Let's get to cooking!!

[Colorado kid]

Nitrates are a preservative. I don't think it's necessary in pastrami. Store it properly or eat it in a reasonable amount of time and you shouldn't need pink salt. Use kosher ot sea salt. How do you like cooking sous vide style? Its pretty impressive, isnt it?

 

[Colorado kid]

These sound tasty! Made me think of another one...

Goose stir fry. Slice the breasts thin, stir fry quickly with celery, carrots, water chestnuts, snow peas, some grated ginger and whatever else strikes your fancy. A little soy sauce and toasted almonds, serve over rice. I'm normally not a huge ginger fan, but waterfowl and ginger were made for each other!

For corned goose breast, I just subbed geese in for venison in Hank Shaw's corned venison recipe in Buck, Buck, Moose. For pastrami, I use his pastrami recipe here. Use the absolute largest goose breasts you can in the pastrami recipe. It's really hard to keep smaller ones (snow geese for example) from getting way too salty. I'm dialing it in, but it's taken a couple of tries. Even when on the salty side though, the flavor is outstanding.

I hope we get more contributions from you, Hunting wife!! You're the 3rd person who clearly knows their stuff and who has referenced that book to me. Gonna have to buy it now!!

 

[JohnCushman]

These sound tasty! Made me think of another one...

Goose stir fry. Slice the breasts thin, stir fry quickly with celery, carrots, water chestnuts, snow peas, some grated ginger and whatever else strikes your fancy. A little soy sauce and toasted almonds, serve over rice. I'm normally not a huge ginger fan, but waterfowl and ginger were made for each other!

For corned goose breast, I just subbed geese in for venison in Hank Shaw's corned venison recipe in Buck, Buck, Moose. For pastrami, I use his pastrami recipe here. Use the absolute largest goose breasts you can in the pastrami recipe. It's really hard to keep smaller ones (snow geese for example) from getting way too salty. I'm dialing it in, but it's taken a couple of tries. Even when on the salty side though, the flavor is outstanding.

Instead of soy, try sesame oil for the cooking and toasted sesame seeds with your stir fry. Also, when you do corned meat, soak your meat in water for a couple hours, changing the water every hour after you pull it from the brine. That will remove some of the saltiness. I also found when I smoke meats for pastrami, mesquite smoke adds a bit more of a salty flavor if your meat is already salty. Hickory is a good wood for smoking pastrami. Are you rubbing the meat with mustard along with the seasonings for the pastrami? I have found that plain cheap yellow mustard is great because of it's strong vinegar property. You don't taste a mustard flavor in the finished smoked product. That will also counteract the saltiness. But, I have had the best luck with any corned meat buy soaking in water first. Even for when you boil the corned roast. If not, the salt will bleed out into your braising liquid and will also make pastrami salty after the smoke.

 

[JohnCushman]

I hope we get more contributions from you, Hunting wife!! You're the 3rd person who clearly knows their stuff and who has referenced that book to me. Gonna have to buy it now!!

Get his new book also. It's for small game and game birds. It's called Pheasant, quail, and Cotton Tail.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Nitrates are a preservative. I don't think it's necessary in pastrami. Store it properly or eat it in a reasonable amount of time and you shouldn't need pink salt. Use kosher ot sea salt. How do you like cooking sous vide style? Its pretty impressive, isnt it?

I love it, I honestly didn't cook much until I got one now it's how I cook virtually all my meat and about 50% of all my other recipes.

I almost feel like is a requirement for a hunter to own one, I realized after my first steak that the "tough" issue I was having with wild game meats was simply that they didn't have much fat and were drying out on the grill or a pan. For a bit I was doing elk and mule deer steaks for 12hours+ but then quickly realized that 90min was fine as the issue wasn't the inherent toughness of the meat but it drying out.

Also my wife and I work pretty long hours and being able to toss dinner in the water bath and then only having 5-10 min of finishing once we get home is phenomenal. Also not having to worry about dinner getting destroyed if my wife gets stuck in an 8 hour surgery that went 15 hours is amazing... we had some issues with crockpot cooking... apparently you can screw that up...

 

[Colorado kid]

I love it, I honestly didn't cook much until I got one now it's how I cook virtually all my meat and about 50% of all my other recipes.

I almost feel like is a requirement for a hunter to own one, I realized after my first steak that the "tough" issue I was having with wild game meats was simply that they didn't have much fat and were drying out on the grill or a pan. For a bit I was doing elk and mule deer steaks for 12hours+ but then quickly realized that 90min was fine as the issue wasn't the inherent toughness of the meat but it drying out.

Also my wife and I work pretty long hours and being able to toss dinner in the water bath and then only having 5-10 min of finishing once we get home is phenomenal. Also not having to worry about dinner getting destroyed if my wife gets stuck in an 8 hour surgery that went 15 hours is amazing... we had some issues with crockpot cooking... apparently you can screw that up...

