One of the questions I get most often from interviewers is "what is your favorite wild animal dish?"
I always describe this one.
From the first moment I tasted it, it earned itself a special place in the crevices of my mind.
This is a whole wild hog, marinated for days and then smoked for many hours.
There is…
There something about campfire eating.
Maybe it's the coziness or the color. Maybe it's the flavor the wood and smoke impart on the food.
I just took a trip to Arkansas and we did quite a lot of campfire eating.
The very first thing I ate when I arrived were those things in the shovel. Can you see…
The first official hunt I ever went on was in Arkansas with the Commissioner of Fish and Game. He was the family of a friend of mine, and I was told that hunting with him was something people bid on at auctions. Down in Arkansas, he was a bigger deal than the President of the…
Standing in the fields at Joshua Creek was a special kind of experience. There is a mystical quality in the rooster pheasant as he shoots into the air like a feathered arrow, in all his green and red and purple, and speckled brown-black. The long spike of his tail feathers taper for aerodynamic flight and…
This is a delicious little dish I made while bird hunting in Montana. You should really try it. Even if you don't have a partridge handy, it will work with other bird meat... like chicken for example. I recommend keeping the bone in whatever meat you use so the meat doesn't dry out.
These are the…
This one goes out to my friends at the magical, mystical CF Ranch for letting me take over the kitchen in their private residence and cook up some Javelina. That is love.
These are the back straps from the Javelina, silver skin removed (as we talked about yesterday). They marinated for quite some time. Since Javelina…
Raise your hand if you have rabbit or chicken in your freezer.
Great! Let's talk.
I am about to embark on a hunting spree. Elk in Wyoming, Javelina in El Paso, Pheasant in South Dakota, Partridge in England, Snowshoe Rabbit in Alaska, Squirrel in… where should I hunt squirrel? I hear they really know how to do…
I spent Labor Day weekend cruising the cotton fields of the Arkansas Delta. By the end of it, there were more doves than any one person could consume.
This lead me to invent all kinds of recipes to keep it interesting, as well as churn out some classic recipes from the Italians in the region –…
In some parts of the country, the summer albacore run is in its prime. But even where tuna isn’t plentiful, this preserving technique is a must have. It falls somewhere between fresh and canned tuna, the Italians called it "conservata," the old tradition of preserving protein in olive oil.
It is usually imported from Spain or…