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Acorn Crusted Squirrel with Wild Mushroom-Giblet Gravy

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Braising squirrel with vegetables Acorn crusted squirrel is one of the best things I’ve made with tree ninjas. Period. A few years ago, I had Daniel Vitalis of Wild Fed and his entourage out to film an episode for his show. We took a week to hunt things around Minnesota and Wisconsin, and put everything together for a nice farm dinner focused around pigeon and wild mushrooms. 

One night while we were standing around the kitchen shooting the breeze and cleaning the giant haul of mushrooms we picked, the topic of acorns came up. I love making acorn flour, it’s a nutrient-dense product that you can’t get your hands on unless you make it yourself (typically, there’s some suppliers but they’re small scale, and the cost is steep) hard to get craft ingredients being catnip for any chef. Daniel harvests and processes his own acorn flour too, so we had to compare culinary notes, and what we like to do with the finished product. 

Squirrel still life

Squirrel still life

Daniel told me one of his favorite things to make with squirrel was cooking them until tender, dredging in acorn flour, and browning them up, which sounded delicious enough for me to make a note to try it myself the next season. It’s a great way to use acorn flour, and a really fun way to eat squirrel–a bit like tiny fried chicken. 

Cutting up a squirrel for cooking
Whole (discard the head)
Squirrel, cut into braising parts as you would a rabbit.
Cut into braising parts as you would a rabbit. Make sure to save the offal.

Here’s jist: take your squirrel, cut them into pieces, then simmer with aromatics as if you were going to make soup. When the squirrel is tender, you remove the squirrel parts, strain the leftover stock (it’s delicious) and fashion into a gravy.

Braising squirrel with vegetables

Braising squirrel parts until tender, there’s no need to brown them first as heavy caramelization can toughen the meat.

The squirrel pieces get dredged in flour-egg-acorn flour, since it’s hard to make the acorn flour stick all by itself. Even with the tried and true flour-egg-flour technique, you’ll still lose a tiny bit that comes off while cooking, but it’s a negligible amount. The stock thats leftover makes a gravy that’s a nectar of the gods. Finely chopping the giblets and sweating with shallots and mushrooms gilds the lily, and I could’ve drank the stuff out of a mug. 

Do you have to use squirrel? 

Nope. There’s lots of different game and non-game meats you could do the same treatment with here. Pheasant legs, braised and pine bones removed would be a good option, as would any meat cooked confit style, like chicken thighs and legs, or even fish. Back when I was running the menu at Heartland restaurant in St. Paul, whitefish crusted with hazelnut meal was always a gauranteed sell, so, know that if you don’t have squirrel, but you have acorn flour, you can still make something delicious happen. 

Acorn crusted squirrel with wild mushroom-giblet gravy recipe

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Acorn crusted squirrel with wild mushroom-giblet gravy recipe
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Acorn Fried Squirrel with Giblet Gravy

Tender pieces of squirrel fried with an acorn crust and served with giblet-wild mushroom gravy.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time2 hrs
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Acorn, Squirrel
Servings: 2

Ingredients

Braising the squirrels

  • 2 large grey squirrels skinned and cleaned, offal reserved for the gravy, cut into 6-7 pieces
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 rib celery
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 cloves garlic whole
  • Small sprig of thyme optional
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • ¼ cup dry white wine
  • 3 cups chicken stock or water

Acorn Crust (this is a skimpy amount of breading since acorn flour is so precious, adjust to your needs)

  • ½ cup acorn flour
  • Generous pinch dried ramp leaves or a pinch of onion powder
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • Cooking fat such as lard, for frying
  • All purpose flour or equivalent
  • Beaten egg

Giblet Gravy (optional)

  • 1 small shallot
  • 2 tablespoons bacon grease or unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
  • Reserved squirrel giblets finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon crumbled dried mushrooms
  • ¼ cup cream

Instructions

Braise the squirrel

  • Season the squirrel pieces liberally with salt and allow to rest overnight in the fridge, alternately, brine the squirrel in water seasoned with 2 tablespoons of salt dissolved in it per quart (this step is optional, but recommended).
  • The next day, put the squirrel, herbs and vegetables in a small pot with high sides, a 2-3 quart capacity is good. Add the wine and water to cover, then bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer on low, covered, for 1.5 hours or until the meat barely moves from the bone. Cool the squirrel in the liquid, then remove.

