Passport to Texas

Solana Ranch near Salado, TX. Photos for TPW Magazine story “Hunting with Chef Marcus”

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This is Passport to Texas Food Week

To coax the best flavor from the deer hunters harvest this fall, proper care from field to plate, is a must. Just ask Marcus Paslay. He’s chef and owner of Clay Pigeon Food & Drink in Fort Worth.

Every step of the way—the way it’s handled—drastically affects flavor. You know, in the field, it’s something you want to get cleaned out as soon as you can, and get it cold as soon as you can. It keeps that flavor a little bit more clean.

A bit more clean, and a lot less gamey – but not without some gaminess.

It is an acquired taste. So, I think whoever’s eating it is going to have to have a sense of adventure to a certain extent. But there are ways to overcome it a little bit. I always like using brines. Soaking the meat in a sugar, citrus, salt bath overnight—or whatever it takes. That really helps out well with big game such as venison, or hog.

Brining is just one method Chef Paslay uses to impart flavor into game.

Another way I really love on venison is rubbing it down with coffee grounds. And the tannins in the coffee help break down the proteins and they also impart a pretty strong flavor themselves, which masks the gaminess of the meat.

Find a link to Chef Marcus Paslay’s recipe for coffee rubbed venison loin at passporttotexas.org.

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

Venison burgers cooking in a cast iron skillet. Image: Bruce Biermann

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This is Passport to Texas Food Week

Holly Heyser, Communications director for California Waterfowl took up hunting to spend more time with her boyfriend who is a hunter, author and chef.

I got sick of being alone on weekends when he was out duck hunting all day long. He would get up at two in the morning and be out forever….well…it didn’t take that for me to join him. What it took was for him to cooking a lot of ducks, and wild ducks, especially where we live in the Sacramento Valley. Amazing. Really great food.

It’s appropriate that on Thanksgiving, Holly shares that hunting deepened her respect for animals and the meat they provide, and not just the wild ones.

Since I started hunting, I am so much less wasteful of meat. Even if I’m at a restaurant, if there’s a burger on my plate, I will not leave one single bite of meat on my plate, because I know an animal died for that. And when it’s animals you hunt, especially…we invest a lot of time. We can spend 12 hours and a lot of money on gas, to go and maybe get two ducks one day. That’s a precious gift, and you don’t waste it. So it’s really made me understand the value of the food we eat. And, I appreciate it a lot more than I ever used to. And the fact that it’s wild food and it’s absolutely delicious is icing on the cake.

Wild game is free range, organic, sustainable, and nutritious.

Find game recipes on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our show.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Passport to Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Jack Gilmore says working with wild game helps him to “up” his chef game.

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This is Passport to Texas Food Week

Hunters call them feral pigs. Chefs call them wild boars. Names don’t matter as long as the end result is delicious.

We use wild boar for a lot of chilis and things like that.

Feral pigs cause millions of dollars in damage to cropland in Texas, and tear up wildlife habitat, too.

Chef and restaurateur, Jack Gilmore serves game dishes at his namesake restaurants Jack Allen’s Kitchen in Austin and Round Rock, and says cooking wild boar offers challenges and rewards.

You really can’t write a recipe for it, because each time it’s different because it’s wild. It might be a little gamier, or a little fatty – or it may not have enough fat in it. You really have to be a chef again and say: ‘Well, if it doesn’t have enough fat in it, we could add bacon to it. If it has too much fat in it, we have to render it.’ You never know what a wild boar eats. You just don’t know. But, if they’re raised in the Hill Country, you know they’re eating persimmons; you know they’re eating acorns; you know they’re eating pretty good. But, sometimes you just have to realize what you’ve got and make it taste good.

Braising feral hog meat in the oven on low heat over a long period of time creates a tender and tasty result.

Find wild game recipes on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

Christopher Kimball, host Milk Street on PBS. Photo Milk Street

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This is Passport to Texas Food Week

Christopher Kimball, former host of America’s Test Kitchen (current host of Milk Street) on PBS TV, is a hunter. Yet, when he included an image of rabbits he shot on his TV show, it didn’t go over well.

Years ago, I had a photograph of me holding up two or three rabbits that I had shot – because I do a lot of rabbit hunting in the winter. America Public Television distributes our show, and I think they sent out a warning indicating the stations may want to gray out that particular photograph. So, most people are not prepared for that, probably.

If you are prepared, and ready to become a hunters, find information to get youstarted on the TPW website.

You see more women hunting now than you did. And, I think in certain parts of the country there’s more of it.

Kimball says when cooking game, you must know the optimal methods for each wild protein.

The tough, dark meat you braise slowly – like the back legs of the rabbit. But, the very lean tenderloin – or backstrap – that gets cooked in about five minutes. Some of that meat you can barely cook – like the tenderloin of a deer. You don’t want to cook it much over medium rare. But, if you have other cuts of meat that are tougher and really need a long, slow cooking – you really have to think about the cuts that way. Because, game meat isn’t fatty. And actually, that’s why they larded. And I’ve done it – larded venison, because it needed the fat. It’s not like a 300 pound pig that’s got a lot of fat in it.

Find game recipes on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Shelling peas for a meal at Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park and Historic Site.

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In 1850s Texas, when Anson Jones – the last President of the Republic – retired to his plantation in Barrington [at Washington-on-the-Brazos], Thanksgiving was not the nationally recognized holiday it is today.

But people certainly still had feast days, and they certainly celebrated fall.

Barb King, lead domestic interpreter at Barrington Living History Farm, says they celebrate fall on the farm with a feast, too. Everything’s cooked on a hearth, including dark meat heritage turkeys raised and butchered on site and fresh produce from their garden.

Right now we’re getting a lot of sweet potatoes in. We have some cucuzza gourds, which are an 1850s Italian delicacy that we’re growing in the garden for the first time this year. We have pumpkins, so we’ll probably do pumpkin pie. People in 1850 liked that as well. People ate much less sugar than we do today because you’d have to hunt a bee tree or go buy expensive sugar. So, we might do a spice cake or gingerbread is very popular, as is cider. Here, we might make pear cider. And, anytime Anson goes up north, he writes about bringing back barrels of apples.

The third Saturday of each month… Washington-on-the-Brazos presents Living History Saturday…which often includes a cooking demo.

Find more information in the calendar section of the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

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