Ha!! My mom was the crock pot queen when I was growing up. Single mom who worked the ER 14+ hours at a time. I understand why she did it but it's also one of the main reasons I became a chef!! I am a huge fan of sous vide and its probably the best kitchen tool a hunter can have....minus maybe a smoker!! (Threw that in for Cushman!!)

 

[JohnCushman]

Braised meals are also a good choice for long work hours, if you don't mind leaving your oven on all day. Put your onions and carrots and celery and bell peppers and root veggies and garlic in a bowl after cutting them. Season them with salt and pepper and wix together with a little olive oil. Season your roast on all sides and sear on high heat on the stove in an enameled cast iron dutch oven and any pot with a cover that can be put in the oven and take it out and put your veggie mixture in and sautee in the oil you cooked the roast in for a few minutes. Spread them out on the bottom and put your roast on them. Fill the pot with red wine (I like burgundy) and beef stock to cover the roast. Cook at 250 for at least 8 hours covered. Leave the roast alone and don't uncover it to look at it while it cooks. When you're ready to eat take the roast out and put in a bowl and cover it with foil. Strain the braising liquid and thicken it with a cornstarch slurry to make a gravy. I actually add heavy cream to it and thicken with a roux sometimes for a creamier gravy. Season it to taste. I take the potatoes and veg mix and put it in a blender and puree it or in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer to get a little thicker mash to make something like mashed potatoes. Serve the roast and puree with a little gravy and serve it with a nice side salad. The roast will be amazingly tender and juicy. I like using tougher roasts. Gerald showed me this on a bear roast at the first HT bear hunt, and I continue to tweek it and use it.

 

[SherpaPhil]

Awesome thread, thanks!

I cook game a lot, and I BBQ a lot, but I have never tried a long smoke on any kind of venison. I have always been afraid that without any fat, it would just end up really dry. Is this something I should be worried about, and if so, how do I get around it? I got several roasts in the freezer from a young whitetail doe, both from the front and hind quarters. How should I give them a go on the smoker?

 

[JohnCushman]

Awesome thread, thanks!

I cook game a lot, and I BBQ a lot, but I have never tried a long smoke on any kind of venison. I have always been afraid that without any fat, it would just end up really dry. Is this something I should be worried about, and if so, how do I get around it? I got several roasts in the freezer from a young whitetail doe, both from the front and hind quarters. How should I give them a go on the smoker?

You're not going to cook venison or game roasts like a brisket to a well done temperature in the smoker. I like to inject the roast with beef stock and smoke it covered with bacon. You're not going to get a nice smoke ring or bark. I smoke it at 250 with heavy smoke to an internal temperature of about 130 in the middle. Pull it and wrap in foil for a while until it gets to the doneness by temperature that you want. Fruit woods are a nice compliment to game meats. Another cool thing to do is called a 'reverse sear'. Smoke the roast to about 120 covered with the bacon. Pull it and and take the bacon off and put it on a hot grill, grilling all sides and getting really cool grill marks. Cook it on the grill to 130 and pull and wrap like I mentioned before.

 

[cgarner]

Braised meals are also a good choice for long work hours, if you don't mind leaving your oven on all day. Put your onions and carrots and celery and bell peppers and root veggies and garlic in a bowl after cutting them. Season them with salt and pepper and wix together with a little olive oil. Season your roast on all sides and sear on high heat on the stove in an enameled cast iron dutch oven and any pot with a cover that can be put in the oven and take it out and put your veggie mixture in and sautee in the oil you cooked the roast in for a few minutes. Spread them out on the bottom and put your roast on them. Fill the pot with red wine (I like burgundy) and beef stock to cover the roast. Cook at 250 for at least 8 hours covered. Leave the roast alone and don't uncover it to look at it while it cooks. When you're ready to eat take the roast out and put in a bowl and cover it with foil. Strain the braising liquid and thicken it with a cornstarch slurry to make a gravy. I actually add heavy cream to it and thicken with a roux sometimes for a creamier gravy. Season it to taste. I take the potatoes and veg mix and put it in a blender and puree it or in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer to get a little thicker mash to make something like mashed potatoes. Serve the roast and puree with a little gravy and serve it with a nice side salad. The roast will be amazingly tender and juicy. I like using tougher roasts. Gerald showed me this on a bear roast at the first HT bear hunt, and I continue to tweek it and use it.

I do this with beef short ribs. Turns out great.

 

[Colorado kid]

Awesome thread, thanks!

I cook game a lot, and I BBQ a lot, but I have never tried a long smoke on any kind of venison. I have always been afraid that without any fat, it would just end up really dry. Is this something I should be worried about, and if so, how do I get around it? I got several roasts in the freezer from a young whitetail doe, both from the front and hind quarters. How should I give them a go on the smoker?

