Bacon wrapped Venison roast

 

So for tonight I was thinking of Bacon and Venison.....
with Maple Juniper glaze

I have a nice Venison rump roast, I have some good quality center cut smoked bacon, I gathered some juniper berries and a 1/2 bottle of well aged Tennessee whiskey, oh wait I mean some good Vermont maple syrup.
Take the roast (well trimmed)
drizzle about 1/4 cup of maple syrup over it, some fresh cracked black pepper, about 5 smashed juniper berries (smashed as in wrap in paper towels and hit them with a hammer, leave the whiskey alone), a little sea salt and then wrap with 5-8 slices of good smoked bacon. I like to weave them over the roast leaving a little space, the drizzle with a little more maple syrup. set in the fridge for a few hours.  Then roast of 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turn the heat down to about 300 and roast for another 30-40 minutes...do not over cook.  About 20 minutes before the roast is done, take it out of the oven to sit. Trust me on this NEVER carve any meat taken off of a hot pan or oven right away. slice thin and serve with a pan gravy, some mashed potatoes or Jerusalem artichokes....and then sip that whiskey to help settle your overstuffed tummy.
 A word about cooking game meats, yes they are lean, and no you do not need to add fat ( I just like bacon).   Your either cook them to medium rare or cook them til they are mush...easy.

Smoked Bluefish Spread/Pate

Smoked Bluefish is a New England tradition, going back probably thousands of years.  Native people in the region often preserved fish for winter by smoking them....and Blue fish is about as good as it gets for smoking.  The early English colonists learned about this treat and added the cheese......a perfect marriage in my mind ( and to be sure it was probably thru marriage that this was passed down thru the years).

Smoked Blue fish can be purchased in many good fish mongers here in the northeast, or better yet you can catch and smoke your own, but that's a post for another time.
Take about a 1/2 pound of good cream cheese (you can try the low fat varieties but I have found they don't hold up). Let the cheese sit out till its soft or use your microwave to soften it.
Carefully flake about 1/2 lb of  awesome smoked bluefish, and fold it into the cream cheese. 
You can try this in a food processor (its a mess) but I use a fork. I like it to be completely incorporated, but you can also choose to leave chunks of the Bluefish.   At this point I often add some lemon juice, smoked paprika and ground black pepper.  Today I am adding some crumbled bacon ( its bacon, it goes with everything).   Transfer it to a container with a lid and let it sit for a few hours in the fridge.
Then spread it on crackers or toasted baguette slices with a topping of chopped chives, or eat it with your finger when no-one is around.
...this also works as a stuffing for mushrooms.....

Periwinkles

My fist experience with periwinkles ( Littorina littorea) was in Scotland, when I was about 4, then again in England in my early teens. It has become an annual early spring gathering treat that I have passed on to my son. Every March we go down to the shore in Rhode Island to gather a bucket full. Periwinkles are found thru out the northern  hemisphere, along shoreline at low tide. As they are not filter feeders, but browse on algae and seaweed they can be gathered during much of the year but for me they are a late fall thru early spring food. Here in the Northeast there are both native and European species...most of the larger ones are the invasives, eat them....They are about the easiest shellfish to gather. Just pick them off of the rocks at low tide.
Periwinkles require a bit of skill to pluck from their shell, a pin is the usual in Europe, but any pointy thing will work.
To cook them, steam in a broth of white wine, garlic, butter and a little salt. Add some kelp or rock weed to the broth instead of salt, you will not be disappointed.  The taste is earthy, salty and full of the sea.
pluck them from their shell and enjoy, dipped in meted butter, or save them  for some chowder.
And for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_periwinkle

seasons

One thing that a lifetime of gathering wild foods and spending time outdoors has taught me is, wait for it, everything in its season.   I know that sounds trite, but its true.  For each food there is a season, or for each season there is a food.  That is except here in the northeast, in winter.

Winter was the season of hunger for many cultures thru out history.  Here in the northeast it was a time when you hoped you had preserved enough food for the next 4 months, dried, smoked, salted, cured you name it this was when your food gathering skills were put to the test.

Few fresh foods were available (um, actually that's kinda the same now).  Jerusalem Artichoke and other tubers could be gathered before the ground froze.  But mostly it was a time for hunting. and this makes sense as meat provided the protein and fat necessary to survive the cold. Meats not eaten right away would be preserved by smoking and drying. A word about smoking; Today we do this mostly to add flavor, and many smoked meats are hot smoked, basically cooking them.  Think smoked jerky if you want to live thru the winter.  The smoke kept bugs away while the meat dried....and the creosote from the smoke also helped to kill off bacteria.

