How do you eat your game ?

[Phil]

We don't have bow hunting here in the U.K. but I do enjoy reading the hunting posts here on TT.
What I would like to know from some of our " colonial hunter friends :p " is what do you do with all that wonderfull meat and whats you prefered way of storage. We hear the term "jerked " here in the UK, it's obviously some way of preserving meat, would someone care to explain the process. Now... I'm a real fan of smoked meats and game, do any of you guys smoke your own meats if so what methods do you use and what's your favourite wood for smoking? Another thing thats always intregued me is does the location of the game you hunt affect the flavour of the meat i.e would a white tail taken in Texas taste different to the same deer in Minnesota..... just curious :sbrug:

[van_fl]

Usun “colonial hunter” friends generally use a knife and fork.
Smoked game is my preferred. As far as jerked meat goes it can not be bet.

BTW:I hate the “you colonial etc”. Sounds like a RN Admiral acquaintance of mine. :lol:
Sage brush fed deer has a stronger flavor then the mid-west corn fed dear. Elk is the same as your venison there. (red deer). There is I place in Beth that serves the best red deer that I have had in the UK. :2cents:
:shooting:

[Pinelander]

Yeah, Van is right... we normally eat them with knife and fork, sometimes forget our table manners and grab chunks off the grill and stuff in mouth. LOL

I agree, most animals that are strictly grass grazers are a bit more gamy tasting. Corn and soybean-fed whitetails can't be beat for flavor, as long as you trim as much fat and silverskin away as possible.

Jerky is meat thinly sliced, marinated in spices & herbs, and slowly cooked/smoked. Hickory and mesquite are the mostly widely used woods for smoking.

[thisbucks4u]

is fresh smoked boar. If patience is a virtue, it will be rewarded with some of the best table fare ever known to man (properly done can take forever). I prefer Hickory smoke myself. Mesquite reminds me of Fake flavored potato chips. Just a quirk of mine. Another favorite is smoked fresh backstrap, or loin.

as far as storing the beasts you cannot go wrong with the vaccum sealers that are on the market nowadays. its more expensive to do, but it beats having game go rancid in the freezer, and it stacks easily.

So since you guys cant hunt over there, what do you all do to satisfy the bloodlust?

[BowDonkey]

We usually freeze everything. Though canned venison is awesome and easy to make. Most of the small game is eaten the day or within 2 days of being killed. We never stock pile small game here in the north. Back in WI we did freeze quite a few rabbit and duck, but we just don't have the game population that allows that here. There is a huge taste difference in farmland deer and bog deer. Also how the animal is treated after bagging it plays a huge role in palatability. Is that even a word? Jerked meat is dried meat. All the sporting goods and hardware stores sell jerky guns, spice kits and dehydrators as this has become a very popular way of enjoying venison. My youngest nephew jerked a small deer and his 2 oldest brothers and their dad ate it in a evening. It's amazing how much meat you can consume when it's jerked. I can now believe the old time accounts of how much jerked meat was eaten by the early explorers, trappers etc. There are lots of Wild Game cookbooks being sold everywhere also. No one has any excuse for not knowing how to process and prepare wild game for the table anymore. Unless of course they want to remain ignorant. Quite a few of those around. Better stop now or ole Donk is going to go into a rant. That happens from time to time. Some things just can set a man off!

[Phil]

OK...OK...no more of the "colonial" stuff, point taken :mistake:
Most of the game we shoot here in the UK is hung before cooking. Pheasant, Partridge, Pigeon, Rabbit and Hares are usually hang for about 3 to 5 days. Then they're mostly cooked in or with rich red wine based sauces. Venison , again is usually hung then pan fried rare with mushrooms shallotts and a red wine/ pepper sauce. Generally most of the game we shoot or buy locally shot from local butchers. We tend to eat it pretty quickly, we don't tent to freeze, vacuum pack or dry game over here.
Any of you guy's ever try Jugged Hare?
P.S. ...... eat it with a knife and fork.... :p