Exactly what Cushman said!! Clearly that guy knows how to cook!! Look up "barding" and "larding". Both are very viable ways to keep meat moist in the smoker and or oven.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Instead of soy, try sesame oil for the cooking and toasted sesame seeds with your stir fry. Also, when you do corned meat, soak your meat in water for a couple hours, changing the water every hour after you pull it from the brine. That will remove some of the saltiness. I also found when I smoke meats for pastrami, mesquite smoke adds a bit more of a salty flavor if your meat is already salty. Hickory is a good wood for smoking pastrami. Are you rubbing the meat with mustard along with the seasonings for the pastrami? I have found that plain cheap yellow mustard is great because of it's strong vinegar property. You don't taste a mustard flavor in the finished smoked product. That will also counteract the saltiness. But, I have had the best luck with any corned meat buy soaking in water first. Even for when you boil the corned roast. If not, the salt will bleed out into your braising liquid and will also make pastrami salty after the smoke.

Thanks for the tips Cush! Gets the wheels turning on things to try. I've got the corned recipe figured out, but that pastrami recipe is definitely taking some trial and error. Will experiment with soaking on the smaller birds and see what happens. Never thought to try mustard, but I'll have to now! I've tried dunking them in a few different acids, and my favorite is easily apple cider vinegar so far. Will try messing around with the smoke too - we are new to the smoker so still have a lot to learn. I would love to make this pastrami recipe work with snow geese if I can get the salt figured out!

 

[cedahm]

Thank you and that sounds fantastic!! I'm stealing this one and adding it to my archives!! Have you tried this with both pheasant and grouse? If so, which did you prefer??

I mostly do it with pheasants since Blue grouse don’t last very long around my house (a lot of times they don’t even make it off the mountain). Mostly just badly shot up grouse end up in the sausage box in the freezer (I keep an old waxed box in there for torn up birds). It may make zero difference, but I use less sage and more chives (plus a little flaked red pepper) with blues since they tend to taste pretty herbaceous already.

I tried it with geese once and I won’t do that again. For whatever reason the spices and notably, the orange, did not go well together. I am now referring to everything Cushman has written in this thread for any and all geese, though, so no longer an issue

I flushed a handful of grouse scouting the last two days and am already thinking of last years ‘Nashville Hot’ fried camp grouse and salivating. Any Nashville chicken recipe will work.

 

[JohnCushman]

I mostly do it with pheasants since Blue grouse don’t last very long around my house (a lot of times they don’t even make it off the mountain). Mostly just badly shot up grouse end up in the sausage box in the freezer (I keep an old waxed box in there for torn up birds). It may make zero difference, but I use less sage and more chives (plus a little flaked red pepper) with blues since they tend to taste pretty herbaceous already.

I tried it with geese once and I won’t do that again. For whatever reason the spices and notably, the orange, did not go well together. I am now referring to everything Cushman has written in this thread for any and all geese, though, so no longer an issue

I flushed a handful of grouse scouting the last two days and am already thinking of last years ‘Nashville Hot’ fried camp grouse and salivating. Any Nashville chicken recipe will work.

I've done gumbo too with good results. Just don't cook them as long. Sautee and brown the breast chunks in the beginning and pull them out, then don't put them back in until about 10 minutes before you eat it to avoid overcooking them.

 

[BrentD]

I don't know if many of you are fans of Indian food, but I am and pheasants hold up well to curry, so tonight it is Pheasant Curry with Carrots and home-grown Purple Potatoes.

Some version of this needs to get made up and frozen for a quick meal while mule deer hunting in Wyoming this October.

And of course, I have to pay homage to Gus. Without him, this would be just Carrot and Potato Curry. Not nearly so good.

 

[JohnCushman]

BrentD....Where I was in Iraq they grew a lot of carrots. The BEST and sweetest carrots I've ever had. They would shred carrots into goat curry. It was very good. I'd never thought of putting the carrots in a curry dish, but I do it all the time now with my antelope curry. Have you tried Tikka Masala with pheasants? I've done it with dove breasts that were saved up all year and it comes out good.

 

[BrentD]

I have not done any Marsala - yet.

Game meat of all types seems to be perfectly suited to curry and other Indian foods, so I'll get around to it sooner or later.

 

[Colorado kid]

Fantastic idea for pheasant and a great looking Golden!!

Bet that curried pheasant will make a great base camp meal!!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Freezing everything including all utensils/equipment is a very good step,never thought of it in all the years of Javelina,Buffalo,Venison grinding and processing sausage etc.Noticed things went better when cold never put 2 and 2 together...Thanks Co. dirtclod Az.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

noitced Cush. mentioned Marsala and Curried.I thought Curry was a spice,and what is "Marsala"?Methods OR spices?