Sous vide that rascal then fry it. Or pressure cook it first. Usually only fried young ones, the older ones always ended up in dumplins.

sear them real good. Add a little water, salt, pepper and flour then let them simmer in a dutch oven for a couple hours.

CB327, Buttermilk and or regular whole milk are "acids" on the PH scale. soaking them in either will take the gamey taste out AND will tenderize the meat. I would soak them for about 8 hours.

I wasn't brought up in the great depression, but in the 60's it probably wasn't much difference where I grew up. My dad would take us squirrel hunting on weekends, my 2 brothers and myself. We'd get a bunch of squirrels and this is how we fixed them.
Clean squirrels put in a boiler w/water, and boil till meat fell off the bones. Sometimes if we had alot of older tougher squirrels, we'd use the pressure cooker (to soften 'em up) till the meat came off the bones.
Then take the (boneless) meat and put it in a cast-iron skillet on low heat. Pour in some BBQ sauce, add a little salt/pepper if you like.
Saute the meat in BBQ sauce until meat browns and BBQ has thickened. Put it on bread for a BBQ sandwich, enjoy.
Back in those days, there weren't too many BBQ sauces to get, and we only bought the cheap stuff bc we were poor. But it still tasted great.
So you can use whatever sauce you prefer. Nowadays, I like John Boy and Billy BBQ sauce. Yes, I still prepare it the same way my dad did 50+ yrs ago,
We also, after sauteing the meat, we'd make patty's big enough to fit on a piece of bread (but never too much as to hang over the bread), then layered/stacked the patties on wax paper. Paper wrapped and placed in the freezer. When we'd go hunting during the winter, we'd take only what we were going to eat for lunch. The meat was placed separately on the dashboard in the car, in direct sunlight. When we came back around noon, the meat would be warmed up. Then put on a piece of bread, and lunch was great. Dang, Life was Great.
Hope some of you like this, it's nothing great, but just a different way to prepare squirrel.

Crock pot! Any kind of meat can be made tender and delicious in the crock pot. I only use the crock pot for all my wild vittles, except fish or frogs legs which are fried.

For squirrels, just remove the quarters from the carcass, then separate the ribs from the backbone with meat scissors, so everything can lie flat in the bottom of the crock pot covered with fluid.

I cook my squirrels on high for 4 hours. They don't have to go super slow. That will get them tender enough to pick and slide the little bones right out of the meat.

Best and easiest recipe: cover ingarlic powder and onion powder, add salt and pepper to taste, toss a stick of butter or two on top and turn it on high. Stir once or twice!

Pick the bones out and chop the meat, add it to anything you like! Great for any kind of dip that calls for chicken. I like mine in tacos, or in buffalo "chicken" dip hehe. Also great stuffed in jalapenos wrapped in bacon!

Simple and easy!