Coffee Crusted Elk Steak

This coffee crusted elk backstrap steak is a meal to write home about. The steak is crusted in an acidic and rustic dry rub of coffee and mushrooms and then drizzled with a rich stout glaze. The shoestring onions add a crunchy balance against the juicy elk backstrap steak.

The recipe was originally featured on Harvesting Nature, and a link to that recipe can be found here: Harvesting Nature Coffee Crusted Steak.

I have included a recipe card here as well! Enjoy!

Yield: 4

Author: a 12 Gauge Girl

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Coffee Crusted Elk Backstrap Steak

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Coated in a light crust of coffee and mushrooms that seals in and adds flavor, this coffee crusted elk backstrap meal is perfect for date night. The steak is topped with crunchy onion shoestrings and drizzled in a rich stout glaze.

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 H & 10 M

Ingredients

Ingredients for Fried Onion Shoestrings

• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup flour
• Tablespoon salt
• ½ Tablespoon cayenne
• Black pepper to taste
• 3 cups frying oil (vegetable, avocado, canola)

Ingredients for Stout Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 12oz stout beer
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon molasses
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Ingredients for Coffee Crusted Steaks

• 4 elk backstrap steaks, about 2 inches thick each
• 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 ounces ground coffee
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon oregano
• 2 -3 Tablespoons fresh sage, minced

Instructions

1. Start with preparing your fried onion shoestrings. Thinly slice the onions. If you can use a mandolin to get a fine slice that is easiest, but you can just cut thinly with a sharp knife.
2. Be sure to pull the onion slices apart and submerge completely in buttermilk. Let sit for at least one hour.
3. In a large ceramic Dutch oven or deep fryer, heat a couple cups of a high temperature frying oil, such as avocado, canola, or vegetable, to 375 degrees.
4. In a shallow bowl, mix a cup of flour, tablespoon of salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and ½ tablespoon of cayenne.
5. Shake the excess buttermilk from the onion strings and coat completely in flour mixture. Shake excess flour from onion strings and immediately add to hot oil. Work in small batches to keep the oil temperature from dropping.
6. Fry the onion shoestrings for one to two minutes, until the onions are a golden brown. Keep the onions separated from each other for optimal crispiness.
7. Remove onion batch from oil and place on paper-towels to drain some of the oil off. Repeat with rest of onions.
8. In a medium saucepan over medium low heat, add two tablespoons of butter. Once the butter is melted add a finely diced medium sized shallot. Cook for five minutes, until the shallot is soft.
9. Add a bottle of stout beer, two tablespoons of honey, a tablespoon of molasses, and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Allow the mixture to simmer and reduce the liquid down by half, which should take fifteen to twenty minutes.
10. Cut your wild game backstrap into two-inch-thick steaks. Let the steaks sit out at room temperature for about thirty minutes before cooking.
11. While the steaks are coming to room temperature, prepare the coffee coating. In a spice blender or coffee grinder, mince up the one ounce of dried porcini mushrooms.
12. Add the ground porcini mushrooms to a bowl along with 2 ounces of ground coffee, one tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of salt, and the dried oregano. Mix everything together.
13. Coat the wild game back strap steaks completely in the coffee and mushroom mixture.
14. Heat a large cast iron pan over medium high heat. Once the pan is heated, about two minutes, add the steaks to the hot pan.
15. For a medium rare steak, cook the steak for six to seven minutes per side to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
16. Let the steaks rest for five minutes before serving. To plate, pile a heaping serving of fried onion shoestrings on top of the coffee and mushroom crusted steak. Drizzle with the stout sauce and top with minced fresh sage.

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Carne Asada Pronghorn

Carne Asada Pronghorn. When translated directly to English, carne asada means "grilled meat." However, the term in Spanish can mean several things. Carne refers to meat and asada refers to barbeque techniques as well as idea of social gatherings that occur when a barbeque is held. So the term can not only refer to the actual grilling of meats, but also to the idea of a social gathering to share and enjoy a family meal.

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"My favorite memories growing up in North Carolina were hunting and fishing with my father and brothers. There, I developed a deep appreciation for protecting land and waterways. There, I learned outdoorsmanship." ~ Louis BaconCarn

I found this second definition particularly thought-provoking. Gathering to share a meal with good company is a universal language and a tradition important to many cultures. In the United States, we have holidays dedicated to just this tradition. At Thanksgiving, families and friends gather to share recipes, stories, and traditions around a table stuffed with turkey, mashed potatoes, and whatever casserole has been passed through the family for generations. In Mexico, families gather to show respect for the departed during Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) by constructing altars in their homes. The altars are adorned with the deceased's favorite foods, drinks, and treats. In Italy, the Feast of Seven Fishes is celebrated on Christmas Eve. This dining event, which dates back to Medieval times, hosts a seven course meal centered entirely around fish. The list is endless and includes all cultures.

Barbeques are just simpler versions of these usually oversized traditions. I know for myself, if I am going to fire up the grill I suddenly start inviting the entire neighborhood. It doesn't matter how last minute the plans are, or how simple the meal is going to be. If I am just throwing a couple of burgers on, I still feel the need to invite my parents over. If I am preparing some grilled kabobs, I am also calling my friends over to share in the event. Barbeque just begs for you to call up friends, share some stories, and enjoy an evening out in the backyard.

I had never made carne asada before. I have tried it several times in different restaurants, and it is always good. When I started looking for some different recipes on how to prepare the meat, I came across the origin and definition of the word carne asada. That translation of "social gathering" made the meal seem even more special. And in true barbequing fashion, I called my family and invited everyone over for an evening of carne asada, story sharing, and a break in the backyard from the rest of the world. Ahhhh, nothing like a backyard barbeque!

A little trick I learned awhile ago is when mincing garlic you can also just grate it with a plane file. This is a bit faster than mincing and you don't have to dirty an entire cutting board just for garlic.

Traditionally, carne asada is prepared from beef steak. The cuts used are usually the more tender steaks, such as skirt, flank, or flap steak. The meat marinades for at least 24 hours, but sometimes for a couple of days. It is grilled over an open flame at a high temperature in order to char the flavors of the marinade and seal in the juices. After searing the meat, it is cooked to well-done. It is typically served on a tortilla with salsa, guacamole, beans, and onions.

Putting the steaks in a Ziploc bag make for easy storage in the fridge. It also creates an easy way to really massage the marinade into the meat.

To create a twist on the traditional carne asada, I decided to make it using pronghorn! Pronghorn is an amazing meat to use for carne asada. It is extremely tender, and takes the marinade really well. For this recipe, I used two cuts of some backstrap and then also a flank steak. It was about two pounds worth of meat, perfect for sharing with a group of six.

The key to a great carne asada is allowing the meat plenty of time to marinade. I set my marinating meat in the fridge 24 hours before I was planning on grilling it. If you are pressed for time, or just decide you want to make this the morning before your barbeque, I think 12 hours would be fine. You could also go longer than 24 hours too.

There is no strict way to marinade carne asada. Different recipes call for different ingredients, and as with most marinades, you could also add things as you go along. I like to taste my marinades and then add to them as the flavors start to develop. Some marinades call for lemon and lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, and a variety of spice rubs. I like my carne asada to have a little heat to it, but also a subtle hint of sweetness.

For my marinade, I juiced two oranges, a lemon, and two limes. To the juice, I added half of cup of coconut aminos, which is where the little bit of sweetness comes from, four cloves of garlic, three tablespoons of chipotle sauce, chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and sweet paprika. I chopped up a handful of cilantro and then whisked in a half a cup of extra virgin olive oil. Set aside a cup of the marinade for serving alongside the meat. I placed the cuts of meat in a large freezer bag, poured the marinade in, gave everything a nice massage, and placed it in the fridge for the next day.

