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Squirrel Pot Pie
Prepare squirrels as rabbits, cut in pieces, flour and fry brown in tablespoon butter. Cover closely and stew for 1 hour. Make delicate biscuit crust, cut in rounds and lay them on top squirrel, let them boil, covered closely, 15 minutes; pile squirrel in center of hot platter, arrange dumplings along it. Thicken gravy with 1 tablespoon flour browned in 1 tablespoon butter and pour gravy over meat.
A terse camp recipe that assumes you know how to break down small game and how a steamed biscuit dumpling behaves. Two things carry the dish: enough liquid in the pot, and a lid that stays on.
- The liquid is not statedYou cannot stew anything for an hour in a tablespoon of butter. After browning, add water or stock to come roughly halfway up the meat, about 2 to 3 cups, and keep it at a bare simmer so the pieces stay covered as it reduces.
- Keep the lid downThe biscuit rounds cook in steam, not in the liquid. Lifting the lid during the 15 minutes drops the steam and gives you dense, gluey dumplings. Set a timer and leave it alone.
- "Prepare squirrels as rabbits"Skin, remove the head and feet, draw, and joint into six pieces: two front legs, two hind legs, and the saddle split in two. Older animals have tough hindquarters and want closer to 90 minutes.
- SourcingSquirrel is not sold in most supermarkets; in practice it comes from a licensed hunter, since commercial sale of wild-caught game is restricted in most states, and seasons and limits vary. Rabbit, sold frozen in many butcher shops, substitutes directly at the same weight and timing.
- "Delicate biscuit crust"A plain baking-powder biscuit dough, rolled on the thin side, about half an inch, and cut in rounds, since it will swell in the steam.
- The finishing gravyFlour browned in butter is a roux made separately, then whisked into the simmering pot liquid. Cook it to the color of peanut butter before adding it, or the gravy tastes of raw flour.
- YieldTwo squirrels feed two to three people; figure one animal per person if appetites are camp-sized. Rabbit at 2 to 3 lb serves three.