Girl Hunter

by Georgia Pellegrini

2 bay leaves

  1 tablespoon cracked black peppercorns

  4 cups venison stock

  2 tablespoons cold butter

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the oil and sweat the shallots until soft and translucent. Sprinkle with salt to release the juices.

  2. Add the wine, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns and reduce to a glaze.

  3. Add the stock and cook, covered, at a low simmer until reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Strain and season with salt as needed.

  4. Right before serving, whisk in the cold butter. Keep warm for serving but don’t heat it again.

  Try with: antlered game, bear, dark meat game birds

  White Wine Dijon Sauce

  Makes 1 3/4 cups

  2 tablespoons grape seed oil

  1 cup finely diced onions

  Sea salt

  1 cup white wine

  2 sprigs fresh thyme

  1 tablespoon tomato paste

  4 cups hog or bird stock

  1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the oil and sweat the onions. Sprinkle with salt to release the juices.

  2. Add the wine and thyme and reduce by half.

  3. Add the tomato paste and simmer for 2 minutes.

  4. Add the stock and cook for 1 hour at a low simmer, until reduced by half. Whisk in the Dijon mustard vigorously.

  5. Keep warm for serving or let rest in the refrigerator overnight to improve the flavor before gently reheating.

  Try with: hog, rabbit, javelina

  Mushroom Sauce

  Makes 1 3/4 cups

  2 tablespoons butter

  1 cup finely sliced shiitake mushrooms

  2 sprigs fresh thyme

  1/4 cup finely diced shallots

  Sea salt

  1 cup red port

  4 cups venison stock

  Freshly ground black pepper

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the butter and add the mushrooms and thyme. Let them stick to the pan and become browned; don’t stir until you see brown bits forming. Add the shallots and stir into the mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt to help release the juices. Let them sweat until soft and the shallots become translucent. Add more butter if the pan becomes too dry.

  2. Deglaze the pan with the port, scraping up the brown bits with a wooden spoon, and reduce the liquid by half.

  3. Add the stock and cook for about 30 minutes, until reduced by half.

  4. Season with pepper as needed.

  5. Keep warm for serving.

  Try with: antlered game, bear, dark game birds, duck, turkey, squirrel, rabbit

  Black Peppercorn Sauce

  Makes 2 cups

  2 tablespoons grape seed oil

  1 cup peeled and diced carrots

  1 cup diced onion

  2 sprigs fresh thyme

  3 sprigs fresh parsley

  2 bay leaves

  Sea salt

  1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

  1 cup red wine

  2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns

  1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  4 cups venison stock

  1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns (see Note)

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the oil and sweat the vegetables, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves. Sprinkle with salt to release the flavor.

  2. Add the vinegar, wine, and whole peppercorns and reduce to a glaze. Add the flour and stir, for 1 minute, until it begins to bubble.

  3. Add the stock and cook until it thickens and is reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Strain, stir in the crushed peppercorns, and season with salt as needed. Keep warm for serving.

  Try with: antlered game, bear

  Note: If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use the back of a frying pan to crush the peppercorns against a cutting board.

  Homemade Chunky Applesauce

  Makes 7 cups

  When using apples in any dish, you want to use a whole variety of apples: some that are going to turn soft quickly, such as McIntosh and Golden Delicious, and some that are going to hold their shape, such as Pink Lady and Rome Beauty. Heirlooms are ideal, too, and in some cases, well-aged apples taste even better than fresh ones. Variety is good because you get several flavors and textures. It keeps things interesting. Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Stayman-Winesap, Cox’s Orange Pippin, and Jonagold all provide a good mix of sweetness and tartness. Other sweet choices are Braeburn, Fuji, Mutsu, Pink Lady, Suncrisp, Rome Beauty, and Empire. Good tart baking apples include Idared, Macoun, Newton Pippin, and Northern Spy. Apples that turn mushy quickly are McIntosh and Cortland.

  4 pounds apples, mostly peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces

  1/4 to 1/3 cup raw sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples

  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

  1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

  1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

  1/2 teaspoon apple salt or sea salt

  Zest of 1 lemon

  1 teaspoon cider vinegar

  1. Place the apples in a large saucepan with 1 cup of water. Add the remaining ingredients and stir.

  2. Bring the water to a simmer and stir again. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting.

  3. Let cook and steam slowly for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn’t stick.

  4. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook the apples for another 70 minutes, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, use a wooden spoon to break up the large chunks of apple that haven’t broken apart.

  5. Serve slightly warm or cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator in a jar. The applesauce will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks, or frozen for a year.

  Try with: hog, javelina

  Homemade Sauerkraut

  Makes 1 gallon

  You can use any kind of cabbage for this recipe, but if you mix red and green cabbage you will end up with a nice pink sauerkraut. You can start a new batch before the previous batch runs out by using what remains from the crock, repacking it with fresh salted cabbage, and pouring the old juices over the new. This will act as an active starter culture and give your new batch a boost. If you develop a rhythm like this you will always have sauerkraut on hand. Caraway seeds, juniper berries, or even other vegetables can be added to the cabbage for flavoring. This is your chance to experiment. To serve warm, you can heat it in equal parts brining liquid and vegetable or chicken stock for 20 to 30 minutes.

