The Hog Blog

So I know it was the closing weekend of the A-zone archery season, and if I were truly a die-hard, I’d have been out there in the heat and thistles doing what I do… but I wasn’t.  Instead, Kat and I were up in Sacramento, doing our best to help Hank, the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, celebrate his 40th birthday. 

40.  Just a kid, right?  Just try telling that to anyone who’s lived a physical, athletic life. 

That 40 year mark can really be a turning point, the age at which the creaks and twinges become aches and pains (and it doesn’t get better).  It’s a time when you start to realize that the “glory days” really are behind you, as you start that long, downhill run on the backside of your lifespan.  It’s the age at which Jim Steinman’s classic lyric holds new meaning, “objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.” 

It’s when the patch of “dignified grey” in your hair becomes a sprawling signpost, heralding your physical decline.  It’s a time when a lot of guys start looking for young, blonde girlfriends and shiny, red sports cars.  The divorce rate soars.  The 40-somethings are the Viagra demographic.  It’s a futile pursuit of fleeting vitality, spurred on by stubborn refusal to admit that the time has passed… at 40, you’ve reached the halfway point of the upper end of the average US life expectancy.   From this point on, when you’re feeling old… it’s because you are.

OK, enough of the pep talk…

Hank appears to be taking it well in stride as he’s completing his first book, riding high in the ranks of writers in the booming wild foods and foraging niche, and doing his best to live la dolce vita.  At a birthday celebration when most folks would be kicking back, letting someone else take care of them, Hank took the offensive and spent the evening between the stove and grill, providing us with a true, venison extravaganza! 

The menu included:

• Venison heart tartare
• sous vide venison roast w/sage
• grilled venison loin with truffle oil and lemon zest
• braised venison tongue w/horseradish
• venison gumbo (some of the best venison gumbo I’ve ever tasted)
• venison dirty rice — made w/ground venison and venison liver

There was much rejoicing, and as always, the crowd included an eclectic mix of wonderful and interesting people.  Unfortunately, I suck at remembering names, so I won’ t even try to list them all.  

Big thanks to Hank and to Holly for, once again, inviting us into their home.

I’m not sure how widespread the Fuddruckers burger chain is, but there’s one near me and I have to say it’s not bad.  They’re one of these places that basically cooks up the burger, slaps it on a bun, and then sends you off to their condiments bar to load it up to your delight.  I probably like that part better than the burgers, which are good enough, but adding the perfect storm of condiments makes it much better.

So what’s this got to do with hog hunting? 

Not too much at first glance.  But I just read an article on SlashFood.com about how Fuddruckers is rolling out a line of “exotic” burgers.  They’ve had bison burger for as long as I can remember, but apparently they’re adding elk burgers now, and in September we can expect the arrival of their Wild Boar Burger (reportedly to be followed by the ostrich burger, although I seem to remember that they were already selling these at the restaurant near my house). 

Personally, I’m willing to give it a try.  The bison burger didn’t really set my taste buds to dancing, honestly, but I’m curious to see how they handle the elk and wild boar.

Cooking wild game has rapidly become a major spin-off of the “locavore” movement in the Foodie world.  More and more chefs and fine food afficianados are turning to sustainable, healthy ingredients, it appears that wild meat has been re-discovered and is becoming quite popular.  There’s also a large contingent of folks who are embracing the foraging lifestyle, seeking out the great food that’s available for the picking in the fields, woods, and seasides of every hometown. 

A new magazine will be hitting the shelves at the end of this month to address and support this movement.  Here’s the official announcement:

New Magazine Launched to for the Food Focused Outdoors Person

(March 30, 2010, Sacramento, CA) –  Power Media announced today that the first edition of its latest magazine, Cooking Wild – Hunt, Fish, Forage, Feast, will be available at the end of April.  Created to bridge the gap from the field to the table, each issue will cover things important to the food-focused outdoors person — hunters, anglers and foragers alike.

Cooking Wild Magazine is dedicated to helping improve and expand the wild cooking arsenal of home chefs everywhere. This new quarterly printed magazine will be loaded with tips, techniques and recipes from experts and home chefs from across the country. Available nationwide at the end of April, for a limited time interested subscribers can try it risk free.  

