5 Reasons To Eat More Game

[PsalmSinger]

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/20...wild-game.html


5 reasons to eat more wild game



There's a whole slew of reasons why wild game is a great option for meat lovers. (iStock)


When I first started dating my husband, an avid hunter, I was overwhelmed by the idea of cooking with wild game. Thankfully, my mother-in-law was there to teach me the ropes.

It’s not always as simple as taking the meat out of the freezer and cooking it. There’s a lot to learn about the preparation of these lesser-used meats - both how to store them and how to cook them - but, like you, I was a beginner once. Now I can tell you the tricks I’ve learned and some of the benefits I’ve discovered.

1. You can’t get more natural than wild game

It’s rather amazing how nutritious (and delicious!) food can be without the intervention of humans. Wild game, whether it be venison, duck, pheasant or elk, is free of hormones and additives. You can rest easy knowing that what you’re feeding your family is 100 percent natural and organic.
More from Taste of Home:

2. The meat is leaner


Working with lean meats can be more difficult, so it’s important to be attentive in the kitchen. (iStock)


It’s no surprise that meat from wild game is leaner than farm-raised meat. In the wild, animals are constantly on the move, meaning they have more muscle and less fat than their domestic cousins. Working with lean meats can be more difficult (overcooking venison, for example, can lead to tough meat), so it’s important to be attentive in the kitchen.

Test Kitchen tip: Because wild game, like venison or elk, is so lean, mix it with some high-quality pork fat when making burgers or meatballs to help bind it together. Thankfully, because you do this yourself, you can control how much (or how little) goes into it. We recommend an 80/20 blend.

3. You can’t beat the price

Like everything else, the price of store-bought meat climbs higher and higher as time goes on, and, as every meat eater knows, the higher the quality you buy, the more money you’re going to pay. The beautiful thing about wild game is that most families can survive off one deer throughout the winter. An average blacktail deer weighing 120 pounds will yield about 55 pounds of meat. Next time you’re grocery shopping, check the price per pound of organic meat and do the math. Even after the costs of a hunting license and a tag, you’re still saving a significant amount of money!

4. You get to carry on a family tradition


There is something very special about going back to one’s roots and obtaining food the way our ancestors did so long ago. (iStock)


Foraging and hunting for one’s own food goes back to, well, the beginning of time. Before the everyday grocery store started carrying meat, you had to either go to a local butcher or procure your own protein by raising it or hunting it. Even with the fanciest of gadgets, hunting is not easy.

Some hunters will spend weeks scouting and tracking, and more often than not they wake up at the crack of dawn and endure all kinds of weather conditions to ensure a successful hunt. From generation to generation, hunters have passed down knowledge learned from their forebears to their children. There is something very special about going back to one’s roots and obtaining food the way our ancestors did so long ago.

5. Prep it right, and it’s delicious

People often tell me they’re not into wild game for the two reasons below. Here’s how I convince them otherwise.

“I don’t like the gamy taste.”

This is by far what I hear most often either from people who have never tried wild game or who have had a bad experience with it.

Many people think a gamy taste goes with wild game, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. When the meat is tended to properly, it should taste divine.

Here are some tips to help you prep the meat properly.

After hunting large game, the game must have time to cool. The deer or elk should be hung for a minimum of 24 hours, but ideally for four to seven days (depending on the temperature).

Ninety percent of the time, a gamy taste results from poor cleaning practices. When processing the meat, one should make sure the meat is clean and separate from the rest of the animal.

Many people feel that birds such as duck, goose and pheasant have a distinct gamy taste. Generations-old advice says to simply soak the breasts overnight in either saltwater or milk to remove that taste.

“It’s dry and bland.”

This one particularly hurts my heart. Wild game has such a uniquely bold taste; it should never taste dry or bland. Steaks or breasts of fowl should be cooked to no more than medium for true appreciation of the flavor. As for blandness, many people I might call purists will cook the meat with a little salt and pepper and that’s enough for them. However, if you have a love for spices and creating new flavors, do not hesitate to season the meat. Sage goes wonderfully with venison, and thyme and rosemary go well with duck. There are countless recipes to try, like this venison parmigiana. One (or more) will surely tickle your fancy!