Breading and Cooking

  • To finish the squirrel, mix the acorn flour with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper, along with the ramp leaves. If you have a spice grinder, grind the mix together to break up the salt.
  • Dip pieces of squirrel into flour, then egg, then finally the acorn crust. Fry on medium-high heat until golden in a thin layer of oil, turning occasionally, and eat hot with the gravy on the side.

Optional Giblet Gravy

  • For the optional gravy, sweat the shallot in the grease then add the giblets and cook for a minute more until their water is cooked off.
  • Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the mushrooms and reserved squirrel stock and bring to a simmer, then reduce a bit until thickened.
  • Stir in the cream and cook a few minutes more. Double check the seasoning for salt and pepper and adjust as needed, then serve.

Acorn crusted squirrel with wild mushroom-giblet gravy recipe

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Some nice wild enoki clones from @unkle_fungus Can Some nice wild enoki clones from @unkle_fungus Cant wait until these start popping up when the snow melts. The difference between the coloration of wild ones (pic 1) and cultivated that are white from the lack of sun (pic 2) is always interesting to compare. (The cultivated ones are a different species of Flammulina too). 

We’re really lucky to have such a vibrant community of small, local mushroom growers and related makers. Feel free to tag your favorite you like or one I should know about in the comments. 

#enokimushroom #mushroomgrowers #flammulinavelutipes #blanche #allthemushroomtags #wintermushrooms
Celebrated my birthday last night with a few stiff Celebrated my birthday last night with a few stiff spruce’n’sodas. The spruce tip liquor I collaborated on with @ida_graves_distillery drinks like a mildly piney gin. Dangerously easy to drink. #sprucetips #craftliquor #drinkatree #itsmybirthdaybitches #im25again
Social media can be a wall-to-wall, endless string Social media can be a wall-to-wall, endless string of triumphs. We all know reality isn’t like that, so with the snow melting here, I thought I’d share a funny maple season fail with you (at the time it was not funny).

I was making maple soda out of sap, sweetfern and syrup that I like. I’d kept the glass bottle of soda in the fridge for a couple weeks, waiting for a good time to get to it. I’d started the mother batch with a pinch of commercial champagne yeast, which is vigorous stuff. 

One night I got up and poured myself a glass of water, and sleepily forgot to close the fridge all the way, which increased the temp. A few hours later I woke up to what sounded like a grenade going off. 

The bottle exploded and the inside of the fridge, all its contents, and the floor were covered with sticky maple juice, and I spent the next two hours mopping and picking out shards of glass that had embedded themselves like shrapnel in the walls of the fridge. 

Now, I use plastic restaurant cambros to make carbonated drinks. 💫

#fermentationfails #fail #soda #fermentation #explosions #dontrythisathome
My chief editorial assistant about to do backflips My chief editorial assistant about to do backflips for smoked goat kidneys. 

If you would have asked me a few years ago if I would see myself writing recipes (and filming videos) on making dog treats I would have laughed. 

But, working with @shepherdsongfarm, trying to figure out creative, economical methods for butchery and whole carcass utilization for lamb and goat has pushed my creativity into new places. Grateful for that. 💫

If you get down on kidneys, I have a good version for humans on my site too. A good piece of charcuterie to know. 

Hand model @pgerasimo 

#grassfed #goat #eatmoregoat #kidneys #offal #dogtreats #rescuepitbull #editorialassistant
7pm ET tonight on @the_outdoor_channel I take @dan 7pm ET tonight on @the_outdoor_channel I take @danielvitalis hunting for mushrooms and pigeons in WI, then I cook dinner on the farm for @wild.fed, his outdoors series that shows that wild food is much more than just meat. 

If you don’t have the outdoor channel, you could use the free trial of @frndlytv that will let you watch it live. 

Finished dishes I did were pigeon brochettes with rams bacon, sunflower roulades and wild cherry sauce and pigeon, sweet corn and wild mushroom stew. 

#mushroomhunting #wildfed #foragerchef #outdoorchannel #pigeon #foraging
After watching an old episode of Munchies (see You After watching an old episode of Munchies (see YouTube/Vice) I scribbled down a prep for yellow foot chanterelles a Swedish food truck was making. They took flatbread (tonnebrod, but I use lefse, because 🇳🇴💪) piled high with hot yellowfeet and fresh kraut, mayo, Västerbotten cheese (fontina or Hushållsost are ok subs). 

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Props to @ingebretsens in Mpls for making their own lefse since my Norwegian Grandma wasn’t  around. I channeled her though. 

#midwestwinter #lefse #lefseforlife #youbetcha #oleandlenawouldbeproud #yellowfootchanterelles #wildmushrooms
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