Preheat the grill really hot. I got mine up to about 550 Fahrenheit. I also have one other little tip before you throw the meat on the grill. Pull the meat out of the fridge about fifteen or twenty minutes before you are going to start cooking. Allow the meat to come to room temperature. This will take the cool from the fridge off the meat and allow you to get a more even heat throughout the steaks. Place the steaks directly on the heat source and cook on each side for one to two minutes. You are looking for grill marks and even a little char on the steaks.

After searing the steaks, move them to an area on the grill with less direct heat. This may be off to the side, away from the flame, or you may have an upper rack level on your grill. My grill has this upper rack, so I moved them there. Close the lid and allow the steaks to slow cook for a few more minutes. How long you allow them to cook will depend on the steaks' thickness. My steaks were about an inch to an inch and a half thick, so I cooked them for seven to ten minutes. Once the steaks reached medium, which I tested with a meat thermometer, I pulled them. Place aluminum foil over the steaks, creating kind of a tent with the foil, and allow them to sit for five more minutes. Allowing the meat to sit for a few minutes gives them a chance to finish cooking, which brought my steaks to about medium-well, and also helps to seal in the juices. If you cut the steaks immediately after pulling them off the grill, the juices rush out of the steak and that is a very sad thing! The meat will also be easier to cut if you let it cool down a bit, and you won't tear it with the knife.

Working across the grain of the meat, slice the steak into quarter-inch thick slices.

To serve the carne asada, lightly grill up some corn tortillas. You could also use flour if you prefer them. Place a few slices of meat on the tortilla and pile on your favorite toppings. I sliced up some fresh jalapenos for extra heat. I also offered more fresh cilantro, grilled bell peppers and onions, shredded cabbage, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and queso fresco. Oh! And don't forget to spoon on some of that marinade you set aside!  It is an amazing little pop of flavor!

Happy Hunting!

Yield 4-6

Author a 12 Gauge Girl

Prep time

10 Min

Cook time

12 Min

Inactive time

24 Hour

Total time

24 H & 22 M

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Carne Asada Pronghorn

( 0 reviews )

Grilled Pronghorn steak is marinated in oranges, lemons and limes with a smoky chipotle finish. Perfect for tacos, fajitas, burritos, or salads.

Ingredients

For Marinade

• 2 pounds pronghorn steaks
• 2 oranges, juiced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1/2 cup coconut aminos (If you can't find this, you could also use soy sauce. It just won't add the slight sweetness coconut aminos will)
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 3 tablespoons chipotle sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 olive oil

Toppings for carne asada

• Tortillas, corn or flour
• Shredded cabbage
• Salsa
• Sour Cream
• Guacamole
• Grilled Onions
• Grilled Bell Peppers
• Queso Fresco
• Chopped Fresh Cilantro
• Sliced Jalapenos

Instructions

1. Start your meat marinating 24 hours before you plan on grilling.
2. For the marinade, add the orange juice, lemon juice, and lime juice to a medium size bowl. Add coconut aminos, grated garlic, chipotle sauce, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, paprika, and oregano to the bowl.
3. Chop and drop in the cilantro.
4. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Whisk until fully incorporated.
5. Set aside one cup of the marinade for serving with the meat.
6. In a large freezer bag, add the steaks and marinade. Massage gently and place in fridge for 24 hours.
7. When ready to grill, set the meat out about fifteen minutes before hand.
8. Preheat the grill to 550 degrees.
9. Place steaks directly on heat source. Sear meat for one minute per side. You are looking for grill marks and char.
10. Move the steaks to an area with less direct heat, such as the sides of the grill or an upper rack. Close the lid and allow to cook for seven to ten minutes, depending on the thickness of the meat and how well-done you desire the steaks.
11. Remove the meat from the grill and tent with aluminum foil. Allow to sit for five minutes.
12. Thinly slice steaks and serve with desired toppings on tortillas!

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Pheasant Mushroom Soup

Pheasant Mushroom Soup. It’s creamy, hearty, and filling. I love a bowl of it on a cold evening, but even more so on an evening after a long day of pheasant hunting! Or deer hunting. Or elk hunting. Or even just afternoon of hunting around Netflix for new show to binge on a cold Saturday. Anyway, the point is, this is an amazing soup!

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Pheasant Mushroom Soup

Pheasant hunting in Utah has been, ummm, I will say interesting for the last few years. Years ago, the state carried a healthy population of pheasants. My dad told me he remembered as a young boy standing in a line of hunters and dogs, anxiously waiting for the pheasant season to officially open. The clock hit 8:00 am and the entire line moved across the field, attempting to kick up roosters, and fill their bag limit of two birds.

Since then, the bird population has struggled. Multiple factors play into this decline, including habitat destruction, predation on birds, tough winters, and more. In southeastern Utah, where I live, the population has almost completely disappeared. There may be a few lone birds out in the once popular hunting areas, but I wouldn’t even go searching for them in fear that if I did find a rooster, I was taking the very last one.

The state department of wildlife has addressed the decline and implemented a release program for pen-raised roosters. During the pheasant season, they release about 10,000 birds over 54 different hunting areas throughout the state. The program has made it possible to hunt pheasant again around the entire state of Utah, which has been great!

Anyway, politics aside! Let’s make Pheasant Mushroom Soup

The Mushroom Stock

You could easily add vegetable or chicken stock to this recipe if you wanted. You could even probably find a mushroom stock at most grocery stores but making your own is really quick and easy. The few steps it takes to make a quick homemade mushroom stock really adds to the depth of flavor for your soup, so if you have the ingredients, I recommend this step.

In a small saucepan, add all the stems from your mushrooms. Cover with water, about four cups. 

Also add in a few, like two, roughly chopped up carrots, a little celery, some onion, and a bay leaf.  Season with a little salt and let reduce over medium low heat for at least thirty minutes.

Strain out all the solid and reserve the liquid for your pheasant mushroom soup.

The Pheasant Mushroom Soup

To help ensure that the pheasant is tender and easily shreds, I poach it first. In a large pot, I add enough water to cover the pheasant, which is still just on the bone at this point and poach it for one hour.

For poaching, add enough water to cover all the pheasant and bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, place a lid on the pot, reduce the pot to a simmer over low heat and let the poaching begin.

I just use water for poaching because the mushroom soup is going to add all the flavor to the pheasant. You could use vegetable or chicken stock to poach in, but it is almost a waste of stock. This was a hard tactic for me to follow at first, in my bones I felt like I needed to flavor the pheasant while poaching. But I resisted! And saved my stock for another day.

Once the pheasant is finished poaching, you can shred it into bite size pieces and set aside for adding to the mushroom soup.

In a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, melt two tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the minced shallot and diced leeks, and cook for two or three minutes. Add your diced carrots, and add all the sliced mushrooms at this point, being sure to stir and coat the mushrooms in the oil and let cook down for ten minutes.

The mushrooms should be browned and softened by this point.

Sprinkle a little flour over the cooked mushrooms. This will be how we thicken the soup. A quarter of a cup should be good enough. Next, deglaze the pan with a half cup of marsala wine. I really liked the marsala wine in this recipe because it has kind of a sweet, musky flavor that dances wonderfully with the mushroom flavor. Let it simmer to cut some of the alcohol out and the develop the flavor of the mushrooms, maybe three to five minutes.

Now, add in your homemade mushroom broth! If you don’t have time to make your own mushroom stock, you can add vegetable or chicken stock at this point. Some homemade pheasant stock would also be fantastic!