Now that I’ve pleaded my case, I hope you’ll throw caution to the wind and give wild game a chance. Your taste buds, health and wallet will thank you for it!
This article originally appeared in Taste of Home.

[Davy Crockett]

Here, the deer eat GMO corn

[Sherree]

Cary is a shareholder in a large game preserve here in our area Mississippi. He helps to plant green fields on the property each year for all the game animals. Turnips, clover, rye grass, radishes, parsnips, peas, etc. Whitetail deer, turkey, wild hogs, squirrels, ducks, fish, and rabbits are all there for the taking. Have to watch out for those gators and rattlesnakes, though.

I often wonder, in the event of a SHTF situation, how quickly would all the game disappear. Right now, it is plentiful.

ps. I forgot to mention that each year, all the hunters get together and have hog roasts over a pit and deer stew suppers.

[CaryC]

A few thoughts on the topic:

The writer was dealing in generics, but to be a bit more specific. A big buck here in MS goes about 200 lbs, a big doe, 140 lbs. Up north a big buck goes about 300 lbs.

One deer is NOT enough meat to feed a whole family, even when there is only two. Maybe for a winter, but you need meet all year.

Yes, the meat is leaner, and we take our meat to a processor. Unless you have done it yourself, you don't know just how much trouble it is. And they are usually behind by a week or two, so your deer hangs for a week, and they do put bacon in the ground venison, and sausage. Quite tasty.

Deer are not easy to harvest. So in a Shumer event city slickers are NOT going to be going to the woods and slaughtering deer herds. My son and I, have been hunting deer for years, and we are pretty good at it. Nothing special, but we do all right. Yes, we plant green fields, yes we have shooting houses in places we think we will see deer, yes we get up before daylight, a lot and go hunting. We both got blanked this year. I took one shot at 320 yards, and missed. My son didn't even shoot at a deer.

In olden days wild game was a supplement to killing the hog in the fall.

As for cooking and eating.....well I leave that to Sherree. It would be real ugly if I tried doing that.

Many of my friends cook wild game, and love it. Since most do not hunt, they ask my son, and I to provide. We let them down this year.

We harvest the deer, take it to the processor. They go by, and pick it up, and pay for it, runs about 60 bucks, no matter how big. So, at about 55 lbs to start as a minimum, for 60.00 about 1.00 a lb for steaks, ground, sausage, good price.

[Davy Crockett]

CaryC, now you went down in my view.


If you shoot it, you gotta gut it, skin it and cut it up.
Same with your hogs, beef or chickens.

It is some work but you control the whole process and know what you got.
It's never left your sight.

I'm a little rusty and slowed down a little in my dotage.
Used to skin them in about 15 minutes.
Takes me longer now.

[CaryC]

CaryC, now you went down in my view.


If you shoot it, you gotta gut it, skin it and cut it up.
Same with your hogs, beef or chickens.

It is some work but you control the whole process and know what you got.
It's never left your sight.

I'm a little rusty and slowed down a little in my dotage.
Used to skin them in about 15 minutes.
Takes me longer now.

Dang Davey, hurt my feelings bad. LOL

So maybe a little explanation will put me back in the ball park.

80-90% of the deer we harvest is at dusk. 5-5:30 PM By the time we make sure it is down, it is totally dark. Go to it, and check it out again. Then, since we are off the beaten trail, we hike out, and go get the 4 wheeler, to haul it out. Load the deer up in the truck, and the 4 wheeler. Time 6:30-7:00.

Drive to the cleaning shed for a verification that it is legal, and do a weight in. So most of the time it is nearly 8:00 PM before we can even start.

The skinning and gutting isn't a big deal, and can be done in 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how many hunters come by, and NOT help, but want to hear the story on how, when, and where we got it. It's not that we can't multi-task, but we're using our knives as pointers, and guns to demonstrate.

