🤢 Frankly Gross 1912

Squirrels En Casserole

Brunswick stew under a French name, with the lid sealed shut with flour paste for four hours.

From: How to Cook in Casserole Dishes
Published: 1912
Yikes Scale: Iffy

Exactly as printed, 1912

½ lb. chopped salt pork 1 cupful chopped onions 1½ cupfuls sliced parboiled potatoes 1 cupful green corn 1 cupful lima beans 4 quarts (16 cups) boiling water I quart (4 cups) peeled, cut tomatoes 1 tablespoonful sugar 1 tablespoonful salt 4 heaping tablespoonfuls (4 ozs.) butter 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) flour Black and red pepper to taste Clean, wash, and joint the squirrels. Lay them in salted water for thirty minutes. Put the ingredients into a large casserole in the following order: First a layer of the pork, then one of the onions; next, of potatoes; then follow with successive layers of corn cut from the cob, the beans, and the squirrels. Season each layer with black and red pepper. Pour in the water, put on the cover, and seal with a paste made of flour and water. Cook gently for three hours, then add the tomatoes, sugar, and salt. Cook for one hour longer; stir in the flour and butter mixed together, boil for five minutes, and serve in the casserole.

How to Cook in Casserole Dishes, 1912. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Nothing here is dangerous. Squirrel is lean, sound meat, and a four-hour sealed braise is exactly right for it. This is Brunswick stew with a menu-French title.

The one gap is that the ingredient list never says how many squirrels. For that volume of liquid and vegetables, two or three dressed animals is the sensible reading.

Notes from the 21st century

Luting is a real technique. A rope of flour-and-water paste round the lid seals the pot so nothing escapes. It is how a casserole worked before tight-fitting lids.
“Casserole” means the pot. A lidded earthenware or enamelled vessel for the stove or oven, not a shallow baking dish. The dish is named after the pot.
Squirrel is still legal and still eaten. Hunted in season across much of the US. Of everything in this category, it is the one you could most easily make.

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