'Tis Hunting Time—A smallish blog

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, Wayne said:

 

We ended up making 3 batches of 10 lbs. each (manageable with our equipment).

1/ a hot Italian style sausage (fennel seed, garlic and LOTS of hot peppers).

2/ a fresh kielbasa sausage.

3/ a French style garlic herb sausage (garlic, brandy, mustard and lots of fresh herbs).

All the batches were 25%/75% pork fatback/pheasant breast meat.

If you are interested in the recipe I would suggest #3 as it best showcases the pheasant meat.

Unfortunately my notes are home but if interested I'll post later.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Thank you!!!!  Sounds really good.  When we drag up the grinder for the deer, might have to do some of this too!

[KennethT]

@quiet1 I saw that done everywhere we went when my wife and I spent a week in Saigon last year...

[quiet1]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

@quiet1 I saw that done everywhere we went when my wife and I spent a week in Saigon last year...

 

Any idea what the mixture in the bowl is? It's been a while so I can't remember.

[kayb]

Enjoy the snow as much as I enjoyed your blog -- which was a great deal!

 

[KennethT]

@quiet1 I hate to derail this thread, but the mixture was salt and red chilis - either fresh bird chili or dried red chili... once in a while it was salt and pepper...  You can see the photos from the trip here:

 

[Wayne]

8 hours ago, Shelby said:

Thank you!!!!  Sounds really good.  When we drag up the grinder for the deer, might have to do some of this too!

 

Here is the recipe for the herb garlic pheasant sausage (for a 10 lb. batch):

 

2.5 lb. pork fatback

7.5 lb. pheasant breast meat

4 Tsp. coarse pickling or kosher salt

3 Tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

3-4 cloves finely minced garlic

1 Tsp. coarsely ground yellow mustard seeds and 1 tsp. dried mustard powder (can substitute with prepared grainy mustard however the salt may need to be toned down)

3/4 C. brandy (Calvados works really well here)

Fresh finely chopped Italian parsley, sage, thyme and rosemary in an approximate ratio of 3:1:1:1. (I used about a loosely packed 1/2 C. in total).

 

We aimed at a subtle herb and garlic flavour that highlighted the pheasant. This goes really well with a lentil ragout but really works any way you want to have it.

If you make some please post how it turned out.

 

 

 

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, Wayne said:

 

Here is the recipe for the herb garlic pheasant sausage (for a 10 lb. batch):

 

2.5 lb. pork fatback

7.5 lb. pheasant breast meat

4 Tsp. coarse pickling or kosher salt

3 Tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

3-4 cloves finely minced garlic

1 Tsp. coarsely ground yellow mustard seeds and 1 tsp. dried mustard powder (can substitute with prepared grainy mustard however the salt may need to be toned down)

3/4 C. brandy (Calvados works really well here)

Fresh finely chopped Italian parsley, sage, thyme and rosemary in an approximate ratio of 3:1:1:1. (I used about a loosely packed 1/2 C. in total).

 

We aimed at a subtle herb and garlic flavour that highlighted the pheasant. This goes really well with a lentil ragout but really works any way you want to have it.

If you make some please post how it turned out.

 

 

 

Oh this sounds great.  I will post if we make it.  We will at some point I promise!  

[chromedome]

On 04/12/2016 at 8:08 PM, Shelby said:

I've seen a moose once in person.  So majestic.  I've never eaten the meat.  

 

 

After being here in New Brunswick for about eight months, my California-bred second wife complained, "I've been seeing those stupid 'Watch for Moose' signs on every road for most of a year now. I've been watching, and I haven't seen a moose even once!"

 

The very next day, as she was coming home, she rounded a curve in the road and nearly hit one (in my little Mazda Protege, so it wouldn't have ended well). She was aghast..."People told me they were horse-sized," she said, still visibly shaken, "but nobody specified Clydesdale!" 

She insisted that if it hadn't been for the "boy bits," she could have driven the Mazda underneath his belly. That's an exaggeration, but after an encounter like that I think it was a perfectly understandable one. 

[Shelby]

Thought I'd sneak in here and give a quick update.  We spent this afternoon grinding up venison and making breakfast sausage.  We discovered that we have a lot more burger than we thought we did, so breakfast sausage it is!

 

Venison to be ground up

 

 

This is about 15 lbs.  We like to do a 50/50 mix of this with a nice fatty pork roast.

 

  

 

We used this mix along with a bunch of added garlic, black pepper and sage.

 

 

Here's our grinder.  It's a heavy beast.

 

 

Gotta cover it up for the first grind so that meat doesn't fly all over

 

Ground pork

Ground venison

 

All mixed together

 

And all packaged up!

 

Got about 30 lbs. total.  

