Cooking & Preparing Meat
FAT & OILY MEAT COOKING:
RABBIT:
In the 2 or 3 hours following the kill rabbit stays tender. It is the time for the hunter to make his rabbit pot, after that time you will have to wait 3 to 4 days before the rabbits becomes tender again and it would need help from a good marinade.
HOW TO CONSTRUCT A STOVE IN THE FOREST:
Easy to do it yourself, this stove cooks and gives warmth. You need to find flat stones of a good size. Then the 1st thing to do is to dig a hole 2 feet deep by 2 feet across.
You MUST reach the ground, the rocky part. At the bottom you put a good layer of damp sand which you recover of a flat stone, on the sides you lay other flat stones standing up and a bit slanted which you consolidate with more damp sand.
You let at the front a small opening in form of a small trench and you end your work by putting a big flat stone which will be the top part of your stove. Then you surround the whole thing with some more wet sand.
In order to get a better draw from your fire, let an opening at the top of the oven and place your camp so that the stove is at the front of it about 2 to 3 feet ahead, so that the front of the stove will be facing the camp door.
Keep a good stone to form the front of the stove and now you will have a good stove & oven giving good heat and perfect food cooking.
Such a stove is not dangerous, your camp is installed to receive the wind from the rear, the air flow will remove the annoying smoke but the nearness of the stove will let a good heat to come in your camp.
COOKING TIPS 1:
THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE MEAT FOR EATING IS; TO MAKE IT BOIL, EASY METHOD AND IT ALSO USES LESS FUEL THAN OTHERS.
If you also drink the broth you obtain all the nutritive value as well. Thus with a small quantity of meat you can feed many people and no loss.
To be sure the meat is all well cooked you MUST cut all the pieces in same size.
Cooking in a frying pan you loose a good part of nutritive value and you also use much more fuel. This is important when up North where the fuel is scarce.
Cooking on spit, broiled or roasted, give tasty flavour but GREAT LOSS in nutritive value & the meat sizes diminish enormously.
You can AVOID this lost partly by placing the meat very close to fire at the start to form a crust which will retain the juice then by suspending the meat at one end of the fire and placing a plate underneath to gather the juice coming off.
COOKING TIPS 2:
Before roasting or broiling any meat bigger than your house cat; boil it first. Also you MUST broil the meat as fast as possible because on a slow fire, it would get leather tough.
Big animals MUST be cut in smaller pieces first. When the meat is too tough, stew it with vegetables.
When you cook meat in oven or broiled use the fat of the animal if possible, put it on the meat, the heat will melt it all over. Yet REMEMBER; DON'T WASTE FAT!
COOKING TIP #3:
REMEMBER that the best way to prepare the meat is to stew it and it takes less fuel & there is very little loss meat or value wise and with a small quantity of meat you can feed many persons.
COOKING TIPS #4:
ALWAYS boil carrion eaters in case they carry any disease. Boiling will make stringy old birds tender but you can roast younger ones on a spit or in an oven.
COOKING TIPS #5:
Roasted meat cooks in its own fat. The easiest method is to skewer the meat on a spit and turn it over the hot embers of a fire or beside a blazing fire where it is hot enough to cook. Continually turning the meat keeps the fat moving over the surface.
2 DISADVANTAGES:
Roasting makes a very tasty dish but has two disadvantages. Valuable fat is lost unless a dip tray is placed beneath the spit. Regularly baste the meat with fat from the tray.
Roasting by a fierce fire can cook and seal the outside, the inner flesh remaining undercooked, leaving harmful bacteria STILL Alive.
A slow roast is MUCH preferable and if cooking continues after the outer meat has been cut off the inner flesh can go on cooking. The fire should be slightly to one side of food to allow for a drip tray to catch valuable fat.
COOKING TIPS #6 MEAT:
Meat is best cut into small cubes and boiled. Pork is particularly suspect in hot climates. Will pig is usually infested with worms and liver fluke. Venison is also prone to worms.
Put excessively tough meat in a solution of juice from citric fruit for 24 hours. This marinating helps to make it more tender. Bring to boil and simmer until tender.
OFFAL:
Check liver especially carefully. If firm, odourless and free from spots and hard lumps it CAN BE EATEN. Boil first, then fry if you wish. Hearts are best part-boiled then baked.
Brain if not used for preserving hides makes an excellent stew. Skin the head & boil, simmering for 90 minutes. Strip all the flesh from the skull, including eyes, tongue & ears.
OFFAL LIVER TIP 2:
Liver is best eaten as soon as possible. Remove the bile bladder in the centre. It is quite strong and can usually be pulled off without difficulty but BE CAREFUL, the bile will taint the flesh with which it comes in contact. If any animal has any disease they will show up in the liver.
AVOID any liver that is mottled or covered with white spots. If only some is affected, cut it off and eat the reminder.
LIVER IS COMPLETE FOOD, containing the ESSENTIAL vitamins and minerals. If eaten raw no food value is lost. It requires little cooking.
HANGING:
Offal should be eaten as soon as possible but the rest of the meat is better hanged.
In moderate temperature leave the carcass hanging for 2-3 days. In hot climate it is better to preserve it by cooking it straight away.