Cooking Wild’s Editorial Director, Andy Donald, explained, “We’ve always loved to cook the food that we bring home ourselves.  Be it hunting, fishing, foraging, or even our backyard garden.  We combined this love with the desire to increase awareness and expand people’s knowledge of cooking wild game, fish, foragables, etc.  To put it simply the magazine is going to answer the question, “You killed it, now what?”  Cooking Wild is here to help!”

For more information and to subscribe risk free, visit them online at www.cookingwildmagazine.com.

Check it out.  After all, the first one is free!

I was thinking about my “dream hunts” post, and I realized something. 

For me, a key requirement of all of my dream hunts was to do the hunt in a place where I can bring home the meat.  Whether it’s Alaskan moose, Newfoundland Caribou, or Rocky Mountain elk, part of what makes every successful hunt special is not the trophy antlers, horns, or hides, but the meat that comes from each of these animals. 

I’ve eaten an awful lot of wild game through my life… everything from snapping turtle to frog legs, to tree squirrel to rabbits.  I’ve had several different kinds of deer (whitetail, blacktail, mulie, axis, fallow, and elk), as well as antelope (pronghorn and blackbuck) and wild sheep.  When it comes to fowl, I’ve eaten pheasant, bobwhite quail, mountain quail, valley quail, mourning dove, pigeons, turkeys, ducks, geese, and a couple of other birds I’ll not mention (some were very good, and some…well, not so much).  The list includes bear and bison as well.  And, of course, I’ve had a lot of wild pork. 

But despite the extent of my list, there are still a bunch I’d like to try.  I’ve heard that caribou is awesome, as is moose.  Both are high on my list of dream hunts, in part for this very reason. 

So… of the meat I’ve eaten so far, what would be my favorite?  That’s a tough one.  I guess, in order to make it fair, I should draw a line between truly “wild” game, and ranched exotics. 

There’s no question (and no surprise) that when it comes to pure, quality meat, the ranch-raised animals get the edge for several reasons.  These animals generally live high on the hog, cared for with feeders full of high quality grains, plentiful water, and a general life of leisure.  For me so far, it’s a real close race between axis deer and fallow… with the nod going to the fallow buck I shot  at Native Hunt last year. 

That meat was everything beef wishes it could be.  It was very flavorful (but with a mild flavor instead of that stronger venison edge) and tender, even though the buck was pretty mature.  I imagine a younger buck or a doe would be even better… if better is possible. 

Of the truly wild game, I’m really on the fence.  A nice, fat whitetail doe certainly gets high marks.  Properly cared for in the field and in the kitchen, it’s hard to beat the flavor and tenderness.  However, a healthy, young hog can sure bring a smile to my face as well.  If I had to choose, I’m not sure I could.  I suppose the tie-breaker is the fact that more of my non-hunting friends seem to like the wild pork better than venison, so if I’m serving friends I’ll usually default to the hog. 

What about the small game, you might ask (you probably won’t, but you might)?  Cottontail rabbit, hands-down!  I’ve probably eaten more squirrel than any other small game animal, and I like it well enough, but if I had my pick, a nice coney is how I’d go. 

Anyway, that’s kind of where that train of thought runs out of track…  so now I leave it to you folks.  What’s been your favorite wild game (or exotic) so far?  If your dream hunt were based on the pursuit of meat as well as a trophy and experience, would that change your list?

So Kat just changed our cable service again. 

The last time she did this, I lost all my hunting channels (along with most anything else worth watching), but since I refuse to pay for television, I had to go with her decision.  It was with some trepidation when she told me the other day that she’d be cancelling DISH and switching to DirectTV… but really, it couldn’t be much worse than it already was.  Heck, the best thing to watch on a lazy Saturday since then has been hilariously bad movies on the Science Fiction channel.  I do occasionally get to watch Versus, but in between “Paid Programming”, shows about gold panning, and the endless loop of the same four or five episodes of “Winchester Legends”, “Beretta’s Under Wild Skies”, and “The Bucks of Tecomate,” it wasn’t much to get excited about. 

Anyway, she made the change, they installed the service on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I started scanning the guide.  Sure enough, we were now getting the Pursuit Channel and The Sportsmen’s Channel.  (The Outdoor Channel, one of my favorites, is not available with the package she selected). 

At first, I thought I’d be like an addict falling off the wagon, but honestly, outdoor programming hasn’t really improved all that much.  While there are occasional gems in the mix, there’s still a lot of the same old thing… glorification of the kill over the experience of the hunt, bad shots disguised by quick camera and editing work, and a total emphasis on “trophy” hunting. 

