Steven Rinella - The Meatard Fish and Game Cookbook: Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler

Wild game represents both the first and final frontier in cooking. While scholars like to argue over exactly how long anatomically modern humans have been here on Earth, theres no denying that we were eating strict wild game diets for well over 90 percent of the time. From our earliest days our dietary habits have fallen a long ways, to a point where in many circles the consumption of wild game is perceived as exotic, anachronistic, or even cruel. But in recent years, weve witnessed a great awakening around the subject of wild game in popular culture. Across the spectrum, from our most celebrated chefs to our most innovative tech executives to some of our most admired actors, athletes, and comedians, weve seen an enthusiasm for wild game that hasnt been witnessed since Daniel Boone extolled the virtues of bear meat and elk liver. Its an exciting time to be living a wild game lifestyle.

What is it about wild game thats getting people so excited? At the top of the list, certainly, is a desire to forge a deeper and more hands-on relationship to food. Going to the local farmers market doesnt cut it. At best, youre still an arms reach away from a truly intimate food experience. If you want to close that gap and get downright cozy with your protein, you need to pick up farming or else learn to hunt and fish. And believe me, hunting and fishing are way more exciting. Whats more, hunting and fishing for food can inspire an empowering sense of self-reliance. So many of the processes that support our daily life occur out of sight and, unfortunately, out of mind. Its refreshing to take responsibility for such an elemental function of ones existence.

Theres also the matter of variety. While most folks will eat dozens of types of fruits, vegetables, and grains throughout the year, many consume just three or four kinds of meat and only a small handful of fish species. Meanwhile, a skilled hunter and angler, no matter where he or she lives, has access to literally dozens of species of wild game, including many that would be impossible to obtain through commercial transactions. Pursuing these food resources will radically transform your perspective on life and the world you live in. When you open your eyes to the bloody, beautiful, sharp-toothed, and sometimes scary world of wild game, nothing will ever be the same.

Its helpful for a wild game cook to stop and think about the term wild game. In this context, I consider the word wild to have two meanings. The first is obvious, in that the meat is coming from untamed creatures that have not been corrupted through domestication by man. The other, less obvious meaning pertains to the quality of the meat itself. Dictionaries describe wild as unrestrained and out of control, and those are pretty fitting descriptors for flesh thats been harvested from the natural world. Imagine for a moment the last time you were in a grocery store and saw a package of Certified Angus Beef. Whether you saw that package in Tallahassee, Toledo, or Tacoma, you were looking at basically identical products. The animal was sent to a feedlot when it was about twelve months old, weighing about 700 pounds. It was then medicated and fed a diet of grain that added about 3.5 pounds of weight to its body every day. Ten to twelve months later, it was slaughtered at about 1,200 to 1,400 pounds in a mechanized, tightly regulated environment. The system is almost unerring in its consistency.

Wild game doesnt work that way. A pair of whitetail bucks coming at you on a trail in the woods could have two radically different histories. One might be a robust eighteen-month-old deer weighing 110 pounds thats been fattened beautifully on acorns. The other might be an emaciated six-year-old that recently lost thirty pounds while recovering from injuries sustained from coyotes when it got hung up on a barbed wire fence. Thats an extreme example, but you get the point. Wild game is wildly variable. Its variable when its alive, and variabilities are added on as you go through the processes of killing, butchering, and storing the meat. A salmon fillet taken from the left side of the fish and eaten raw on the day you caught it will be different from the right-hand fillet after its been frozen for six months. Not that theres something wrong with a frozen salmon fillet. Handled properly, it will be a delicious reminder of your time spent on the water. But it might require some additional steps, such as the application of a dry brine followed by some applewood smoke, in order for it to reach its full and glorious potential. Such is the know-how that youll find inside The MeatEater Game and Fish Cookbook.

The book is broken into eight chapters: Big Game, Small Game, Waterfowl, Upland Birds, Freshwater Fish, Saltwater Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians, and Shellfish and Crustaceans. The chapter breakdown is essential for imposing some discipline on the book and making it easy to use. But dont just hang out in whatever chapter seems to be the most relevant to the type of hunting or fishing you happen to do. No matter your personal interests, youll find usable information in each and every chapter. For instance, a smallmouth bass fisherman who lives a thousand miles away from the nearest body of saltwater would be wise to check out the yelloweye rockfish processing photos in the saltwater chapter. (Hint: The pinbone removal cuts are the same on a smallmouth.) Also, pay close attention to the Nature of the Beast sections, where I share some general thoughts and guidelines about the relative qualities of a wide host of wild game species, and the Also Works With sections that are built into each individual recipe. At the back of the book (in the Basic and Not-So-Basic section), I have included a collection of some of my go-to recipes for stocks, sauces, sides, and accompaniments that you can use alongside the main recipes in the book or in other preparations youre making at home. The combined information from these portions of the book will prove invaluable for finding suitable substitutions for the wild game cook. A successful deer hunter whos interested in making some goose pastrami will be pleased to learn that their freezer already contains a reasonable facsimile of the necessary protein.