  5 pounds cabbage

  3 tablespoons sea salt

  Caraway seeds, juniper berries, or any flavoring you want to try

  1. Chop or grate the cabbage finely or coarsely, however you prefer. Put the cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkling it with the salt as you go. This draws moisture out of the cabbage and creates the brine in which the cabbage will ferment. The amount of salt does not need to be precise: In warmer temperatures you might need more; in cooler temperatures, less.

  2. Add the caraway seeds or other flavorings to the cabbage and toss to combine. Pack a small amount at a time into a 1-gallon or larger ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket, pressing down as you go to help release the water from the cabbage. Cover the cabbage with a plate or other flat object that fits snugly in the crock. Place a jug of water or other weight on top of the place to add pressure. This will help increase the brine over time. Cover the crock with a cloth or towel to keep ambient dust and flies away.

  3. Press down on the cabbage periodically over the next 24 hours, until the brine rises above the plate. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate after 24 hours, simply add enough saltwater (in a ratio of 1 teaspoon salt to 1 cup water, dissolved) to bring the level above the plate.

  4. Let the cabbage ferment, and check it every few days to make sure the water level is still above the plate. Keeping it in a cool place will slow the fermentation and preserve the kraut longer. The volume reduces over time and a “bloom”
may appear at the surface. This is simply a reaction to contact with air and can be skimmed off.The kraut will become tangy after a few days and will become stronger over time. In cool temperatures it will keep improving for months. Take it from the crock to eat as needed, but leave the rest in the crock, fully submerged, to continue to develop. If you find that the brine evaporates over time, just add more saltwater.

  Try with: venison kielbasa or any game sausage

  Homemade Mustard

  Makes 3/4 cup

  There are a great many variations you can create with mustard. You can change up the vinegars, use various types of mustard seeds, or add a sweetness with honey and molasses or a tang with horseradish and garlic. This is a basic recipe that can be expanded on, depending on its use. Be sure to let it rest for a good 24 hours before serving so that the flavors can develop.

  4 tablespoons mustard seeds

  1/3 cup mustard powder

  3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

  1/4 cup white wine

  1 teaspoon sea salt

  1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

  1. In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, crush the mustard seeds so they are cracked and coarse but not a powder.

  2. Pour the seeds into a small bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients. Mix well and cover with plastic wrap.

  3. Store in the refrigerator for 24 hours before using. The mustard will be soupy when it first goes into the refrigerator but will thicken with time.

  Try with: any game sausage, cold leftover game meat sandwiches

  Preserved Lemons

  Preserved lemons are a great flavoring element to game and fish dishes. They are commonly found in Middle Eastern dishes, where the rind is removed from the pulp, rinsed, and cut up. I have used Meyer lemons often, which are the best, in my opinion, because they have a floral undertone. A small amount goes a long way, and one jar will last for many months on your shelf. Just be sure to rinse the zest very well under cold water before adding it to a dish, and reduce the amount of salt you add to your dish to compensate for the salt in the lemon.

  Lemons, cut horizontally or vertically

  Kosher salt

  Star anise, or whatever flavoring element suits your fancy

  1. Pour an inch of kosher salt into a glass jar, then begin to add the lemon halves, making sure they fit snugly and that you are alternating with a lot of salt along the way.

  2. Drop your flavoring tidbits into there and continue to add salt and lemons until the jar is completely full. Bang the jar on the counter a few times to remove air and help things settle. Top with more salt. Screw on the lid and put the jar in a cabinet for at least 1 month, preferably more.

  3. If the preserve becomes very liquidy, add more salt to the top of the jar. When ready to use, remove the lemons as needed, rinse in cold water, and remove the pulp. Chop the zest to use in your bird and fish recipes.

  Game Bird Characteristics

  People often wonder which animals can be interchanged in a recipe and where farm-raised animals fall into this mélange. The best answer is—try it. Game animals are unique, each different from the last, depending on their diet and environment.

  With game birds you can count on a few things: pheasant, snipe, quail, wild turkey, partridge, chukar, and some grouse are all the wild cousins of chickens. They have a similar flavor and texture, though are much leaner, sometimes more nuanced, sometimes sweeter. Pheasant and quail can be purchased at many supermarkets these days, but the flavor will be milder than anything you get from the wild. Remember—every meat protein you are allowed to buy in the United States has been farm raised. If you want to substitute chicken or other store-bought birds for these wild bird recipes, you can. Because cooking times will vary, have a meat thermometer handy to check the internal temperatures.