Even so, it’s hunting!  So I still watch… even as I grumble and mumble and armchair quarterback.

And what goes better while sitting on the couch, watching the idiot box, than a tasty meat snack! 

Yeah, I got that segue right off of the hunting shows… sorry about that.

But seriously, I do want to mention a product I had the opportunity to sample recently.  The good folks at Pop’s Authentic Artisan Meat Snacks recently contacted a handful of bloggers with a pretty nice offer.  They’d send us a sample of their meat sticks to try and review, and also offer our readers a discount for online purchases. 

If you’re interested in what I thought… well, I’ll be honest.  I’m not a huge fan of meat sticks or commercially made jerky.  I like to make my own, largely because I know exactly what’s in it and what’s NOT in it.  Most of those factory products contain ingredients I can’t even pronounce.  I sure as heck don’t want to put that in my system.

But Pop’s are not Slim Jims.  According to their literature, they’re made from locally sourced beef and pork and spiced with real, select spices.  So I tried them. 

And they really weren’t bad at all! 

In fact, I stuck the rest of the sample supply in my food box in Petunia, and ate off of them during my recent pig hunt at the Hedgepeth Ranch.  They sent me two sticks of each flavor: Original, Peppered, and Habanero (they advertise a Bacon snack stick too, but I didn’t get any of those).  As a lover of spicy food, I jumped on the habanero flavor.  It wasn’t nearly hot enough for me, but the flavor was good.  The peppered were also good, but honestly, I think I liked the original flavor best. 

I can see munching on these things in front of the TV, or out in the field.  I think it would be awesome to see them produce some meat snacks using some wild game meats, but hey… one step at a time, right?  If you’re interested in trying them for yourself, just type the discount code OSCAR into the appropriate field when you place your order on the website.  You can get a free box of 12 meat sticks with the purchase of two boxes. 

If you do order some, let me know what you thought of them.

A while (a very long, while) back, I got an email from a gentleman promoting a new sauce, Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce. 

Based on a family recipe, they’d started bottling this stuff and were turning to the blogosphere to try to get in a little economical marketing.  He wanted to send me a couple of bottles to try out, and maybe I could do a little review on my blog. 

I’m not real big on bottled bbq or steak sauces (I love my hot sauces though).  My late grandfather, a meat-cutter, instilled in me the opinion that if a piece of meat needs sauce that isn’t included in the recipe, then it’s a sign that either the meat or the cook has fallen short.  There’s no better way to insult such a cook than to dump A-1 or Heinz (or, god forbid, ketchup!) on a steak off of his grill. 

Anyway, I figured it was worth a try, and asked if he had a spicy version.  He sent me a bottle of “spicy” sauce and a bottle of the original.   I have to admit that the samples ended up in the back of the cupboard, and pretty much sat there for a while.

I pulled the “spicy” out a while back.  I had some leftover pheasant breast, which can get a little dry, and thought I’d chop it up and mix in a little sauce to make a sandwich.  It actually worked pretty well.  The flavor wasn’t far removed from some other bottled steak sauces I’ve tasted in the past, but it was original enough to hold its own.  It didn’t completely overwhelm the flavor of the roasted pheasant, although of course the sauce was the main thing I tasted.  The only thing lacking was spiciness.  It just wasn’t all that piquant.

In the interest of disclosure, I enjoy stuff like habanero and scotch bonnet pepper sauces, so I understand that hot is a relative thing.  Spicy means something different to me than it does to some other people.  But even so, this sauce was pretty mild.  Even Kat didn’t really feel much burn.

I kept the bottle around and used it over time to make some barbecue sauces and marinades.  I can’t say it would ever be a staple in my kitchen, but it wasn’t bad for a bottled sauce.   When it was gone, I had every intention of doing my review on it, but life intervened and I moved on.

Until last night…

I had a little piece of backstrap laying around from the pig I shot the other day.  I didn’t have the energy to do much with it, so I wrapped it in foil with a couple of onion slices and stuck it in the oven until it started to smell good.  When it was done, I sliced it up and made a couple of sandwiches.  I was poking around in the cabinet looking for something to put on it when I saw the bottle of Country Bob’s Original back in the corner.  Why not?

