Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the whitetail woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile
Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light,
Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the.
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt Podcast. This week on the show, I'm
Speaker 2: joined by Danielle Pruitt to discuss her top wild game
Speaker 2: meal ideas for the holidays and the winter season, as
Speaker 2: well as techniques for cooking better venison. All right, welcome
Speaker 2: back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
Speaker 2: by First Light and the Camo for Conservation Initiative, and
Speaker 2: today we're talking food. It is edging here towards the
Speaker 2: end of December, winter is upon us. For most folks
Speaker 2: across the country. The holidays are knocking on the door steps.
Speaker 2: So what better time to take a step back from
Speaker 2: hunting and start discussing the fruits of our labor, hopefully
Speaker 2: a whole pile of venison or wild turkey or waterfowl
Speaker 2: or whatever it is you've been chasing this year. Now's
Speaker 2: a great time to eat it, share with family and friends,
Speaker 2: and really enjoy that stuff. So who better to join
Speaker 2: us to discuss all that than Danielle Pruitt, Meat Eaters
Speaker 2: leading food contributor and the author of the brand new
Speaker 2: Wild and Whole cookbook Seasonal Recipes for the Conscious cook.
Speaker 2: This is her incredible new cookbook just released this fall,
Speaker 2: full of great venison ideas as well as other things
Speaker 2: to cook with wild game, and so we are talking
Speaker 2: through all things wild game today. We discuss her best
Speaker 2: recommendations and ideas for new recipes and meals for the holidays.
Speaker 2: Some good stuff to cook around Christmas for appetizers, main courses,
Speaker 2: everything from roast ideas, things to do with your backstraps,
Speaker 2: things to do with wild turkey, brast legs, goose duck.
Speaker 2: We discuss a number of winter recipes, so things maybe
Speaker 2: that aren't just for the holidays, but also something you
Speaker 2: can cook up in those cold months of the year.
Speaker 2: Talk through some techniques, some different things that you can
Speaker 2: add to your venison repertoire no matter the time of year.
Speaker 2: If you want to cook your venison or other wild
Speaker 2: game better, if you want to enjoy more satisfying and
Speaker 2: impressive meals, our conversation today is for you, and I
Speaker 2: can't recommend Daniel's cookbook enough The Wild and Whole cookbook
Speaker 2: can be found wherever you find your books. Definitely check
Speaker 2: that out. Definitely give this one a listen. And since
Speaker 2: this is the last, I think the last podcast we're
Speaker 2: going to have before Christmas, this will also be me
Speaker 2: sending you all off towards what's hopefully the very merry
Speaker 2: Christmas and holiday season. So we're not going to belabor
Speaker 2: the point anymore. I want to get to the conversation,
Speaker 2: get you some food ideas, get your cooking and enjoying
Speaker 2: yourself and hopefully putting some incredible meals on the table
Speaker 2: here in just a matter of days. So without further
Speaker 2: ado my conversation. But Danielle Pruitt, all right with me?
Speaker 2: Now on the line is Danielle pruit Welcome back to
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: Danielle, Hey, Mark, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm great. I'm excited to be here chatting. I appreciate
Speaker 2: you making the time at a busy time of year,
Speaker 2: so thanks for being here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I mean it's it's always busy, though, isn't it.
Speaker 2: That is true. I do get that people like, ah, well,
Speaker 2: you know, is this slow down when the hunting season
Speaker 2: winds down? And for me, like the travel does. But
Speaker 2: then that's also a time when a lot of the
Speaker 2: content creation that the other half of the content, Oh
Speaker 2: the world kicks off and gets crazy. So yeah, the editing, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no easy slow part of the year, but the
Speaker 2: holidays are a little bit unique in that. And you
Speaker 2: have just kind of finished, maybe not finished, but you've
Speaker 2: been on a roller coaster over the last couple of
Speaker 2: years working on a massive project which you got to
Speaker 2: see come to life this fall, and I'm sure you're
Speaker 2: still kind of riding that wave right now into the
Speaker 2: end of the year with the book, The Incredible Cookbook,
Speaker 2: which is for those watching, Oh you got it, It's beautiful,
Speaker 2: wild and whole. Danielle, congratulations first and foremost on bringing
Speaker 2: that thing into this world.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I mean, gosh, it is such a labor
Speaker 3: of love.
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like everybody says that had a
Speaker 4: book about a book, because it really is.
Speaker 3: But that book.
Speaker 4: You know, I never thought that I was going to
Speaker 4: be able to have the opportunity to write a book.
Speaker 3: And then when we had a.
Speaker 4: Handful of people come and ask me if I would
Speaker 4: write a book, and then we got an agent, I realized,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, this is real, and so I knew
Speaker 4: kind of what I I wanted the book to be
Speaker 4: in the like I had like an end vision, but
Speaker 4: like the journey to get there was long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know how the journey to
Speaker 2: get a book is long in stressful times and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. I can only imagine that with
Speaker 2: this kind of book. That's not only since he had
Speaker 2: to write, but then also the photography and figuring out
Speaker 2: these recipes and all that. I can't imagine what all
Speaker 2: that was like.
Speaker 4: So yeah, well it's well, there's like the writing of
Speaker 4: the well there's I mean, I don't know if it's
Speaker 4: the same for I mean, you've written a book, and
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's the same for like a novel.
Speaker 3: But the proposal process alone.
Speaker 4: Is kind of intimidating, and like getting a book deal
Speaker 4: is intimidating. And then of course the actual process of
Speaker 4: writing it is for me, was just like the most
Speaker 4: fun thing I've ever done. Like if I could do
Speaker 4: anything over and over again, it would be right cook
Speaker 4: writing cookbooks. Now everything that happens after it's written is
Speaker 4: less fun, Like the marketing side of it is like
Speaker 4: not as fun, but the actual meat and potatoes of
Speaker 4: the project was really cool this book is it's seasonally
Speaker 4: based because I wanted people to like have this well,
Speaker 4: I guess what people were most excited about publish, like
Speaker 4: the publishers, what they were most excited about was that
Speaker 4: this was more of a lifestyle based cookbook. And I
Speaker 4: think most people will be surprised when you go through
Speaker 4: it to find that. And so in order to like
Speaker 4: to capture that, I felt like I needed to share
Speaker 4: the stories behind where all the food comes from, because
Speaker 4: that's a really big part of this, especially you know
Speaker 4: as a hunter, Like that's like a big part to
Speaker 4: the story. Like that's what we get excited about when
Speaker 4: we sit at the dinner table to eat a meal,
Speaker 4: is like this animal had there was something about that hunt,
Speaker 4: however long you watched that deer or whatever, And so
Speaker 4: I wanted to be able to capture that. And so
Speaker 4: it's organized by the season so that people could like
Speaker 4: get really excited about whatever is happening at any given
Speaker 4: point throughout the year, because there's always something outdoors to
Speaker 4: get really excited about, and so I wanted people to
Speaker 4: kind of like live in that moment through the recipes.
Speaker 4: And that's why the book took so long is because
Speaker 4: I wrote the book through each season as I was
Speaker 4: living in it and as I was actually inquire acquiring
Speaker 4: the ingredients for that, so that the ingredients were inspiring
Speaker 4: the recipes and not you know, the other the other
Speaker 4: way around. Like you know, I feel like sometimes people
Speaker 4: write a recipe just to kind of write a recipe,
Speaker 4: and I felt like I needed to find the ingredients
Speaker 4: first outside to sort of of dictate what I was
Speaker 4: going to do, which is why the book took so
Speaker 4: long to write.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. So this idea of it being seasonal, I
Speaker 2: love that idea, and I love that I can kind
Speaker 2: of filter the book by the time of year and
Speaker 2: what's right for that time of year kind of kind
Speaker 2: of aims what you should be going for, which fits
Speaker 2: perfectly into why I now seem the right time for
Speaker 2: us to talk because we're shifting into from fall into winter,
Speaker 2: and then there's also this micro season, which is like
Speaker 2: the holiday season right smack dad, between fall and winter.
