A first class outfit.

This post is a big, “Thank you!” to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service.

A few weekends ago they sponsored a youth feral hog hunt at the Nannie Stringfellow Wildlife Management Area. I was able to attend with my boy and was thrilled with what the Parks and wildlife department made available.

There were roughly 6000 acres of land made available for hunting that they split into 19 compartments. In each compartment they provided a 5x5 enclosed box blind that was located along working paths and game trails. The parks department had heavily baited the areas around the blinds a week in advance to get the hogs used to coming into the kill zones.

It had been raining heavily the week before and much of the land was either marshy or a mud pit. I do not have an ATV and was dreading the mile hike through the mud and slop to get to our blind. “No problem” they said, and drove us out on their ATVs. They dropped us off just steps away from our blind then gave us a phone number to call as soon as we were ready to leave so they would know when to come and pick us up.

For hunters that killed hogs they would drive out and help load the animals onto an ATV and bring it back to the cleaning station. The cleaning station had at least six gambrels mounted from beams under the covered pavilion. There was a fresh water hose for cleaning as well as a front end loader to dispose of the carcasses.

I do not want to give the impression of deluxe accommodations, wasteful spending, etc. There was not much out there….these guys are hoping to get a parking lot in a year or two instead of having to slog through a mud filled path every day. There wasn’t much but what was there was just right. I could not have asked for anything nicer and all it cost me was the $48 public hunt permit that I had bought for dove hunting late last year.

As far as the actual hunt itself, well, it was quality time spent with The Boy. We had a big time eating jerky, peeing in plastic bottles and playing Rock Paper Scissors. We saw plenty of deer, squirrels and birds but the hogs were scarce. After 14 hours of sitting in blinds over the course of two days we finally had a sow come in with dusk falling fast on the last evening of the hunt. We saw her at 250 yards out and patiently waited until she was ~140 yards. The boy took the shot and missed: too little light, too far a shot and needs more practice at the range. Let’s call it a teaching moment.

I’ll line up another hunt soon. Here piggy, piggy, piggy!

Venison Pastrami

Thank you, Mr. Deer. Thank you very much.

The recipe is pretty straightforward; per pound of meat make a cure of:

1 Tbs Morton Tenderquick

1 Tbs brown sugar

1/2 Tbs black pepper

Apply the cure to the meat and let sit in the fridge for 3-5 days depending upon the thickness of the meat. This was a roast from the hind leg that weighed in at 2 lbs. After the roast cures let it soak in water for ~1 hour then dry with paper towels. Apply a rub of black pepper and cook to an internal temp of 160. Wrap tightly in foil and let rest for ~30 minutes.

I've seen pastrami recipes that called for coriander in the rub and some that called for juniper berries. I like things simple so I stuck with pepper.

Pretty damn delicious. Very juicy, flavorful....it has me questioning why so many hunters I talk to keep the back straps and have everything else ground into summer sausage.

Salt and Time and Lemons

We were going to have a hard freeze here on the Gulf Coast and the plants were going to take a beating. Step one in freeze prep is to salvage what fruit you can. So out I went with the girl and we picked two large bags of oranges and four monster bags of lemons.

Oranges are not a problem. You can make orange juice, eat a bunch and send the large pretty ones over to neighbors as belated Christmas gifts. But what the heck are you to do with four monster bags of Meyer lemons? One thing is for sure, the kids will learn to either love or hate lemon pudding.

Another trick is to preserve the lemons in salt. The preparation is pretty straightforward. First you clean and sterilize your containers; I use scalding water and Five Star San. After the containers are clean put ~2 tablespoons of salt across the bottom. Next you wash and scrub the lemons to get off all the bird poop. Quarter the lemons but leave them intact at the base. Pour massive quantities of salt into the cuts and place the lemons into the containers. You should not be dainty. Really press the lemons in there and cram them together. It is important that the lemons are covered in lemon juice and all the pressing and squeezing helps. After the lemons are packed I used the juice of extra lemons to completely cover then topped with another tablespoon of salt. These guys will hang out in the fridge for a few months before I pop them open and start playing.

The only time I have encountered preserved lemons is in a Moroccan chicken and olive dish. I will be scouring the internet in search of more uses. Who knows, maybe I should just drive them up to Austin and drop them off in some guy's salumi shop.

Christmas Deer

Kids really do end up acting like their parents. Once I got on my quest to shoot a pig my boy got the bug too. The first problem was that he is just a monkey and it takes a pretty big gun to take down a big animal. "That's no problem!", he said. He asked for a big gun for his birthday in September and ended up with an H&R single shot 7mm-08. It came with a scope and a youth model stock.



The first time he shot it he held it too loose and the scope smashed him in the forehead. This thing is loud as hell and kicks hard. Neither one of us liked the damn thing...but we pressed on. Three months and ~100 rounds later the boy is hitting his targets at 100 yards.

We finally got a chance to hunt deer over Christmas at my folks place back in Kentucky. We froze our butts off but we managed to bag a small buck. I made the blind and helped my boy spot the deer, but once he saw it he took over. A perfect shot at 100 yards. The buck stumbled for ~30 yards and dropped. Neither my father or I had ever shot a deer before so we were pretty much jumping out of our pants when my boy dropped one on his first hunt. Way cool.

So.....I have been up to my elbows, literally, in venison. We took the backstraps, both hindquarters and one shoulder (the other should had a huge hole in it :) ). We also took a bag of random trimmings not associated with the major cuts. I did not save the ribs, they looked like not much was on them and I did not have the cooler space. I also pitched the organs...I know a deer heart/liver pate would be cool to write about but I honestly did not want to make or eat it.

