Wild game meals prove educational

There are times when a simple act, sharing a lunch for example, can lead to days of educational information for several people. Such a situation appeared recently when participating in a damage control hunt.

The idea was to discourage elk from causing more damage to orchards in an area south of Wenatchee. This goal was achieved, although the trigger of my .30-06 was not pulled and the damage control tag was not notched.

A friendship was developed with the hunt coordinator, who is a landowner in the area. This person asked not to be identified, so she will be known in this column as HC.

I picked up Bill Witt at his home in Ephrata on the first day of my hunt. We headed to Wenatchee. Although hunting was the primary mission this day, the 90 minutes to and from the hunt area is valuable as a chance to visit with a close friend.

Bill and I know to make our own lunches when headed out for a day in the field. This could be on one of our weekly springtime hikes or this special hunt.

We picked up HC at 7 a.m. and drove the entire hunt area several times. As lunchtime approached, we pulled off the road in a spot in the road which provided a spectacular view. I had two sandwiches made with Sandwich Thins, pre-sliced thin units of bread, three and a half inches in diameter, offering 100 calories in the entire unit. In other words, two slices of bread, but smaller in size and calories than the traditional bread slice.

Inside was a layer of canola mayonnaise, yellow mustard, horseradish and a thin slice of onion. The filling consisted of leftover baked elk flank steak, which had been chopped fine.

One of my sandwiches, along with a cup of coffee, was presented to HC and I began eating the second. The meat of the sandwich was questioned and I explained.

HC was amazed the elk meat did not have a wild taste. Her son had taken an elk and a deer during the last hunting season and was planning on making jerky out of most of the meat.

This was my chance. Various luncheon meals of wild fish and game were presented during the next five or six trips to Wenatchee.

Cooked and chopped walleye was mixed with pickle, mayonnaise and chopped onion. This was added to the inside of two Sandwich Thins coated with mustard and horseradish. HC had never eaten walleye and enjoyed the sandwich.

Realizing HC would be able to try this filling, but not her husband, who was at his day job, an extra sandwich was left for his consumption.

Before the next trip, on a Friday, a venison stew was prepared in a slow cooker using ground deer meat, a large can of crushed tomatoes, potatoes, onions and carrots, along with a variety of seasonings.

Bill, HC and I ate the stew at noon, plus I knew HC’s son would be home during the weekend, so extra stew was prepared for all of the family to sample. In addition, I cooked an elk roast and a deer roast in my digital pressure cooker, with water as the only added ingredient.

Once cooked, the meat was separately placed in a food processer and minced to a fine degree. A little of this meat was made into a sandwich spread and combined with the same ingredients as the walleye.

Separate Sandwich Thins were prepared with the spread, one with elk and one with deer. HC cut each in half, so her husband could sample the same.

The rest of the roasts were placed in resealable containers and numbered one and two. I proposed a test for HC’s family; have each person sample each container and state which was deer and which was elk. The test worked great with some of the family guessing incorrectly.

On the next visit, the next week, she said her family was impressed about the stew containing deer meat and not having a wild taste. My goal was to convince these family members wild game meat need not be confined to jerky only. The goal was achieved after this weekend.

HC and her husband had never had a chance to eat walleye cheeks or wild turkey. My freezer just happened to hold a few of each.

A turkey breast was sliced into cutlets and cooked in olive oil. They were then made into sandwiches, suitably prepared with condiments and onion.

I was up early on the day of the last hunt, cooking a skillet of walleye cheeks, while getting ready to pack the Ram and head to Wenatchee, when my wife, Garnet, walked into the kitchen.

“What are ya doin’?” she asked.

“Just cookin’ some walleye cheeks for lunch,” I said.

“You’re sure doin’ a lot of cookin’ for some woman in Wenatchee,” she said.

I chuckled with her play at humor, as she knew what was actually taking place.

The education effort was worth the time. Helping educate other hunters about wild game recipes and other cooking efforts is part of my job.

HC and her family are taking a fresh look at the variety of deer and elk recipes available, without expecting a disagreeable wild taste involved.