Speaker 2: So I guess I wanted to talk practical practically to start,
Speaker 2: which would be for people tuning in right now, We've
Speaker 2: got like a week give or take until Christmas and
Speaker 2: then you had New Years, You've got all these different
Speaker 2: family get togethers and all these kinds of things. So
Speaker 2: when you when you just think about cooking in the
Speaker 2: holidays and wild game as a part of that, where
Speaker 2: does your head go, Like, what are the what are
Speaker 2: the pillars of your thinking when it comes to cooking
Speaker 2: wild game for this time of year.
Speaker 4: That's a good question as far as like how you
Speaker 4: approach it. I always kind of start with, like, what
Speaker 4: is it that I'm doing, you know, like how much
Speaker 4: of it that am I doing with family? And how
Speaker 4: much am I doing it alone? Travis and I. I mean,
Speaker 4: up until now, it's just always been the two of us,
Speaker 4: and so I always cook a meal just for the
Speaker 4: two of us, and it's kind of fun to sort
Speaker 4: of like have a celebratory meal in that way. Now
Speaker 4: I've got Hank, my five month old, who's thrown in
Speaker 4: the mix, which we can eat yet he's so close.
Speaker 4: But and then there's like kind of the other end
Speaker 4: of the spectrum where you've got you know, like my
Speaker 4: dad was just in town and that's probably the only
Speaker 4: time I'm going to be able to see my dad
Speaker 4: for the holidays, and so thinking about what it is
Speaker 4: that I want to cook for them. The first thing
Speaker 4: I do with like other people friends or families, ask
Speaker 4: him like what do you want to eat? Because I
Speaker 4: think people are always intrigued by like what I actually
Speaker 4: have in the freezer, and so that's really the first
Speaker 4: thing that's like what.
Speaker 3: Do you want to eat?
Speaker 4: Like my dad, I asked, is like I've got venison, pheasant.
Speaker 2: Duck.
Speaker 4: It was like, what do you want to eat me?
Speaker 4: He said venison. So that's kind of the first thing
Speaker 4: I think about. And then of course I dig through
Speaker 4: the freezer and try to figure out what exactly I
Speaker 4: have to cook.
Speaker 3: And then that's like the first step.
Speaker 2: So is that how you approach most your meals? Like
Speaker 2: you you look at what I currently have or do
Speaker 2: you say so yes, think through like Okay, I want
Speaker 2: to do this specific thing, and then you've got to
Speaker 2: go out and go go find it or fill the
Speaker 2: pantry from the grocery store.
Speaker 4: It's a little bit of both. It's a little bit
Speaker 4: of both, but I would say mostly it's about what
Speaker 4: I have, And I think that comes from so like
Speaker 4: I spent probably eight or nine years of eating only
Speaker 4: wild game, and I had to find ways to make
Speaker 4: that meat stretch. But I definitely like hunted year round,
Speaker 4: Like we were hunting rabbits and ducks in the winter
Speaker 4: and turkeys in the spring, and so like we were
Speaker 4: throughout the year. We had different ingredients, and like you
Speaker 4: run out of things fast, Like I only I'm lucky
Speaker 4: if I get one turkey a year, or a couple
Speaker 4: of hogs a year, a couple of handful of ducks
Speaker 4: or geese a year. And so I kind of just
Speaker 4: sort of take that inventory and say, like what do
Speaker 4: I have, because that's kind of the beauty of like,
Speaker 4: you know, hunting for your own food is that these
Speaker 4: ingredients are not something you can just go to the
Speaker 4: store and get whenever you want. There's there is a
Speaker 4: finite source of that. And so I kind of that's
Speaker 4: what I do, is I take inventory and look at
Speaker 4: what I have, and I always try to make the
Speaker 4: most of it, you know, things like venison. You know,
Speaker 4: it's we have two deer in the freezer now, and
Speaker 4: I'm hoping maybe to get one more. But you know,
Speaker 4: that's one thing that like I always have a lot of,
Speaker 4: but I only have like so many hearts, so many
Speaker 4: you know, like of each tenderloins you know, there's not
Speaker 4: a lot of those on a deer unfortunately, but but yeah,
Speaker 4: that's kind of the way.
Speaker 3: I approach it.
Speaker 2: Okay, So if I am well, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: be hypothetical, Well, I'm just gonna explain to my situation.
Speaker 2: So I've got to plan our menu for our upcoming
Speaker 2: Christmas evening celebration, and I oftentimes like to incorporate wild game,
Speaker 2: and well not even or incorporate, I substitute wild game
Speaker 2: often in for your more traditional meats. Right, So, for
Speaker 2: someone listening who's in a similar situation where they want
Speaker 2: to have a wild game centerpiece to their holiday dinner upcoming,
Speaker 2: do you have any suggestions for ways to do that,
Speaker 2: whether it's venison or something else. Do you have a
Speaker 2: handful of ways that you could kind of substitute in
Speaker 2: wild game for some classic holiday Yep.
Speaker 4: My favorite one and the one that I actually did
Speaker 4: with my dad, is.
Speaker 3: Roast venison.
Speaker 4: So like instead of like roast beef or like a
Speaker 4: prime rib, it's sort of like the closest equivalency that
Speaker 4: you could do with venison. Albeit there's not a lot
Speaker 4: of fat to it, so it's a little different in
Speaker 4: that regard. But basically taking a big roast that's really tender,
Speaker 4: and there's really only two muscles on a deer that
Speaker 4: I would suggest for this, but taking like something that's
Speaker 4: like relatively thick in size, like the surloin tip or
Speaker 4: the top round or also called the inside round. Those.
Speaker 2: Sorry to jump in, but I want to make sure
Speaker 2: we pick the right ones from what they look like.
Speaker 2: One of those is the one that looks like a football, right.
Speaker 4: Uh huh, that's like on the that would be like
Speaker 4: the equivalent of a quadricep above the kneecap, above the kneecap.
Speaker 2: And then the other ones the kind of one that
Speaker 2: looks a little bit like a mini backstrap tucked into
Speaker 2: that conch. Right, No, that's.
Speaker 4: The top round or inside round. Well, I mean, I
Speaker 4: don't know if you would call it a mini backstrap.
Speaker 2: It's like a rectangle, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Maybe we are talking about the same one. I'm pulling up.
Speaker 4: This is what I did in my book. I have
Speaker 4: this little butcher charte, and so that's the hind quarter.
Speaker 4: This is the inside of that hind quarter, so you
Speaker 4: can see like the femur and then the muscle that
Speaker 4: goes up over the hip bone. It's this one right here.
Speaker 4: It's that big rectangle one. It's got a long line,
Speaker 4: super tender, so that one and then this surloin tip
Speaker 4: above the kneecap. Those two are the most tender, like
Speaker 4: large sized roast, so that you could feed a bunch
Speaker 4: of people. And so basically what I do, and like
Speaker 4: this is like the simplest way to explain it is
Speaker 4: give it a really hot sea or on the stovetop,
Speaker 4: stick an oven proof thermometer in it, and throw it
Speaker 4: in the oven until it reaches one hundred and twenty
Speaker 4: eight and then take it out.
Speaker 2: It's like that's a.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, that's like the simple version of explaining it.
Speaker 3: So there's a recipe in my book.
Speaker 2: Is it the Venison arjous one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's.
