Author: Steve Jones

Wild Turkey Bratwurst

This is a great generic bratwurst recipe, and wild turkey meat is a fine base for sausage. But wild turkey is as lean as meat gets, so fat is a critical factor.

Pan Seared Wild Turkey Breast

This is an adaptation of a great chicken breast recipe.  It involves slicing a boneless wild turkey breast into roughly half pound pieces, about the size and thickness of a chicken breast, each perfect for one serving. It is fast, easy, and delicious.

Low Stress Venison Stew

This will never win a contest against a well made “from-scratch” stew recipe but it is faster, easier and still really good.

Refried Beans

Ok, ok. It’s beans, not wild meat. Hey, it uses venison stock. And it’s so good it’s a perfect side dish for many other recipes.

EggNog

This is a riff on the “Elixir Egg Nog” recipe from Fresh Victor Cocktails (FreshVictor.com).

Serve mixed with whatever liquor you prefer, though most traditional is a nice aged bourbon or rum. Pretty darn good “virgin” also.

Cocktail Sauce

It’s sad that many restaurants no longer accompany shellfish like shrimp and crab with this iconic American dipping sauce.  Nowadays what they bring seems bland and sort of pointless, completely lacking “zing”.    Yeah, I get it. Shellfish flesh has a delicate flavor. And there Read More …

Poultry Stock

Of course this works best with wild birds like turkey, pheasant — or even a big mess of quail. PLEASE do not just “breast ’em out” and toss the rest — all those bones and meat are a first-class ticket to great stock!

Moose Munch

OK, it’s not wild game. It’s hard to work game into desserts. Besides, it does have “Moose” in the name. You could use it to say “OK kids, eat all your venison and daddy will make moose munch.”

If popping your own from kernels, keep in mind that freshness matters — Not because popcorn kernels go bad, but because over time they lose some of the moisture they need to pop properly. If it’s been on the shelf for a year just buy a new batch.

Poultry Noodle Soup

Works great for chicken — but also for wild Galliformes (pheasant, grouse, etc.). Turkey and quail might pose challenges due to size, but would be a worthy experiment. When someone in my house starts to get a cold I go all Jewish mother and within Read More …

Preparing Poultry for Stock

When boning out whole processed grocery store chickens, the weight ratio if what you are left with (after subtracting giblets & neck if included) will be about 52% boneless meat, 20% skin and 28% bones.

So, for instance, to wind up with 12 lbs of bones you may need over 40 lbs of poultry.

Game birds may have different ratios, but not dramatically so. You may just have to keep track – and if you have too little for the size batch you want, you can always supplement with chicken.

Whether wild or store-bought, save the skins! Roasted and crumbled into the stockpot they add tremendous flavor. And for commercial chickens or turkeys, it lets you harvest much of the fat. Of course with wild birds that means you need to do a thorough plucking job… which can be a big hassle.

Normally the limiting factor for the number of “Servings” is either the weight of bones you have available, or the capacity of your stock pot.

So fiddle with the pot size below until you come up with a number that is both a) not bigger than your biggest pot and b) not more bones than you expect to use. All of the other ingredients will fall into line.

Some of the boned meat will be called for in the stock recipe. It will be mostly leg meat, wings and if necessary some of the boneless thighs or breasts – depending what you prefer to keep for other purposes.

If starting with whole birds you’re likely to have a lot of boneless meat left over – plan in advance for how you want to use it. When I’m done processing the birds, I salt the extra meat as if dry-brining (google it), then vacuum seal in meal-size packages and freeze. It will partially dry-brine as it freezes, then the process completes when thawed for cooking. It’s super convenient – and dry-brined poultry is outstanding (adjust your recipes to accommodate the salt that is already in the meat). It’s more chicken than I normally need to have handy, so I share it with friends, neighbors or relatives.

Some stock recipes (including mine here) call for adding chicken feet for body. I always do that, but it becomes extra important if you are saving the chicken wings for other purposes (om nom nom). Even though the wings are great for stock, I usually do the freezer dry-brining trick in quantities of a dozen or so.

Chipotle Mayo

A spicy, delicious condiment that makes things pop!

Pickled Red Onion

A versatile condiment — limited only by your imagination. It’s native home, however, is the taco.

Sausage Stuffing/Dressing—with some tricks!

This is a fairly standard stuffing/dressing recipe, but with some tricks that make a difference: Use schmaltz (rendered poultry fat) instead of butter. Reserve 1/3 of the celery raw until final mix before the oven step (adds crunch). Don’t brown the sausage crumbled. Form it Read More …

Steamed Mussels

A delicious and visually exotic dish – but really easy to prepare. It’s getting your hands on high quality fresh mussels which can be a challenge.

Cioppino

Cioppino is a seafood stew invented in the 1800’s by the Italian fishing community that worked the San Francisco bay and nearby Pacific waters. They would pick from whateve was least marketable from their haul and turn it into this

Working man’s Mai Tai

This is not the “ultimate” Mai Tai, an endlessly elusive target — the pursuit of which can be complex and expensive (though always fun).  The google offers endless ratholes to join that merry chase.  But this tasty recipe is fast, easy & cheap, kind of Read More …