[van_fl]

“cooked in or with rich red wine based sauces. Venison , again is usually hung then pan fried rare with mushrooms shallotts and a red wine/ pepper sauce.”

oh yah ---yum-- That’s exactly the way it was prepared. in Beth –Gowd was it good. :highfive:

As far as hanging for 3-4 days That’s the only good thing about your weather- Here it would rot and go bad in a day or two. If the yellow jackets (meat bees) (wasps),magpies (birds), Vultures and crows DDdn’t clean up the bones first. :highfive:

[Cato]

During the short period of cold weather here in MS, we do hang it for a few days.

Sometimes we marinate a backstrap for a couple of days, and then smoke it. Its awesome. Lot's of Southerners like to "quick fry" small medalions in a skillet, and eat it with Worchesterchire sauce.

I like to take a venison roast, with some onion soup mix and other "toothsome" additives, along with potatoes and carrots, and crock pot it for about 8 hours. It's very tender, and much like a stew.

Duck makes a great gumbo if you know how to make it. Lot's of folks down here deep fry small turkeys at Thanksgiving.

Man this is making me hungry.

Phil, your recepie sounds great, with the wine sauce, etc. I'd like to try that. I'm not much of a cook, but that one sounds like its worth some effort.

Cato

[Slasher]

My favorite part my favorite way:

Inject with marinade, sprinkle with season salt(or creole seasoning), cut into one inch thick chops, wrap with bacon, cook over med fire 3-4 min per side... MMMM MMMM Good

Tried a new one for round steak that really wasn't bad... my neighbor (a non hunter) told me about how his father would let it marinade over night, season, make a pouch out of alum foil, put slices of onion on each side, pour in one can dr pepper(yeah thats what I though too,,) cook over a hot fire for about 15-20 min per side... It was not bad at all and more tender tha round steak usually is... I was really leary, but I am "Game" for almost anything once

[Boho]

My favorite is some smoked ground squirrel with some oppossum and coon soup. It can be a little slimy if you under cook it but once you get the hang of it there's nothing better. Except maybe some gar balls.

[Cueball]

As Cato mentioned above we have very mild winters in Mississippi. Temp are high here even in December it can be in the 70's easy in the day. Where I hunt we invested in a walk in cooler. I let all my deer hang 5-7 days. My favorite way to eat venison is to take the backstrap cut into small tenerized chunks and dip them in buttermilk and then in flower and deep fry in a fry daddy. Make some cathead biscuits and gravy and some blackeye peas and life is good. This is what we do 4-5 times a year during hunting season.



..............................................Roby .............................

[Boho]

We eat well at our camp everyday. As it shows in our guts. But I only eat good during deer season so I guess it's ok. :)

[Troy]

Apple wood.

Hang upland game birds for XX days? They rarely make it past supper time. In fact, most barely even have a chance to cool below original body temp. LOL.

[Eaglearcher]

All this camp fire cooking talk is making me hungry.
Over here in the UK the only game meat that i can get is from the local butcher, and its very expensive. Phesant and rabbit are very easy to get but good venison is much harder to find. Most of the deer that are eaten in the UK are farmed and they don't taste as good as the wild ones.
A few years ago i was lucky enough to go to South Africa for the World Field Archery Champs and while i was there i took the chance to try as many different meats as i could. I seem to remember that the Kudu was particularly good. All the different biltongs (jerky) were a constant delight and i found the chilli flavoured ones irresistable. When i went to Finland for the European Field Archery Champs i tried Moose and Reindeer. (My daughter,8, still hasnt forgiven me for eating Rudolph!).
Consider yourselves lucky that you have the chance to enjoy the delights of fresh wild meat. I have always considered that an animal that has lived a natural life gives much better meat than one which has stood in a field being looked after by a farmer.
I live a couple of miles from Woburn Abbey which is one of the largest Stately Homes in the UK. They have a vast deer park and there is a road which runs straight through it. They have a dozen or more species of deer there and there is a fair size heard of each of them. If you drive through in the early morning or in the evening it is not uncommon to see a couple of hundred deer grazing out in the open. Always a beautiful sight. Every year they have a cull and it is these deer that find their way into the local butchers or to the local resturaunts. There are also about thirty cases of road kill on this road each year but there is no chance of getting your hands on it. All road kill goes to the Safari Park next door and it is given to the lions. (Yes!! there is a pride of lions less than ten miles from my house. Thats not to mention the Rhino, elephant, hippo, giraffe etc).
Hunting here in the UK has always been an elitist thing and over the last couple of decades the city types who run this country have done their best to turn our countryside into some type of rural theme park. To most people in this country the thought of killing an animal themselves is abhorrant. Even if it is for food.
Although i find it difficult to understand the killing of animals purely for sport. I have never had a problem with the idea of killing for the table. As a meat eater it would be hippocritical of me to think otherwise, although there are many that do. I have never hunted myself and i dont know if i could make that shot if i had the chance. But to those that do, i say enjoy your hunting and enjoy your meat!