Speaker 4: You know, you start writing this recipe out and like
Speaker 4: the editors want like the most detailed explanation. So you
Speaker 4: look at the recipe and you're like, good god, it's
Speaker 4: so long. But it's really not. Like I just told
Speaker 4: you the recipe. You see it and you stick it
Speaker 4: in the oven, and it's foolproof. And that's why I
Speaker 4: like it so much, is it's absolutely fool proof. So
Speaker 4: if you're somebody who's like very intimidated to cook like
Speaker 4: steak for a handful of people, and like one guy
Speaker 4: wants it medium rare, and the other one wants it
Speaker 4: medium and the other one wants it rare, and you're like, gosh,
Speaker 4: I got like eight sticks to cook. It's intimidating even
Speaker 4: for me.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 3: This is like one way.
Speaker 2: This is a picture ye looks really good.
Speaker 4: So basically it's just this one big roast. And what
Speaker 4: makes this kind of like if you want to elevate
Speaker 4: it a little bit, I have a recipe for a
Speaker 4: mushroom rub. So basically you see it and then you
Speaker 4: season it with this mushroom rub, which is just dehydrated
Speaker 4: mushrooms that have been blitzed with a little bit of rosemary,
Speaker 4: salt and pepper.
Speaker 3: That's all it is. But it adds a ton of flavor.
Speaker 4: And so you use that rub and then you put
Speaker 4: it in the oven, and then the thermometer is off
Speaker 4: key because you have no idea. Without that, you have
Speaker 4: no idea how fast or how slow that thing is cooking,
Speaker 4: and so you want to take it out about eight
Speaker 4: degrees before it reaches final temperature that that you want it,
Speaker 4: but that way, like when you do it, you're cooking
Speaker 4: for a lot of people. You can start with the seer,
Speaker 4: but you don't have to put it in the oven
Speaker 4: right away. You can get all your side dishes ready,
Speaker 4: put it in the oven, and then sit there and
Speaker 4: drink your beer a glass of wine, shoot the shit
Speaker 4: with people, and you're not like frantically like in the
Speaker 4: kitchen trying to figure out how am I going to
Speaker 4: get everything finished at the exact same time, because I
Speaker 4: think that's what a lot of people struggle with. So
Speaker 4: this is why I like that recipe. It's very hands off,
Speaker 4: and I think that's kind of what you want to
Speaker 4: do in the holidays, is you don't want to be like,
Speaker 4: you want a great meal, but you also don't want
Speaker 4: to be slaving away and stressing out about it either,
Speaker 4: like you should. You should enjoy your.
Speaker 3: Time with people. And so once yeah, and so.
Speaker 4: When thatmmeter hits the temperature, you just take it out,
Speaker 4: let it rest, and serve it. This recipe also comes
Speaker 4: with an ausu, so basically, like if you've got homemade
Speaker 4: venison stock or beef stock, you just reduce that down
Speaker 4: with a little red wine and some herbs and garlic,
Speaker 4: and so that's just kind of a nice little little
Speaker 4: meaty sauce that you can serve, serve with it, and
Speaker 4: you know whatever sides that you typically like mashed potatoes,
Speaker 4: something green however you like it. But that one's like
Speaker 4: really great as it is like in like thick slices
Speaker 4: with that juice. But I'll also like say, do a
Speaker 4: couple extra roasts and then have it cooled down, chilled,
Speaker 4: and once it's cold, slice it really thin and you'll
Speaker 4: get like really great sandwich meat for like the next day.
Speaker 4: So it's kind of like a you know, if you're
Speaker 4: going to go through the trouble of like making a
Speaker 4: big meal, you want to have leftovers, right, especially if
Speaker 4: there's like a lot of people in the house, a
Speaker 4: lot of lot of hungry people, like just kind of
Speaker 4: help yourself to some meat. It's kind of a nice
Speaker 4: one to have on hand.
Speaker 2: I love it. That sounds really good. So you said
Speaker 2: bigger slices and let it rest for five ten minutes
Speaker 2: before you do that.
Speaker 3: Probably, yeah, a good ten minutes.
Speaker 2: Okay. As far as like the venison main dishes, that's
Speaker 2: your go to. Is there any other venison approach? For
Speaker 2: the holidays that you would recommend backstraps or anything I've done,
Speaker 2: like a smoked backstrap. Is there any better way to
Speaker 2: utilize that one?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: I mean I think backstrap. I feel like everyone that's
Speaker 4: such a touchy subject. I feel like people have like
Speaker 4: can be really set in their ways when it comes
Speaker 4: to backstrap. Whether it's I'm not gonna say anything, but
Speaker 4: like my father in law man, the only way he'll
Speaker 4: eat it is to butterfly it open, and that's the
Speaker 4: way he likes it. To me, it's like I just
Speaker 4: don't like it so thin because it overcooks really easily.
Speaker 4: That's a personal choice. I think it's also like a very,
Speaker 4: you know, just a thing that just gets passed down
Speaker 4: from each generation and like it's and it becomes nostalgia.
Speaker 3: So I think that's why people get touchy with it.
Speaker 3: Let's see.
Speaker 4: But yeah, backstrap, I mean smoking it's good and it's
Speaker 4: it's kind of like the same concept of like you
Speaker 4: can take the whole loin And what I really like
Speaker 4: to do is almost kind of like a reverse seer
Speaker 4: where it starts on the smoker at a low temperature
Speaker 4: and at the very end seir it or vice versa.
Speaker 4: You can start by giving it a really hard sear
Speaker 4: in like a cast iron, but keep it still like
Speaker 4: raw in the metal, and then put it on the
Speaker 4: smoker until it hits you know, that medium rare one
Speaker 4: twenty eight to one thirty, and take it off.
Speaker 3: But that's the same kind of concept where you.
Speaker 4: Have like a whole honk of meat and then you
Speaker 4: can just slice it for everyone to just kind of
Speaker 4: grab it as much as they want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to make sure I got something there.
Speaker 2: Do you always take meat off about eight degrees ahead
Speaker 2: of the final temperature? Is that like your standby?
Speaker 4: So? I mean no, it depends on the size of
Speaker 4: the meat. The bigger it is, the more residual heat
Speaker 4: it will continue to carry or the residual Yeah, the
Speaker 4: residual heat will continue to cook it for even longer,
Speaker 4: so that makes sense. And also how hot it is.
Speaker 4: The hotter, like say the oven, the faster it'll that
Speaker 4: temperature will keep rising. But if you're using like a
Speaker 4: lower temperature oven that's more gentle, the slower that climbs,
Speaker 4: so when you take it out of the ove, and
Speaker 4: that residual heat will just go a little bit slower,
Speaker 4: so it just depends. And the same thing with like
Speaker 4: a smoker. You're generally going to have that smoker at
Speaker 4: like what two hundred and so it's not going to
Speaker 4: climb as high as if you had that smoker at
Speaker 4: three hundred.
Speaker 3: And fifty degrees.
Speaker 4: When you take that off, it's going to keep climb
Speaker 4: and climb and climb and climbing. So it's really a
Speaker 4: factor of the size of the meat and also how
Speaker 4: the temperature of which you're cooking. Okay, I'm sure there's
Speaker 4: a scientific term for that.
Speaker 2: I like your explanation. So back to like classic holiday
Speaker 2: dish substitutions. So that was a very good idea for
Speaker 2: like the prime but with venison. Do you have any
Speaker 2: recommendations when it comes to like a poultry or a waterfowl?
Speaker 2: Do you do you ever try to incorporate duck or
Speaker 2: wild turkey or pheasant or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Eat well, I do.
Speaker 4: Thanksgiving, our tradition was always a whole roasted pheasant. But
Speaker 4: like with us, especially at Thanksgiving, like I pretty much
Speaker 4: eat a whole pheasant to myself because I'm like a
Speaker 4: total glutton. I mean I could get by with half
Speaker 4: a pheasant, but like to be honest, I'd rather eat
Speaker 4: the whole thing because I just want a lot.
