appears in the video) is entirely ungentlemanly.

  22. When I hear about people eating squirrel I picture the cast of Hee Haw, not the British. Of course the British are known for such recipes as Spotted Dick, so I guess they’ll eat anything.

  23. @20: Was that a shotgun? Why didn’t the huntress’s perfect lil squirrel carcass have pellet wounds? Was the kid shooting garlic-flavored rock salt? Did the crew secretly use Have A Heart traps to obtain multiple squirrels? Fragen über Fragen.

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