Slice of the Wild: 100 venison recipes

When I started hunting 20 years ago, I also started collecting wild game recipes. I stopped searching once I discovered Slice of the Wild. It’s been my go-to game cookbook for the last several years. That may change, however, because I just picked up Tenderize the Wild and The Wild Bowl. Be sure to follow Eileen’s advice about reading the introductory sections instead of just skipping right to the recipes. Those sections will make you a better cook.

Allison G. (allisongrove.com/agresearchllc.com

One buyer called Slice of the Wild an instant classic; another wished he’d bought it 30 years ago–and avoided the mistakes he’d made in field dressing, aging (and thinking wild meat would not improve with aging–like beef), and one woman said her nephew, who raised lambs and wouldn’t be caught dead reading a book, couldn’t put it down. She gave that copy to him for Christmas and bought another for herself!

Then there’s my friends Lauren and Chuck. Chuck is a retired federal marshal.  One day he arrived home to what he described to me as a crime scene. Blood everywhere.  As he approached the kitchen, he found Laurel, and an elk.  She was proudly holding up Slice of the Wild: ‘I gutted it myself,’ she said.    Chuck was grateful everyone was okay, but even more grateful he’d bought the book for Laurel. ‘I don’t have to field dress her elk anymore!’

Slice of the Wild has 100 venison recipes, 40 side dishes—and an array of Tips & Tactics for Big Game Field Care, making your venison recipes less guess-ful. There is also a detailed, lavishly photographed section  on butchering big game animals to fit the size and tastes of your family–whether elk, antelope, deer, moose or caribou. (She even explains that ubiquitous phrase, Cut across the grain, and explains why that matters, and how to be sure you’re always doing it.) Did I mention the Rogues’ Gallery? An animal by animal, antelope, mule deer, whitetail, elk, musk ox, moose (color photo by color photo) evaluation of game animals Eileen and John have taken over the years: the good, the bad, the gamy, and the chewy. Finally, there’s the T & T Test, the most uncomplicated way to evaluate venison for taste and tenderness before you commit to steaks or burger.  Know what you have before you start cutting and wrapping. No nonsense. No fancy stuff. And no more coping with mystery meat!

Need a few simple homemade and dynamic marinades for venison? A few tasty dry rubs made from stuff you already have in your kitchen? (Eileen’s homemade mixes are easy to put together, and a lot less money than those you buy at the store.) Maybe you just want a bit more variety in your collection of venison recipes? A little help upping your game on butchering big game?  A few more venison burger recipes?  Elk burger?  Gamy burger?

Perhaps you have a new hunter in your family. Or a brother-in-law whose venison recipes you dread?  A few years ago I watched one friend’s brother-in-law slice off a backstrap from a forkhorn whitetail still in rigor mortis, slice it into thin medallions then dredge it in flour and fry the stuffing out of it, all the while the rest of us stood around in horror.  Our friend’s Mom, who’d had a stroke recently kept mumbling, ‘Tough, he’s making it %*&$#@* tough’ as the rest of us nodded in agreement.

Sometimes just comparing notes with other hunters–what was it like when you shot your deer, how cold/warm was it, what if it freezes before you get it home–or freezes before (or after) rigor?   Slice of the Wild is like hanging out at the kitchen table over a nice glass of Irish whiskey, comparing notes, with people who relish their venison and do their best to always make it better.  Slante!  (That’s Irish for amen to that!)