Hello! Thanks you to everyone who attended my seminars. Sorry for the delay on posting recipes, a man needs to sleep! Below are the recipe links that I demonstrated on Saturday at the Idaho Sportsman Expo. Please check back soon for the recipes that I am showing on Sunday.
Thanks again and see you all next year.
I was lucky to have even been in this cold, snow covered goose blind, or so I kept telling myself. My right boot had a hole in it and I was freezing my toes off. But I had accepted the late night phone call inviting me. Apparently the “normal” guy was out of town and the three man blind had an opening. I had been on the short list for this blind for several years, but had never managed to get in.
The morning started with setting out the decoys and fixing the blind. Our spread is good, about 100 decoys total. All of them facing into the wind and we even have an empty section of the spread for the “kill zone”. I was instructed not to “look up” at the geese as the captain was calling them in. I had always watched my game before, this was weird, I had to simply trust that that goose could be shot when I was told. The suspense was unbelievable.
But this last flock of geese over my head where smart. They can see something about our decoy set up and don’t like it. Maybe they know that we have the bodies of there dead brethren hidden under the hard plastic decoys. Maybe it is the slight skiff of snow that has formed; snow doesn’t stick to the back of real geese. Maybe it is all the human sized foot prints in the snow. They start to circle around but are not committing to the landing. I am having a hard time not looking right at the geese, revealing my face and blowing the cover. I can hear the wing flaps and the honking but force myself to look at my boots. Oddly, I am not cold anymore.
One goose finally locks up to come in for a landing causing a chain reaction among them all. When the honkers reach about 30 yards out I hear “blast-em” from my left side. I jump up and shoot the goose that is farthest to the right, keeping in my shooting lane in mind.
Two geese fall on that volley and it is time to pack up. Its only 10am. We shot a total of ten geese between the three of us. My father in law has limited out having shot four birds and I am going home with three for myself. It was a good morning. I got back in time to watch SpongeBob with the boys and even cook a little breakfast.
Speaking of breakfast, wild game tends to be overlooked for this meal period. It is a shame since most game meat packs more protein per ounce than the commonly consumed pig. Getting a good dose of protein in the morning is a great way to keep focused and healthy. With that I mind one of my favorite breakfasts is a corned beef hash. Cured beef simmered in spices, salt and sugar and served with roasted potatoes. Two eggs on top and nothin’ is better. Filling and a large amount of protein.
However it was only in the past year that I was given a recipe for corning wild game. Remarkably it was very similar to my beef recipe. Well, duh. Anyway, I started with a venison roast and moved onto smaller cuts. Eventually I landed on goose meat. It was a perfect fit.
But for a lot of hunters goose is a tuff nut to crack. Like duck it often ends up in the smoker as jerky. I know why, it has a very gamey taste. I like the taste but understand how it can a little over the top for some palates. An easy way to cure the gamey-ness from goose is to “corn” it. Basically the brine cures the meat and changes the flavor and texture to that of the brine. Not a bad idea for those who don’t want to waste the birds they shot.
To corn the goose I use the McCormick’s pickling spice mix. While purist might call this cheating I find it a heck of a lot easier to adjust a pre-done mix than keep fresh stocks of all the different seasonings that go into corned meat. To be honest the package has a decent recipe for corned beef on it. However, the flavor does not penetrate the meat as well as it could without a curing time.
To cure the goose meat I remove the breasts and reserve the leg meat. I cure only the breasts because they are easier to slice and I do not have to remove the bones. This recipe will work for whatever type of meat that you want to cure. I never simply trash goose legs, they are tasty and it is against most states wanton waste laws to toss the meat.
Recipe – Corned Goose
2 quarts water
1 cup salt, I use kosher
½ cup sugar
1 ounce Speed Cure (Prague Powder or Insta Cure #1 work the same)
3 tablespoons pickling spices
Six goose breasts, or up to one five pound roast
1 large potato per pound of meat, ½ inch cubes
1 medium onion per pound of meat, diced
Fresh sage
Fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Red chili flakes
Bring the salt, sugar, speed cure and pickling spices to a boil. The boiling of the spices will release the oils and flavors that might not otherwise fully develop.
