My mother worked as a maid in Hoboken when she first arrived from Germany. Her German employers spoke English but my mother was learning on the job. She didn’t understand why the husband, chuckling, always asked what the weather was when visibility was poor. Then the wife heard Mom reply “fuggy”, read hubs the riot act, and explained Mom’s gaffe. Later, she worked as a hair stylist, then manicurist, and also had to learn to call the procedure a blow OUT. Later still, when I was college age and we watched Jacques Pepin on TV, she always laughed when he put a “cookie shit” into the oven. Didn’t stop both of us from having crushes on him, even though she was 60+ by then, old enough to be his mother. She’s long gone, I’m over 70, carrying the torch for both of us…
Too bad. I was just thinking that over here (Scotland) eating grey squirrel might be a way of helping our red squirrels (who should not be eaten as they are endangered). The greys are responsible for bringing a disease that decimated the red population.
That said, I’d be useless at killing, skinning, and gutting.
Did that edition have this cover? This came up in one of my Facebook feeds the other day:
Accompanying text: THING I LEARNED TODAY: The first edition of The Joy of Cooking, in 1931, featured on the cover an illustration of a woman fighting a dinosaur with a mop.
Says Wikipedia: The book was illustrated by Rombauer’s daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, who directed the art department at John Burroughs School. Working weekends during the winter of 1930–31, Marion designed the cover, which depicted Saint Martha of Bethany, the patron saint of cooking, slaying a dragon.
That one had long lost its dust cover…the fabric was blue if I recall.
It was interesting reading (including old grocery receipts tucked into the pages) but I dont remember using it much.
I cannot locate your message regarding eating of rodents.
My answer to you is this: " Each to his own" however, “never us and no insects either”.
Squirrels are rodents !
I posted a message to you exactly where there was a post about eating a variety or rodents, alligators or crocodriles, or horses or donkies amongst other “asquerosos” (disgusting) items in my opinion.
Everyone has the freedom to eat how they wish.
However, we do not eat these items and no one at the table sitting where I am, can eat these either.
They can get their own table !!!
Have a nice weekend, just ahead.
Yes, I saw your earlier post. And yes, everyone should be able to eat however they wish. However, as I had noted on the other thread, I try very hard not to “yuck someone else’s yum”.
Not everyone in this world is able to dine on expensive fine foods or drink expensive wines and alcohol. More people have to make do and survive with so much less. And if they manage to make a sustaining, nutritious dish from something that many others would find offensive? More power to them.
Nor would I ever turn away someone I was dining with should they choose to enjoy something I wouldn’t eat myself.
Each to their own.
In Spain, Barcelona and the Madrid Capital those food items are not used in cuisine nor tapas.
Yes, anyone can eat whatever they like – but at my table no crickets, cockaroaches, horse meat, insects, rodents etcetra.
And besides I never eat with strangers so this is not a problem.
Best wishes and have a wonderful autumn ahead.
This cover brings cooking to a new level. I don’t think I know what is cooking yet.
There should be a badge for that.
Haha I remember that. Good one!
There are people who are repulsed by beef and pork.
I’ve been told I was loopy for eating grilled razor clams (in Barcelona, no less)
Not squirrels. But I’ll never forget this meal . My best friends nonna , she spoke no English from northern Italy. Told us to go shoot sparrows with our bb guns . I think I was 11 . It turned me into a early food loving person. Stuffed with rosemary, garlic , and her magic touch . Cooked in the oven over polenta. I still rate this as the number one meal of my life over fifty years later.
When I first moved to rural VA, I lived in a very small, rustic cabin for two and a half years. No indoor plumbing, one electrical outlet, illegally scabbed of a well wire; it was like camping. Fresh out of college, it was to save money for property and a house. Squirrel and rabbit were regular fare. Food prejudices are everywhere; look at how many folks can’t imagine eating pork. Jellyfish anyone? 
In this region, squirrel is very popular, though no one I know eats the brains. I don’t eat any sort of brain or spinal tissues for precautions against prions.
Rabbit, squirrel, guinea pigs are regional foods. Unlike beef, chicken, pork, wild-caught seafood, these are very sustainable foods with little to no carbon footprint to produce them. Unlike opossum, groundhog and raccoon, there are no scent glands one needs to know about when dressing the critter; and if one cleans these, they’d better know what to look for!
Squirrel is not gamey and sort of like a mild beef. When served to others, after a warning, it’s best parboiled and taken off the bone and cooked much like any other meat. To the squeamish, there aren’t little legs and arms to recognize!
Fox Squirrels are larger and better tasting, in my opinion, than Grey Squirrels. This may be because Fox Squirrels live largely on walnuts before hunting season. I don’t hunt Fox Squirrels here, because they are scarce. Grey Squirrels, however, are pests, stripping fruit trees completely, getting into gardens and chewing holes in houses. It got so bad, the house had to be resided with concrete Hardiepanel, a cement fiber board!
When in Peru, I sought out Cuy (Guinea Pig) to try out in Cuzco. Unfortunately the local restaurants were out. Whatever those places served was delicious.
I paid good money (well our parents) to have an exotic meats grill at our wedding. Buffalo bites, rattle snake, alligator, scorpions and much more on a charcoal grill I just can’t remember all the items we had.
My personal favorite of our wedding was the Italian hot dog cart!!!
This is the cookbook I remember having squirrel and many other wild game recipes.
The reviews explain the allure of this gem of Americana.
I don’t have one anymore, lost to the sands of time.
Reminds me of the day I looked out the back door and counted 17 mourning doves on the utility wire. There for our bird feeder, they left when we stopped the free buffet at the request of our neighbor who worried about so many birds around the small children’s play area. But what a pie that might have been!
Fascinating. I’ve never heard of such a thing. In what part of the country is this a thing?
