The Pressures of Wild Game Cooking
With Thanksgiving right around the corner it’s difficult to not have your mind filled with thoughts of food. Turkey, stuffing and all of the trimmings are the usual culprits that lead to a guilt ridden New Year’s Eve resolution aimed toward weight loss. But what about wild game? For me, the pressure of preparing a gamey dish for the holidays would simply be too great.
I like to eat; therefore it shouldn’t be too surprising that I like to cook as well. Although I’m not competing to be the next “Iron Chef” and I don’t yell “BAM!” every time I add any spices to a dish, I think I do alright. However, I always seem to sweat while preparing wild game. The reason? I’m usually cooking for people who don’t hunt and my biggest fear is they won’t appreciate the time, effort and care that goes into harvesting and cooking pheasant, duck, venison or anything else that falls to the round of a well placed shot.
Am I crazy? I don’t think so. I also don’t think that I’m alone in wanting to impress non-hunters. If most Americans think with their gut, is there any better way to convert people to “the good side” than preparing a mouth watering pheasant dish?
Maybe someday I’ll start trusting my culinary skills and stop breaking out in hives every time someone finds #5 shot in their pheasant breast. Nonetheless, until this happens I’ll continue to rely on recipes like this dish I prepared last night:
My first time attempting to boil a pheasant may, or may not, have been motivated by wine being one of the ingredients.
Pheasant Phenom!
Courtesy of Naomi Vasby – Platteville WI
Ingredients:
1 Pheasant
2 Cans (14.5 oz. each) diced tomatoes (I prefer the onion & garlic variety)
2 Packages of creamy tomato sauce mix (not canned sauce!)
2 Cups white zinfandel
1 Package linguine (or your favorite pasta)
1 Cup shredded mozzarella
Cooking instructions:
Place pheasant meat in pot of boiling water. Boil meat for 10 to 15 minutes (cooking times vary depending on size of pheasant). Remove pot from heat. Remove meat from bone. Shred and/or dice meat.
In a large sauce pan, combine cooked, shredded pheasant, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce mix and white zinfandel. Stir ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Prepare pasta according to package instructions. Plate pasta, top with sauce and add shredded cheese. Enjoy!
3 Responses to “The Pressures of Wild Game Cooking”
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I agree that cooking wild game for the non-hunter can be a bit stressful. But, there isn’t a better feeling than when the non-hunter looks up after a bite and says WOW I would never of thought that wild game could taste that good. I use to get the sweats when cooking for others until Thanksgiving 3 years ago. My brother wanted to see what I could do with a goose aka flying carp. I created a spicy marinade that I only have the recipe. I marinaded the goose over night and then injected the breast with the same marinade. I put it on the grill and cooked until medium. Served it as an apatizer with a chipotle dip. All I can tell you is that my brother’s 5 year old daughter would not stop eating it. When the turkey was ready my brother asked his daughter if she wanted turkey, her response was I want goose. I knew then that I no longer was going to fear cooking wild game for others.
Hank Shaw who runs the blog at honest-food.net provided untold amounts of help with my own wild fowl TDay. Look him up!
Thanks, thats very useful to know! I must admit to being a bit useless in the kitchen, but I’m trying my best to learn. Admitting iis the first step right!? I promised to cook a whole meal for my wife this weekend for the first time – very exciting! I found some simple recipe at this site, seems to be designed exactly for people like me, which is great! Anyway, thanks, I’ll be sure to bookmark your site to read more later.