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Wild Meat

TWO OLD GOURMETS, loving game equally well, will argue until the ducks fly south, or until one of them falls in a stroke, about how long wild meat shall be hung, the whys and wherefores of grilling, braising or broiling it, the wines for basting it and the vintages to drink with it. But when the hunter eats his kill on locale, most of the mooted points disappear. No matter how fanatical he might be about them back in civilization, game is now fresh meat and hunters are invariably hungry. He is not going to pound the table and insist that pheasant should hang by their tail feathers until the tails are about to pull out-3 weeks in a cool place-nor that grouse are unfit to eat under 3 days and are better 2 weeks dead. He is much more likely to exclaim as he sinks his teeth into his ruffed grouse that he probably calls a partridge, "By golly, this fellow's been feeding on birch buds-I can taste 'em. What a flavor!" And those birch buds were eaten by the bird only yesterday.

Culinary rules simplify in a camp setting where there are no heretics to insist on soaking wild creatures in salt water or parboiling them in soda water in order to take out of them the wild taste the hunter has toted his gun all day to enjoy. Instead, the aim of cooking them is to preserve the natural flavors with as little fuss and feathers as possible, and for this purpose the outdoor fire is a heaven sent blessing.

Under the simplified rules, the first thing is to decide how old the bird or beast is, for young flesh is tender flesh, and old bull meat that won't sell from a butcher's hook is in exactly the same class as old bull moose meat hanging, antlers down, from the limb of a tree, however handsome those extra large antlers will be when mounted as a trophy. So let its age determine how you will cook your game. If you can pick out a young chicken from the look of its feet and the limberness of its breastbone, you can separate young wild birds from old ones, by these same tokens. Besides the indications of the antlers, hoofed creatures give their age away by the cleft of their hoofs which tend to spread open with the years.

Old rabbits and other small animals have blunt claws, dry tough ears and heavy paunches, young ones have the opposite characteristics, and a young rabbit has a wide cleft in his lip besides.

Cook the young quickly, and coax the old along with a slow fire and hours of simmering. The tough cuts of big animals may be improved by soaking in a tendering mixture over night (see recipe for Mexican Marinade under Barbecues, French Marinating Mixture under Buffalo, or Marinade for Tough Game under Badger).

Since nearly all game is dry compared with stall fattened butcher's meat, and may be lean as well, the deficiency must be made up by using plenty of bacon or butter, or even better, salt pork.

As for seasonings, parsley and celery leaves are indispensable. They can be dried at home, and put into separate cellophane envelopes. They weigh almost nothing and take up almost no room. Look around the camp for natural seasonings and stuffings. Sassafras twigs, just the tender tips, give a lovely flavor; thyme grows wild in some localities, pennyroyal takes the place of mint; and watercress is the perfect salad to eat with game. Wild fruits make good stuffings, just enough of them for a tart touch-bear berries, unripe huckleberries and blueberries in the red stage, partridge berries and wintergreen berries. And if you are where wild rice grows, your stuffed ducks are in luck. Nuts make good stuffings too, mixed with camp breads-hazel nuts, ground nuts, and chincapins especially.