Okay, now stir in your pheasant meat and let this pot gently boil for twenty minutes. No need to have a little jetted hot tub going on, just a gentle rolling boil will do.

Alright, we are almost done! I know you’re getting hungry! Add the can of coconut cream and a tablespoon of minced rosemary. Season to taste with a little salt and pepper. Let it warm on medium low heat for a little bit, just to give the mushroom flavor a little more time to infiltrate your pheasant and tango with the coconut cream.

Serve up piping hot bowls with some crusty bread and you will be one happy eater! Enjoy!

Happy Hunting!

Wild Game Bone Broth French Onion Soup

Wild Game Bone Broth French Onion Soup. After the sun has pulled the covers up and tucked itself in for the nigh and the cold starts to set in, does anything sound better than warm soup? I don’t think I feel happier and cozier than when I have my hands wrapped around a steaming bowl of French onion soup topped with gooey, melty gruyere cheese and homemade wild game bone broth.

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Wild Game Bone Broth French Onion Soup

French onion soup is an OLD dish. Like think 8,000 years old. There are many different versions of how it first came around, but my favorite is the one where King Louis XV returns from deer hunting to bare cupboards. He rounds up some onions, butter, and champagne (which seems odd that his cupboards are bare, but champagne is around, but anyway), throws it all in a pot, and voila, French onion soup is born.

French onion soup was commonly considered the food of the poor because onions were cheap, easy to grow, and plentiful throughout Europe. The soup became popular in the 1960s in America along with the nation-wide trend of French cuisine in general.

To me, if French onion soup is the food of the poor, I don’t want to be rich. It’s one of my favorite meals. The ingredients are simple and easy to find, but the flavor developed from simply simmering caramelized onions in silky bone broth is downright amazing!

So, without wasting more time, let’s make Wild Game Bone Both French Onion Soup!

The Wild Game Bone Broth

You can make this recipe with store-bought beef broth, which is fine, but this is a wild game website, so I am going to share really quick (like the condensed, superfast version) how I make homemade wild game bone broth. I make a huge batch at one time from any of the bones I have in the freezer. Many times, the broth will be a combination of elk, deer, and pronghorn bones.

I roast the bones in a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven for one hour. I also do two or three onions, just cut in half and you don’t even have to remove the skin, and a couple of big chunks of ginger, I don’t even peel it.

After the bones are roasted, I put them, the onions, ginger, about six carrots, a bunch of celery, a couple of star anise pods, and a handful of whole cloves into a large stock pot. I cover everything with water, so this could end up being up to 24 cups of water if the pot is large like mine, and let it start simmering for hours. When I say hours, I mean like six. I reduce the liquid by about three quarters. Pour through a fine mesh sieve and scrape any fat from the top.

I don’t add salt to my bone broth. I just salt it when I use it so I can get it the way I like. Also, because it is so concentrated after hours of simmering, it doesn’t take up much room in the freezer. I freeze it in little pint-sized containers and then when I use for a recipe later, I add back in the water. So, for a pint of broth, I would add eight to twelve cups of water back in, depending on what I am doing.

Let’s Make French Onion Soup

Now that the broth is ready, it is time to start the onions. To a large skillet over medium heat, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, enough to coat the entire base of a ceramic dutch oven, and a tablespoon of butter. Once the butter is melted, add the onions. I slice the onion into long strips for this soup.

Spread the onions out and make sure they are coated in the oil. Let them cook for ten minutes, stirring often to keep them from sticking to the pan or burning. If they are cooking too quickly, you may need to reduce the heat a little. You are looking for a slow caramelization here.

After ten minutes, sprinkle a tablespoon of salt over the onions to develop even more flavor. I also add a teaspoon of sugar. It helps with caramelizing. Cook for twenty minutes more.

Once the onions are golden, and caramel-y, and smell like heaven, they are ready. Deglaze the pan with a cup of wine, red or white will work here, and be sure to scrape all that flavorful goodness from the bottom of the pot.

Add the pint of reduce wild game bone broth and eight to twelve cups of water. Bring to a gentle boil, and we will add even more flavor to this dish! Add two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce the mixture for thirty minutes on a simmer. Add a quarter cup of sherry.

While your soup is doing its thing, toast sliced pieces of French baguette in the oven. I toast them under the broiler for five minutes. If you brush them with a little butter or olive oil first, you will get a beautiful, crunchy golden crust.

It’s time for the fun part: melting the cheese. Fill an oven safe ramekin with a cup or two of the French onion soup base. Nestle a few pieces of the toasted French bread into the soup, and then top it with shredded gruyere cheese. I do a ramekin per person.

Place the ramekins in the oven at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. The cheese should be melted and slightly browned (cue drool), and the broth slightly boiling. Aaaannnndddd…it’s time to eat!

Happy Hunting!

If You Like This Recipe, You Might Also Like…

Pronghorn Pumpkin Ale Chili

Venison Real Texas Chili

Elk Guinness Stew

Bear Shank Osso Buco

Bear Shank Osso Buco. It is a meal so commanding that just the name is a sentence of its own. I can’t think of a dish that I feel more comforted by and calm while preparing, but at the same time have zero patience as I wait for it to finish in the oven. It is, to me, the definition of comfort food.

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Bear Shank Osso Buco Final Plate

Translating from Italian to English, Osso Buco literally means “bone with a hole” because the dish is the braising of the shank from an animal. The shanks are crosscut, exposing the marrow hole of the bone, and the meat surrounding the bone is tough. Osso Buco takes these two unique aspects of the cut of meat, the still intact marrow of the bone and the ligament filled tough meat, to create a very flavorful, hearty, and tender dish.  

Though not a traditional Osso Buco, this Bear Shank Osso Buco is packed with a full flavor experience! The bear shank is tender and savory, the sauce is rich and silky from the bone marrow but also incredibly flavorful from the spice mixture, and the polenta is creamy and cheesy. It also isn’t too hard to pull off!

The hardest part of preparing Bear Shank Osso Buco is the wait. You brown your shank, chop up your vegetables, put all the kids in the dutch oven swimming pool, and then…you wait…for hours.

The wait is definitely worth it, but man-oh-man does it feel like forever.

Osso Buco’s story starts from Celtic origins and the culinary tradition of Lombard cuisine. Lombard cuisine, developed mostly in the Lombardy provinces of Italy, but this cacophony of cooking influences across centuries of cultures is a collection of rices, pastas, soups, risottos, and polenta. The cuisine is extremely varied, but utilizes a lot of butter, oils, and other cooking fats. It is also known for dishes that are “low and slow” such as braised meats and stews. 

A traditional Lombard cuisine Osso Buco is a veal shank slow braised in white wine and broth with carrots, onions, and celery. With this simple presentation, the marrow is the star of the show.

This Bear Shank Osso Buco recipe has a little bit more going on than a traditional Osso Buco, but it was built using the blocks of a traditional Osso Buco with a little “adjusting” to help the bear shank shine a little more.

Let’s Make Bear Shank Osso Buco

So, let’s get started. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, preheat your dutch oven over medium heat. Once the dutch oven is hot, add about a half cup of chopped pancetta and brown until just crispy. Remove the pancetta and set to the side, but reserve the fats left behind for cooking the rest of the dish.

Lightly dust your bear shank in a mixture of flour, salt, and black pepper. Place the coated bear shank into the pancetta fat and brown five minutes per side. If your pancetta didn’t leave enough fat behind for browning your bear shank, add a little oil or butter to the pan.