Speaker 3: So that's a hard one. Depends on how.
Speaker 4: Many people you have in your family, how many how
Speaker 4: many mouths you.
Speaker 3: Got to feed.
Speaker 4: But a lot of times with birds, I like to
Speaker 4: sort of cook them in parts. The legs are generally
Speaker 4: tougher and so like this is not really a crispsy
Speaker 4: holiday recipe, but one of my favorite things to do
Speaker 4: with like a whole pile of goose legs is to
Speaker 4: cut feed them and then I'll like season it with
Speaker 4: barbecue rub before before I cook it, and then when
Speaker 4: it's done being cooked, then you slap it on the
Speaker 4: grill and it's it's kind of my my way of
Speaker 4: having like barbecue duck legs or goose legs. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: not like a Christmas e recipe by any means, but
Speaker 4: it's winner is usually the time when we shoot the
Speaker 4: most waterfoul.
Speaker 2: That's the whole roast goose in the middle of your
Speaker 2: table like the No.
Speaker 4: I know, it's like it's like you want to do
Speaker 4: it because it's like part of for show. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: you've either you're either going to get the breast cooked
Speaker 4: perfectly or the legs cooked right, and then the other
Speaker 4: the other half is not as good, and so it's
Speaker 4: you know, it sucks, but it's just better cooked in parts,
Speaker 4: if you know. And then of course, if you took
Speaker 4: the time to pluck the skin, you really want to
Speaker 4: make that skin really nice and crispy. There's nothing I
Speaker 4: like more than a crispy seared duck breast with the
Speaker 4: skin on, and I like doing that for a bunch
Speaker 4: of people my cookbook, there's a recipe. I think the
Speaker 4: recipe is also on the Meat Eater website. It's called
Speaker 4: Boozy duck Alla Orange, and it's duck all orange is
Speaker 4: like just a famous French recipe for duck. But I've
Speaker 4: always found it to be like a little sweet for
Speaker 4: my taste, so I kind of altered it to add
Speaker 4: some bourbon in there, lush sugar. It's just a more savory,
Speaker 4: bourbon y kind of a sauce. Basically imagine an old
Speaker 4: fashion in a pan sauce.
Speaker 2: That sounds pretty good. I feel like duck. I feel
Speaker 2: like duck breast is something that feels like a pretty
Speaker 2: good Christmas alternative. What's the trick to making a good
Speaker 2: duck breast? Because I feel like, duck can be so good,
Speaker 2: but some people have this idea that it's you know,
Speaker 2: tough or kind of weird. What's the right way to
Speaker 2: do it?
Speaker 4: First, have the right duck, choose a dabbler. That's the
Speaker 4: first and foremost. I think that's probably the biggest misconception
Speaker 4: when I hear about people not liking duck, it has
Speaker 4: everything to do with their diet and what they're eating
Speaker 4: is going to tell you what they're going to taste like.
Speaker 4: And I mean, I could talk a long time about that,
Speaker 4: but I'm not I'm not going to. But as far
Speaker 4: as like the actual like way to make duck skin
Speaker 4: crispy without overcooking the meat, pluck the skin, pad it
Speaker 4: really really really really dry with paper towel, and don't
Speaker 4: salt it or anything. Score the skin through the skin
Speaker 4: and the fat, but not cutting through the meat into
Speaker 4: little hashmarks, like through through across the breast. And then
Speaker 4: you want to make sure that you bring it at
Speaker 4: like pull it from the refrigerator, like at least thirty
Speaker 4: minutes up to an hour before you actually cook. And
Speaker 4: the reason is that cold meat hitting a hot pan
Speaker 4: will create condensation, and so that condensation moisture is the
Speaker 4: enemy of crispiness, just to put it that way, So
Speaker 4: you want to pull it out of the refrigerator early,
Speaker 4: and then you want to put its skin side down
Speaker 4: in the pan while.
Speaker 3: It's still cold.
Speaker 4: So you don't want to start the pan on high
Speaker 4: heat and then add at it.
Speaker 3: You want a.
Speaker 4: Cold pan, then turn the heat onto medium high, and
Speaker 4: then I put some sort of like a weight, like
Speaker 4: a meat press weight on it, or you can use
Speaker 4: a spatula and hold it down and let it sort
Speaker 4: of start sizzling. And so what that's doing is letting
Speaker 4: the fat render out. The fat underneath that renders and
Speaker 4: the moisture escapes, and that's how you get the skin crispy,
Speaker 4: because if you just do it out over high heat,
Speaker 4: you're not rendering out that fat. So it's kind of
Speaker 4: the same idea of if you've ever had like a
Speaker 4: ribis steak or like you know, a piece of meat
Speaker 4: pork chop that's got a lot of fat on it,
Speaker 4: but like the fat hasn't been rendered and you're just
Speaker 4: kind of chewing on it. That's exactly the same thing
Speaker 4: that's underneath the duck breast and order to get the
Speaker 4: skin crispy, you have to get the fat out because
Speaker 4: it's not gonna be soft like like you would think
Speaker 4: it would be. And so once that fat renders and
Speaker 4: that skin is crispy after like three or four minutes,
Speaker 4: then you'll flip it and then cook it a few
Speaker 4: more minutes on the other side. And just like checking
Speaker 4: a steak, you can kind of like fuel the density
Speaker 4: to know when it's done and then take it off
Speaker 4: the heat and that's it. And normally I just like
Speaker 4: salt and pepper, so I don't salt salt the skin
Speaker 4: side down because it'll draw moisture out from the skin.
Speaker 4: I salt it on the meat side after I put
Speaker 4: it in the pan, and then after I flip it,
Speaker 4: once it's already crispy, then I'll put salt and pepper
Speaker 4: on it.
Speaker 2: Okay, this kind of gives me an idea of running
Speaker 2: through the main ideas here. So we talked duck breast,
Speaker 2: We talked of a roast from a deer, and another
Speaker 2: big one for Christmas or the holidays would be a turkey.
Speaker 2: Do you have a turkey breast? A wild turkey breast idea, So.
Speaker 4: It's almost the same concept as that the roast. Pan
Speaker 4: roasting is my absolute favorite way to cook a turkey breast,
Speaker 4: and that's the same thing. Start on the stovetop, basically
Speaker 4: searing it, and the only purpose of doing that is
Speaker 4: to develop the brown flavors, like that golden color flavor,
Speaker 4: the smell, all the things you associate with something that
Speaker 4: makes you drool. And then you put it in the
Speaker 4: oven with the thermometer and it's the exact same concept.
Speaker 4: You just put it in until it's with the turkey.
Speaker 4: You don't do eight to ten minutes. You'll pull it like,
Speaker 4: I what is it? I think I pull it at
Speaker 4: like one forty five?
Speaker 1: No, what was that?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: I still have mom brain. I'm also not sleeping anymore.
Speaker 2: I did not, even though I wasn't the mom and
Speaker 2: the deal. I remember being around and it's difficult at
Speaker 2: that phase five months. It's much easier when they're four
Speaker 2: and six, I can tell you that much, Thank God.
Speaker 4: I keep asking people when it gets easier, and they're like,
Speaker 4: it doesn't.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, no, you've got much better, much better
Speaker 2: nights of sleep ahead of you. But while you're thinking
Speaker 2: on that, another question. Fifty one okay, yeah, not one
Speaker 2: sixty five? Okay, one, it's so one of the things
Speaker 2: as curious as you were saying that when I I've
Speaker 2: always thought you have to brine a wild turkey breast
Speaker 2: to really get it to be moist. In this situation,
Speaker 2: are you are you doing this roast without a Brian
Speaker 2: first or do you also brain?
