Steven Rinella grew up hunting and eating squirrel in rural Twin Lake, Mich.
So when he moved to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, six years ago, and squirrels began showing up by the dozen to steal the ripening tomatoes from his apartment’s 800-square-foot garden, he figured he’d make a meal out of them, too.
“Sometimes, I get such a craving for squirrel meat that I’ll go to extremes to get it,” writes Rinella, 38, in his new hunting memoir, “Meat Eater,” out Sept. 4.
That includes rigging up snap-type rat traps to capture the small game, skinning them over his kitchen sink, cooking them with a “Jamie Oliver-inspired” recipe and serving the resulting dish — lemon-thyme squirrel — to his wife, Katie.
“The method is of very questionable legality,” he admits in the book.
Hunting squirrel by trap is technically illegal in New York state (and the state-approved methods of capture — by hunting bow or firearm — are banned in New York City) — but, since they are nuisance animals, according to the state’s Environmental Conservation Law, they may be killed at any time in any manner by the owners or occupants if they are injuring property.
The meal of choice is also of questionable taste — but not for Rinella.
“Squirrel was a thing people ate where I lived. It was part of the culinary lexicon,” says the suntanned and athletic hunter as he drinks coffee in the spacious kitchen of his new Brooklyn Heights apartment.
He’s no off-the-grid kook — even if skulls and antlers do adorn the walls of his living room.
His powerful fashionista wife — who heads p.r. at Amazon and is five months pregnant — is even known to partake in his meals.
“I was reticent,” says Katie, 33, of her first squirrel-eating experience. “But it was a gradual build [to acceptance].”
Squirrel, she says, “tastes like chicken,” with a shrug.
According to Rinella, it’s also perfectly safe to eat — as long as you cook it properly and follow basic kitchen sanitation rules (e.g., washing your hands). And its diet — fruit, nuts and seeds — is a lot more healthful than most New Yorkers’.
Rather, the real issue is perception.
“We associate some animals with our own filth,” says Rinella. “We’re disgusted by something we think lives off our refuse. Think of watching a pigeon eat the muffin you just dropped at an outdoor cafe.”
But a pigeon is just an adult squab, he points out.
The city is teeming with animals that can be eaten, according to Rinella, including unprotected species like English sparrows, starlings and — yes — pigeons that can be taken at any time without limit (though, as with squirrels, there’s a gray area in terms of legal methods for capturing them).
In-season, you can legally hook fish and net, hand-capture or trap diamondback terrapins (we have them here in Jamaica Bay and the Hudson River).
Or you can bring your guns and bows to city-owned water supply lands outside city limits such as those in New Croton and Turkey Mountain in Westchester.
“Hunters [and fishermen] are among the best conservationists out there,” he says, noting that self-imposed excise taxes on equipment, about $250 million annually, goes to preservation.
Still, you have to do your research properly before setting out.
“If someone wanted to experience some type of hunting lifestyle [here in NYC], they first have to make a study of the laws and decide what they’re comfortable with. Some [laws] are open to some degree of interpretation,” explains Rinella.
As part of his job as the host of the Sportsman Channel’s show “MeatEater,” Rinella spends his time traveling to the world’s premier hunting locations. (He just got back from three weeks in Alaska, where he hunted for dall sheep, black bear and caribou.)
And he’s got a 27-cubic-foot freezer full of big game to prove it.
“When I get back from a hunting trip, I’ll often walk outside and catch myself wondering what the neighbors would think about what I’ve been doing. I can’t help but imagine some level of disapproval or at least utter bafflement. New Yorkers are extremely varied, of course, but we are generally sharing an urban and civilized experience.”
Even his wife can be squeamish.
“The whole skinning — I don’t need to see that,” she says, adding she’s mainly a takeout eater of the non-squirrel and non-pigeon variety.
Still, Rinella does all the cooking when he’s home, whipping up dishes such as smoked black bear ham and cottontail rabbit hasenpfeffer.
And he says his lifestyle isn’t as absurd for New Yorkers as it might initially seem.
“Urbanites tend to view eating as an event, a form of entertainment,” he says. “They want things that are new, refreshing, mind-bending. It’s not a huge stretch for them to take their food interests in a new direction with wild game.”
But he understands his neighbors have their limits. Even he struggles with culinary taboos.
When he was given the opportunity to eat dog in Vietnam while doing a story for Outside magazine on the subject, “I began to sweat just thinking about it,” he says. “We come to eating with baggage.”
HOW TO EAT SQUIRREL
Though squirrels in other regions have been known to carry fibromatosis (the South) and babesiosis (California), no such cases have been found locally, according to the NYC Bureau of Communicable Disease.
Rinella recommends cooking squirrel until it’s well-done, so that the meat tenderizes and is safe to eat. The longer you can cook it without drying it out, the better.
Steven Rinella’s recipe for Lemon-Thyme Squirrel
1. First, cut through the hide around the animal’s waist, going all the way around like a belt. Peel each half of the hide off the squirrel, like removing pants and a shirt. Once it is skinned, remove the squirrel’s entrails by making a gutting incision that starts at the pelvis and ends at the sternum. Snip the squirrel up the spine with kitchen shears, then cut into quarters by severing each half between the flank and the rib cage.
2. With a fork, pierce each quarter about a dozen times.
3. With a mortar and pestle, mash coarse salt, fresh thyme and garlic into a pulp. Add olive oil and lemon juice to taste.
4. Marinate the meat for at least three hours, but not more than 12.
5. Heat open grill to a medium-low heat. Grill squirrel until done, about 20 minutes, flipping pieces often.
HOW TO BAG A SQUIRREL
Cornell University’s Northeast Wildlife Damage Management Cooperative suggests snap-back rat traps, box traps or cage traps, and says effective bait includes apple slices, unshelled walnuts, peanut butter, corn and sunflower seeds. When using box or cage traps, tie the trap doors open for two to three days, to allow squirrels to become accustomed to feeding there. Then set the traps and check them twice a day.