Remove the browned shank and set aside. To the dutch oven, now add one large diced onion, four diced carrots, four diced stalks of celery, and a large minced shallot. Coat everything in the leftover fats and oils and let cook for five to seven minutes, or until the onion starts to turn translucent. 

Braising liquid flavoring: diced carrots, celery, onions, and minced shallot.

Deglaze the dutch oven with a cup of white wine. I always take a minute to bask in the steam from the white wine hitting the hot pan. It smells amazing. I also do that when I put onions into butter. Nothing smells better than onions in butter. Anyway, let the wine cook down for a few minutes to release some of the alcohol, and then add the cup of vegetable stock.

This next step is where we will leave the familiar trail that leads to Osso Buco and add a little flair of our own. Traditionally, Osso Buco does not include tomatoes, but I was just feeling the need to have some tomatoes. I added a pint of cherry tomatoes to the dish. Season to taste with a little salt and pepper. It is also time to add our little bundle of spice joy.

To make your own little bundle of spices, cut a square from cheese cloth and get yourself some twine. You can leave the spices whole because you will pull the entire little bundle from the pot at the end of cooking. My little bouquet bundle included a few sprigs of fresh thyme, a stem of fresh rosemary, a little piece of mace, two bay leaves, a full star anise, and five whole cloves. Tie it up, take a moment to say “Awww” at how cute it is, and drop it into the pot.

Spice bouquet bundle: star anise, whole cloves, thyme, rosemary, mace, and bay leaves

Finally, nestle the bear shank back into the liquid and cover. The liquid should reach about halfway up the shank at all times, so you might check it throughout the braising process to ensure the liquid stays full enough. Shanks are a pretty tough cut of meat off most animals. They are also full of ligaments and tendons, which aren’t always the most appealing items to find in a dish; however, braising actually uses the “flaws” of a shank to the dish’s advantage. The slow cooking at a low temperature in basically a sauna of braising liquid takes the shank meat from tough to tender, sweet, and just a little caramelized from the initial browning. It also breaks down the tastier parts of the ligaments and tendons, releasing collagen into your braising liquid and thus laying the groundwork for a very flavorful and hearty gravy for your final dish.

Slide your dutch oven into a preheated oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the shank cook for at least three hours. The shank should be falling apart when you pull it out of the oven. It should be fork tender and shred easily.

Let’s Make Cheesy Polenta

About thirty minutes before your shank is ready to serve, start the polenta. I am in love with cheesy polenta. It is so creamy, a little salty, and soaks up the liquid of anything you top it with. It’s delicious!

You want to make sure your polenta cooks for about thirty minutes so you can start to really break down the corn bits. You want smooth and creamy here. If you do the quick cook recommended on the package, you will end up with chewier and even a bit hard polenta, which is fine, but trust me the slow longer cook is worth the time and effort.

Add three cups of water to a saucepan and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and then whisk in your cup of polenta. Stir constantly while the polenta thickens. Turn the heat down to low and let the polenta slow cook for up to a half an hour, the longer the better. Stir it frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom. If it starts to get to dried out, add a little more liquid.

Right before you are ready to pull the polenta from the stove, pour in a cup of cheese. I used gruyere for this dish. The salty but tangy flavor of gruyere sounded perfect with the spice bouquet used to braise the bear shank.

Whelp! It’s time to plate up this bear shank Osso Buco. I can hardly wait! Put a heaping scoop of cheesy, gooey, creamy polenta in a shallow bowl. Add chunks of tender, savory bear shank meat over the top and then drench in the braising liquid gravy. Be sure to get plenty of carrots, celery, and tomatoes. Sprinkle with pancetta bits and fresh minced parsley.

Finally, time to dig in!

Happy Hunting

If You Enjoyed This Recipe, You’ll Also Like…

Sweet Barbacoa Bear Bowl

Elk Tenderloin with Chimichurri Sauce

Seared Deer Steak Medallions in a Cilantro Jalapeno Lime Sauce

Venison Stuffed Shells with Apple and Butternut Squash Sauce

I love the combination of squash and apples. The melded flavors are comforting, warm, savory, and just a little bit sweet. I think when the duo is mentioned many people think of a pie, a sweet and rich auburn pie served for Thanksgiving. But squash and apples don’t always have to be a dessert. They can create a rustic, homey dish like this Venison Stuffed Shells with Apple and Squash Sauce.

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This dish takes a little bit of time to pull together, but the end result is worth the effort. To start, cook a medium sized butternut squash in oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. I cut the squash in half and place the squash cut side down on a large baking sheet. You can also line the sheet with aluminum for easier clean-up, as sometimes the squash weeps a little when roasting.

Remove the squash from the oven and let cool slightly before handling. I like to play Russian roulette with the squash and try to pick it up before it has properly cooled, usually resulting in burned hands, but that’s just me.

While the squash is cooling, prepare the venison sausage for stuffing the shells with. In a large skillet over medium heat, add some cooking oil, I like to use olive oil for this particular recipe but work with what you have. Once the oil is heated, add a medium diced onion and cook for five to seven minutes, or until the onion is soft. Next, add in the venison Italian sausage.

I make my own sausage. I grind the venison with bacon ends at a ratio of 80% meat to 20% bacon ends. This gives the sausage a nice fat content that isn’t overly greasy or fatty, but keeps the sausage moist when cooking. I season the sausage with salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flake, Italian seasoning, allspice, garlic and onion powder, and plenty of fennel seed. I also add touch of brown sugar to sweeten it up a bit.

This recipe requires a pound of venison Italian sausage. Add the sausage to the onions and cook thoroughly, about five to seven minutes again. Once the sausage is cooked through, add a half cup of chopped pecans, a tablespoon of fresh minced sage, and a tablespoon of fresh minced rosemary. Stir together, turn off the heat, and set aside to cool.

While the sausage mixture is cooling, cook your pasta shells. I used jumbo pasta shells for this recipe, but you could also use manicotti. If you are really ambitious, you could make these into raviolis as well. Cook the shells to al dente, where they are soft but not falling apart.

Drain the shells and set aside to cool. As with the butternut squash, I played Russian roulette with the shells and tried to stuff them before they were cool enough for handling. It didn’t feel great.

Wow there are a lot of steps here, but bear with me, it is going to be worth it. Return to the cooled sausage mixture and mix in a container of ricotta cheese. Set that aside.

Back the squash! Scoop the squash guts into a blender and add a little salt and pepper for flavor and half cup to three quarters of a cup of stock. I used a vegetable stock. You could use chicken too if that is what you have on hand. If you were really fancy, this would also be a perfect opportunity to throw in some homemade bone broth.

Blend the butternut squash into a smooth puree. It should still hold together, so add the liquid slowly until you reach a consistency similar to the applesauce. Add the butternut squash puree to a large skillet with a cup of unsweet apple sauce. Turn the heat on medium low and stir until the sauces are combined. Slowly drizzle in a quarter cup of heavy cream and stir until a smooth, creamy, orange sauce forms. Add a cup of parmesan cheese and mix until completely melted.

Stuff the shells with the sausage mixture. Spoon a quarter of the apple and butternut squash sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Set the stuffed shells on top of the sauce. Once all the shells are set, pour the remaining apple and butternut squash sauce over the top and then sprinkle on a layer of mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit preheated oven for 30 minutes, until the cheese is gooey and the sauce is bubbling!

And now! Time to enjoy! This dish is creamy, rich, and savory. It has hints of squash and apple layered with cheesy goodness and fresh herbs. It is one of my favorite dishes to serve for a crowd because it is easy to make large batches and is incredibly filling.

Happy Hunting!

If You Like This Dish, You Might Also Like….