Speaker 4: This good question And Brian's definitely make it taste better.
Speaker 4: But I because of the way that I cook it
Speaker 4: as being a dry cooking in order to get like
Speaker 4: a really nice brown exterior, I actually prefer to just salt.
Speaker 5: It like like like you would season it before cooking it,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe like a little extra salt, and then
Speaker 5: keep it covered in the refrigerator for like a day.
Speaker 4: Do you that?
Speaker 3: Like a whole day in advance.
Speaker 4: And that does like the same thing as brining it,
Speaker 4: except you don't have to have a big pot of
Speaker 4: water and salt, you know all that stuff. There's a
Speaker 4: time and a place where that traditional brine, Like if
Speaker 4: you're smoking meat, you definitely want to do that. But
Speaker 4: for like for this recipe, I just basically season it
Speaker 4: twenty four hours in advance, and you'll you'll notice some difference.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm going to assault at twenty four hours advance,
Speaker 2: keep it covered in the fridge for the day. On
Speaker 2: the day of the holiday, I'm gonna take it out.
Speaker 2: Do I need Do I put it in cold or
Speaker 2: let it get to room temperature?
Speaker 4: Yeah, room temperature, same thing, Like pull it out thirty
Speaker 4: forty five minutes before you're gonna cook it. And then yeah,
Speaker 4: sear it in a pan. And in some recipes, like
Speaker 4: you can sear it in the pan on one side,
Speaker 4: flip it and then transfer it to the oven. And
Speaker 4: that's like a real easy way. I've kind of gotten
Speaker 4: away from doing that. I'll sear it on both sides
Speaker 4: over really high heat, put it on like a sheet
Speaker 4: metal sheet tray, and then put it in the oven.
Speaker 4: And then that way, the pan that I just seared
Speaker 4: the meat in is free to make like cook that
Speaker 4: to cook either make a pan sauce or like cooking vegetables,
Speaker 4: which is kind of a really like it's a thing
Speaker 4: that you don't see a lot of people talk about.
Speaker 3: But since I've.
Speaker 4: Had a baby and I'm trying to minimize cooking as
Speaker 4: much as I can, and like amount of pots and pans,
Speaker 4: it's like one way to like minimize having use an
Speaker 4: extra pants pan to cook. Like, say, and I have
Speaker 4: a side sauteed veggie, I'll cook it in the same
Speaker 4: pan with that turkey, and you end up getting all
Speaker 4: the flavors from the turkey that actually.
Speaker 3: Add a lot of flavors to the vegetable.
Speaker 4: I used to reserve that for making pant sauces, but
Speaker 4: I haven't made a pant sauce in a while, And
Speaker 4: so it's as simple as just like adding like gosh, say,
Speaker 4: like with turkey, you could just add like lemon juice
Speaker 4: or white wine and a button some butter and it's
Speaker 4: in a little stock and make a sauce if you
Speaker 4: want it, or just cook your vegetables in that same
Speaker 4: pan and you'll you'll you'll be able to kind of
Speaker 4: get the same effect of getting the fond from the
Speaker 4: bottom of the fan the pan into the veggies.
Speaker 2: That sounds great, Uh okay, So turkey, duck venison. Is
Speaker 2: there any world in which there is a ham replacement?
Speaker 2: Like could you do a wild yeah hog?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done that a handful of times.
Speaker 4: We get some smaller hogs. Mostly all most of our
Speaker 4: hogs that we get come from the family ranch where like,
Speaker 4: oh they just come and go those treat they're tricky,
Speaker 4: tricky little it use a cuss word, but I won't.
Speaker 4: They kind of like when there's a heavy rain, there's
Speaker 4: like a big ravine that runs through the ranch, and
Speaker 4: when that rain comes, everything kind of floods up, and
Speaker 4: these just packs of hogs come out into the fields
Speaker 4: and just tear all the pastures up. So there's like
Speaker 4: certain times of the year that we'll set a trap,
Speaker 4: and when we set the trap, sometimes we'll get a
Speaker 4: nice fat sal A lot of times it's just a
Speaker 4: bunch of smaller pigs, which is really kind of ideal
Speaker 4: for making ham. So I'll just debut, take a whole
Speaker 4: hind quarter, debone the femur, and then brine it in
Speaker 4: like a traditional brine with salt and sugar. And I
Speaker 4: don't really get crazy with like, oh, add this spice
Speaker 4: and onion, because you really don't get that much flavor
Speaker 4: from a brine. It's it's the salt and the sugar.
Speaker 3: Sugar.
Speaker 4: Sugar will definitely kind of get in there. But yeah,
Speaker 4: and then and then trust it, like kind of take
Speaker 4: some twine and like sort of trust it into like
Speaker 4: the ham shape. Let it dry out in the refrigerator
Speaker 4: so that the skin is dry and tacky so that
Speaker 4: the smoke can actually absorb into it, and then I'll
Speaker 4: smoke it, put it on the smoker at like two
Speaker 4: hundred degrees for till it reaches like a well with
Speaker 4: wild hog tile, it reaches an internal of one to
Speaker 4: sixty five. To make sure you don't get trygnosis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll avoid them. So do do you ever incorporate
Speaker 2: wild game into a side dish or an appetizer or
Speaker 2: do you have any ideas for a good wild game
Speaker 2: appetizer or something like that? If I'm trying to make
Speaker 2: an entire wild game meal every single course. Uh, I
Speaker 2: don't know if that might be overkill, but if I
Speaker 2: were to try to do that, yeah, ideas.
Speaker 4: So like I'll take you know, like that roast where
Speaker 4: I was saying, slice it thin, I'll do that. If
Speaker 4: you've got like a bunch of people and you want
Speaker 4: to do like a Christine, you can do some sort
Speaker 4: of soft cheese on, like a borson type of like
Speaker 4: garlic cheese spread, and then just a slice of that
Speaker 4: meat and you can add like bisolmac vinegar, like a
Speaker 4: like a glaze to it. But you can make some
Speaker 4: sort of steak Christini really easily with that, and people
Speaker 4: will just eat a million of them, and then for
Speaker 4: something kind of different, it's a little bit more time consuming,
Speaker 4: but everybody loves it. Our little croquettes, which is basically
Speaker 4: a fancy term for like a ball of fried cheese
Speaker 4: and potatoes and meat.
Speaker 2: I'm in on that description.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's walk me through that one.
Speaker 4: This Yeah, I make this one, Travis says. Travis's side
Speaker 4: of the family has a Christmas party every year and there's.
Speaker 3: Like, gosh, forty people.
Speaker 4: The family's gotten huge, and so everybody brings. It's like
Speaker 4: a potluck style, And so I'll like do this whole
Speaker 4: thing ahead of time so much that like you can
Speaker 4: even freeze it and put it in your freezer. That's
Speaker 4: how far ahead you can do it. And then the
Speaker 4: day you go in, you can pop it in the oven.
Speaker 4: But base you've got ground venison or not just ground venison.
Speaker 4: If you could do like sausage, like breakfast sausage is
Speaker 4: really the best. So I mix breakfast sausage leftover mashed
Speaker 4: potatoes and pimento cheese, and you just like mix it
Speaker 4: all together, chill it and then roll it into a ball,
Speaker 4: like a meatball sized ball, and then like dip it
Speaker 4: in an egg and then roll it in panco and
Speaker 4: then like do it to all of them and then
Speaker 4: at that point you can like flash freeze it like that,
Speaker 4: but it's not as good. I think what it's best
Speaker 4: is like go ahead, set the fryer up deep fry
Speaker 4: all of those things and and they're I mean, they're
Speaker 4: obviously best right out of the fryer when they're super hot,
Speaker 4: and like the inside is just soft like cheese and meat.
Speaker 4: It's like it's like you can eat a thousand of them.