As much as I was disappointed with the lack of heat in the spicy version, I was really pleased with the flavors of the Original.  Again, like most bottled sauces, it was stronger than the flavors of the meat.  However, I could still taste the pork.  I’d even go so far as to say that the super-simple preparation (just onion and pork) was accented by the sauce.  With a couple slices of cheese and a little Grey Poupon, it was a fine sandwich.  The only thing missing was a cold beer.

To wrap all this up, the bottom line is that despite my generally low opinion of bottled sauces, I have to admit that I kind of liked the Country Bob’s Original All-Purpose Sauce.  It’s a tasty blend of spices, not too sweet or heavy on the vinegar.  For folks who like to pour something on a steak or chicken breast, I think it would be a good choice.

I made a little trip over to Country Bob’s website a little while ago, and it looks like they’ve expanded the line significantly.  You can order sauces online, and you’ll also find recipes.  There’s even a blog!

Wait, don’t turn away. 

I know what it looks like, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve stooped to something so banal as blogging about what I had for dinner.  At leat not in general… but I have to say, Saturday night’s dinner was worthy of comment. 

It was no ordinary meal, and I didn’t cook it.  Heck, I didn’t even lift a finger until the dishes were served… at which point, I did my part by cleaning the plates as fast as they were put in front of me.  It was a joyous job, and one I was pleased to perform.  Heck, I’d do it again right now, and it’s not even dinner time!

I’ve mentioned Hank Shaw, the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook , a time or two.  He’s Holly’s (NorCal Cazadora) boyfriend and partner, and he’s  as talented as a chef as he is a writer.  Every year as the waterfowl season winds on, Hank and Holly throw what they call, “Duck Hunters’ Dinners”.  The guests of honor are various waterfowl the two have taken over the season, served up to a small group of select friends.  Holly had told me about these dinners, and even invited us to one a little while back… postponed, unfortunately, due to her bout with appendicitis.  Saturday night’s dinner was something of a make-up event.

Now I’m not the kind of food writer that Hank is.  I’m a little too inhibited to write in the sensual (and sensuous) tones and evocative language that he comes  up with to describe the play of flavors, smells, and textures.  I don’t know a lot of culinary terminology, and when I pair spices, dishes or wines, it’s usually by the seat of my own pants.  With that in mind, I doubt I could do the meal justice in my descriptions.  In the simplest of terms, it was abso-frickin-lutely awesome! 

I’ve eaten a lot of great food over the years, including some cooked by chefs you read about in gourmet magazines, or hear about on TV… but plenty of them prepared in a simple kitchen by folks whose culinary training came primarily from putting a couple of ingredients together in a way that seemed like a good mix.  Hank’s style seems to be a combination of the above, and it works very well!

Here’s what we ate:

• Snow goose rillettes on toast
• Goose prosciutto over green salad
• Deep-fried duck tenders with herb mustard
• Asparagus soup with duck fat and duck broth
• Sous vide duck breast with crispy skin chip and pomegranate sauce
• Braised duck Niederwald (duck legs and duck hunter sausage)
• Strawberries, mint and fresh cheese

I can’t remember the wines we had at each course, but it was a generally good match-up. 

Beyond that, I really don’t want to get into reviewing the meal.  That’s not what this dinner was about anyway.  It was about sharing the bounty of the field with friends, old and new, and enjoying an evening of telling tales, swapping stories, and discussing hot issues.  And really… that was all every bit as fabulous as the food!

A huge thanks to our hosts, Hank and Holly!

Just saw this AP article today in the local fish wrapper. 

Four college students from Birmingham-Southern College are working their way through the “best” barbecue restaurants in the South as part of an english course.  They’ll chronicle the adventure, tasting bbq from place to place, and blogging, writing, and shooting photos and video of the experience! 

What have they learned so far? 

…3,100 miles is a long, long way to drive for dinner in a 1998 Ford Expedition with a plastic pig’s nose attached to the front.

I want one of those plastic pig noses for Petunia! 

Despite a brief bout of food poisoning, the foursome has been steadily at the project, and their professor/advisor apparently thinks they’re doing a great job.  Barring something unforeseen, the four will probably get an A for the project… not to mention a few extra pounds to carry them through the rest of their college careers. 

Personally, I’m jealous.

So what does this have to do with hog hunting?  Very little, actually, although as anyone worth their salt knows, BBQ IS PORK.  It is NOT a verb, and it is NEVER made of beef, chicken, or fish.  Check out this video… these boys get the point!  The sauce is only meant to complement the meat, it is not the meal!

