WEBVTT - Ep. 352: Render - Calling All Chefs for the Squirrel Cook Off 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.239 My name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production of 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.400 the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.760 we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.320 of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f HF Gear, 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.520 American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.320 to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:48.800 Welcome to the Bear Grease Render. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:51.200 I knew I was here for some reason. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.280 Yeah, man, well it's been a while since we've had 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.040 Joe Wilson on the show. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.360 The Illustrious Joe Wilson. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:00:59.680 I wish I knew what that meant. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:05.919 But just look in the mirror, bro, and start calling 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.920 stuff that you think looks like that. Just see how 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:09.319 it goes. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.000 I got it, man. 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:12.319 It's good to have you, Joe Man. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.319 I appreciate you'all having me back and always have a 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:15.800 good time. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.240 Learned something, Yeah, man, We've got Barry Newcomb here, Josh 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.559 is here. Uh. I feel like looking at the screen 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:25.319 of what's on the screen, I feel like I need 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.479 to explain something real quick. This is a painting of Tecumsa. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.200 This is a famous painting of Daniel Boone. And this 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.560 is an Ai image of my mother, Judy Nukelem. So 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:44.600 she retired, my daughter made retirement party decorations of Juju. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.760 This is who we call Juju and uh and my 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.400 daughter made that and uh and like made them on 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.960 a like a like a hanging banner. So there was 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.200 just like Juju's everywhere, and it was so my mother's 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:58.960 so close, such a great woman. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:00.000 It's pretty. 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.240 I mean, if there were seven ladies in this room, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:05.560 you'd be able to pick her up. I got you, 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.600 but I thought it was appropriate to be up here 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.560 by Tecumsa and Boon. All legends, all legends in their 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:18.040 own rights. But uh, no, Joe, you I've been hearing 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.640 a lot about your uh, your trip to Alaska. Where 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:23.640 when were you all up there? And what did y'all do? 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.680 Oh man, this year we were there in May. And 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.840 I think it's the first time, Clay anybody's ever cooked 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.000 a whole moose, like spit roasted a whole mood. 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:36.880 You spit roasted a whole moose. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.640 Spit roasted a whole moose. And uh, you know, I 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.760 tried to plan out stuff a little bit. Actually that's 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.960 not right. I'm more of a scrambler. Okay, you know, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.680 and I think I work best in scramble mode. But 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.720 you know, as you're driving down to get to cook Inlet, 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.320 there's road signs and those road signs will have a 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.959 picture of a mood and they'll say how many moose 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.320 versus vehicle accidents have taken place that year? And I 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:09.720 guess as we were coming into town the sign said 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:14.920 one hundred and sixty three. Now, yeah, So the moose 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:22.520 that we cooked was harvested via a ford raptor, okay, 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.600 just at the knees, and so whenever the truck hit 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.720 it at the knees, that moose had severe whiplash and 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:36.280 didn't make it. So there's a list in Alaska to 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:41.280 where roadkill bears, moose, whatever it is, they'll give you 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.120 a call. So my friends are on the list. And 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.520 about midnight Arkansas time I get the call, which you know, 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.480 I'm asleep. I get the call, Hey, you want this moose? 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.360 And Joe Wilson doesn't say no no to them. 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.440 Is this is the timing of it coming up? Or 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.040 do they have a way that they can freeze it. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:05.840 We're about a month and a half out. 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.400 Okay, so they would have to process it and then 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:09.000 freeze it. 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.760 Yeah, So the moose is about thirty miles from their house. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.560 They get the call. Just so what happens like in 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.920 most of Alaska, they got stuff. So they had a 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:24.480 miniature excavator flatbed trailer and they went wow, and they 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.840 picked this thing up off the road with a little 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.400 mini X, put it on the trailer, took it back, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.960 skinned it, butchered well, processed it for a whole roast, 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.440 and called me in the morning. They said, you remember 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.440 what we talked about last night? And I said, I'm 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.200 cooking a moose and they said, yeah. So you know 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:45.960 it's a story, Clay. 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.280 So so a second, Joe, slide forward for me. Just 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.880 yep and Bear and Clay, you guys need to get 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:56.039 a little bit closer. 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:57.400 Look, needle to move. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.840 Probably Bear, Bear, just slide that way a little bit. 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.719 That's better, all right. 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.640 So it's it's a story, Clase. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.880 So so, so Joe lives in Arkansas. Just to establish 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:12.520 that you live here in Arkansas. You got buddies in Alaska. 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.520 You go up there every year, been going eighteen years. 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:17.440 And so now you got a moose. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.919 So now we got a moose. I know how to 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:27.560 season meat. I know that I'm gonna need fire, but 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:29.840 I know how hard it is to get things to 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.440 rural Alaska. And so I worked out a deal with 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.279 the with the charcoal company, and they flew me a 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:42.120 pallet a charcoal, and uh, I worked out of steel 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.880 to where I got a pallet of pecan wood. 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.480 Oh nice, which it's probably not native to the last 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:49.279 not a lot. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.839 Of pecans in Alaska, you might call pecan can. 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:55.360 First time I went to the last guy was on 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.920 a little old trail out by Denali, and as far 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.320 as you could see, everything was about three three and 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.720 a half foot tall, you know, the shrubs. And I 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:07.880 was walking on this trail and I thought, someone keeps 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.280 dropping their pecans all over this trail, and there would 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.000 be a pile, you know, like a coffee can worth 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.320 of pecans. And after about half a mile of walking, 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.880 I reached down there and grab me one of them pecans. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.120 I gave it him a little miut. It didn't man, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.200 it was just because they're eating It was a moose hurt. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.479 So they're eating all this bark and all of this 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.880 dry stuff, and I bear would do the same thing. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.120 I just squeeze this old pecan and it turns into dust. 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.360 Well back where we were at, back to the road kill. 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.839 So h I get the wood, I get the charcoal. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.960 I know all about seasoning. I get the seasoning shipped 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.440 up there. And I'm thinking, how am I going to 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:03.480 cook this moose? Because I'm gonna need something. The best 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.160 I could do was I went on Amazon and I 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.679 ordered a bed frame that said it was all steel 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.280 and it would ship via Prime. And I'm thinking, I'm 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.640 gonna sprawl this moose out corner to corner, build me 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.120 a fire around it, and I'm gonna cook a moose 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.400 on a bed How's that sound? 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:28.880 Sounds risky? 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.320 So this is a plan. We make a little flyer, 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:39.760 we invite the whole village. Everything's riding on this bed frame. Well, 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.640 we go to Whittier, We bear hunt for three days 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:48.720 and fish and shrimp and it's not relaxing because I 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.480 got this big mission ahead of me. I gotta perform. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:57.320 And we show up in the nil chick, Alaska and 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.440 the first thing I want to do is see my cooker. 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.840 And it's in a little old six inch box about 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.920 four foot tall. And I opened it up and three 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.680 quarters of the pieces are plastic. 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.480 But it's supposed to be still. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.280 It's set all still man and I got it for 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:21.320 a stell and Prime shipped it for free. So everybody's 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.800 bought something on Amazon that, Oh you don't get what 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.000 you think you're going. This happened to me in the 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:31.000 middle of Alaska. So that day there was three gentlemen 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.160 I had never met in my life. A mountain lion 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:40.080 hunter from South Arizona. Great story about that guy. A chiropractor, 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.040 and a cowboy are at the same a little setup 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.320 for a joke. It sounds like a joke, it's not. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.319 They come up and they said, we hear you're cooking 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.080 a moose. I said, yeah, but I ain't got nothing 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.200 to cook it on. They said, we're master fabricators. We 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.640 can build anything. So in Alaska, in your yards it's 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.560 like Oklahoma times ten. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.200 They don't get rid of anything. 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.760 They don't get rid of nothing. So we go on 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:10.160 a little field trip scavenger hunt. We get about ten 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.440 miles off the highway and there's a like a Scooby 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.880 Doo version of an RV park, kind of like you 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.960 know how it's kind of spooky, and sitting off in 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:27.680 the corner is a spit roasting barbecue pit all by itself. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:29.359 I've already built. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.439 Already built. So we ease down this road, get over there. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:37.160 It's got two flat tires, it's rusted out, it's got 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:42.720 an electric motor. And they said would that work? I said, yeah, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.880 and yep, let's use it, They said, I said, who 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:51.480 we asking? Don't worry about it. So come to find 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.440 out I can to fix a flat and that part 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.480 of Alaska is twenty eight dollars, you know. And we 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.679 buy a couple of cans fixed flat, put it in there. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.000 We go, drive a little bit, maybe fifty yards. We 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.199 got two more, you know, two flat tires. Again, go 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.800 to town, get an air compressor at one of these 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:15.120 guys's place, and got a cowboys sitting in the barbecue pit. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.000 And as we're driving down the road, he's hopping out 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.800 about every three hundred yards filling up the tires. We 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.640 get it back. First thing I want to do is plug 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.960 this bigger in, you know, right, I plug it in 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.440 and it's got a pulse. You hear a little. That's 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.839 a good sign. We find out that this barbecue pit 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.040 had set over there about twenty years. An electric motor 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:44.920 in Alaska uncovered. You can imagine what that's like. And 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.120 it had a pulse. We spent about fourteen hours working 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:49.800 on this deal. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.600 Now, when when do we have to feed the people? 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:53.360 The next day? 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.360 The next day, so this is the day before. 0:10:55.600 --> 0:11:01.160 Still haven't seen the moose. Okay, I mean, there's no 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.160 point in seeing the moose if I don't have something 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:03.840 to cook it off. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.120 And uh is the moos frozen at this time? 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.640 I don't know. I know there's a moose, and I'd 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:18.760 heard this moose was about six hundred pounds. And as 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.040 locals start showing up helping us, everybody wants to help. 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:23.760 This is a big party of the year. You know. 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:29.760 This moose keeps getting lighter and lighter and lighter. And 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:34.000 I'm not discouraged by this. That means I could sleep sleep, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.480 sleep right. And so we get the barbecue pit, We'll 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:43.240 get a new chain, get it all greased up. It's 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.600 running jumping the truck. We go to where the moose 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.240 is and one of these homemade walk in coolers, you know, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.280 And I pull up with the trailer and the guy says, oh, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.400 you won't need that trailer. I'm theying I'm here to 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.319 pick up a rabbit or something, you know. He said 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.200 that moose it don't weigh two hundred and fifty pounds. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.080 And we open up the door and it was about 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:16.800 two hundred fifty pounds, so it was a yearly a calf, yeah, 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.240 which is still a big piece of meat. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:20.000 Right. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.840 I mean, you're not going to cook a hog two 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.320 hundred and fifty pounds and be successful. You want a 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.640 hog one hundred and ten one hundred and twenty pounds, right. 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:29.599 So we pick up the moose, bring it back and 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.560 I rubbed this whole moose down with vinegar, clean it 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:39.400 all up with vinegar, and then season it, tarpe it. 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.400 Go in, get some sleep, and the whole night while 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.640 I'm trying to sleep, I'm thinking bears are going to 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.640 come eat my moose, or all them eagles you see 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.560 is going to peck this moose apart. Nothing happened. Four 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.640 o'clock in the morning, we put it on. We cooked 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:59.440 this moose for sixteen hours and that barbecue hit never missed. 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:03.679 The lick really fit roasting this thing. 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.080 Now, are you all right? So what's your what's your 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.839 strategy for those sixteen hours? Are you basting that? 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.600 Yeah? So believe it or not. There's not a lot 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.800 inside this house set on it. So there was a 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.280 two and a half gallon bucket of peanut ol sitting 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.480 over there, and I took peanut oil. I took some 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:30.640 mustard that was in the fridge and some Greek seasoning 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.800 and I mixed it all up, pretty much made an 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.800 Italian dressing. And I paid about fifty bucks for a 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:43.520 mop because it's Alaska, and we mopped this thing, baseded 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:45.880 it the whole time. But Clay, I had no idea 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:50.439 what I was even shooting for, you know, because if 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.720 you talk to Alaskans, moose isn't high on the I mean, 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:58.360 it's grind They want to grind it down. Yeah, it's 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.319 not like their favorite thing to eat. They all have moose. 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.600 Someone's giving a moose, but it's not their favorite. And 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:11.360 here I am, redneck from Arkansas cooking a moose, having 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.959 the time of my life. And it got to the point, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:16.960 fourteen hours into this stal to where I could poke 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.840 my finger through the ham of this moose. Really yeah, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.480 yeah it was. It was pretty amazing. And anytime you're 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.320 roasting a whole animal, it's the most inefficient way to cook. 