Speaker 3: It's so good.
Speaker 4: But but like that's like one of those things is
Speaker 4: like if you're doing it at your own home and
Speaker 4: you're just like down to just sit there and like
Speaker 4: fry as you go, that's great. But if you got
Speaker 4: to take a dish to somebody's house, it doesn't really work.
Speaker 4: So what I'll do fry all of them and you
Speaker 4: can keep it in the refrigerator for like the day,
Speaker 4: and then when you get to that person's house, like
Speaker 4: throw it in a really hot oven to reheat and
Speaker 4: that works. Or if you're like you don't have time
Speaker 4: to do it right before, but you can do it
Speaker 4: like a cup few weeks in advance, after you fry it,
Speaker 4: flash freeze it, and never freezer.
Speaker 3: It's like one of those.
Speaker 4: It's like a frozen meal, like you just pop it
Speaker 4: out of the freezer and put it in the oven
Speaker 4: and eat It's it's pretty pretty simple.
Speaker 2: Sounds great this. You know, you brought up something that
Speaker 2: my wife asked me to ask you about, which was
Speaker 2: now that you have a child, any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 2: maybe similar to what you just described there having kind
Speaker 2: of freezer type meals ready to go. But has having
Speaker 2: a child changed how you cook or what you choose
Speaker 2: to cook, And do you have any ideas for you know,
Speaker 2: cooking wild game well but not well well done, but
Speaker 2: doing it in a high quality fashion with a family, right,
Speaker 2: Because like I've my wife and I have got two
Speaker 2: young boys, and we want to cook good meals and
Speaker 2: we want to have great food. But life's chaotic. Every
Speaker 2: night you get the kids home from school and you're
Speaker 2: cleaning and you're fixing stuff up righty for the next day,
Speaker 2: and you're finishing up work and you're trying to do
Speaker 2: something around the house, and you're trying to deal with
Speaker 2: the kids and it has has becoming a mother brought
Speaker 2: anything new to you as far as ideas for blending
Speaker 2: cooking good food along with making it somewhat convenient given
Speaker 2: the chaos of life.
Speaker 3: Yes, I still think.
Speaker 4: I mean I before I had him, I made a
Speaker 4: ton of freezer meals, and some of them were hits
Speaker 4: and some were misses, and some of them, like there's
Speaker 4: a few that I'm like, I need to just make
Speaker 4: a bunch of this and freeze it. What I found
Speaker 4: that I've done a lot more than I never did
Speaker 4: before was just meal prep just for like lunches and things,
Speaker 4: because I'm I'm still breastfeeding and I'm like starving all
Speaker 4: the time, and i just want something to eat, and
Speaker 4: I don't I don't want to go out to eat
Speaker 4: or do any any of that kind of or eat unhealthy.
Speaker 4: So I do a lot more meal preps. But and
Speaker 4: I kind of have like a formula for like what
Speaker 4: I'm making of like a protein of vegetable starch kind
Speaker 4: of kind of thing. But I think I'm still at
Speaker 4: the stage where he's young enough that like he's he's
Speaker 4: going to bed at like seven thirty to eight, and
Speaker 4: I will have already prepped certain parts of dinner. Either,
Speaker 4: like after work, there's like a period of time like
Speaker 4: a like a small window where I kind of keep
Speaker 4: him in the kitchen and I just like prep a
Speaker 4: few ingredients and then I get them ready for bed
Speaker 4: and then and after that, that's kind of when I
Speaker 4: go in the kitchen and I just like sear the
Speaker 4: meat and like throw.
Speaker 3: It all together.
Speaker 4: So I think what I've taken away is like I
Speaker 4: love food so much that I don't really want to
Speaker 4: compromise that much. Like it's still like the thing that
Speaker 4: at the end of the day makes me feel like
Speaker 4: human and who I am, because I feel like you're
Speaker 4: just at this stage.
Speaker 3: I'm still so.
Speaker 4: In the trenches, and it's like I think about him
Speaker 4: all day every day, So at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: when he's finally asleep, it's sort of like my piece
Speaker 4: of time to remember like who I am as a
Speaker 4: human adult and have an adult conversation. So like, I
Speaker 4: really try to treasure that meal. But what I've found.
Speaker 6: Is that it's easier for me not to do it
Speaker 6: all at once, Like don't try to cook your whole
Speaker 6: dinner in that one little hour of time that you have.
Speaker 3: Find ways to.
Speaker 4: Prep little ingreat prep pieces of food, Like if I
Speaker 4: want quene wall, like, I will find time at a
Speaker 4: different point in the day or the day before, have
Speaker 4: keenwall made. Have like your like, have like the starch
Speaker 4: or whatever. Like I'll boil a whole bunch of baby
Speaker 4: potatoes and keep it in the fridge, and then later on,
Speaker 4: like for dinner, all I have to do is just
Speaker 4: like smash it and throw it in a frying pan.
Speaker 3: Until it gets crispy.
Speaker 4: So I think that's the biggest takeaway, is like avoiding
Speaker 4: having to cook everything all at once and finding ways
Speaker 4: to to do little bits of it throughout the day
Speaker 4: and or you know, days ahead of time. I don't
Speaker 4: know if that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it does. It does make sense. And I've
Speaker 2: found that we have done that of thing like forward
Speaker 2: planning has helped a lot. Like my my wife's really great,
Speaker 2: Like she plans the whole week of meals out on
Speaker 2: Sunday evening and then we'll start making some of these
Speaker 2: things days ahead of time. If she's got a window,
Speaker 2: well maybe Sunday afternoon we're home, then the two of
Speaker 2: us might work on something that we won't be eating
Speaker 2: till Wednesday, but we know we have a little bit
Speaker 2: of time now, but yeah, Monday and Tuesday night we
Speaker 2: won't be able to or whatever it is. Yeah, that
Speaker 2: seems to help.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would have never thought I would
Speaker 4: have been like a meal prepper, but it really is
Speaker 4: kind of the only way to just because sometimes you
Speaker 4: just need to eat, and it's great to have good
Speaker 4: food that's already cooked and when you're so tired.
Speaker 2: But yeah, now here's another one. So if kids make
Speaker 2: cooking difficult. Another thing thing that has maybe become a
Speaker 2: challenge for some people with eating, you know, high quality
Speaker 2: foods and meals has been costs, especially you know, in
Speaker 2: recent years, inflation has definitely been something that everyone's feeling,
Speaker 2: and I know that's happened on food especially. Two questions
Speaker 2: you can take either version of this question or both.
Speaker 2: Do you generally have any any ideas for cooking well
Speaker 2: on a budget? That's question number one? Or question number
Speaker 2: two is if you could pick a couple things to
Speaker 2: skimp on, so a couple things with the kitchen that
Speaker 2: you would buy cheap, and a couple of things you
Speaker 2: would not buy cheap, but absolutely like pay for the
Speaker 2: higher quality ingredient what would those be so I can
Speaker 2: I handle thank god, or I can't believe it's not butter,
Speaker 2: but I should really buy the expensive U truffle or
Speaker 2: whatever it is. Are there some things that we can
Speaker 2: go okay on budget but should spend extra money.
Speaker 4: On things you can go budget like ingredient wise, grains, beans,
Speaker 4: those things you can get a lot of it for
Speaker 4: really an expensive and go to a place that sells
Speaker 4: it in bulk, and that's definitely the cheapest route instead
Speaker 4: of like quenwall I hate so much Quenoall go go
Speaker 4: buy it from the bulk section and not like little
Speaker 4: bags every time at the grocery store. You're gonna like
Speaker 4: save a lot more money doing it that way. But
Speaker 4: all those kind of grains and things are significantly cheaper.
