Okay I confess, cabin fever has set in a I desperately need more "dirt time"! I started a thread over in the recipe section about tenderizing squirrels. I'll leave it there because that's where it belongs, but I have a theory . Basically, I tried to tenderize 3 squirrels with 8 hours in a slow cooker on low. One (the largest and most likely oldest)was falling off the bone, the smaller 2 were still tough as leather. After I posted I had an "epiphany" I'd like some feedback on. I declared war on squirrels raiding my bird feeder a month or so ago. One of said squirrels was shot "free range" off the feeder and the other two were live trapped and dispatched, in an admittedly unsportsmanlike fashion. In my defense, I relocated approx. 12 unharmed for any "bunny-huggers" reading this. There is nothing more "wired" than a live-trapped squirrel and I've read that animals that are stressed, i.e. dogged deer, etc. wiil have tougher meat from the build-up of lactic acid or something. Did this make the difference?
P.S. I haven't seen a squirrel in a week. The word is out in the trees....squirrels fear me!