Passport to Texas

Hunting and Fishing a Family Tradition for Chef Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John Besh operates seven restaurants: six in his home state of Louisiana and one in San Antonio called Luke. Chef Besh grew up in a hunting and fishing family; and contrary to what non-hunters and anglers might think, these activities helped him to develop respect for life.

13— You see something running or swimming one moment, and then the next moment it’s in the frying pan. You don’t waste as much of it. You don’t look at it as lightly as you do as meat wrapped in cellophane on the grocery shelf.

More people today want to know where their food comes from; Chef Besh says when you hunt and fish you do.

12— If you’re a carnivore, it’s the purest form—to take it from the field to the plate. It’s something that I do on a personal level quite a bit. I have four sons, and they’re growing up with the tradition as well.

Chef Besh apprenticed in southern Germany, where each fall the restaurant served wild game brought in by local hunters and farmers, and inspected and approved by the health department.

16—I so loved that, and so appreciated that that added just yet another layer of understanding of how to treat game and the importance of this tradition.

I don’t know if it’s cool yet [laughter].

The Hunt Texas e-newsletter provides information on hunting and preparing wild game. Sign up for it on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Was the First Thanksgiving in Texas? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Spanish Explorer Coronado and his expedition celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon in May 1541—80 years before the Pilgrims. Or so says Jeff Murrah.

:07—And they celebrated by eating the wild game in the area: buffalo, wild fowl, and other things.

Murrah is an author and sixth generation Texan who writes extensively about Texas history.

:21— They [Coronado’s expedition] had been traveling up into New Mexico and across Texas. When they finally made it to Texas, they had been in the Palo Duro Canyon area. And there had been some rough weather they had recently experienced. They had made it through that with the shelter of the canyon, and they wished to express thankfulness.

Murrah says there were 300 in the expedition and their Thanksgiving celebration took place over several days.

:26—I like this Thanksgiving. Not only was it large, but I think it captures more the idea that many cultures contributed to. Because when you stick with the whole idea of the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving, you’re either a Pilgrim or an Indian. But here you’ve got Indians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians, Scots, and Blacks in the party. You had people from many different backgrounds all coming together to give thanks.

Then why do Pilgrims get all the credit for this feast day?

:02—They did a better marketing campaign?

Happy Thanksgiving…for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

French Chef Talks Game and Real Food Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you watch PBS television cooking shows, you’ve probably seen this man:

02— My name is Jacques Pepin.

Seventy-five year old Jacques Pepin is a classically trained French chef, author, and PBS cooking show host. Long before he started cooking with meat from domesticated livestock, natural, additive free wild game comprised the animal protein in his dishes.

08— We follow the season, and the season in the fall in France we have the rabbit and the pheasant and the stuff. You go to market and see the game hanging.

Jacques Pepin has a new series on PBS called Essential Pepin, with a companion book that includes a 3 hour DVD featuring various food preparation techniques; it was going to include how to dress a rabbit after harvest.

12—But the skinning of the rabbit, they have removed it already so you’re not going to see it. And I knew it. They got berserk when they saw it. They said, ‘Oh my God!’ Well, it’s good to get closer to Mother Nature and to realize where your food comes from.

It may seem gruesome, but the alternative, says Chef Pepin, is what we have: nearly two generations of people who only recognize food if it’s in neatly cut pieces and wrapped in plastic.

02—I mean, this is pretty scary when you think of it.

The Hunt Texas e-newsletter provides information on hunting and preparing wild game. Sign up for it on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Hunt, Gather, Cook Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hank Shaw knows where his food comes from because he forages, hunts and fishes for the majority of it. Some of these skills he learned from his mother growing up on the east coast.

13— It’s always been part of our lives: Digging clams in the Atlantic, picking berries, and all that kind of stuff. It’s an awareness that there’s food all around us. I’ve always had it. And that’s really helped spur a lifelong passion.

He records his passion for wild food on his popular blog Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, which inspired his book Hunt, Gather, Cook, published by Rodale Press. He says there’s a certain level of satisfaction with food possible only when one acquires it in the wild.

18— Think about it: on a very basic level, anybody who’s ever fished, you catch a fish and then you eat it in a frying pan on a camping trip. It tastes so much better than one that you buy at a store. And it is that satisfaction of having worked for your food…. It’s difficult to explain if you’ve never done it, but once you do it, it become addicting and you never want to stop.

Hank Shaw cooks and eats everything he forages, hunts and fishes, and shares the experience and what he’s learned on his blog and in his book.

09—I want to do justice to the things that I bring home. And I want to help people who are also hunting and fishing and foraging to cook their food better—give them new ideas.

The Hunt Texas e-newsletter provides information on hunting and preparing wild game. Sign up for it on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

The Gift of Wild Game Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Journalist, Holly Heyser, didn’t grow up in a hunting family. She says she eventually took up the sport to spend more time with her boyfriend who is a hunter, author and chef.

13— 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 start cooking a lot of ducks; wild ducks, especially where we live in the Sacramento Valley, are amazing. Really great food.

Holly says she gained new respect for the meat she consumes, and not just wild game, but domesticated animals as well.

33— 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. The fact that it’s wild food and it’s absolutely delicious is icing on the cake.

Holly Heyser hunts and writes in Northern California, and writes a hunting blog called Nor-Cal Cazadora on blogspot.

Sign up for our Hunt Texas e-newsletter on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, and learn about hunting for and preparing wild game.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.