Speaker 4: But as far as like, I mean, I primarily eat
Speaker 4: wild game, so that automatically cuts the grocery bill in
Speaker 4: half because I'm not buying meat and it's granted you're
Speaker 4: paying for it. Yeah, there's other costs associated with it,
Speaker 4: so it's not I'm not going to say that it
Speaker 4: is the most economical because it can certainly not be.
Speaker 4: But in terms of grocery bill at the moment, that's
Speaker 4: not really where my money is spent. I pretty much
Speaker 4: just buy a whole bunch of vegetables, like other than that,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, stocking up, you know, whenever, like
Speaker 4: you find all the winter squash, I grab a handful
Speaker 4: of them because they stay on the counter for a
Speaker 4: long time without going bad. Because I think that's another
Speaker 4: big thing associated with cost is food waste. I think
Speaker 4: people waste a lot of food without even realizing it.
Speaker 4: So I make sure to empty out my refrigerator at.
Speaker 3: The end at the end of the week.
Speaker 4: And like it's surprising how often I'll look in there
Speaker 4: and be like, I have green onions, parsley, what am
Speaker 4: I gonna make? Like while I'm going to go into
Speaker 4: the pantry and having a well stocked pantry, like, okay,
Speaker 4: I have some grains, Okay, I have like I have.
Speaker 3: Like I'll keep like jars of.
Speaker 4: Roasted bell peppers and things like that, and like you
Speaker 4: can you can find a way to scrap a meal
Speaker 4: together at like using whatever you have. And that's probably
Speaker 4: the biggest takeaway to minimizing food budget is to stop
Speaker 4: cooking every meal from a recipe that requires you to
Speaker 4: go to the grocery store to get those ingredients and
Speaker 4: instead find a way to make a meal using whatever
Speaker 4: you have. And I think that's a really hard one
Speaker 4: because some people are just not wired to think that
Speaker 4: way or just can't that That can be a real challenge.
Speaker 2: But I think it takes a certain amount of confidence
Speaker 2: in your ability and understanding like what goes together and
Speaker 2: what wouldn't, And.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it takes less.
Speaker 4: I feel like most people if you can, I think
Speaker 4: most people in terms of flavor and what goes together.
Speaker 4: I think that's the easy part because there are so
Speaker 4: many restaurants we go out to eat so much these days,
Speaker 4: Like you can easily off the top of your head
Speaker 4: go think about like if you were to if you
Speaker 4: were to go to a Free Words or Chipotle, like
Speaker 4: you already know what your order is gonna be because
Speaker 4: you know what ingredients you like to put together. It's
Speaker 4: the same concept at home. You can just literally put
Speaker 4: what you like together and based off like things that
Speaker 4: you go out to eat all the time already. I
Speaker 4: think what people have challenges with is like timing it
Speaker 4: all all right, Like how like how do I put
Speaker 4: cook all these separate things to make it go together
Speaker 4: without spending forever in the kitchen, and that's where like
Speaker 4: some of the food prepping comes in hand.
Speaker 3: But there's there's a lot.
Speaker 4: Of times where Okay, tonight for dinner, I want something
Speaker 4: really easy. I have a redfish fillet, I have some spinach,
Speaker 4: and I have lemon. That's all I have to make
Speaker 4: a meal. And so but I got well, I have
Speaker 4: rice in the pantry, I mean, like like the fresh ingredients.
Speaker 4: So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take
Speaker 4: like a big pan that like a skill it with
Speaker 4: a lid. I'm gonna saw tete some onion, garlic, saw it,
Speaker 4: add the spinach, add rice, and add the same amount
Speaker 4: of liquid that you would normally cook the rice, and
Speaker 4: then add the fish on top, cover it with the lid,
Speaker 4: and cook it the same length of time that you
Speaker 4: would normally cook the rice. And in one pan you
Speaker 4: have steamed fish with spinach and rice and it's like
Speaker 4: a handful of ingredients and it doesn't take long but
Speaker 4: pretty good. But that's like one of those scenarios where
Speaker 4: I only have a few things and I can find
Speaker 4: something in my pantry to make a meal. But the
Speaker 4: trouble is that it's hard for somebody to know, like
Speaker 4: how do you combine all those things into one?
Speaker 3: Like what are the steps that you take? I wish I.
Speaker 4: Could give you a quick, easy answer without having to
Speaker 4: give a cooking like lecture on how to do it,
Speaker 4: but that takes practice.
Speaker 2: What's your best resource for someone who wants to better
Speaker 2: understand how to do that? Is there any resource that
Speaker 2: gives you a little more of the how? I mean,
Speaker 2: your book has got a lot of great recipe ideas
Speaker 2: and instructions for the specifics. But it's like I remember
Speaker 2: thinking myself, I should read that book salt, acid, fat
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 3: That's fantastic resource?
Speaker 2: Is that because I kind of thought that that maybe
Speaker 2: gives you the hows of how those four kind of
Speaker 2: foundational things work. Is that a good resource?
Speaker 4: That's a fantastic resource. I mean, so the basis of
Speaker 4: that book is what makes food taste good. It's salt, fat, acid,
Speaker 4: and then heat. Like all those elements are what combined
Speaker 4: to make a dish really good. And so she breaks
Speaker 4: down like sort of the science behind how salt works,
Speaker 4: how fat works, and fat in different forms outside of
Speaker 4: what you would typically think of instead of just like
Speaker 4: be fat, Like there's fat and also avocados or whatever,
Speaker 4: and so she like kind of breaks it out and
Speaker 4: then she like explains cooking techniques and so basically it
Speaker 4: just sets you up for a foundation of knowledge so
Speaker 4: that you can take that information and basically apply it
Speaker 4: to whatever you have on hand.
Speaker 3: That's a great resource.
Speaker 2: All right. That's that's what I thought. That'd be a
Speaker 2: good one for me. And uh, now you've confirmed it. Okay,
Speaker 2: rapid fire a couple more thoughts or a couple more
Speaker 2: ideas I'm looking forward from you. Number One, soups or
Speaker 2: stews for the how like the winter time period, I
Speaker 2: guess more generally the next few months. Chili is the
Speaker 2: old standby. We all do our venice and chili. Is
Speaker 2: there any other soup or stew or potted kind of
Speaker 2: meal like that that you would throw into our idea
Speaker 2: list for the next few months other than chili?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I just did want.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna give you two. I hate to give
Speaker 4: recipe keep saying my cookbook, but whatever. So there's one
Speaker 4: that's just venison and red pepper soup. Really easy. I
Speaker 4: came up with that one. I came up with that
Speaker 4: during COVID because it was the same concept of like
Speaker 4: I only have a few things and I gotta cook
Speaker 4: out of my pantry, like and so that's a good
Speaker 4: one because it's ground ground meat, which everyone's always trying
Speaker 4: to figure out what to do with ground meat besides
Speaker 4: spaghetti or tacos or burgers.
Speaker 1: Or telling it.
Speaker 4: But it's a it's a really good one, so simple
Speaker 4: it's to go to. Yet another one I just did
Speaker 4: was stew me. I actually just posted a recipe today
Speaker 4: is with mustard.
Speaker 3: So like you.
Speaker 4: Carrots, venison, a bunch of dijon mustard, onion, and then
Speaker 4: you like let that slow cook on the stovetop and
Speaker 4: then you know, separate pan. I put mushrooms on a
Speaker 4: sheet tray and roasted it and you add it at
Speaker 4: the very end. You can add it all in one
Speaker 4: pot at the beginning, but the mushrooms tend to get
Speaker 4: kind of rungey, yeah, rubbery when you cook it for
Speaker 4: I mean, it's fine, it's not a big deal. But
Speaker 4: the texture and the flavor of it roasted separately and
Speaker 4: added at the very end is really good. And then
Speaker 4: I take like some good whole grain mustard and then
Speaker 4: dollop it on top at the end that's like a
Speaker 4: really good one that's like very different than most stews
Speaker 4: you would typically make.
