Bear Grease - Ep. 258: This Country Life - 2024 World Championship Squirrel Cook Off (Bonus!)

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

We’re cooking up a mess of fun and squirrels at the World Championship Squirrel Cook Off in Springdale, AR. Join Brent as he and Reva Hansen talk with wild game chef’s and sample some of the vittles on This Country Life’s first bonus episode. Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. I'm coon hunting to trotlining and just general country living. I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Nives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts the Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. It's our first bonus episode of this country life.

And if you heard us on the Bear Greece Render talking about the World Championship Squirrel Cookoff, you may not have known that me and Riva Hansen were also walking around visiting with folks about the squirrels they were cooking and the methods they were using and were fixing to talk about it now. If you'd like to see what we're talking about, hop on over to the Meat Eater Podcast Network YouTube channel and watch along. Listen to you every week, buddy. Hey, man. It's Paul, right? Paul, yeah. Yeah. We are here with Paul, and they were the world champion squirrel cookoff of 2023.

And where are you all from? Northern Kentucky. He's from Litchfield, Kentucky. And Paul's from Columbia, Kentucky. All right, the whole... You spread out. Kentucky's represented well here. Tell me what you're fixing today.

We're making a... It's a Camberland Campfire Pie. It's made with a... Humberland sauce, been around since the 1700s, wild game sauce. It's got current jelly and stuff in it, really good sauce. I'm making cherry fritters with a prelined squirrel and hickory nuts on the top of it. And then little peppers on the side, just because. Man, that makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Now, is this different from what you cooked last year? Yeah, last year we went with a, it called it Squirrel Loretta. I did, yeah, I think you were one of the judges. It was on the steak Diane sauce, basically, on the squirrel eggs, yeah, with minced meat, fried pies. That is incredible. How'd you fill up with this and what's the process of trial and error to get it going to what you've got today? Well, this year's recipe, I was sitting in a deer stand, got bored, started looking up wild game sauces, and that's what I came up with, was that, and then I've been wanting to do the fritters. We did the mince meat last year, and just researching old game

recipes and stuff, something a little bit different. All right, this is something I'm asking everybody. Will you set us some aside that we can come back and try it a little bit? We sure will, yes, definitely. All right, that's proof right there. Yeah, we'll get you some. Actually, I've got a pot of ground hauled chili over there. Yeah. Trail baloney.

Really? Made from ground whistle pig chili. Oh, well, we got to try that too. What you got there? What try about it? We're testing the fritters. Fritters? Give it out the ground.

Is it hot? Yeah. I'm trying to get my almond right there. Tell me what I was in there. Just flour, sugar, and then Michigan sour cherries, a little almond to jazz it up a little bit. My grandpa, when he took a bite of something, you know he liked it if he said, you know what this tastes like? It tastes like more.

That's good. We'll get you in full deal with everything. Oh, that's good, man. Thank you. Thank you very much, Brent. I was at a flea market. I thought you said I read the first story in that. I don't know you know this guy is.

About country boys, the old swimming holes. A poem in the law that like you to have it. Yeah, and that is... Yeah, every time when I read it, I said, I got to get this to rent some. That is so thoughtful of you. Yeah. Of course, you know, you can't believe anything that's that.

I don't believe nothing anybody in Kentucky. We got two Marines with me today, too, so... Hey, Murphy. What is happening? We're trying to get her squirrel stuff ready. I don't... This fellow needs no introduction. He is an absolute whirlwind of small game.

Killery. Name it. He hunts it. Squirrels, rabbits, whatever. What are y'all cooking today, Kevin? We are cooking. We've got rabbit gumbo for the crowd to have, and we have dirty rice, squirrel vignets, pepper jelly, mayo, and we have squirrel gumbo. Is that right, Jeff, for the judges? Oh, very nice. Now, whose recipes is? Mr. Chef, Jeff. Chef Jeff. Now, are they from Kentucky, too? He's from all over. He's obviously wanted by the law somewhere,

so we're not going to narrow down where he's from. Both of these boys are from all over. I'm not going to tell you where they're from. But we know where they're at, and that's the World Championship Squirrel Cookoff. Now, did they compete last year? Chef Jeff was the one-man show last year, and so we brought some kitchen help. I'm just an ornament.

I got you. Well, one thing I noticed right off when I seen Kevin over here is that today he's wearing shoes. How long is that going to last? Well, till it lasts. That's awesome, man. We'll save us some gumbo. We want to try some.

Okay, come back. All right. You stopped in. All right, brother. Thank you. What's the name of y'all's team? Grandfair grillers. What's your name?

Nick. Nick? Matt. Nick and Matt. Where are you all from? Central Arkansas. Okay. All right, Arkansas.