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.960 H Heat's escaping Yeah, the ribs are gonna be overcooked, 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.960 the hams are gonna be undercooked. It's just and there's 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.120 an art form to getting real close. But you can't 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.320 cook a whole animal perfect. So what do you do 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.040 anytime something's not gonna be perfect? You call it tacos? 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.400 Right, So it just started just like shaving it off. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.800 We debone this thing. We got it all deboned. I 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.000 went chopping. I had three guys working over some oil 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.560 over there. We made fry bread, and we made Indian 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.880 tacos and we fed about two hundred and fifty people. Now, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.400 if you ask me, the moose was okay. But when 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.040 Alaskan's come around and tell you that's the best moose 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.080 they ever ate, they either want to be your friend 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:20.680 or they're telling you the truth, you know. 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.320 And so it was good. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.600 It was fantastic. Man. We actually we filmed the whole deal. 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:28.000 What are you gonna do with that? 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.120 It's gonna be on dead meat on the outdoor channel? 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:33.960 Wow? 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.840 Yeah cool in February, I think so. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.080 Yeah, it was the adventure. 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:42.680 Very cook of moose. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.640 Yeah, we I've killed a bose and we we spent 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:47.760 two years eating one. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.440 Yeah, a lot of frying it. I guess what did 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:51.920 you do with that? 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.400 Man? So I would if you'd asked me without you 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.080 saying what you said about how people view moose, I 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.280 would have said they view it pretty high, like as 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.520 a as a I mean, we we ate a lot 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.480 of ground meat, just like burgers, chili, tacos, that kind 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:13.920 of stuff. But uh, but man, a moose steak. Becca Spring, 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.840 justin Becka Spring made me a moose steak one time 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.160 when I was at their house in Montana, and I'm 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.360 telling you it was as good as a beef file 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:23.480 at but so it's it's pretty good. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.720 I thought it was. I thought it was good too, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.680 I mean, and we got to sample backstrap and yeah, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:29.520 was there. 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:33.680 A prime piece on it? Man? 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.600 Of course the tender loins were sure were tender loins. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.800 Like like everything. It was just well flavored. And you know, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.400 that's one of the deals with wild game. That's that's 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.040 beend my bread and butter for a long time, trying 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.040 to cook things that either people don't want to try, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.680 you know, like they'll say, that's that's not what we 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.120 you know, in Alaska. When we first went to Alaska 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.560 eighteen years ago, every cod we caught they thought was 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.080 a trash fish, and we were I was watching the 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.960 guide and he's shaking them off, putting them back, and 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.680 after about a dozen of them, I said, hey, Bubba, 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:10.760 next one of us, you get, go ahead and shake 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.040 it off in that box there. We'll cook it for dinner. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.760 And he said, you don't want to eat cod. I said, 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.200 look where I come from, we see the word cod 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:23.959 on the menu. We much rather eat that than catfish. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.280 You know, it's to us, it's an exotic bill and 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.080 it's good. And so we started cooking cod. And over 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.360 the years, cod kept being put in a boat, not 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.239 only our boat, but other people's boat. There's a lot 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.880 of animals like that, you know. That's thus the squirrel. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.440 That's why we started the squirrel Cookoff, was to show 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.359 people that this meat that they think is so exotic 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.600 and strange, tree, rat or whatever. We wanted to showcase 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.600 whatever you're out there harvesting, whether it be fish or 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.679 fowl or a bear or whatever it is, there's ways 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.000 you can cook it and you can it into something 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.040 fit for two hundred and fifty people, yeah, or some 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.000 the Squirrel Cookoff thousands of people. 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.680 Yeah, definitely a lot of critters that get a bad 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.600 reputation just for like no real reason, or like one 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.520 person had a bad experience with it, and then like 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.000 all of a sudden, it becomes like a cultural thing. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:23.160 We live in a time period where we're eating the 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.400 most the wildest meat that humans have ever eaten, where 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.480 we're taking beef, cows and pork and chicken, genetically modifying 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.840 them some of them, the chicken and whatnot, feeding them 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.840 out with corn to the point of obesity. And that's 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.520 the norm. Yeah, so the standard for modern society, at 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.640 least in the Western world, would be you know, like 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.720 a really like the highest end in human history of 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.960 a beef and pork. So, you know, if you just 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.000 go back a little ways, I mean, you know, there 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.919 was it wasn't that long ago when you look at 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.000 the span of of human history that they were selling 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.680 deer and bear and all kind of stuff in these 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.000 big meat markets, and even in the big cities, you know, 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.199 and these they're Saint Louis and Memphis and Chicago had 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.159 these huge outdoor markets and I mean, well throughout they 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.120 were selling wild game. People loved it. 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.480 Throughout your storytelling on this show, I mean we've learned 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:30.960 about market animals, you know, and and how bear was 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.440 something that people wanted to eat and buffalo tongue, right, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:39.360 wasn't that a big deal? And it's it's amazing how 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.040 we went so far backwards on today. I'm really not 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:47.200 scared to cook any of them. Have you ever eate porcupine, 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:49.000 believe it or not? 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:49.920 I have. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:51.119 It's good too, right. 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.479 It tastes like it tastes like spruces. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.199 The one you ate tastes like spruce. One I ate 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:58.120 taste like gumbo. 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.480 So you cooked it up there? Yeah. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.080 They come to me one one night and they said, 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.360 you ever cooked baby bear? And I said no, And 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.760 they said, we've got a baby bear? Will you cook it? 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.560 And they brought out a bag and the only thing right, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.040 I'll fast forward. It's a porcupine. But the only thing 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.479 the only thing that's got fur is its feet, and 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:26.600 so it's got the fur around it looks like it 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:31.920 looks like little baby bear feet. And they said, that's 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:33.560 a baby bear. What are you gonna do with it? 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.120 I said, well, sounds like gumbo to me, and made 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:43.760 porcupine gumbo and it was fantastic for me. It was beefy. 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.520 It had it had a good beef flavored. But what 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:49.679 you said is one hundred percent right. Whatever these animals 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.680 are eating, I mean you could take if you take 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.919 a steer, and we want to finish that steer and 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.320 we finish it on grains and sweets to get that 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.040 meat taste right. There's a lot of stuff cariboo to me, 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.280 If you ask me what cariboo tastes like, I tell 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:09.719 you sage, because the cariboo that I ate it had 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.320 been eating a lot of sage, you know. And so 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.720 the same thing goes with squirrels. The springtime squirrel, to me, 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.440 is a heck of a lot better than that squirrel 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.959 that you're going to be harvesting in August September whenever. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.640 They're just eating that old green stuff off the makrons. 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:33.360 Yeah yeah, so yeah, man, Well, World champions Squirrel Cookoff. 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:38.600 So Joe is the founder of the World Championship Squirrel 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:38.960 cook Off. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.560 I think Joe's secretly getting rich off of the squirrel Cookoff. 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:44.320 It's gonna tell my wife. 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:46.120 I mean, he can't work this hard and not get 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:46.840 anything out of it. 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.359 Man, I get the fun of being around some people 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:56.920 for one day. It's been one hundred percent no profit. 0:21:57.280 --> 0:21:59.480 How many years now, Well, the first one was in 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.119 two thousand and eleven. Wow, and we missed a couple 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:07.439 for COVID, you know. And but yeah, twenty eleven. I 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.840 think most folks probably know the story. If you don't, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.480 we were filming Bizarre Foods for the Travel Channel. Yeah, 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:15.800 we need to review this. Do you remember this bear? 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:20.320 Clay was part of it. Yeah? Yeah, and the part 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.520 of the lie, part of the lie, because one of 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.760 the big backstories on that is what's the old boy Blake. 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:30.840 There's a guy named Blake. He had a big old 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.200 bear on camera and we were supposed to. 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.080 Film Oh yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.440 Yeah, we were supposed to film Blake hunting this bear 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:41.919 and then once he got the bear, we were going 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.359 to cook up the bear. And camera crew showed up. 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:50.080 Now this isn't an outdoor camera crew. This is a 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.320 big city, big lights, big cameras. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.600 It's our foods with Andrew Zimmern's crew. 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:59.720 And the director had a big old cigar. 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.280 You remember this, Yeah, you would think you would think 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.320 this guy's the director of a you know, Hollywood production, 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.320 right had he played the part? 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:11.320 Well, yeah, and he has got a big old cigar 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:14.679 and shows up to do this hunt smoking a cigar 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.840