[thisbucks4u]

Killing animals purely for sport? Its awesome. I kill everything for the sport of it, then I eat what I kill cause It tastes so good. Cept for them nasty carp-but they make good fertilizer. You guys bowfish over there?

[tuffshot]

Ohio deer are farm feed everynight while the farmer sleeps.
Corn, beans, apples and whatever else the farmer has growing in the field :) And all kidding aside they taste better than the deer that just browse and forage the woods. Plus it help them grow bigger racks :D

[Lane Puckett]

while hunting I hang or 'age' deer 5 to 7 days. if the temps are below 40F it works well but most of the time the daytime highs are in the 50-60's and up. then we will roll the deer up in sleeping bags before sunup and keep them in the shade during the day. rehang at night to keep them cool.

I like three ways of cooking them.
Hamburger in tacos
Steaks fried maybe bbq'd
cube meat for stews/chili verde

The steaks always seem to go first and last is hamburger grind. We do all our own cutting/wrapping/etc.

Jerky - just dried meat spices are added to taste

the best tasting has got to be elk followed by smaller pigs then deer last would be ducks/geese with pheasants in there depending upon how they are prepared.

The only caveot to this is hot sticks. They are highly flavored (spicy) hamburger meat in a very small diameter casing that is smoked and dried. I haven't done my own yet but they want $5 a pound for doing it here so I'm going to figure it out one of these days. hot sticks and beer it doesn't get any better than that

[Eaglearcher]

Mike
Im not sure but i think that bowfishing is the only hunting pursuit allowed for archers by English law. However i havent ever seen or heard of anyone who does it over here.
Fishing is a big pastime in England but 99% of the fishing that is done is done purely for sport and the fish are kept alive and thrown back. I cant imagine walking down to the local river with my bow and shooting at fish. I would probably get lynched by the fishermen for frightening the fish or arrested by the police for using my bow in a public place.

[thisbucks4u]

If you ever get across the pond in the summertime, You look me up. Ill show how us du'mass yanks combine two of the best sports out there. Its a hoot. You can swim cant ya??

[Eaglearcher]

Of course i can swim. I live on an island where it always rains. :jk:
Thanks for the offer. I'm not sure that i will ever be able to take you up on it but its good to know that you are prepared to make the invitation.
I have an old archery book of my fathers at home that was written in the fifties and amongst other things it describes bow fishing and shows how to make a simple bowfishing reel. It looks like fun.
I do however have a question. What sort of arrows do you use, i would imagine that when the arrow hits the riverbed it will get damaged, do you strengthen them with anything or do you fish in deep water from a boat.

[thisbucks4u]

I use Two types of arrows. Fiberglass and whatever I can scrounge up. LOL.

It really depends on where Im going. If I know I wont get any shallow water shots I will Use a bow real and solid fiberglass arrows. If I am going to a shallow river nearby I will just use good old aluminum arrows with blunts and no reel.