Wild Turkey Tagliatelle

Pheasant Carbonara

Pronghorn Pumpkin Ale Chili

Elk Reaper Summer Sausage

My favorite boating snack is definitely summer sausage, Ritz cracker, and a slice of cheddar cheese. It’s actually my favorite hiking snack. And fishing snack. And hunting snack. And sitting on the porch at the end of the day snack. And bored at home snack. It’s just the best snack. It’s even better when it’s made from your own harvested wild game too! And it’s even better than that when you add home grown Carolina Reaper peppers for Reaper Elk Summer Sausage.

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I started making my own summer sausage about a year ago. Store bought is okay. Getting it from a butcher is better than store bought. Having a butcher that processes wild game make you some from your own meat is even better than that. But the best is absolutely making it yourself. You get to control the salt level, the cuts of meat that go into it, the fat content, and the spices.

I feared the summer sausage process to begin. It seemed daunting. I also had a really difficult time finding a solid recipe online. And smoke times and temperatures? Almost impossible to find. I got incredibly lucky that a person on Instagram reached out to me and shared smoke times and temperatures.

So, after a few practice runs and some recipe perfecting, I am ready to share my Reaper Elk Summer Sausage recipe.

Homemade summer sausage is pretty easy to pull off, but there are a few tricks that make it turn out fantastic instead of just good. First tip: keep your meat and fat very cold! This is one of the most important steps for making summer sausage. If things get to warm while you are working the fat will separate and ruin the texture of your final product. So, between each step of mixing and grinding I stick the meat into the fridge for about thirty minutes.

Okay, let’s start making some Reaper Elk Summer Sausage. Following the first tip of summer sausage making, start with cold meat and cold fat. This recipe will make four summer sausage sticks that are two and a half pounds each. I do a ratio of 20% fat to 80% meat. So, for this recipe you need eight pounds of wild game meat of your choosing and 2 pounds of fat.

For the fat, most people prefer pork fat. I have never had the opportunity to work with pork fat as it seems nearly impossible to acquire. I have asked the local supermarkets and butcher, and all that is ever available is beef fat. So, I have only used beef fat, but it works great in my opinion.

For this recipe, I used elk for the meat. I have also done deer, bear, and pronghorn. They all turned out amazing. So, use whatever is in your freezer and you won’t be disappointed.

Run your meat and fat through a grinder using a coarse plate first. I used an 8mm grind plate. I also have a very inexpensive meat grinder. I love it. It didn’t break the bank, doesn’t take up much space, and is convenient enough to use I can just pull it off the shelf and grind up fresh burger meat at a moment’s notice. The grinder I am currently using, and have for quite a few years, is just this one: Cabelas Deluxe Meat Grinder.

Give the meat a quick mix to get the fat and meat incorporated. It is also time to add the spices now! I love the spice mixture for this Reaper Elk Summer Sausage. It obviously is spicy. The Carolina Reapers add a slow building heat to sausage that definitely lights your mouth up for a bit, but if you like a little kick you will thoroughly enjoy the reapers.

The allspice and cloves add a little sweetness and a slight touch of bitter, which pairs wonderfully with the heat from the Carolina Reapers. Pair that heat, sweet, and touch of bitter with the tang from the fermenting agent for summer sausage and you have one tasty snack on your hands.

Continuing on, to your meat and fat mixture add six tablespoons of kosher salt, 4 tablespoons of dextrose, and two teaspoons of pink salt #1. The pink salt extends the shelf life of cured meats, gives everything that pretty red hue, and assists in the prevention of spoilage from bacteria. Dextrose is added to cured meats to feed the lactic acid organisms that create that wonderfully tangy fermented flavor.

Once you have your salts and dextrose mixed in add your seasoning agents: 1 tablespoon of dry yellow mustard, 3 teaspoons of garlic powder, two teaspoons of ground ginger, 2 teaspoons of coriander, one tablespoon of allspice, and two teaspoons of ground cloves.

Next add your mustard seeds. Most people put in about two tablespoons. I eyeball it because I love the texture the seeds add to the summer sausage. I do more like three tablespoons. I also add more freshly cracked black pepper for the same reason. You don’t want to completely over-do it with the pepper because it can change the flavor of the summer sausage, but I do more like a tablespoon while others recommend less.  

Finally, it’s time to add your heat! The Carolina Reapers I used for this recipe were from my home garden. I dried them in a window for two months and then ground them into a powder. This recipe used three dried Carolina Reapers, which worked out to one pepper per 3.33 pounds of meat. This is equated to a teaspoon of powder for the entire recipe.  I would recommend some gloves at this point.

This recipe is for lovers of the heat! You can adjust the level of heat to fit your personal preference. To drop the heat level, you could add less of the Carolina reapers or use a different type of pepper, such as a habanero, serrano, or jalapeno. If you aren’t a fan of heat at all you can omit the pepper completely.

Get everything mixed really well. If you use your hands, I suggest wearing gloves because of the peppers.

Alright, time for the final steps before we place our meat back in the fridge: the fermenter. There are lots of different types of fermenting agents available. One of the more popular ones is Fermento. I used pediococcus culture. I ordered it online. It is a little spendy, but you can make pounds and pounds of summer sausage from one bag.

There are lots of different options for pediococcus culture. All of them provide protection against listeria and such; however, they all produce different results as far as the sourness of your finished product. There are some that will make your summer sausage very sour and tangy, and others that are much less so. I used a one that created a little less sour flavor since I was adding so many other spices to this summer sausage.

The pediococcus culture needs to be kept in the freezer to survive. You also shouldn’t handle it with bare hands. For ten pounds of summer sausage, I mixed ¾ cup of water with 3 teaspoons of dextrose. I then mixed in 3/8 a teaspoon of the pediococcus culture. Stir until the dextrose is dissolved and then pour over your meat mixture. Mix everything together.

Now that the spices have been added and the fermenting agent, place the meat mixture back in the fridge for thirty minutes to cool the meat back down.

After the meat has cooled, run the entire batch through the grinder a second time on a smaller grind plate. I used a 4.5mm plate. Place the meat back in the fridge to cool once again. I let it sit another thirty minutes even though the meat hadn’t warmed up too much this time. I wanted everything to be nice and cool for packaging the summer sausage.

Switch the grinding plate out for the stuffing accessories. You also need to let your summer sausage casing soak for ten minutes in the sink. This recipe makes basically logs of summer sausage and I then cut them down into smaller blocks before vacuum packing, but the actual casings are quite large. I used the 2 and ½ by 18-inch collagen casings.

It’s time to stuff casings, which leads us to our second tip: pack the casing very tight. Like as tight as you possibly can! The tighter the better.

Once all the summer sausage is packaged, place the logs in the fridge to relax overnight. I didn’t want overly sour summer sausage, so I let mine sit for one evening. If you like sourer flavor, let them sit for two nights before smoking.

So, once you have let the summer sausage ferment and do its thing, it’s time to smoke! Finally!

Preheat the smoker to 135 to 145 Fahrenheit and add your wood of choice. I have a pellet smoker and used applewood to smoke the summer sausage. The third tip for summer sausage success is to use a meat thermometer throughout the smoking process. You want to know the internal temperature of your sausage, so you know when you increase the heat of the smoker and when to pull the meat.

This is a cool temperature smoke for a pellet smoker.   I ended up placing tin foil on the rack to direct all the smoke directly at the temperature control probe and then added a rack about an inch off of the tinfoil to create an insulating air layer to prevent the heat from the fire box directly going at the sausage.  I then used the probes to monitor the air temperature at each end of the sausage.  This ended up working perfect as the control probe is at the opposite end of the stack, so it ended up blowing the smoke across the sausage lengthwise.  I know this is confusing.  If you need help, email me and I can walk you through it.  This was also done in the winter.  I do not know that a pellet grill would work in the summer.