Butchering the deer has been super fun! Seeing how the leg muscles are connected and pull apart is awsome. It has helped me understand various cuts of meat better now that I actually figured out how to find them. Oh....so that's where a round roast comes from. The deer weighed ~150-200 lbs before we field dressed him. I am guessing we ended up with ~30 lbs of meat. The leg bones have been saved for a stock session this weekend and the skin is being tanned for use as a blanket.

So far we have had peppered steaks, country fried steaks (I am in Texas after all), bacon wrapped, stroganoff and by far my favorite...bratwurst burgers.

3 lbs venison trimmed of all fat, membranes and silverskin.
1 lb pork fat
1/4 pint heavy cream
1 egg
2 Tbs kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 nutmeg, grated

Put the meat and fat through the grinder then into the mixer with the seasonings. Mix well for ~2 minutes. You could easily stuff into casings at this point but I was out. Instead I formed the mix into 6 oz patties and pan fried them like a burger. Pretty incredible.

Go hunting. It's fun.

Fun with Gunpowder

Sous Vide my ass.

I'm sorry, I appreciate the art, but you can't get much farther from the elemental than controlled temperature baths. Braising short ribs at 138 degrees for three weeks...yum, just as nature intended.

And so I revert to the elemental. Gunpowder: Charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. I spent a glorious afternoons a few weeks ago playing with two forms of gunpowder: Black and smokeless.

The black powder was used while shooting a 50 caliber muzzle loader. Pure glorious. Let me set the stage. I hate shooting rifles. I am good at it but that doesn't mean I like it. The crack of the bullet (seriously, wear ear protection) the recoil of the rifle...it ain't fun. I can do the macho crap and suck it up, but honestly I would rather be eating some chicken wings than spending time on the shooting range.

The difference between black powder in the muzzle loader and smokeless powder in a modern rifle is best described as the difference between being punched really hard in the shoulder and receiving a strong shove. The black powder is a big shove...a big messy shove.

It doesn't get much more elemental than a muzzle loader. Measure your powder (pyrodex) and pour it down the muzzle. Place a lubricated patch over the exit of the muzzle, place a 50 caliber ball on top of the patch and ram the ball down onto the powder. Load a primer onto the trigger and fire. You get a massive amount of smoke, a "Kabam!" that garners respect at the range, and a massive hole in your paper target. Oh, by the way, it is really fun and doesn't hurt. For anybody who has the least bit of interest...go to a gun range and get someone to educate you about this. I cannot stress how much fun this is and how easy it is. That being said, you need someone to walk you through it the first time. Crap can happen.

So after firing massive lead missles we spent the rest of the afternoon making rifle rounds for the 30-30. This uses a smokeless gunpowder. I shall not go into details because it would be meaningless until you have experience doing it. Let me say this: It is easy once you have the right equipment. The right equipment will cost ~$150. Get someone from the gun range to show you. People at the range are lunatics, but in a nice way. Don't be a judgemental ass, ask to be enlightened and they will be happy to share the knowledge. It ain't hard, it's a lot of fun and it's very elemental.

Seriously....muzzleloaders are the definition of the serious fun. Go to the range and learn from the lunatics. Sanity is a matter of perspective.

Beats the hell out of sous vide.

Pressed Beef: A nod and a wink

I saw an interesting recipe for cured beef the other day and thought it would be worth a try. The recipe was from the Blacksmith Steakhouse Bar and consisted of placing a steak in a cure, pressing it for 24 hours, then serving it sliced very thin.

So with a nod of my head to Larbo who got me thinking about cured pressed beef in the first place, I thought I might as well give a version of this a try.

0.65 lbs chuck steak

18 grams salt

18 grams brown sugar

5 grams black pepper

The cure was applied and the steak placed in a Ziploc bag. I placed the bag on a cookie sheet and pressed them with 30 pounds for 24 hours. Why 30 lbs? Well obviously because 40 would have been too much. I took me a while to figure out exactly how to press them but then I realized that what would work was a large book to evenly distribute the weight of the 30 lbs. There was no question as to what the book should be: So with a wink of my eye to The Foodie..out came the best use for Bittman's Vegetarian cookbook I have found to date.

I can't say that I loved this but I can say it was very interesting. Incredibly tender, very flavorful and a great way to extend a reasonable piece of meat over several servings. I just had it straight and then with some bread but I can imagine it would make a great highlight to a salad. My only hesitation with this is the texture...tastes good, just doesn't feel right.

I like the fact that this had been pressed. The amount of liquid expelled was tremendous and the resulting firmness made this a breeze to slice.

Interesting side note...when served thinly sliced it tasted pretty dang good. When I took one and pan seared it the result was inedible.

Fun with The Girl

I have made several posts that have involved The Boy, mainly because we are off doing "guy stuff". However, my wife correctly pointed out that I need to spend more time with The Girl.

And so out came the chocolate.

Nothing here is cutting edge or particularly interesting, but it was fun. And we had fun together.

I poured a bag on mini milk chocolate chips into a bowl and had The Girl melt them in the microwave. 30 seconds of power, a minute of stirring, repeat until melted. Pretty straightforward with the appropriate amount of spillage and lickage.

We started by dipping pretzels into the chocolate and then did some peanuts. Later we dipped bananas and mini-marsh mellows. All good stuff. For desert we had chocolate chip cookies covered in chocolate. Of course desert is not the end. The end was the grand finale...chocolate covered bacon.

Time well spent.