Harris - Wild Game Food for Your Family

WILD GAME
FOOD FOR YOUR FAMILY

STACY HARRIS

First I would like to thank my family for encouraging me to write this book and acting as my awesome assistants. It has been so much fun working with you all in the kitchen, setting up for the photography, and taste testing the recipes with you, which I think are everybodys favorites! The organized chaos could not have been more fun than it has been with you.

So many people helped me in the producing of this book. I cannot thank enough, a genius of a man, Mel Cohen, who led me step by step through the publishing and the marketing process and did his best to please me and keep me grounded and informed, and Lynne Hopwood who gave me exactly what I wanted in the design of the book. Thank you so very much for paying attention to the many details!

I also want to thank David Robertson, David Robertson, Jr., and their staff for taking such beautiful photographs of my family, home, and me, and for all your encouragement and advice. It has been priceless. Many thanks to Lana Hayden of Lynn Mathison Interiors for prop design in the family photographs.

Finally, thanks to my mom, Paula Johnson, and friends Paula McWhorter and Sherri Holding who have supported me in this venture, and for Johnny Harris and Rene McCollum for helping me to learn how to use my Canon camera. I appreciate you all so much.

For Scott, Hunter, Hampton, Graylyn, Howlett, Mary Elizabeth, Anna Julia, and Milly.

For Scott, without whom I could not have written this cookbook, in that, I would know nothing of wild game without his incredible expertise in harvesting them. You could not make me happier. You have exceeded my expectations of a husband and father. Thank you for being with the children and me every moment you have, apart from your dental practice, and teaching the kids how to be Godly people. Thank you for encouraging me to write this book and helping in every conceivable way to make it happen, from cooking the recipes while I prepared to take photographs of them to encouraging me when I had difficulty formulating ideas.

You are my dream.

For Hampton, for typing the entire book as I finished writing; for preparing recipes; and for encouraging me.

For Hunter, who is stable and not moved by emotions and helps me to think clearly when my thoughts get muddled; for preparing the recipes, doing research for the health tips and other information in this book; and for helping with the photography.

For Graylyn, who stands by my side, cooks with me everyday of my life, and for helping me with the props for the photographs.

For Howlett, who cheers me on, and chops vegetables to perfection; and polishes the silver for the pictures.

For Mary Elizabeth, for always smiling and being sunshine in my day; for prop preparation; and for organizing the cleaning crew.

For Anna Julia, for hugging me and helping me with prop arrangements, and for guarding the food from the cats while I went to get a forgotten item for photographs.

For Milly, who patiently watched and ate the finished product with great enthusiasm.

As a law school student and soon to be lawyer, my life seemed to be going in the complete opposite direction than where I have ended up, and boy am I glad! I always wanted to be a mother, but who knew I would be a mother of seven children. I happened to marry an avid hunter and outdoorsman who seemed to have a new creature to be prepared for dinner every other day. As he continued to bring his catch of the day home, his butchering and processing of deer, birds, and fish in my clean kitchen quickly became the norm. I wondered how my sister-in-law, Carol, managed in her kitchen. I never have known two brothers who had more of a passion for hunting. Whatever season it happened to be, Scott was going to hunt it. Before we married, and some thereafter, he hunted twice a day! He hunted before and after work and every day of the weekend. Thankfully, he has mellowed and has fantastic relationships with the kids and me. What was a woman who knew nothing about cooking to do with all this wild game and fish? In an attempt to empty my overloaded freezer, I was determined not to purchase any meat from the supermarket for a month. This was extremely challenging in that my husband had cooked most of the game meat that we had eaten up until then. I thought to myself, Here we go!

Immediately I began testing recipes, but found it more difficult for me to prepare wild game than the supermarket meat I was accustomed to cooking. I also found that the meat seemed to be dry no matter how I prepared it. I just knew there had to be an easier and better way of preparing this difficult meat and still have a tasty dinner. I knew that our ancestors before us lived by hunting and gathering and could not have eaten tasteless tough meat for every meal.

I began asking everyone I knew about how to prepare venison. Almost everyone told me about marinating the venison in Italian Dressing and wrapping the venison loin in bacon and grilling it. Not that these recipes are bad, I was just looking for something a little more special. I met with several dead ends that month and was disappointed at times but, as I began studying the cuts of meat, and how to extract the best flavors from them, something clicked in my mind and I knew to braise the shoulder and neck of venison, elk, and moose for soups and stews, to brown the loin in a super hot skillet and serve it rare, and that the hindquarter roast was a little more versatile to do a vast amount of recipes. Next I began creating recipes for wild duck, and pheasant. I was surprisingly delighted in the flavor of pheasant after being soaked in wine as the French did with their old birds. These wild birds had more flavor than anything I could find in the supermarket, and they did not really take that much more time to prepare.