During a section on the ITV morning show, hosts Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby presented a segment on cooking and eating squirrels.

Video transcript

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: It is a highly emotive subject, and-- and if you are a sort of vegetarian or vegan, then it is horrific to imagine--

- Well, you-- go on. Let's be honest. If you're a vegetarian or vegan, you've gone by now. Just watching us eat squirrel in this, you're already out.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: That's true. It's meant to be really good for you. It's lower fat content. Is a great source of protein. So it's meant to be really, really good. I mean--

- I bet it's great. I bet it's flavorful.

- You're gonna love it.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Well, you don't have to bet because you can try it.

- Well, I can't. I'm honestly--

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: Come on then Phil.

- Bring it on, Phil. Come on.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: So squirrel meat tends to have a lower fat content, as you say. It-- it can lower blood pressure.

- Thanks--

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Have you cooked squirrel before?

- Pardon?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Have you cooked squirrel before?

- Yeah, loads of times, loads of--

- Oh, those look a little--

- Now--

- --a little anemic, Phil.

- --what we've got here is a little buttermilk-fried--

- It looks amazing.

- Wow.

- --squirrel. And here we've gone-- well, we poached them and made it into risotto. So there's one for you.

- Thank you very much.

- Holly?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: No, thank you. Where did you get it from?

- Dorset.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: Thank you.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Dorset.

- Dorset gray squirrel, right?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: So can you buy squirrel online?

- Oh, yes. Yeah, you can. Tuck in.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: It's really rozzie. If anyone's watched "Friday Night Dinner," there's-- Danno goes, a lovely bit of squirrel about but any meat he eats, which is now in my head.

- But the point being is it's a wild, organic meat. Why shouldn't it be eaten?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: No, I hear you.

- --to venison. I don't--

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: I hear you. But my--

- Ready? Go on then.

- Oh, wow. It's chewy.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Chewy? Is it gamey?

- That's a slightly older one.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: I wouldn't-- I wouldn't know. If you gave me that, I wouldn't know what it was.

- No.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: I mean, it could be chicken.

- What's the closest thing?

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: It could be a little bit of pork.

- Chicken?

- It's more, I think, pork.

- Everything tastes like chicken.

- I think it's-- I think it's porky.

- So try that one.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: Do you want to swap?

- Yeah, swap. Swapsy.

- This is a younger one.

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: Do you know? It's so weird.

- Is passing under your nose a problem?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: It actually, I can already feel it like in my throat, where it makes me feel a bit gippy. But it's the idea.

- I know. And I'm also thinking, what did these poor gray squirrels do?

- Oh, I like that.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- Yeah, they hurt the red ones.

- That is lovely.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: Yes, they do hurt the red ones. We've just explained.

- What about Mcsquirrel?

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY: No.

PHILIP SCHOFIELD: I don't-- I don't have a problem with the taste or the texture or anything. We wouldn't know what it was.