This is the first time I cleaned a skull without an expert at my side. I have only two other fresh skulls in my collection; the rest I found while hiking.
I wasn’t willing to bury this red squirrel skull and wait for the dung beetles. I knew that by boiling the skull, I would risk losing the teeth, so I tried an experiment, after consulting my experts and reading as much as I could on the subjects of cleaning skulls and cooking meat.
I typically carry meat tenderizer in my pocket survival kit. It works great to ease itchy insect bites. I’m going to add Beano to this kit, not only for those Blazing Saddles moments, but because it’s an enzyme and easier to carry than laundry detergent with enzymes.
Materials Used
- 4-cup saucepan
- Large spoon or ladle
- 1/2 tsp meat tenderizer
- Tweezers (I used the one on my Swiss Army knife)
- Small knife blade (I used the one on my Swiss Army knife)
- Q-tips
- Paper towels
Procedure
- Fill saucepan with 2-3 cups of tepid or cool water.
- Immerse frozen uncleaned skull in water and cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.
- Add meat tenderizer and continue cooking for another 15 minutes or when you see brains begin to emerge.
- Test skull by removing from water, making a slice in cheek meat, and probing brain cavity. I was looking for meat cooked medium-well to well-done and for brains to be easy to stir.
- Continue cooking for another 15 minutes, then remove saucepan from heat.
- Let cool, then remove skull with fingers and begin to massage meat from bones.
- Use tweezers to remove brains and to pull material from cavities, including eyes and tongue.
- Drain water from saucepan, but save solids to check for bones or teeth.
- Rinse saucepan and add 5 drops of Beano to 2 cups of water.
- Rinse skull in cool water and add to saucepan, making sure skull is immersed.
- Let skull soak for 30-40 minutes, then remove from the water.
- Use fingers and tweezers to remove all matter from the bones.
- Use moistened Q-Tips to clean brain cavity and surface of the skull.
I was tempted to name this red squirrel Einstein. I thought the brains would cook enough for me to grab a spongy chunk and remove it. I alternately poked, shook and rinsed all through the process.
I knew I was in the home stretch when I could finally remove the nose. That bit of cartilage was really tough. My tweezers were a perfect tool. I used the knife blade sparingly to gently scrape at tough tissue.
These photos illustrate my progress:
Frozen skull:
Partially cleaned skull:
Continued progress and tools:
Final product:
By beano what do you mean exactly? I just found a squirrel head today. Any tips would be great. I love skulls and bones
Kirsty, thank you for visiting my site and taking the time to comment.
BEANO is the brand name of a natural food enzyme designed to keep people from suffering flatulence when eating certain kinds of food. I’m not sure where you live, but often BEANO is sold in supermarkets and drug stores.
As for the skull, if no part of it is broken, you can follow the directions above.
Well my skull prep is going pretty well. Very smelly process lol. Skinning it was hard based on the few tools I had to work with but I have it in a jar and beetles are helping themselves to what all I couldn’t get off of it
I am excited. Squirrels have such cute back teeth
I’m glad you’re embracing this really neat process. Brain tanning is also a really smelly process, which is why it’s nice to have a ventilated area to work in.
I do like having the opportunity to study a skull that is complete and intact.
Enjoy your endeavors.
Dear friend
I have 100 uncleaned skull from dormous, I can not boil them at all. Do you know any other method for fast meat removing? Can you please send your idea to my email: ghnadery@yahoo.com
Gholamreza, thank you for taking the time to visit my website and comment.
I do not know where you are located, but where I live in New York’s Hudson Valley, we often bury the skulls under the leaves and let dung beetles clean them. Some taxidermists keep dung beetles in cages filled with forest floor litter.
You could try soaking the skulls in cool water if they are dried and brittle before putting them under the leaves.
I’m not sure what condition your skulls are in, but this taxidermy site had some interesting suggestions:
http://www.hidetanning.net/SkullCleaning.html
If you try any of these methods, please let me know what happens with your skulls.
Good luck.