Venison Jerky
Take the flank or neck meat from the venison for this and slice into very thin strips.Build a small fire with a rack above it about 3 feet.   Drape the venison pieces on the rack and pile the fire with rotten wood or bark (hickory works well) and allow the venison to dry to a leathery consistancy.   Make sure its not raining out when you do this or it won't work.
OR
you could try this
marinate your venison strips (cut to no more than 1/4" thick)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4cup maple syrup
1-2 table spoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or some wild onion paste)
liquid smoke or smoked paprika to taste
ground black pepper and salt
you can also add a varity of other seasonings, savory (rosemary), hot (chipotle peppers) etc.

Keep in the fridge overnight. In the morning, remove from the marinade and pat dry.  Place on racks in an oven set at 160-200 degrees.  Crack the oven door open a bit and let dry for about 2-4 hours.  Check regularly to see when its done (leathery and dark in color).
When its done store the jerky in the fridge.
(please note that jerky is a RAW meat product and all safe food handling practices should be observed)

Maple and Venison...mmmmmmm

Maple syrup and venison steak....what could be better? (ok maybe lobster).   I have always used maple sugar or syrup in my marinade for venison jerky (that's another post) but for some reason not for steaks, until I was hanging out with my friends Leah and Jonathan at a Native outdoor cooking demonstration, and we grilled her maple marinated venison over the open fire, on sticks no less.   It was divine.

The basic marinade is about a 1/2 cup of  REAL maple syrup, some salt, or soy sauce, some garlic, and onion (powder works fine), for the steaks I added some red wine vinegar and a little olive oil.  Mix it well.  I put the steaks in a plastic zip lock bag with the marinade and left it overnight.  Then skewer onto some large green sticks and roast over a roaring open fire.  Or if you are at home pan sear them about 3-5 minutes on each side.  Then deglaze the pan with a little red wine. (you can also add a table spoon of venison demi or stock to the pan at this point)  Slice the steaks like a London broil and serve with wild rice or boiled buttered potatoes and a generous covering of the pan gravy.  One note about venison and other game meats, you generally do not want to cook them "well done" as they are very lean and this will ruin both the taste and the texture.
next time I'll post my maple glazed venison jerky ideas....

Here is a link to a basic overview of Brain-tanning (or actually tawing as the hide is not actually tanned).  Brain-tanning is a method of preserving hides (often deer) with the natural emulsified oils found in animal brains and then fixing those oils with smoke.   While the use of animal brains for this method is, I believe, unique to North America, oil tanning using fish oils or eggs has been practiced around the globe.  It produces a leather that is incredibly soft and has a multitude of uses, its also an amazing amount of work, trust me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckskin_%28leather%29#Wet_scrape_method

And don't even get me started on the merits of wet-scrape versus dry scrape.  Or for you Archaeologists out there about stone scrapers (they probably weren't used  on hides, just saying)

So the day before yesterday I had the chance to break down a young buck with 2 amazing chefs (I held my own I think) and it got me thinking about venison (deer meat to you who don't know).  So many hunters waste so much of a deer, when so much can be used for food, tools and clothing.  The hide makes braintanned deerskin, one of the softest and most useful tanned hides there is, the bones can make a wide variety of tools, and every part of the meat can be used.   We boned out about 40-50lbs of meat from a 150 button buck.  I took the shanks (lower legs) to make stew and venison stock, one of the chefs took the rest of the bones to make a venison demi (an aromatic, condensed stock). I now find my self with an abundance of venison.   As an aside, during the 18th century in the southern states there was a trade in native deerskins, one that rivaled the fur trade to the north, while at the same time Native people here in southern new England were writing to the colonial authorities that there were no deer to feed their families.   Not the case these days.

To make a good venison stock (can also be done with beef or lamb bones)
roast the bones (long bones are best cut or broken open to release the marrow) with attached meat in a 400 degree oven for about 1 hour.  You can also roast onions, celery and carrots with them.
Put the roasted bones and all the pan scrapings into a very large stock pot, cover with cold water.  Add some thyme, rosemary juniper berries and bay leaf.  Simmer for several hours over low heat.  And by low I mean just barely moving...no boiling
don't add salt....it will be too much as the salt won't boil off, just the water.
after 4-5 hours you should have a reduced liquid with a lot of meat floating in it.   Strain the stock thru a fine sieve, then return it to a low heat...at this point you can add a small amount of tomato paste or some further aromatic seasoning.....after another few hours you should have a wonderful shimmering stock....partition into small containers and freeze. Then you can use it as a base for meaty stews (venison) or soups or gravy...

here is a link about the Deerskin trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deerskin_trade