Hunting for Food

Humans were built to hunt for food. From prehistoric times, humans have lived with, and both hunted, and were hunted by other animals.

By Moria and Keith Tidball

Our traditions, the very social fabric of who we are as a species, have been informed by our hunting heritage. Archaeological findings show brain size of early humans increased with the adaptation of tools, social skills, and cooking meat over fire. For 99% of human history, hunting and angling have played an important and significant role in the social and emotional lives of people. For many families hunting has remained a strong family tradition passed down from generation to generation. Though techniques and methods have changed, the essence of our hunting traditions continues, providing not only food for the table but stories and histories for those gathered around the table. As we become a more urban society, many people have not (yet) learned how to hunt or fish for food.

Thankfully, there are mentor programs to relearn this connection to nature and our food, such as NYS DEC’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program, 4-H Shooting Sports, hiring a NYS Licensed Guide, and DEC’s special hunting opportunities for youth and veterans. If you can, mentor a new hunter and continue our long hunting heritage and tradition. Show and teach a new hunter, young or older, how to successfully harvest an animal and how to safely process the meat.

Not only is wild game meat a way to connect with our hunting heritage and traditions, wild game meat is also an excellent source of lean, healthy protein. Because wild game meat is lean, it requires specific cooking techniques to ensure the meat is tender and flavorful, such as brining, marinating, braising, and not overcooking steaks. Too often, people say that wild-caught meat tastes “gamey” or is “tough”, yet with proper preparation, this is not the case. We can look back to hunting and wild game cooking traditions to find ways to both overcome leeriness about wild game and to actually prepare gourmet meals. To help accomplish this, we formed a partnership between Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) county associations in the Finger Lakes region. Consistent with the motto of “putting knowledge to work”, we created CCE’s Wild Harvest Table program as an educational resource to help people prepare wild game and fish meat that the whole family can enjoy eating as part of a healthy, delicious meal. It celebrates the culinary bounty that wild game and fish represent across New York State. The Wild Harvest Table initiative is not just another source of wild game recipes; the program provides useful and difficult to get nutritional information about game meat and wild game recipes. We create the Nutrition Facts label that is displayed on other foods for all the Wild Harvest Table recipes to indicate the healthfulness of the meal. This is a result of our unique partnership between Cornell University as the Land Grant University of NYS, other Land Grant Universities, and the US Dept. of Agriculture.

For more recipes and nutrition information for wild game and fish, check out www.wildharvesttable.com.

Hunters’ Venison Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground deer meat
• 1 small onion or large shallot, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• ½ cup peas (frozen or fresh)
• 1-pint stewed tomatoes or 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 to 3 cups of favorite mashed potatoes*

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a 2qt. braising pan or Dutch oven, brown the venison meat (you can add 1 Tbsp of olive oil if the meat is sticking to pan) over medium high heat. Pour the browned meat into a strainer over the sink to drain off any liquid or fat. Add a dash of olive oil to the empty pan and add the onion, carrot, and peas, return to heat, and cook stirring occasionally until the veggies are lightly cooked, about 3-5 minutes. Stir the browned venison back in with the onion, carrot, and peas, and add a dash of salt, pepper, and thyme or Italian seasoning. Cook for another minute. Remove the pan from the stove top. Even out the mixture to make a base layer and pour the tomatoes over the meat mixture. Add a layer of seasoned mashed potatoes on top of the tomatoes. Place the pan in the oven, uncovered, and cook for about 1/2 an hour until the potatoes are slightly browned on top. Remove from oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes before scooping out servings. Serves about 4.

* For my mashed potatoes, I used 3 white potatoes boiled until soft, 2-3 Tbsp of butter, ¼ cup light cream or whole milk, salt & pepper to taste and mashed it all together, which made about 3 cups.