Keep the smoker at 140 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. This is essentially the “drying” stage of summer sausage. The meat temperature should not raise a lot during this stage of cooking.  Keep at this until the internal sausage temp is 80 to 85 degrees.

After about an hour, kick the heat up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This is when you will start to get a lot more of the smoke saturation. I let the sausage smoke at 160 degrees for about an hour.  The internal temperature should be 140 at the end of this cycle.

Finally, kick the heat up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and finish cooking the summer sausage. This is where watching the internal temperature is most important. Pull the sausages from the cooker once the internal temperature reaches 154 degrees. This step can take a few hours, anywhere from two to three. A lot of factors affect the cooking time, such as how tightly packed the casing are, the type of meat used, moisture content of the meat, and I’m sure so many other things we don’t even realize. That is why it is important to pull the summer sausage by internal temperature and not cooking time.

Alright, time for the final tip! Immediately upon removing the summer sausage from the smoker, plunge the sausages into cold water. This will help set the meat, resulting in a much better final texture, and makes removing the casings easier.

You don’t have to keep the sausages in the water long, a few minutes is good enough. Before packaging the sausage for storage, let them cool completely, which takes about an hour. To store, I cut them into chunks that I would use for taking on a hike or serving at a party, which is about six-inch-long pieces. I then vacuum package the chunks for freezing. I started vacuum packing the sausage because the first time I made them I just loosely wrapped them in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer and they freezer burned after a month. I didn’t take into consideration that the casings are permeable, which I felt I should have thought about because I knew the sausage absorbed smoke so well during the cooking process. Anyway, they freezer burned, which I hate, so I started vacuum packing them after that experience.

Anyway, that is my recipe and process for creating this Reaper Elk Summer Sausage.

Happy Hunting!

Serrano Margarita Oyster Shots

Oysters. They’re a lot. They’re not for everyone. But I think this recipe for a serrano margarita oyster shot definitely helps make oyster eating a little easier on everyone.

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Not growing up near a coastline definitely made oysters seem like a completely foreign food item. The only time I saw oysters growing up was the oblong shaped cans of smoked oysters on the tuna shelf in the supermarket. I never ate them. Just saw them.

The first time I tried an oyster was at a Chinese buffet off the highway in Delaware. I definitely made it into a big deal. It was very dramatic. I needed the other restaurant patrons to hear how this was my very first oyster, and how skeptical I was about eating it. It was a lot like when young children try a food for the first time and need everyone to know the importance of the monumental occasion.

After filling my buffet plate with chilled crab pieces and shrimp cocktail, I took a single shucked oyster from its icy bed and placed it almost ceremoniously in the center of the plate. Back at the table, I picked the lone oyster from the plate, clinked it with a quick “cheers” with friends, and attempted to slurp it down.

In the movies, everyone always looks good eating an oyster. It’s almost equivalent to how people make smoking look cool in movies. They take a long, slow drag from their cigarette, roll the smoke around in their mouth, close their eyes in a small moment of bliss, and puff out beautiful smoke rings. Watch people smoke in real life and there is a lot of coughing and smoke kind of billows randomly about. Oyster eating is just like this.

In the movies, oysters are picked up delicately with the thumb and a single finger and then effortlessly, and more importantly cleanly, and quickly slurped, and mind you it is a soundless slurp, from their shell. They disappear quickly with a small swallow and then are followed by that closed eye small moment of bliss.

Real life oyster eating, especially the first time, is not at all like that. First, figuring out how to hold the oyster is a challenge. Every grip feels awkward. Do you clutch it? Do you palm it like a ball? Cradle it? And how do you keep your fingers out of the way of the meat?

After you get your grip, it’s time to slurp. It’s loud. And it’s actually a little embarrassing. Getting the meat out of the shell isn’t as easy as it looks. So you slurp harder and louder. All the liquid usually comes out first, and you choke on that a bit, and then the meat will break loose suddenly. It’s kind of like when you are trying to get the last bit of an icy drink from the bottom of a cup. You shake the cup a few times and eventually the entire block of ice breaks loose and unexpectedly falls all over your face.

My first oyster eating experience was very textbook. I couldn’t find my grip on the shell, and once I did the rest of was loud, a little embarrassing, and awkward. Things only got worse from there. Once I finally got the oyster out of the shell and started swallowing things went from bad to worse. The oyster hit the back of my throat and the texture was just all wrong.

All I could think about was how big, and gooey, and flat-out booger-esque the whole experience was. My mind kept thinking: “Just get it over with. Swallow faster.” Swallowing faster didn’t help. The foreign blob started working its way back up.

So the entire swallowing ordeal started all over. There was more gulping, a little bit of gasping, possibly some swearing. And it finally went down.

It took years for me to eat an oyster again. My second experience corrected all the mistakes I had made with my first oyster and I actually started to even like them a little bit. I learned you have to make sure the oyster meat is completely separated from the shell. Even the littlest section still attached makes that slurping part much more difficult. Second, the mignonette is everything. Don’t go dry oyster. Spice it up. You can make a single oyster into a complete and full flavor experience with the right mignonette. And it’s delicious! Finally, be brave and confident. Slurp like you’ve been slurping oysters all your life!

So, now that I feel like an accomplished oyster shooter, I am ready to share with you some of my favorite mignonettes. Today I am going to start with a serrano margarita themed oyster shot. This mignonette is spicy, tangy, and has a little kick from the tequila.

There isn’t really much to making the mignonette. In a small bowl, add about a tablespoon of finely minced shallot, a finely diced up serrano pepper, a shot of good tequila, a tablespoon of champagne vinegar, and ¾ cup of lime juice. Zest in some of the lime to get that pinch of freshness.

If you aren’t much for the heat, remove the seeds from the serrano before dicing it up. If you are someone who LOVES the heat, leave the seeds in.

I had to play around a bit with the ratio for the tequila and lime juice. So after adding my initial shot of tequila I drizzled in a bit more until it cut the tartness of the lime to a level of my liking.

This recipe makes a lot of mignonette. You could easily serve it on a dozen or even two dozen oysters. You should properly shuck the oysters and rest them on ice before serving. Here is a great video for properly shucking oysters: Oyster Shucking by America’s Test Kitchen.

Well, Happy Oyster Eating!

Deer Liver Whiskey Apple Pate

So, I did an offal thing. It was completely out of character for me. I made deer liver pate. Every year while people are cleaning their deer I comment how “someday” I am going to use the organs from a harvest and make…something.

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“When the blood in your veins returns to the sea, and the earth in your bones returns to the ground, perhaps then you will remember that this land does not belong to you, it is you who belongs to this land.” ~ Native American quote

I have had deer heart once before. But it wasn’t mine. And I didn’t prepare it. It was surprisingly good. That is about all of the adventure I have embarked on when it comes to organ meat, but I have read a lot about keeping organs and the benefits of their consumption.

Traditionally, hunters never discarded the organs. Organs were harvested and prepared for their nutritional benefits. They are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s an article with lots of information about the benefits of organs.

I heard this thing recently, and this could all be rumor but I am going to share it anyway, that James Blunt, you know the celebrity, went on an all meat diet and ended up developing scurvy, the “sailor’s disease.” Scurvy is incredibly rare, but one way to develop it is to become a carnivore.

