Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It’s the start of hunting season in Texas – beginning with dove. So, I contacted Jesse Morris, a chef and outdoorsman I know from Richardson, Texas, and asked what he considers the most important thing a hunter can do in the field to ensure the integrity of the game.

14 – You need to get the temperature on an animal that you’ve harvested down as quickly as possible. That means taking a cooler with you, or something, that you can put those birds in. That way, they’re not sitting out in the heat spoiling You’re going to have a much better product in the end.

Some processing of the dove can take place in the field.

06—Typically, if you have dove, you can breast those out, pluck them, and gut them in the field.

Chef Morris says it’s funny how people will happily eat a rare steak from cattle raised in high stress, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. But then overcook game that has roamed free.

17—People go out and they’ll get dove, they’ll get deer, they’ll get feral hog –something like that –and they’ll just cook it to death. Because they’re scared of where that’s been. But if you take the time that an animal’s been in the field to the time that it reaches the plate, then you know where that animal has been.

More with Chef Jesse Morris tomorrow.

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For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.