The Old Foodie: Twenty Gallons of Squirrel Stew.
This interesting booklet also includes a recipe for a rather more manageably-sized squirrel stew (“Make the same as chicken stew, using four squirrels to a pot of stew”) as well as instructions for broiled and stewed squirrel, plus a rather elegant dish of opossum which I also give you for good measure. Those Tennessee Baptist ladies could sure cook up a storm, it seems.
Squirrel Stew for Twenty Gallons.
Twenty squirrels, five pounds pork, half bushel tomatoes, half bushel potatoes, three quarts okra, six large onions, eight red peppers, three packages corn starch, ten dozen ears corn, three pounds butter, salt and pepper to taste. Boil four or five hours, stirring often.
The first recipe looks like burgoo. Not far from where I grew up is a tiny bluff town called Arenzville that hosts a burgoo festival.
I seem to recall that about the time of Abraham Lincoln, politicians would lay out squirrel stew and whiskey on election day-- brought voters into town.
I am very glad burgoo was mentioned, as I had the same impression: a dish of wild meat and fixings as are easily found to feed a large group. Burgoo is par excellence a communal dish and this squirrel dish sounds similar in many respects. What could sound more regional American, burgoo? In fact the term (almost without question) is from bulghur, for wheat. Burgoo - with that spelling - was a gruel on British ships in the 1700's. Like so much else that seems American, it was British in origin.
Dear Lord! It's things such as this that make me glad I'm a vegetarian!
The Squire is from the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and he has mentioned his father eating squirrel. I'm going to send the link to this page to my two sisters-in-law.