Cleaned my first squirrel today...

[God's Country]

Wait until you get a few and make a Brunswick stew.

[buxbandit]

I had a contract in Marshall, Arkansas to maintain a post office there. It was piggybacked onto a contract for the Fed Bldg in Harrison.
Marshall was the first and only time I tried squirrel, one of the locals brought me some in hopes of getting the p/t maintenance job. Wound up giving it to a girl who showed up in jeans and a tee shirt, with her resume written in pencil on yellow paper.
What got her the job was the last line on the resume, "and I fix my own truck".
After tasting that Arkansas squirrel stew it became a food of last resort.

[Gunplummer]

Don't reheat it in the microwave, it gets like rubber. I always soaked the meat in salt water in the fridge over night to draw out the blood.

[jthrelf]

If you do the tail method, sooner is better. Do it later on and you tend to just pull the hair off of the tail.

Agree with doing it very shortly after harvesting. Also I've found the slow cooker to be the best tool for cooking squirrel.

[wis bang]

Don't reheat it in the microwave, it gets like rubber. I always soaked the meat in salt water in the fridge over night to draw out the blood.

Grammy soaked them in salt water, rabbits too.

[Sandcut]

Use a blow torch to get rid of remaining hair that won't wash off. Works well with pin feathers on game fowl as well. Just a quick passover.

[WCMG]

Don't reheat it in the microwave, it gets like rubber. I always soaked the meat in salt water in the fridge over night to draw out the blood.

^^This^^. As a kid, we would occasionally eat squirrel stew, but the key was an overnight brining to draw out the gaminess.

[WCMG]

[Gunsnwater]

Cut off hands, feet and head, zip up belly and take his little coat off. Hold arms and legs and flick out the guts like water off your hands.

[Gunplummer]

Anybody remember selling the tails to fly tying companies when you were a kid? They used to advertise in the back of sport magazines.