The Grand Prairie. The Grand Prairie. All right. We're talking about squirrels now, but it won't be long, y'all will be thinking about ducks, right? A little bit, a little bit. We'll get your deer first. Yeah.

All right. We're equal opportunity. Equal opportunity. That's right. If it's in the woods, we'll try to eat. That's right. Tell me, is this y'all's first competition? We came here last year for the first time.

You got ninth, I think. Nath. Yeah. Nine place, that's pretty sporty. Tell me what you cook. Today, we got like a deep-fried squirrel burrito. and uh Cropi Coveece is the side. Homemade squirrel chips on the side.

Yeah, squirrel tilly chips. Yeah, sportillips. Is this your first competition or the second competition? Yes, sir. We did it last year. Right. Yeah. Sproppy.

Crippy Coveecee. It's been frozen. It's been frozen. Parasides are gone. We're good to go. All right, I love it. Let's get over and see what y'all are doing, not here. All right.

Yeah. In the wild game, since the pot takes no prisoners, so. You can make anything. You can cook a tini shoe in here. It's good stuff. So we're just browning these a little bit in the instapot. And then we're going to pressure cook them and debone all the meat.

And then we'll make our taco burrito mix from that. Man, that is absolutely. I wish you could smell. If you could smell what that smells like right now, you'd be crawling through the camera. All ingredients we prepare. We'll just flash for out of those burritos real quick. They won't be in there. They're not going to be drenched and old.

They're just a just a quick flash. Yep. So we're just browning these a little bit. some onions and some seasoning oil and then we'll put the instant pot with some broth in there and deep on it make burritos but did y'all come up with this this year or is this an old recipe we did uh yeah we did a similar recipe last year but we've uh we've improved upon it since we cut these for our kids yeah that's how we got we do everything deer tacos squirrel rabbit whatever now is this a secret recipe oh man we'll share this with anybody

All right. Tell me how you cook. We just, we used some of Malcolm's SBG, the killer hogs on here, little oil, little onions. You can't mess up starting that way. And we just, we're going to cook her down and pressure cook it and debone it. Then we'll add a little more season than after that. All right, I'm looking forward to it. Ring the dinner bell loud, but I want to come back again.

By you can see Sabiche in a minute, son. It's okay. We're making our chips perth. We're making our chips first. Yeah, we're going to make a loop. We'll be right, but I'm on back. Thank you. That's going to be good.

Now, if I remember right, you hear me, yeah. You guys were part of the team to work the World Championship last year. Is that right? Yes, sir. I was with these guys behind me last year. We decided we break it up this year. Try to get first and second the state of Kentucky.

Somebody I talked to sent me the recipe. Is that you? No, I wasn't here last year. This is my first time. He invited me out this year, so. All right, where are y'all from? I'm in Kentucky. Northern Kentucky.

Yeah, sir. Tell me about these squirrels here. Well, most of them were killed by my son. Some of them were killed by my son, my thing, his son, little eddy squirrel, Miller Simmons. He busts quite a few love for us. It's a recipe, a new recipe, or something old that y'all had forever? No, so we're gonna do it just like you'd have it if you come to my house.

You can fry up some squirrels and some agitated squirrel gravy. Traditional, I like it. like. Is that the way you eat them? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Nice job. Tell me about the recipe that y'all been using that you've been using at home.

Is this from grandpa how you learned to do it when you're young or what's your history that's eating squirrels with cooking? Yeah, this is pretty much how we've always done it. Fry them up and have it for gravy. Let's tell me what's your process of getting them prepared and then fry it? Well, for right now we're trying to try them. Pick through, find the best little pieces of leg and everything like that for the judges. Try to get all the hair and shot off every can.

And I'm going to season them up. And then we'll put some buttermilk on them, let them soak for a little while. Let them drain out, grudge them in some season flour, do it in the old electric skill. Just like mom used to. Ah, I got it. We all save us some. Yes, sir. Put me some back.

We'll be back to Eden. Does that sound good? Absolutely. We sure will. All right. Thank you. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts.

Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut.

I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Hey, we are here with the squirrels.

mafia is that right yeah buck snort squirrel mawaffe what are you cooking today Curtis I guess we can tell it it's too late now we're cooking a squirrel gumbo and then we're also going to do squirrel budan balls from on where are you boys from in northwest Arkansas we're from Rogers Fayetteville area yeah so you got this is you got the home field advantage got local squirrels taste right to everybody tell me what this guy's doing back you're right He's prepping some of the, you know, we get 80% squirrel. You can have 20% something else, and that ought to be sausage, so.