When the animal is killed, acids released into the muscles help to break down their fibre, making the meat more tender.
The longer it is left the more tender it will be and easier to cut with more flavour too and harmful parasitic bacteria in the meat will die.
You MUST keep flies off the flesh; if they lay eggs on meat it will spoil quickly.
STOMACH: (TRIPE)
Stomach takes little digesting, so is a good food for the sick or injured. Remove the stomach contents which makes it an IDEAL "INVALID" FOOD.
Wash the tripe and simmer slowly with herbs. The contents may sound not edible but could save an injured person's life for the animal has done most of the hard work of breaking the food down.
Lightly boiled, stomach contents are Nourishing and easily digestible. In some countries pigs are fed nothing but apple prior to slaughter.
They are cooked with the stomach still in. The subtle flavour of apple impregnates the meat. The stomach is removed after cooking and the contents used as sauce.
INTESTINES #2:
They consist of lengths of tubes and are best used as sausage skins. Turn them inside out and wash them. Then boil them thoroughly.
Mix fat and meat in equal proportions and then stir in blood. Stuff the mixture into the skin and boil them well.
Before putting them into boiling water add a little cold water to take it just off the boil, this will counter any risk of the skins bursting. (OOPS's!)
This makes a highly nutritious food which if smoked will keep for a long time. Dried intestines can be used for light lashings.
KIDNEYS:
They are a valuable source of nourishment & ideal flavouring for stews. Boil them with herbs.
The white fat surrounding them (suet) is a rich food source. Render it down to use in the preparation of pemmican
MELTS:
They are the spleen, a large organ in the bigger animals. It has limited food value and is not worth bothering about in the small games such as rabbits. It is best roasted.
LITES:
Lites are the lungs of the animal, perfectly GOOD TO EAT but not of great food value. Any respiratory complaints will show up in the lungs.
Do not eat any mottled with black and white spots. Healthy lungs are pink and blemish free and best boiled. They could be set aside for fish or trap bait.
HEART:
A tightly packed muscle with little or no fat. Roast it or use its distinctive flavour to liven up the stew.
SWEETBREADS:
Are the pancreas or thymus gland, distinctive in larger game. Many people consider it a great delicacy and it is delicious boiled or roasted.
TAIL:
Skin and boil to make an excellent soup for it is full of meat and gelatine.
FEET:
Feet are chopped off during slaughter but should not be wasted. Boil them up to make a good stew.
Clean dirt from hooves or paws and remove all traces of fur. Hooves are a source of nutritious aspic jelly.
HEAD:
On larger animal there is a good deal of meat on the head. The cheeks make a very tasty dish. The tongue is highly nutritious.
Boil it to make it tender and skin before eating. The brain will brawn and will also provide useful solution for curing hides. All that is left or the whole head with small animals should be boiled.
RODENTS: = FOOD YES!
Rats & mouse (even Mickey) living in woods and desert have a delicious flesh, particularly good if made into a stew. (Ask a cat!)
To prepare them, skin them, empty them and boil them at least 10 minutes, cook them with the liver & add Dandelions. Cut off the head and tail of course.
RABBIT & HARE:
Good taste but a little fat. Easy to snare and to kill. To skin it make an incision behind the head, slide your fingers and bring the skin backward.
Open the abdomen from up coming down by doing a vigorous incision. That way in one shot the viscera will come off. Scrape and wash the flesh, keep the heart and liver if intact.
REMEMBER ALL MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS ARE COMESTIBLES!
ON WILD MEAT:
Wild meat MUST be civilized?!? to better the taste. After the kill, you MUST take all the blood off, then remove the musk gland if any, if not then let that meat rest for a day or two.
In order to kill the nerves, you remove the fat before of course. This is call to make the meat gamy or high (not stone hard). Once gamy, you boil it for 45 minutes to remove all greasy taste.
Let is soak in according to the weight 6 to 48 hours in a solution of water and vinegar or better in good quality red wine which you have added olive oil, onions, butter, laurel leaves salt, pepper, celery, carrots and parsley, then take it off, let it drip then, it is ready to start the cooking art French style.
FAT & OILY MEAT SECRET:
The SECRET of preparing fat & oily meat is to make it boil in a lot of water for 45 minutes before cooking or pickling it.
TRAPPER COOK POT:
(FOWL or MEAT)
1) ALWAYS let the meat die before starting cooking. (Gamy)
2) Cover the cooking pot of a thin slices of salted lard.
3) Let them roast or broil.
4) Add a bit of cold water, 3" thick for 2 ducks, don't use cold water it does not mix well with blood.
5) Add the 2 cleaned Donald ducks and mix all that well.
6) Add salt, onions, pepper.
7) Let it boil till water has evaporated, even let it slightly burn at the bottom to give better taste, then add some hot water.
8) Then add more water, just enough to cover the fowl or game.
9) Let it boil till completely cooked, check with a fork at times.
10) Add sliced potatoes.
11) Let it boil 10 minutes.
12) Add some bannock dough.
13) It takes about 20 min. to cook the Bannock dough. When they are cooked, almost all water is gone, leaving white sauce.
14) Eating time!