The next step is to cool the brine to room temperature. If meat is added to the hot liquid it will start to cook and that can mess up the curing process. Not being one who likes to wait I have developed several methods of cooling the brine quickly after bringing it to a boil. An easy way is to simply cut the water amount in half that is brought to a boil and then add the remaining amount required in the form of ice at the end. So in this case I ask for 2qts of water. Bring one quart of water to a boil and then at the end add one quart of ice (32oz of ice, measure by weight not by volume on ice).
The method that I use a lot is the ice wand cooling. I have a frozen gel pack that I have vacuum sealed that I toss into brine. The ice pack drops the temperature very quickly and I don’t have to recalculate recipes. The icepack works well with soups and stocks as well. Make sure to vacuum seal it very well, no need to have any of that funky blue liquid in those packs in the brine! When I am done cooling the brine I simply rinse off the plastic and return it to the freezer, easy.
Next place the meat in the room temperature brine and place brine in the fridge, covered. For a venison roast, 5 pounds or so, it takes 5-7 days to cure. For a goose breast, about 1 pound each, it only takes 2 days. So all things equal cure for a minimum of 2 days and then add one day per pound of meat. This is a rough estimate of time needed. Adjust as your own to your taste.
When the meat is cured I rinse it off and let it air dry on a rack. Then I add it to a vacuum bag with a little butter and seal it closed.
Next I place the vacuum packed meat into a crock-pot on low for about 24 hours. The low temperature cooks the meat gently and the yield is typically higher than if the meat is simply boiled.
When the meat is cooked, it should be nice and tender. Cool it down in the bag. This will allow some of the juices to reabsorb into the meat. When cool dice or slice the meat as you see fit.
Next brown the onions in a cast iron skillet with a little oil. Then add the cubed potatoes. Simmer the mix for 15 minutes until the potatoes are cooked. Then add the corned meat and heat. Toss in the fresh thyme and fresh sage. Season with salt a pepper. Add a little heat with a teaspoon of red chili flakes.
Serve with two eggs. This is a little slice of corned goose heaven.
This recipe also makes great meat for Ruben sandwiches. Also, feel free to simmer the goose with some more pickling spice, potatoes, carrots and cabbage for the Irish classic corned goose and cabbage.
The 20 gauge looks huge next to my oldest boy. The single shot is his now, a gift from grandpa, and we are trying to get him his first rabbit. Or hare. Or, whatever. The goal is for something that hops, has big ears and eats well.
Ok, so to be clear…the Black Tailed Jackrabbit is a hare, the cottontail bunny is a rabbit and the Snowshoe rabbit is also a hare. The differentiation of rabbit and hares is not at all confusing, especially to my 10 year old. However, the best way that I found to explain the difference is ear size. Big ears that make the bunny look funny, is a hare. Little ears, rabbit.
With that out of the way my boy and I are out seeking the oft shot but seldom eaten black tailed jackrabbit. These are big-ol-bunnies that weigh from 3-7 pounds. For years the moss backs would tell me that a jackrabbit is tough and inedible. I never questioned the wisdom of my elders until recently. I have started eating jacks in recent years and found that they are delicious. The meat on a jackrabbit is dark red and flavorful, not like the chickeny meat on a cottontail. The way I figure it is if I want chicken I can buy chicken. I don’t want my game meat to be bland. A big jack is tough as nails, but the little ones are very tender. I try to only shoot small jacks but field judging a jackrabbit on the run is kind of hard.
My son and I are being less than silent walking through the waste tall sagebrush. We are deliberately trying to spook the jacks into running, or at least moving. It is not possible to sneak on a jack; those ears are custom tuned to locating predators. Unless you are a ninja the rabbit will probably hear you approaching before you see it. That said a running shot on them is not uncommon.
