Outdoor Chef
The best recipes and methods for preparing your wild game.
Pepper Crusted Venison Steak
I could hear the screaming of bull elk so loud in my ear it almost hurt. I crept in slowly, with the wind in my face and my bow at my side. I could smell the elk before I could see them. The bedding area was thick juniper and had many rubs on the small trees. I was in someone's home--bedroom really--and I was doing my damnedest not to get caught. A small ridge was all that separated[...]
Summer Turkey Salads
Summer is often the “salad” season for folks. I know my garden is light and green at that time. I'll often find myself foraging greens, picking berries and getting a sunburn. Red meat, most of my freezer, does not call as loudly to me. So I start looking around for the extra grouse or the cottontail in the freezer. But the king of a good summer menu is wild turkey. Below is a trio of easy salads that[...]
Pan Roasted Wild Turkey with Caramelized Oranges
It is not a big patch of ground, but it is my patch…kind of. You see, I am willing to walk longer, crawl farther and basically put up with a bunch of access BS to get to the land. My tenacity gets me something special: un-hunted turkeys. An awesome find that only two others know about, and I'll keep it that way. It's these birds I return to each spring -- two per year, no more. They fill[...]
Corned Meat for Reuben Egg Rolls
Right before humans started shooting arrows at animals we started curing meat over a fire. It is a multi-millennia strong tradition. But why? Two reasons, really. The first reason that humans began to cure things is for simple food preservation. Refrigerators and freezers in households are a very recent invention. Prior to these, ice houses and root cellars could keep some items frozen, but at great expense. (Believe it or not, Walden Pond—yes that one from Henry David[...]