  Many of these wild bird recipes allow for the birds to be interchanged; you might like some more than others in a particular dish, but the choice is up to you and your palate in the end. The white-meat upland birds should not be served rare, but can have a blush of pink in them. The wild ones will be more muscular and will dry out more quickly, so you need to tend to them while they are cooking, basting them, poaching them, doting on them until the very last second.

  Dark-meat birds, such as ducks, are smaller than their domestic cousins, with a much thinner coat of fat. Turkeys are drier at the breast and tougher at the legs, especially an ol’ tom. Therefore, whereas a domestic turkey leg will make a nice drumstick, a wild turkey leg will make a nice ground turkey burger.

  Because different birds cook at different rates, you can use the following table to help guide you, keeping in mind that the smaller the bird, the harder it will be to gauge the temperature accurately. I suggest a probe-style meat thermometer as it is the most accurate for testing wild game. Other thermometers can read high, especially with smaller game. I also suggest throwing out your thermometer at the end of a year and starting anew. As you cook each bird to the right temperature, press down on the flesh with your thumb to get a sense for what the perfectly cooked bird feels like. It will eventually become intuitive and a thermometer won’t be as necessary.

  Game Animal Characteristics

  Game animals, like game birds, are much leaner than their domestic counterparts. They exercise their muscles every day, which means the animals are smaller, the meat is denser with tougher connective tissue, the flavor is richer, and each bite is more filling. Wild boar or hog, for example, has less fat and a stronger flavor, depending on what it was eating and how it was killed. For store-bought substitutes, a large hog will be most equivalent to a heritage breed pig, not a factory-farmed one. Venison is most similar to grass-fed beef, not feedlot beef, though the meat will still be much leaner. Cottontail rabbits are half the size of the domestic ones you can buy. Unlike the consistency of domestic meat, that of each wild animal is different from the last; the best way to get an indication of the animal’s flavor and its diet is to render the fat, smell it, taste it, and treat each animal as a grand culinary adventure unlike any you have had before.

  Aging Game

  Voltaire once said, “The bird of the Phasis is a dish for the gods.” Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Above all feathered game should come the pheasant, but once again few mortal men know how to present it best. A pheasant eaten within a week after its death is more worthless than a pullet, because its real merit comes in its heightening flavor.”

  The beautiful taste of a well-aged animal came by virtue of necessity. Refrigeration wasn’t available until the twentieth century, which meant that people learned to enjoy game birds whose breast meat was aged until green. But as my friend the British gamekeeper once pointed out, people don’t like their meat “high” anymore, or rather, rotten tasting. Their taste buds are no longer suited to it since the advent of refrigeration.

  Certain game birds today, however, when relatively undamaged by shot, left in their feathers with intestines intact, and aged for a period of time, are much better tasting than when eaten fresh. Certain game animals are better tasting, too, when aged, particularly deer. Those animals that benefit most are: upland game birds, doves, pigeons, ducks, and antlered game.

  Unlike domestic animals, wild ones have that rich, variable flavor, because they are often older at death, exercise freely, and enjoy a mixed diet. The wild flavors that result from cooking these animals are often described as “gamey.” In Brillat-Savarin’s day, game was hung until it began to rot—a treatment they called mortification or faisandage (after the pheasant, faisan)—which not only tenderized the meat but heightened the wild, gamey flavor even further.

  The thought of this makes today’s eaters recoil. We are used to meat that is tender, and very mild (I would even suggest flavorless). This is because today’s farmed animals live a very different lifestyle than their ancestors or wild counterparts—they are sedentary, eat a uniform diet, and are slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity. It is not surprising then, tha
t it takes a slightly different approach to properly cook a wild animal, and the secret lies in proper aging.

  Aging is a change in the activity of muscle enzymes. At death, the enzymes begin to deteriorate cell molecules indiscriminately. Large flavorless molecules become smaller, flavorful segments; proteins become savory amino acids; glycogen becomes sweet glucose; fats become aromatic. All of this deterioration and breakdown of the cell molecules creates intense flavor, which improves further upon cooking, particularly slow braising.

  This shift in enzyme activity also tenderizes the meat by weakening the proteins that hold things in their place. The collagen in connective tissue also begins to weaken, causing it to dissolve into gelatin during cooking, and help it retain moisture.

  Because any meat that is aged tastes so much better than meat that is not, it would seem logical that modern meat producers would age their meat—but they do not. It is simply a matter of lost time and economics—an unwillingness to tie up product in cold storage and lose 20 percent of the meat’s original weight to evaporation, in the name of taste. The number of days between slaughter and the dinner table are very few.

  The good news is that home cooks can age meat in their own kitchen. With store-bought meat, it is simply a matter of leaving it uncovered in the refrigerator to allow for evaporation (in the case of roasts and other large cuts), or storing it tightly wrapped (in the case of steaks and smaller cuts). After the extra aging, all one has to do is trim off any discolored or dry spots that occurred from drying and oxidation.

  Useful Equipment

  Some things are useful to have in your kitchen if you are going to hunt your own meat and cook it well.