We spooked several from right under our feet and several where seen running at around 100 yards. The nice part about jacks is that they typically only run short distances when they are not being perused. I will normally whistle or clap to try and confuse the jack into stopping. When they stop running I tell the boy to shoot. I always try and keep a close eye on the rabbit when it stops. The coloration on jacks makes them virtually invisible under sagebrush. If they loose you in the brush look for eyes, black dots, not for body outlines. Our brush banging is paying off and we are scaring a large number of rabbits. Safety is the biggest concern, so the total number of shots thus far have been very limited. I don’t let him shoot at moving targets just yet.
The best gun that I have ever hunted jacks with is an over-under .22/ 20 gauge. It had the range when needed and the scatter gun for up-close running shots. Currently I use either a side by side 16 gauge or an open sight single shot .22. The 16 is for when I want meat, the .22 is for when I want to go for a walk.
The boy finally lands a shot on a bunny stopped under a tall bush. The shot rolls the bunny, perforating its ears, hurting it enough for the boy to catch it in the bush with a little effort and some lost skin. The glow in his eyes as he hoists his first rabbit, I mean hare, or whatever, is infectious. I think I just have created the local bunnies’ worst nightmare.
How to break down a rabbit.
Skinning a rabbit is a non issue. The fur literally peals off like a banana. I make a small cut on the back of the bunny and then simply pull in both directions. The bunny is skinned.
However, the fur must be examined for little creatures early in the season. In early fall I tend to find warbles under the skin of cottontails that I shoot. Warbles are larva from a certain type of fly. They lay an egg under the skin of the bunny and a maggot looking creature grows under the skin. I have seen warbles the size of my index knuckle before. Yuck. Now, the warbles are not typically in the muscle of the bunnies but the meat does tend to be bruised under the infected site. I cut away the bruise before eating. Eating bunnies with warbles is safe, according to the NationalWildlifeHealthCenter.
Ticks are also commonly found on all types of bunny. They are typically off the rabbits shortly after the first hard freeze. About October in Southern Idaho. When I shoot a bunny in tick months I make sure to skin and gut them before I place them in my pack. I carry plastic grocery bags with me for just this reason. I have found several ticks latched on to my upland game vest and even a few latched on to me when I forget to remove the skin. It is also a good idea to use an anti tick spray on the dog if using hounds to hunt the bunnies.
Another good idea to cook most rabbits/hares to well done, 150 degrees plus. The reason for this is that rabbits can pack a few nasty diseases with them. The one that I fear most is the Dog Tape Worm, Taenia pisiformis, the concern is not for me but for my mutt. If the gut pile is eaten by the dog it can get a nasty case of worms. Cooking them to well done insures that almost all diseases on the animal are killed. According to the NationalWildlifeHealthCenter rabbits and hares are edible year round, yes, even in the summer.
When breaking down a hare I get four separate cuts of meat. Two front legs, two hind legs, two loins and bones for stock. First, I dearticulate the back legs by first “popping” out the ball joint on the hind legs then sliding my knife above the ball. The leg should come cleanly off with one cut. The front legs are easy as well; they are not even attached with bone. I simply slide my blade into the armpit of the bunny and make a quick cut. The leg should come cleanly off.
To get the loins off I run my knife on either side of the backbone from the base of the neck to the tail. The blade should stop on the ribs of the hare. Then press the meat away from the bone and slide the knife under the loin. It should come off in one large section. Think of it as a tiny little backstrap. The remaining bones and stomach flaps make great stocks and flavoring for soup.
For a rabbit I do the same process except I do not remove the loins. I cut off the ribs at the back bone and then cut “saddle chops”. A saddle is simply the loin still attached to the back bone.
On a rabbit I will fry all the separate pieces like chicken. The meat is white and tender. On a hare I serve each section at different times. They all take different amounts of time to cook. The big back legs I will make soup or slowly roast. The loins I will cube and use like chicken in pasta. The front legs get saved until I have enough for a braised (crockpot) dish with sausage and potatoes.
Chicken Fried Rabbit (or Hare, or whatever)
½ cup milk
½ cup ranch dressing
½ cup flour
½ cup corn starch
1 cup crushed fine cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon Ms. Dash Original Seasoning
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
Salt
Fresh black pepper
½ cup canola oil
1 lime, Juice and Zest
2 gallon Ziploc Freezer bags
In one bag pour in the milk and the ranch, mix together thoroughly. In the other bag add the flour, cornstarch, cracker crumbs, Ms. Dash, Paprika, salt, pepper, and cumin. Mix well.