We were down in the bottom (pointing with the knife to show were-not), and I was in the tree stand, and this here Buck, (pointing at the half skinned buck) came out of the woods, (pointing with the knife in the direction).....well you get the picture.

So we get done skinning and gutting about 9:00 PM, and then the really hard, time consuming part starts, butchering. Once we get home 'bout 9:30-10:00 at night. The butchering takes about 2-4 depending on how many people help.

Since we don't have a freezer big enough to hold a full deer, we have to start on it right away. Am just not going to let a deer hang in the open for a week, what with flies, etc. wanting a part of it.

So it is much easier, less time consuming, to take it to the processor. A guy we know, and at least in the past, have done a world of business with.

He has all of his equipment set up, in a clean environment, with tons of bacon (we would have to make a run to town to load up on bacon, spices, and freezer paper, which would add another hour to our start time), and paper ready to go. Whereas we would have to get all of our stuff out, and set up, outside partly, and partly inside, because the kitchen wouldn't hold it all.

And then call people to come, and get it, that night because our freezer is full. @ 1:00 AM.

And because it is so much easier to do it at night that way, the 10-20% we take in the mornings, we take them to this guy also.

So how about it? Bro hug?

[Sherree]

I absolutely love smoked pheasant, and our oldest son likes elk roasts and steaks. None of those around in our parts, so we have to order them. Good eats! We've tried buffalo, but it has too strong of a taste for us.

Yeah, Davy, the guy who does all of our deer and hog processing is a personal friend who has this processing business on the side. He always does a great job. He helps us out by processing for us, and we help him out by paying him for doing it. It's a win win situation for everyone.

LOL, now I'm craving fried filleted catfish with all the fixins!

[Davy Crockett]

Excuses, CaryC.
Harumph!
LOL.

It might be a little cooler here when we get deer, so we can let it hang overnight up to a day before we quarter it.

[Snyper]

Since we don't have a freezer big enough to hold a full deer, we have to start on it right away. Am just not going to let a deer hang in the open for a week, what with flies, etc. wanting a part of it.

You can age them in a cooler for several days or even up to a week.

I use large blocks of ice in the bottom, and put the quarters in trash bags after salting them lightly. Set the bags on top of the ice and then pour more ice over the top.

Leave the drain open so the meat is never in contact with any water.

My 102 QT Igloo cooler will hold two small deer or one large one and enough ice to last several days without adding more.

[CaryC]

Excuses, CaryC.
Harumph!
LOL.

It might be a little cooler here when we get deer, so we can let it hang overnight up to a day before we quarter it.

Was that a bro hug? I think it was!

Yeah, if the Lord blesses y'all with that white deer tracking powder on the ground in the winter, your place is colder.

Last year we only burned 3/4 of a cord of wood, so it was unusually warm. Threw the rut off. My son did kill a nice 8 point on the last day. I winged a buck that made me pee my pants, but not good enough to bring him down. He moved, just as I pulled the trigger. He left a small blood trail, which we tracked for about an hour. By the time we got back to the Jeep, we were down to our t-shirts, and wearing the rest around our waist.

This year it has been rather cold, and still is a bit cool. But it was sort of up and down. I ran into that same buck twice this year. When I was up trying to thaw my feet out.

In any event I'm not going to let a whole deer hang outside cold or hot. Go out there the next morning and it wouldn't be nothing but a skeleton. So Snyper's idea is a good one. But taking it to my buddy to process is easier. But hey in a shumer event, when plinking deer with a .22 it will be the way to go. When we drive up to his cooler he wants to know if we want it fixed the same way as the last one, and we'll say yeah, or no, fix it this way........

That doesn't mean we don't know how, or don't have the equipment.

Anyway this thread is about cooking and eating.

My friend soaks his steaks in Dale's seasoning, and I think he wraps bacon around it, then grills it, on med heat. I say steaks, what I mean is he cuts, or has cut, the back strap to the same general thickness as bacon is wide.

Give it a try.