[Okanagancook]

Very nice Shelby!  Now THAT'S a meat grinder!

I'll take two lbs please!

[paul o' vendange]

Late to this, saw it on the main page.  Wonderful blog, Shelby - thank you for doing it.  Can you tell me what model grinder you have there?  Beast is an understatement - very nice!

 

Edit:  Just doing a little digging, it appears Tor-Rey is discontinued and is now rebranded as ProCut.  Stout grinders, whatever the name...!

Edited January 28, 2017 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Shelby]

36 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

Late to this, saw it on the main page.  Wonderful blog, Shelby - thank you for doing it.  Can you tell me what model grinder you have there?  Beast is an understatement - very nice!

Oh thank you so much, Paul!  I appreciate your kind words.  

 

The grinder is a Tor Rey model # m-12  and it's 3/4 HP.

 

I quickly googled and this one might be the new model of mine...we have had ours for quite a long time.

[KennethT]

3/4 HP!!  Holy crap!

[paul o' vendange]

17 hours ago, Shelby said:

Oh thank you so much, Paul!  I appreciate your kind words.  

 

The grinder is a Tor Rey model # m-12  and it's 3/4 HP.

 

I quickly googled and this one might be the new model of mine...we have had ours for quite a long time.

 

Thanks, Shelby.  What a fine machine!

[Shelby]

Happy Hunting Season to everyone!  It's me again  .

 

I've been busy the last few weeks doing my usual prepping which is inspired by a visit from our hunter.  It's a good excuse for fall cleaning and sprucing the house up a bit.   Although.... @Anna N  does warn me that cleaning is very overrated .

 

Our hunter arrives tomorrow morning and, as usual, I'll be sending a camera along with them.  Right now, dove season is open, although, there have not been very many around.  I speculated that they haven't come down yet due to all of the hurricane activity, but I have no idea.   I suspect there will be some fishing happening....I'm hungry for fish.  There is a duck season open up north, but I don't know if they will venture that far away or not.

 

 It's been super hot until yesterday when we thankfully got a ton of rain.  This morning it's a nice, cool 57F and it definitely feels like fall.   Some of the leaves are just starting to turn.  I will miss the garden veggies  (don't worry @HungryChris, the zucchini are still going strong lol) , but I'm ready for cold weather....this year more than I remember being in the past.  I very much feel like hibernating in a big comfy sweatshirt while looking out of the window at 7' tall drifts of snow, but, I digress.

 

We grew pumpkins again.  Very low maintenance...I tossed the pumpkins from last year into the field and then, when they dried out, I stomped on them the scatter the seeds.  I also threw zucchini out there and I think they cross-pollinated because I have either some very orange, hard zucchini or some very tall, skinny pumpkins .  Ronnie picked some for me to decorate the porch with so I washed them all and left them in the hot Kansas sun to dry.

 

 You can see the weird looking zumpkins...or pumpzinis.....

 

 

Anyway, I hope you guys will keep me company this week.  I don't have set meal plans yet--which is not like me--so we will see what I will feel inspired to make lol.  I have to make a trip to the grocery store in a bit so I'll be back later --if it's not too boring I'll take pictures.

 

 

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

A lovechild! Could a zumpkin spice latte be far behind? If you put a zumpkin in a spiralizer you would be making poodles.

[kayb]

Inquiring minds want to see fried pumpkini....

 

[Toliver]

@Shelby Will you be canning a lot of the pumpkins, or do you have food-related plans for them (like pumpkin-filled raviolis, etc)?

[Anna N]

 Always happy to see you blogging.  

[Katie Meadow]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

Inquiring minds want to see fried pumpkini....

 

 

A perfect cocktail hour snack with your pumptini. Garnish that with a poodle.

[KennethT]

I'll eagerly follow along!

[TicTac]

Too funny, you might stumble upon the sweetest pumpkin ever created!  A ZombieKin - perfect time for Halloween.

 

Loved this blog the last time around and am looking forward to it yet again!!

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Thanks for blogging Shelby.  Always interesting and entertaining.

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, Toliver said:

@Shelby Will you be canning a lot of the pumpkins, or do you have food-related plans for them (like pumpkin-filled raviolis, etc)?

 

Nah, no plans at all for them.  They aren't the best for eating.  A couple years ago when I first got my Instant Pot I thought I was being so good and non-wasteful ....I made a ton of pumpkin soup and froze it.  Ronnie hated it.  I tried super hard to convince myself that I liked it.  It's still all in the freezer.  It won't get eaten lol.

 

 

Thanks everyone!  I make no promises on being interesting or entertaining, though .