Rinse the rabbit sections under the tap to wet them down. Add them to the cracker and seasoning mix. Remove to a dry plate. Then add them to the ranch mix.
Remove to dry plate and then add back to the cracker crumb mix making sure to press some of the dry coating onto the flesh. When coated completely remove the rabbit sections. The coating will last for up to three hours. So breading them ahead of time is ok.
In a medium sauté pan add about ¼ inch of oil. Heat the pan for five minutes on medium low heat. Add one section of the coated bunny, if the pan does not sizzle considerably than remove the section and turn the heat up a little.
Brown the bunny sections, about 3-5 minutes, then flip. Most pans will have lost a considerable amount of heat by now so I make sure to turn the heat up to medium when I flip the sections. This will allow even browning.
When brown on both sides turn the heat down to low and pour off the remaining oil. Grab the largest section of rabbit and cut to the center to check doneness. Keep cooking if the meat is pink. The internal temperature needs to reach 150 + degrees to make sure that all food bourn illnesses are destroyed.
Right before serving the rabbit sprinkle on the zest of the lime and then juice the lime over the top of the bunny. This will give the fried rabbit a little extra kick.
I am not sure why the hunters I know will pay big bucks for a duck breast in a fancy restaurant but turn all the fowl they shoot into jerky. It has never made much sense to me. That is until I found out how they cooked duck. While a little “shake and bake” can make things taste good it is certainly not way to handle wild duck.
Additionally, all too often I see other hunters simply rip the top of the duck off and toss the legs into the trash. This, to me, is just plain wasteful. The duck died for food and I figure its whole body should be honored. Plus the best part of the whole animal is now in the trash!
To combat this issue I have made it a personal challenge to make hunters into wild duck fans. I normally give two simple rules for duck meat. One, cook the breast like it is a steak. Past medium and it starts to turn to shoe leather. Two, cook the legs until they are fall off the bone tender.
That said I do understand that most hunters find duck legs hard to eat. If a duck is roasted whole the legs are chewy and full of tendons. If the duck legs are fried up like chicken they are nearly uneatable. The problem with those styles of cooking is that they do not allow for enough time to break down the duck meat. What duck leg cooking requires most of all is time. It takes a while to break down the connective tissue in a ducks legs. I normally count on at least four hours but prefer more.
To cook a duck for that many hours takes a gentile cooking method and low heat. As long as the meat is being held above 140 degrees the connective tissue will degrade. A home crock pot is a great way to keep an eye on the temperature and slowly cook the meat. The “keep warm” setting normally operates in the 160-175 range and does a nice job slowly cooking duck legs.
Another issue that I typically hear about when dealing with duck is it’s “wild game” flavor profile. Hunters often say that duck breast tastes to “ducky” so they mask the flavors with smoke, sugar and spices in jerky. I agree that wild duck can be very flavorful, but most of that flavor comes out when the duck is overcooked. Much like a liver the bad tasting parts of duck meat become more pronounce the farther it is cooked.
I typically remove the “wildness” out of duck leg meat by preparing it confit style. Basically confit is an old school Egyptian preservation method for duck. It helps out a lot for those lacking refrigeration. To confit something you need to follow three basic steps. Cure the meat in salt, brown the meat then poach it in oil.
The reason that this cooking and preservation method works is because salt creates a hostile environment for microorganisms. Cooking the meat in the hot oil also kills most microbes. Top that off with a layer of microbe-inhibiting fat covering the meat and you can keep confit for up to six months in your cellar or fridge. Below is the basic method of cooking any type of meat confit style.
When curing the duck meat I clean the duck very well after the harvest. Then I will pat the meat dry with a paper towel while looking for any extra feathers, shot, or undesirable blood clots that need removed.