Speaker 2: Sounds very good pot roast. That's another one that I
Speaker 2: feel like everyone's making the winter. At least I grew
Speaker 2: up on a good pot roast. I know you've got
Speaker 2: one in the book. Any thoughts on making a good
Speaker 2: pot roast during the winter.
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, Use a low temperature in the oven, use
Speaker 4: the right cut. I feel like people the biggest mistake
Speaker 4: is using something that's like got no silver skin, because
Speaker 4: I think silver skin is like the devil. But the
Speaker 4: best cut for me is the neck, like it's deep.
Speaker 4: The neck makes the best pot roast.
Speaker 3: Or the shank? Which is it?
Speaker 4: Is it really pot roast if you're using a shank?
Speaker 4: I'm not sure, But it's all the same concept of
Speaker 4: braising a tough cut of meat with this handful of
Speaker 4: vegetables and a broth.
Speaker 3: It's all the same concept.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I think that's like the best tip I
Speaker 4: can give is to use something with all that silver
Speaker 4: skin on it, to let it break down and in
Speaker 4: a tenderize and it's you'll get something better than like
Speaker 4: just a plain hunk of meat with absolutely no silver
Speaker 4: skin it. It tends to magically get dry even though
Speaker 4: it's sitting in a pot of liquid.
Speaker 2: Right, I've had that happen. Yeah. So so by using
Speaker 2: the silver sk I think I have been guilty of
Speaker 2: removing the silver skin from something before pot roast. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so by keeping all of it on on the right
Speaker 2: kind of cut, is that? Is that what gets you
Speaker 2: kind of almost like a silky texture. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's yeah, save a lot of time, don't waste,
Speaker 4: don't sit there.
Speaker 3: And trim it all off.
Speaker 2: Yeah jeez.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The longer I'm doing this, like, the more I realize,
Speaker 4: like I've wasted so much time doing unnecessary cleaning and
Speaker 4: trimming and all sorts of stuff, It's like, yeah, keep
Speaker 4: it simple, just throw it in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, final thoughts here, give me a pitch.
Speaker 2: Pitch me and my listeners on the idea of conscious
Speaker 2: eating eating consciously, which is kind of the theme of
Speaker 2: your book, which I think a lot of us naturally
Speaker 2: find value in. But maybe help us understand really quick
Speaker 2: what you are referred to when you talk about eating
Speaker 2: consciously and why that's or how that's something we could
Speaker 2: all incorporate into our lives a little more.
Speaker 4: So I think about that in basically, what are the
Speaker 4: what's the story behind the food on your plate?
Speaker 3: And the more you.
Speaker 4: Really peel back the layers of that onion, the more
Speaker 4: you start to begin to see and understand conservation, sustainability
Speaker 4: and how precious our resources are, and so conscious eating
Speaker 4: for me is just taking the time to think about
Speaker 4: all the ingredients on my plate, where they came from,
Speaker 4: what it took to get there, whether you're eating wild
Speaker 4: game or if you're eating beef chicken, report learning about
Speaker 4: those farming practices. And you know, an interesting thing about
Speaker 4: my book is I did include some recipes for beef
Speaker 4: chicken and port because even though I went a long
Speaker 4: time not buying meat from a grocery store, the more
Speaker 4: I began to hunt and like sort of become connected
Speaker 4: to that animal and the habitat and learn about conservation,
Speaker 4: the more I understood how important it was to support
Speaker 4: farmers who share the same common goal as I do
Speaker 4: in bettering our environment and our habitat. I think we
Speaker 4: tend to like look at these and two separate like
Speaker 4: lights like hunting and farming, but there should be like
Speaker 4: a more symbiotic relationship because agriculture plays such a huge
Speaker 4: role in habitat and environment, and so to me, conscious
Speaker 4: eating is sort of like looking under the microscope of
Speaker 4: all the things that had to happen to get this food.
Speaker 3: On your plate.
Speaker 4: And if you hunt, then you understand where you hunted,
Speaker 4: you know, if you hunted on a farmer's land, like
Speaker 4: what he did, the farming practices, like there's just a
Speaker 4: lot of layers that go into it, and so like
Speaker 4: you can scratch the surface or you could dig really deep.
Speaker 4: But the more you do that, the more connected you
Speaker 4: become to your food, and the more meaningful your meals
Speaker 4: will become.
Speaker 2: Well, I can certainly speak to how that has come
Speaker 2: to fruish and just as a hunter, I can tell
Speaker 2: you like every time when I eat something that I harvested,
Speaker 2: killed on my own, I don't think there's any time
Speaker 2: that I don't like say out loud to the kids, like, Hey,
Speaker 2: this is that Sam and the daddy caught Alaska, Or Hey,
Speaker 2: this is that buck that dad got last year in Wisconsin,
Speaker 2: or hey, this is that deer that you and me
Speaker 2: got together Everett and you just it becomes like a
Speaker 2: story around the meal that makes the meal richer, and
Speaker 2: I swear it tastes different because of.
Speaker 4: My husband always said his redfish tastes better because it
Speaker 4: was caught.
Speaker 3: With a fly rod.
Speaker 2: I believe it. Well. I appreciate you taking the time
Speaker 2: to talk with us about all this, Daniel. I appreciate
Speaker 2: you putting together this book. Lots and lots and lots
Speaker 2: of ideas. We've already tried a number of these here
Speaker 2: at the Kenyan household, most recently, I think the pumpkin
Speaker 2: the Venison pumpkin Student. Yeah, yes, we didn't talk about
Speaker 2: but that was a really good one too. Oh good,
Speaker 2: which speaking of silky, I would describe that one. It's
Speaker 2: kind of a silky flavor to that one. Yeah, But
Speaker 2: real quick. For folks that want to pick this up
Speaker 2: as a last minute Christmas gift or a belated Christmas
Speaker 2: gift or a New Year's Day gift to themselves for
Speaker 2: a better you're cooking, where's the best place for them
Speaker 2: to buy it? Where do you want them to buy it.
Speaker 4: From the meat eater dot com. We have it for
Speaker 4: sale on our website, and then, oh gosh, you know,
Speaker 4: I say wherever books are sold. Someone once got very
Speaker 4: offended that I said that because they thought it was
Speaker 4: a lazy response, but it is true. You can pick
Speaker 4: it up at Barnes and Noble. My local bookstore has it.
Speaker 4: I don't know you know which small independent stores have
Speaker 4: carry it or don't carry it. And then of course
Speaker 4: there's always Amazon if you're very last minute shopper.
Speaker 2: Perfect, All right, Danielle, we'll congrats on the book. Thank
Speaker 2: you amazing work, and thanks for taking time to do this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: All right, folks, Hope you guys enjoyed that one. Be
Speaker 2: sure to check out the Wild and Whole Cookbook over
Speaker 2: on the Meat Eater website or Amazon or your local bookseller,
Speaker 2: whatever it might be. Enjoy the upcoming days and celebrations
Speaker 2: with your friends, with your family. Hope you get to
Speaker 2: get outside, maybe fill another deer tag or two if
Speaker 2: you are definitely, please tag a dough we need to
Speaker 2: manage those dope populations as we will discuss in future episodes,
Speaker 2: and have a great time out there. I appreciate you
Speaker 2: all being with me this year, being with me this fall.
Speaker 2: I hope it's been a fruitful and enjoyable hunting season,
Speaker 2: and I hope you get a little time to sit back, relax,
Speaker 2: reflect on the past few months, and hopefully a lot
Speaker 2: of great memories. So thanks again for being here, and
Speaker 2: until next time, stay wired to Hunt.