If it's gumbo, it's got to be. Can we come around there kind of see what's going on? Yeah. Can you see inside the pot? Walk me through the process. This is going to come out after this is over. It's not a secret in this. No, it's not a secret.

It's a regular gumbo. We're going to start with a butter and make a roo, and then we've got all fresh vegetables, you know, all the Trinity, everything that goes in. Yep. And, and, and, and, uh, and then we've got squirrel. We're going to pressure cook in and, uh, and then prep and then add to once we get the rue established and get our vegetables done. So is this a recipe that y'all came up for this or is this what you've been cooking forever?

It's just, it's just what you cook. Yeah, when you make gumbo. It's not really a recipe. Cook it in the past, so. And it's a, and gumbo, I always tell people, they say, What you put in the gumbo? And I say whatever I got, my icebox. Yeah, whatever's left over, yeah, it's whatever we got.

We'll throw, we're serving, we're making a big batch for the crowd, too. So it's going to have squirrel, chicken, sausage, you know, whole deal. All right, I'm going to ask you the same thing we've been asking everybody else. Y'all put us something back so we can come back and have a sample. Yeah, you bet. Yeah. You heard it here, folks. I say for that homemade Rimmelod that I make, too, so.

Homemade Rimbalad. Yeah. How long you been making that? I don't know, 30 years. You all have the kinks worked out of about now. I got the kinks worked out. All right, good deal. Squirrel, mucket.

Bucke, snort, squirrel mothia. I like it. Then you come squirrel camp this year with Joe Wilson. Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, squirrel camp. Cut that part out, but we don't want nobody else safe. Curtis, y'all been doing this a while, right? Yes, yes.

I think we started cooking in this after we met Joe Wilson, maybe the third or fourth year that he'd been having this competition. And we've cooked in it every year since then. So y'all been interested in the whole lie started about the World Championship stroke? I knew about the lie. I was not in the first one when we lied on national television. But I jumped in after that because I like the lie. That's awesome, man.

I can't wait to try. We're making a lie come true. We had to make Joe Wilson legitimate again, you know. That's good. We'll be back. That's good. That's going to get real dark before he gets right. Oh, why do it?

Yeah, this is going to take about 30 minutes to get this right. Have me what I'm eating here, man. All right, that's a squirrel gumbo, you know, rabbit gumbo for, you know, for everybody to try. Dirty rice with Mertzy Wevers. A little bit of homemade hot sauce Some scallions sliced up nice That way they curl and get a little extra pop Holy cow

This is good Good, why'd you like it? I've been on a caveman diet For about four weeks Yeah I'm gonna leave here like I've been on a fat man dying That you should This is good

Yeah This is really good All right Thank you so much Yes sir Yes sir Thank you buddy Yeah

Carly Sir. Tell me about what this is here. I know it's left over and there's not a whole lot left, but this is so good. Tell me what it is. So I have candy bacon that I made with my smoked sugar. Okay. Maple turbinato smoked raw sugar. And then spicy squirrel and chocolate chips in the cookie. Spicy squirrel and chocolate chips in the cookie. Yes, sir. You've got to have some bacon. Oh yeah, you always got to have bacon You gotta have bacon If I could get that lid, I'm smoking

That is absolutely Off the chance So I make the smoke sugar By hand What's the process of that? I cold smoke it for 24 hours Okay You keep talking

I'm gonna keep eating You can keep eating I have seven flavors of salt Cherrywood, Hickory, Applewood Mesquite, pecan oak and whiskey barrel. I have a maple turbanano smoked raw sugar. Yeah. I have bourbon barrels smoked horse ground pepper, which I actually used on the bacon, and a trio, which is a fine salt pepper and garlic blend. Awesome. This is awesome. And what's your process? How long does it take

you to cook this bacon? I guess you're slow cooking it over? I put it on the grill. Okay. What time? Whatever. 500 degrees. I can't tell you. I have no idea. I just cooked on the grill. Everything was cooked on the grill. This is absolutely wonderful. I appreciate y'all being here. Absolutely. What, you came in, 24th? And it's the absolute best position to be in, because you get a truckload of goodies. Joe Wilson and them, this is the absolutely greatest thing ever. We appreciate y'all. This was so much fun. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for bringing these samples. No, please, yes. Bailey, you're ready for some bacon? Yeah, Joe wasn't here. I'm sorry about Joe? Joe. Joe wasn't here when we were. Joe, I'm sorry about Joe? Joe.

Joe wasn't here when the bacon was here, so Joe's, Joe's in him and Clay don't get over here. It looked like a shark feeding frenzy over here. Yeah. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping day. And there was a full of blood.

Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is skin. scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods.

Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

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