Scurvy is basically when your body becomes depleted of Vitamin C and you develop a vast collection of issues such as weakness, fatigue, wounds that don’t heal up properly, and other stuff. It doesn’t sound fun. James Blunt cured his scurvy by consuming orange juice until he developed acid reflux.

So, the moral of the story seems to be that being a carnivore doesn’t work if you’re a human. Or does it? Historically, there are groups of humans who survived solely eating meat. The best example is the Arctic Native American tribes the Inuit. The arctic tundra is not a suitable landscape for growing crops, so the Inuit diet consisted of fish and the mammals they hunt, including seals, walruses, and whales.

Obviously they do not develop scurvy or the other illnesses associated with being a carnivore. How is this possible? While many things most likely factor into the equation, there are two habits the Inuit engage in that researchers believe keep them healthy and able to survive of a solely meat-based diet.

First, the Inuit eat most of their meat raw, both mammals and fish, and this is thought to sustain more of the vitamins and minerals contained within the meat. Second, they eat the organs.  If you want to know more about the Inuit and their all meat diet, this is a great book: My Life with the Eskimo.

So, in conclusion, I would like to send a message out to James Blunt. Next time you go full carnivore eat your organs!

Now that’s out of the way, let’s make this venison liver pate.

Pate was much easier to make than I initially thought. There are lots of different ways to make your liver concoction. You can vary which type of liver you use, what type of spices or vegetables you mix in, and even the fat you add at the end can be different. It’s basically a choose your own adventure with pate.

The key to a successful pate is to remove some of the rich “bloody” taste that liver is known for. Just to give you an idea if you haven’t tried liver, it has a strong iron taste.  It is very distinct and lies somewhere between metal and blood.  It is so distinct, you will always recognize it in a dish no matter how little is used.  If you asked me what iron tasted like, I don’t know that I could find the words to accurately describe it, but if you had me taste something that is rich in iron, like liver, I could immediately pick that flavor out. While you can’t fully remove this definable characteristic of liver, you can lighten it. You want a pate that is reminiscent of the liver flavor. Achieving this is quite easy. I soaked the liver overnight in a mixture of salt and water. I used four cups of water and two tablespoons of salt.

In the morning, the liver had a more muted color. I thoroughly washed the liver, removing any access blood from it, and then cleaned off any thing that didn’t look edible, such as arteries or connective tissues. Just make it pretty.

Heat up a large, heavy bottomed skillet or a dutch oven. I used a very large cast iron skillet for my pate. Cook up five or six slices of bacon until crispy. Pull the bacon and set aside, but reserve the fat in the pan to use for sautéing your vegetables.

To your hot bacon grease, add one diced onion, four diced carrots, and 4 diced celery stalks. Also add in one chopped apple. It isn’t important the size you dice up your vegetables to, since you will ultimately puree everything, but try to keep the size uniform so your vegetables will cook evenly.

Cook the vegetables for about five minutes and then add the chopped liver. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Cook until the liver is cooked through, about ten to fifteen more minutes.

Drizzle in the cup of whiskey at this point and let things reduce for five to ten minutes. The mixture should be thick and the wine along with the starches from the vegetables should create a creamy coating over everything.

Alright, it’s time to turn this pile of vegetables and liver into pate! Be careful with this next step, as things tend to be hot and steamy. Fill a food processor with the liver mixture. I had to add about half the mixture, blend until it broke down into a paste, and then add the second half. If you have a larger food processor you may be able to fit the entire pan in one large batch.

Don’t forget to add your bacon back into the pate mixture at this point. I just dropped the pieces in whole and let them blend down, much to the dismay of the dogs who were very certain the bacon was going to be theirs’.

Grind until things are smooth. Slowly drizzle in your cup of heavy cream. If you are looking for a dairy free option you can use a can of coconut cream and it works nicely too. The cream really changes the consistency of the entire dish. It creates a beautifully smooth, creamy texture that almost melts in your mouth.

Afterwards, put the pate in the fridge to cool for at least two hours. It tastes best cold. You can preserve it if you aren’t going to use it immediately, like say you are making it for your party tomorrow, by pouring melted butter over the top. This creates a nice seal on top.

Alright, let’s serve this pate up! This was my first time eating pate. It was actually my first time eating liver ever. I will admit, it took me a few bites to wrap my head around it. It is rich! It is earthy! It is…a lot.

One thing I learned is how you serve pate can change everything. Just pate on a little slice of bread isn’t my most favorite presentation. It just tasted like liver. Which isn’t a bad thing if you are a liver fan. My parents, having grown up on liver and onions, loved it just plain. I needed a little more bling for my pate.

So, to plate up your pate, first toast a thin slice of baguette. Add a little butter to your slice. Smother some pate on top. Finally, garnish with a pickled vegetable of your choice. The most popular is a cornichon pickle. My favorite was pickled red onion. Other options are pickled jalapenos, capers, cucumbers, pickled beets, or radish slices.  Another item that made it that much better was to add a drop of a mustard based hot sauce like my all-time favorite from the Caribbean island of Grenada.

I am curious, what do you like to top your pate with? And what is your favorite liver to use?

Anyway,

Happy Hunting! 

Bomb Bear Burrito

For the past few weeks I have been thinking over and over in my head how to best describe bear meat. I have made a couple recipes with the intention of sharing with family and friends as an introduction to bear meat, and have felt their palpable resistance to giving it a try. Offer up a slice of deer or elk steak, people will most likely grab it from the plate with little hesitation. Share a new pronghorn recipe with a wild game greenhorn, and the pause is brief before they bite in. Say you’re latest recipe has bear meat, and you’re likely to hear crickets.  

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Once people’s initial shock has passed, the first question is usually: “Well, what does it taste like?” And that is a hard question to answer.

My gut reaction to the question is to simple say: “Pork.” And as soon as the word leaves my mouth it feels incorrect. So I go into correction mode.

“Well, it kind of tastes like pork. But the texture is nothing like pork. And actually it doesn’t taste like pork.”

So, that answers no one’s questions and we are back to square one. What does bear meat taste like?

Some of it depends on the region and time of year the bear is harvested in. The diet of a bear varies not only by the season, but also the terrain. At certain times of the year, bears’ diets can be up to 90% vegetation based from shrubs, brush, grasses, to berries, roots, and bulbs. They also fancy insects, fish, and other meats. So, needless to say, what they are eating is highly varied and this can affect the way the meat tastes.

The other factor affecting the meat’s taste and texture is the fat content of the animal. Bears in general are a fatty animal, and their meat is often described as greasy or oily.  A spring bear emerging from winter’s hibernation is obviously much leaner than a fall bear ready for the big nap, so the season a bear is harvested can also affect the taste and texture of the bear.

With those factors set aside, the most basic way to describe the taste of bear meat is it tastes like bear meat. It’s a unique experience. It slightly similar to domesticated beef in texture, but the meat grains are longer and a bit coarser.

Bear meat has a relatively mild flavor but also a touch of sweetness you won’t find in any other meat. It is a darker meat than beef or even deer or elk, but doesn’t have the slight iron taste you experience with dark red meats like from duck or geese.

Starting to sound like a meat you would like to experience? Here is a recipe for a Bomb Bear Burrito that is the perfect introduction to bear meat.

Preparing the Bear Meat

While there are many cooking methods available for wild game that conclude with delicious results, my favorite method for bear is low and slow. Slow cooking bear meat allows the flavors to really meld together but also results in a delightfully tender texture.

For this Bomb Bear Burrito, I rubbed the bear with a very simple spice blend: cumin, coriander, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. I used a tablespoon of each and rubbed it on both sides of my chucks of bear. From we head to the crock pot.

