Althouse: Cajun squirrel crisps.

January 9, 2009

Cajun squirrel crisps.

What they're eating in Britain.

24 comments:

George M. Spencer said...: Entomophagy is where this trend heads.; 1/9/09, 11:56 AM
JohnAnnArbor said...: "No squirrels were harmed in making the crisps."

And, George, insects are a really good source of protein.; 1/9/09, 11:58 AM
traditionalguy said...: Isn't a squrrel just a tree Rat? If fish and squrrel chips are to become the new delicacy in the EU, please let's remain red-necks from the colonies. It's scary because you can see Great Britain from here. It's called Canada. You betcha.; 1/9/09, 12:03 PM
TMink said...: More properly Mock Squirrel Crisps. Or, since they are cajun, perhaps Faux Crisps d'écureuil.

Trey; 1/9/09, 12:09 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: I would think processing squirrels would be labor-intensive, unless you just chop the head and tail off and grind up the rest.; 1/9/09, 12:26 PM
Hector Owen said...: Pictures, we need some pictures. The package as you would see it in the market. The squirrel crisps page at the manufacturer's site (annoying Flash), containing the sentence "We believe in the right for a man to bare nuts." What, in the winter? Even men in shorts are not popular with certain law professors, never mind, oh, just never mind. The inventor of squirrel crisps, chowing down. I did not know that the English call squirrels "tufties." Now I do know that. For someone who is not enrolled in any classes at UW Law School, I learn a lot from at least one of its faculty members.

"No squirrels were harmed in the making of these crisps!"; 1/9/09, 12:32 PM
Ron said...: Since they're British, you'd think they'd be curry squirrel crisps.; 1/9/09, 12:52 PM
Hector Owen said...: "No squirrels were harmed …" unless mockery qualifies as harm.; 1/9/09, 12:54 PM
Beth said...: I am gobsmacked.

Now, some Cajuns do eat squirrel. Some folks joke that the Louisiana motto is "If we can kill it, we can eat it." Once, as a child, my partner was slipped some squirrel brains, in scrambled eggs. Oh, those fun-loving Cajuns! She's more French than Cajun, so we don't have squirrel on our table.

There are restaurants in the black Creole 7th Ward of New Orleans where you can order coon or squirrel, and it will be prepared fresh for you. Yum. C'est si bon. (I wouldn't know, really.)

What flavors these chips? Everytime I see "Cajun" on a food item, I know it's going to be someone's sad combination of too much red pepper and who knows what else.; 1/9/09, 1:10 PM
John Burgess said...: The UK is annoyed with the US on the matter of squirrels... it seems some bright soul imported the common grey squirrel into the UK. It's taking over the territory of the native red squirrel, the one Beatrix Potter made so lovable. So perhaps this is a way to recycle the surplus grey squirrels?

The Brits are annoyed, too, with the American crayfish--another Cajun treat--as it's pushing out the native Flag crayfish.

Maybe it's just that the Brits are just really pissy about the Americans abroad?; 1/9/09, 1:17 PM
Beth said...: John,

There are no Cajun crayfish.

Now, crawfish. Dem's good eatin'.; 1/9/09, 1:19 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Yeah, well, European starlings are a big pain in North America, so we're even.; 1/9/09, 1:20 PM
Beth said...: Try dealing with nutria, huge fur-bearing rodents some idiot imported to Louisiana from Brazil. They dig tunnels in levees. They must die. But they breed like rabbits, so we're screwed.

Someone tried to get them into the food chain here, but not even Cajuns want to eat them.; 1/9/09, 1:28 PM
Rockport Conservative said...: If they were really Cajun they would be Gumbo. That's the only way I've ever seen them use squirrel. And I lived in Lafayette for 30 years, have a Cajun son-in-law and Grandchildren. Now as for the nutria, they tried, they failed. I think they cannot even sell the fur because there are no interested parties. The nurtria migrate in the spring sometimes and IH10 is slick with their corpses. UGH!; 1/9/09, 1:59 PM
Unknown said...: Isn't a squrrel just a tree Rat?

No, traditionalguy, a tree kitten.; 1/9/09, 2:10 PM
Unknown said...: Try dealing with nutria, huge fur-bearing rodents some idiot imported to Louisiana from Brazil. They dig tunnels in levees. They must die. But they breed like rabbits, so we're screwed.

On New Year's Eve I went to an hour-long presentation from a couple of folks who work at an Austin area nature preserve. They had a bunch of pelts and skins of local fauna, including a nutria. They were absolutely hilarious about it. Apparently it is open season on nutria in Texas, and every time they said "now don't harm these animals" or "these don't taste so good" whether it be a fox, an armadillo, whatever, they'd recommend a nutria instead :); 1/9/09, 2:13 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: The problem with squirrels. GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING Link NSFW, nor children under the age of eighteen.

☐ I'm under the age of eighteen and must leave now!

☐ I'm 18 years of age or over and accept the terms. Please continue to next page.; 1/9/09, 2:14 PM
traditionalguy said...: Squirrels in the attic may upset older welfare homeowners/renters. So as a truly caring country we should at the very least create a Cabinet level ACORN Squirrel Relief Department with powers to trap all squirrels and transport the little darlings to Alaska where they can be raced up trees as a new sport for ESPN.This will be handled by Huge Grants to ACORN who can also get absentee ballots filled in at each home they service. See how easy it is to create government work.; 1/9/09, 3:27 PM
Anorak said...: The real taste of Britain is here:

http://www.anorak.co.uk/strange-but-true/199693.html; 1/9/09, 3:37 PM
Synova said...: If Brits are pissy about squirrels and catfish, I think we can meet them with English sparrows and Starlings.; 1/9/09, 4:04 PM
John Burgess said...: A thought occurred to me...

In some parts of the US, 'squirrel' is synonymous, or indeed the term of preference, for what other parts call 'beaver'. Neither term, in context, refers to a rodent.

Perhaps this is what the Brits had in mind? They do, after all, have 'curry & lager'-flavored condoms on sale....; 1/9/09, 4:31 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Here's a picture from the assembly line in Burma where the tasty chips are made. As you can see, skinning the squirrels to get at the juicy morsels inside isn't labor intensive at all.

(Caught me! Actually, that's a picture from a U.S. ArmySurvivalBook).; 1/9/09, 4:52 PM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/9/09, 7:45 PM
Unknown said...: Nutria.com
Heart Healthy 'Crock-Pot' Nutria
and a few more recipes at the second link.; 1/9/09, 7:46 PM