Then I will mix salt, pepper and garlic powder in a small bowl. I use about 1/8 cup Kosher, 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper and 1 tablespoon garlic powder per pound of duck meat. I then place the meat in a cake pan and cover with a towel in the fridge for 24 hours. I make sure to pour off any juice that accumulates on the tray.
After 24 hours I will rinse the duck off and pat it dry. Then I brown the duck meat in a couple of tablespoons of hot oil.
The next step is the hardest. Not technically hard but emotionally. The smells from the cooking duck will tempt you. Ignore the temptations and let the duck cook. If you snack on it through the whole cooking process it will not be the same!
After the meat is brown it needs to be poached in oil. Below is a list of ingredients for the oil poaching.
1 cup rendered bacon fat
Canola Oil – enough to barley cover the meat
8 cloves of garlic
16 ea black pepper corns
2 ea bay leaf
2 ea sprig of rosemary
4 ea sprigs of thyme
10 ea sage leafs
I pack the browned Duck into the bottom of a home style cake pan. Then I place on top of the duck the garlic, pepper corns, bay leafs, rosemary, thyme and sage leafs. Add the bacon fat and then pour enough canola oil to cover the duck meat. I tightly wrap the whole mess in tin foil and place it on a cookie sheet. I will then put the duck in a 350 oven for one hour then turn it down to the “keep warm” setting. I will let it cook for three more hours. Then I’ll turn off the oven and let the duck cool for one hour.
Then I’ll transfer the meat into mason jars and make sure to cover all the bones with fat. No part of the animal should be exposed. If meat is exposed it can turn faster than it should. I cool the jars in the refrigerator and when totally cooled I cap and store them in the back of the fridge. The confit can keep for up to six months.
I make sure to keep the oil from batch to batch of confit. It gains more and more flavor over time.
When I want to eat the confit I will remove the metal lid and microwave the jar for a minute or so. Just enough time to melt the fat but not heat up the meat. I then remove what I am going to eat and make sure to recover the meat in oil.
I use confit meat in a variety of ways. I have made pizzas, pastas, pot stickers, tacos and many other dishes from confit meat. I have even used this method for all sorts of animals, not just duck. I have made rockchuck and venison confit, to name a few. In all confit is a great way to keep your freezer free of odds and ends and it tastes great too. Besides, a duck is more than just a good set of breasts for jerky.
Good Lunch!
Almond Crusted Steelhead with Chilean Barbacoa Sauce and Fingerling Potatoes
Fingerling Potatoes
½ pound mixed fingerling potatoes, quartered
1 small carrot, shredded
½ cup edamame or frozen peas
1 Tablespoon Butter, cut into two sections
10 mint leaves, sliced thin
Salt and Pepper
Heat oven to 320 degrees. Warm half the butter in a medium sauté pan and add the butter. When the butter is foaming add the potatoes and coat. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes until fork tender. In the hot pan add the carrots, peas, butter and mint leaves. Toss and season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid and reserve. (don’t worry, the residual heat from the pan will finish the peas and carrots perfectly)
Chilean Barbacoa Sauce
This sauce was originally used by Kelly Chatterton, a steelheader and Chef from Boise, on big ocean run brown trout in Chile.
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
½ cup port, sherry or Madeira
½ cup sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Add all ingredents to a small sauce pan. Heat to a boil to combine. Reserve.
Almond Crusted Steelhead
½ cup almonds, sliced and crushed in your hand
2 ea 6oz Steelhead fillets
1 tablespoon Canola Oil
Salt and pepper
Heat oven to 320 degrees. Wet the fish slightly under the tap. Massage the crushed and sliced almonds onto the inside surface of the fish (not the skin side). Place skin side down. Heat medium sauté pan on medium, add the oil. Place fish almond side down into the pan. Let cook for 2-3 minutes or until the almonds turn a toasted brown color. Flip and place in oven about 5 minutes but this will depend on how thick your fish is.
Plating –
Split the potato and edamame dish onto two plates. Place the cooked almond crusted fish on the side of each and garnish with about a 2 tablespoons of the barbacoa sauce. One tablespoon on top of the fish and one circling the potatoes. Bon Appetite!