Place the seasoned bear chunks in the crock pot and pour over about two cups of vegetable stock. You could also use chicken or beef stock if that is what you have on hand. Water would also work, things just might be a little less flavorful.  Cover the pot, set it to low, and let the crock pot work its magic for seven hours.

During the seven hour wait for my crock pot bear meat, I usually do things like go to work, clean the bathroom, go grocery shopping, work in the yard, eat snacks (but not so many snacks I get to full for dinner), and watch Netflix marathons of long forgotten TV series from my childhood. Basically, the nice thing about the crock pot is it frees you up for the other important things going on in your life.

Fast forward to seven hours in the future and the bear meat should be tender, juicy, and flavor soaked. Pull the meat from the crock pot and place on a cutting board. Remove the liquid from the crock pot. Shred the bear meat into bite size pieces and return to the crock pot.

The Guava Barbeque Sauce

This sweet and tangy barbeque sauce is the perfect pairing for bear meat. Like bear meat, it has this subtle sweetness to it that you can taste but it doesn’t overwhelm the entire profile of the dish. It is also extremely easy to pull together and would be great over pork or shredded beef as well in other eating situations.

To start, in a medium sauce pan over medium heat add a cup of diced up guava paste. To the paste, pour over a 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar and a quarter cup of whiskey (your choice there on the brand). Also add in three tablespoons of tomato paste. Stir everything the best you can, it might be a bit difficult at this point since it takes a bit for the guava paste to break down, but just do your best.

Mix in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of coconut aminos (or soy sauce if you don’t have coconut aminos and aren’t interested in adding them to your pantry), two teaspoons of ground ginger and cinnamon, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of ground mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let the guava barbeque sauce simmer for five minutes so it will breakdown the guava paste and everything can be mixed to a smooth texture. Then, pour the sauce over the shredded bear meat in the crock pot, turn the pot to high, and let things warm while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for this Bomb Bear Burrito.

The Caramelized Onions

Continuing with the theme of slightly sweet, next on the agenda is to make some caramelized onions. Before we go through the very simple task of caramelizing onions I want to first say that I love them. They are fantastic! Sweet and just a little bit salty, caramelized onions make everything better. Having a bad day? Boss getting ya down? Kids climbing the walls? Make some caramelized onions and things will suddenly be better. Life can suddenly be viewed through rose colored glasses, and all it took was some slow cooked, caramelized onions.

Okay, so enough on that weird tangent, in a decent sized pan over medium heat add a few tablespoons of olive oil. While the oil is heating, thinly slice two large yellow onions. Place the onions in the pan, coat them in the oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of salt, and let them slow cook, stirring occasionally for five minutes.

At the five minute mark, sprinkle over a tablespoon of sugar and add a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar. Stir everything and let them continue to slow cook. You want the onions to be slowly cooking but the heat to not be so high they are burning. They should start to brown because of time, not too much heat. After another five minutes or possibly a little more, you should have a beautiful, browned pile of caramelized onions.

The Cheese Sauce

This creamy, silky cheese sauce is quick and easy to make. In a medium sauce pan, add two tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter. Over medium heat, melt the butter. Once it is melted down add a minced shallot to the pan.

Cook the shallots for three to four minutes then sprinkle three tablespoons of flour over the butter and shallot. Whisk the flour into the oils until a mellow yellow paste is formed. Slowly whisk in two cups of vegetable (or chicken if that is what you have on hand) into the paste. Whisk until the paste has completely broken down and dissolved into the liquid.

Bring the liquid to a low boil so it will thicken. Once the sauce has started to thicken it is time to season the sauce. Add a teaspoon cumin, garlic powder, and half a teaspoon of salt. Also add in the half cup of sour cream.

For this recipe I used a quesadilla melting cheese. Quesadilla melting cheese is usually a little more dense in texture than other cheeses and less salty. It makes for a cheesy but creamy sauce. Diced up about a cup of the melting cheese and continue to stir the sauce until the cheese is fully incorporated and the sauce is thick and silky.

Compiling the Bomb Bear Burrito

Pile a large helping, I am thinking it probably works out to about a cup, of the guava barbeque sauce shredded bear meat onto the burrito size flour tortilla. Add a few spoonful scoops of the caramelized onions on top of the bear meat. Now, burrito fold that bear up.

Heat the skillet used for the caramelized onions to high heat. Place the burrito into the skillet seam side down and cook for one minute. Flip the burrito and cook the other side of another minute.

Plate the burrito and pour a healthy serving of the sour cream cheese sauce over the burrito.

And that is it for this Bomb Bear Burrito! Time to dig in for a sweet, savory, and cheesy burrito. Enjoy!

Happy Hunting!

Looking for other fun bear recipes to try? Check out this Barbacoa Bear Bowl!

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Yield: 8

Author: a 12 Gauge Girl

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Bomb Bear Burrito

Hearty, slow cooked shredded bear is drenched in sweet and savory guava barbeque sauce with caramelized onions. The burrito is topped with a light and creamy cheese sauce.

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 8 HourTotal time: 8 H & 15 M

Ingredients

Guava Barbeque Sauce and Bear Meat Ingredients

• 2 to three pounds of bear meat chunks (or deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, beef, extra)
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup guava paste, diced
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup whiskey
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard seed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Caramelized Onions Ingredients

• 2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Sour Cream Cheese Sauce Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup quesadilla melting cheese

Instructions

Guava Barbeque Sauce and Bear Meat

1. Rub the bear chunks in the seasoning spices: the tablespoon of cumin, coriander, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.
2. Place the seasoned bear chunks in a crock pot and pour in two cups of vegetable stock.
3. Place the lid over the pot and set to low. Allow to slow cook for seven hours. 
4. Once the bear meat is tender and cooked through, remove from pot and shred. Discard cooking liquid and return shredded bear to the crock pot.
5. To make the guava barbeque sauce, in a medium sauce pan, add the diced guava paste.
6. Heat the paste over medium heat and add in apple cider vinegar and quarter cup of whiskey. Stir to break down the guava paste.
7. Once the paste has incorporated with the vinegar and whiskey, add in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, tablespoon of coconut aminos, and teaspoon each of ground ginger, garlic powder, cinnamon, and ground mustard seed.
8. Season to taste with the salt and black pepper.
9. Pour the finished guava barbeque sauce over the shredded bear meat and allow the meat to heat up in crock pot until the rest of the burrito ingredients are finished.

Caramelized Onions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, add three tablespoons of olive oil and the two large thinly sliced onions. Allow the cook down five minutes, stirring to keep the onions from burning.
2. At the five minute mark, add the sugar and balsamic vinegar. Continue cooking and stirring for at least five more minutes, longer if the onions are not as caramelized as you desire.

Sour Cream Cheese Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt a tablespoon of butter with two tablespoons of olive oil. Add the minced shallot and cook for three to four minutes.
2. Sprinkle the flour over the shallots, and whisk until a light paste forms. Add in the two cups of vegetable stock and whisk until paste is completely dissolved.
3. Let mixture come to a light boil and slightly thicken.
4. Add in the cumin, garlic powder, and salt.
5. Stir in the half cup of sour cream and the cup of quesadilla melting cheese. Stir until everything is melted together and smooth.
6. To plate the burrito, add a cup or two of the guava bear meat to the tortilla. Top with the caramelized onions and fold closed. 
7. In the onion skillet over high heat, place the burrito seam side down and cook for one minute. Flip and cook a minute more. 
8. Drench the burrito in the sour cream cheese sauce and dig in to this Bomb Bear Burrito. 

Recommended Products:

Quesadilla Melting Cheese

Guava Paste

Created using The Recipes Generator