 

I broke the cardinal rule and went to the grocery store without having eaten a single thing today.  So, I came home with a bunch of crap LOL.  I was hoping to get inspired while I was there...but I don't think I did.  You may see these ingredients used this week...and you may not.  I am sure this is not interesting to anyone but I did take pictures of everything.   Also, it started pouring rain the minute I got into the checkout line.  I looked like a drowned rat by the time I got all the groceries into the car.   I always return the cart but I didn't this time.  I am confessing my sin here in order to be absolved.

 

 

The cheap lunchmeat down there makes the best pickle roll-ups.  Good roast beef falls apart too much.  

 

We don't have trick-or-treaters so the Halloween candy is all for me.  Damn you, grocery store, for putting the candy in my face right when I walked in.

 

I bought a tortilla press a couple months ago with grand plans to make our own tortillas.....I still have that grand plan, but I bought back-up for this week in case my plan fizzles--I might make enchiladas.....

 

 

I've never seen this brand of blueberries before.  They better be the best freaking blueberries ever for how much they cost.

 

Don't judge me on the Ramen Noodles--6 packs for $1.

 

Hard as a rock avocados --hope they soften up so I can use them.

 

I was thinking about making breakfast burritos (anyone have a good recipe for that?) and thought those mini tots would be good in them.

 

And, hiding back there are fingerling potatoes.  I never buy them....don't know what came over me.

 

 

Please don't look at the ridiculous price that I paid for those steaks.  Like I said, I was starving at the store and those steaks somehow ended up in the cart.  

 

The grapes  are going to go onto a cheese platter.

 

The mushrooms?  Have thoughts about stuffing them.

 

The guys are always starving when they walk in the door so they like appetizers.  I am still going to make a savory cheesecake (I think).  And another night I'll have a cheese platter.  Another night (if we have Mexican food) will be salsa and guac.  I dunno...I'm just thinking out loud. I feel like I make the same things all of the time.

 

Anyway, the steaks are a treat to myself tonight for all my hard work.  They are now resting in the fridge for a bit and then I'll put them in the water bath.  We were just given the Chicago steak seasoning and we really like it.

 

[lindag]

6 minutes ago, Shelby said:

 

Nah, no plans at all for them.  They aren't the best for eating.  A couple years ago when I first got my Instant Pot I thought I was being so good and non-wasteful ....I made a ton of pumpkin soup and froze it.  Ronnie hated it.  I tried super hard to convince myself that I liked it.  It's still all in the freezer.  It won't get eaten lol.

 

 

Thanks everyone!  I make no promises on being interesting or entertaining, though .

 

I broke the cardinal rule and went to the grocery store without having eaten a single thing today.  So, I came home with a bunch of crap LOL.  I was hoping to get inspired while I was there...but I don't think I did.  You may see these ingredients used this week...and you may not.  I am sure this is not interesting to anyone but I did take pictures of everything.   Also, it started pouring rain the minute I got into the checkout line.  I looked like a drowned rat by the time I got all the groceries into the car.   I always return the cart but I didn't this time.  I am confessing my sin here in order to be absolved.

 

 

The cheap lunchmeat down there makes the best pickle roll-ups.  Good roast beef falls apart too much.  

 

We don't have trick-or-treaters so the Halloween candy is all for me.  Damn you, grocery store, for putting the candy in my face right when I walked in.

 

I bought a tortilla press a couple months ago with grand plans to make our own tortillas.....I still have that grand plan, but I bought back-up for this week in case my plan fizzles--I might make enchiladas.....

 

 

I've never seen this brand of blueberries before.  They better be the best freaking blueberries ever for how much they cost.

 

Don't judge me on the Ramen Noodles--6 packs for $1.

 

Hard as a rock avocados --hope they soften up so I can use them.

 

I was thinking about making breakfast burritos (anyone have a good recipe for that?) and thought those mini tots would be good in them.

 

And, hiding back there are fingerling potatoes.  I never buy them....don't know what came over me.

 

 

Please don't look at the ridiculous price that I paid for those steaks.  Like I said, I was starving at the store and those steaks somehow ended up in the cart.  

 

The grapes  are going to go onto a cheese platter.

 

The mushrooms?  Have thoughts about stuffing them.

 

The guys are always starving when they walk in the door so they like appetizers.  I am still going to make a savory cheesecake (I think).  And another night I'll have a cheese platter.  Another night (if we have Mexican food) will be salsa and guac.  I dunno...I'm just thinking out loud. I feel like I make the same things all of the time.

 

Anyway, the steaks are a treat to myself tonight for all my hard work.  They are now resting in the fridge for a bit and then I'll put them in the water bath.  We were just given the Chicago steak seasoning and we really like it.

 

 

 

Wow, someone snuck a big bag of candy bars into your cart!