You can see more on their YouTube Channel at, http://www.youtube.com/user/BSCbbqboys

You can read more about the adventure at their website, SouthernBBQBoys.Com.

When I shoot an animal, a deer, hog, elk, or whatever, I’m always looking forward to the great meals I’ll get from it.  Of course there’s steaks, chops, sausage, and such… but there’s more meat than meets the eye.

Like many hunters, my field-dressing and butchering usually consist of cutting out the primals from the base of the head to the tail, sawing off the ribs, and usually trimming the “trim” from the areas that don’t have much substance (e.g. belly meat, brisket, etc.).  When I get done, there’s skin and head, a bare spine, some feet, and the entrails.  Pretty good work, right?

Well I’ve got ancestors who probably turn over in their graves at the edible food I’m leaving for the coyotes in four major organs… the heart, liver, kidney, and brains. 

The thing is, they knew how to get the most out of these parts and, to be honest, I think folks were a bit less squeamish in those days… not to mention that you got your protein where you could back then.  There were no all-night fastfood joints where you could slide in and grab a nice processed food product and cholesterol sandwich… and even if there were, nobody could afford that stuff.  Food was precious, and not to be wasted.  That’s actually an idea that could stand a good resurrection.

But I’m not sure I’m the guy to do it.  I hate liver, and didn’t really care for kidney the only time I had it.  Besides, I’m a little slow to go dining on the parts whose function is primarily removing impurities from the animal’s system. 

I used to love brains, scrambled with eggs, or served up on a tortilla with grilled green onions… now that right there is good stuff.  But with all the madness about mad cow, chronic wasting disease, and some of the other stuff running around out there, I’m a little hesitant to eat them any more.  A shame maybe, and a product of the modern, information age (without the Internet and TV, most of us would never know about these things), but the fact is I have taken brains off my menu. 

And that leaves the heart.  Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t have a lot to write about today, but I did want to mention that I’m finally getting the hang of this Bradley smoker.  However, this success did not come without tribulation…

When I first received the smoker, there was a problem with the electrical wiring.  I was very disappointed in Bradley’s customer support.  I called in the first time and described the problem.  The lady informed me that I should open up the controller box, examine the wiring, and solder the loose leads into place.  I must say I was a little peeved.  First of all, to assume that I was able or willing to solder a brand new piece of equipment struck me as pretty poor customer service.  Secondly, the fact that they know this is a common problem and still ship the units also seemed mighty inconsiderate of the customers.

I wrote a fairly heated letter to Bradley, complaining about the service experience and the new smoker.  I received a mail response, apologizing for my experience and requesting a mailing address so they could send me a replacement unit.  Unfortunately, the replacement had the same problem!  I got mad, but since I was travelling a lot at the time, I set it aside and didn’t get back to it.  Luckily for me, my wife has some background in electrical engineering, and one afternoon she figured out the problem and fixed it! 

For folks who are unfamiliar with the Bradley smoker, it has an automatic feeder that drops disks of wood chips onto a conveyor, and allows you to smoke meats without having to stand watch over the danged thing all day.  The electric oven is controlled by a thermostat.  Simply load it up, set the timer, and come back several hours later to serve up dinner… no checking the temperature every half-hour, adding or removing coals and chips, or fighting flare-ups.  You really can set it and forget it.

Sure, some purists may consider this “cheating”, and I can understand.  I’m a bit of a traditionalist too, and my old “Smoky Joe” certainly turned out some tasty treats.  But I found myself avoiding smoking meats because of the hassle involved.  Doing a ham or shoulder required an entire day of running back and forth to check the temp, the chips, and the coals.  I seldom have that kind of time and initiative.  It was always easier just to put it in the oven or crock pot instead of smoking.  So, if it’s a question of having smoked meats or not… well, I can turn my back on tradition.  Besides, as Thoreau said, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds!”  Expand your horizons!

Anyway, last night I experimented with a ham shank.  I rubbed it real good with Pappy’s seasoning, and put it in the smoker at 220 degrees for about six hours.  With the exception of applying the rub, that’s all the work it required.  The result was a piece of nicely smoked wild pork, moist and tender on the inside with that slightly crispy, smoked skin on the outside. 

I’ve got about 50 pounds of meat in the freezer that’s waiting for grinding, so you can expect to hear more about this smoker.