Wild Game Archives

Venison

Venison Meat Pies

Inspired by a Sicilian Easter lamb pie, this venison pie is everything a hand-held meat pie should be: dense, flavorful -- and portable. It's like an Italian empanada.

Essays and Stories

NOMA: Time and Place and Meaning

After months of struggling with NOMA, the cookbook from the Danish restaurant considered to be the best in the world, I finally get it. Food is about time, and place. And meaning.

Recipe

Duck Fat Hollandaise

Yes, it's true. You can make a classic hollandaise sauce with duck fat. And not just any duck fat - wild duck fat. It's just waiting for asparagus. You know you want some.

Venison

Venison Soup

A hearty venison soup based off a classic Scotch broth, with barley, turnips, carrots -- and an ingredient dear to the Scots, fresh chopped nettles.

French

Duck Gizzards Confit

This is my favorite way to eat duck or goose gizzards. Sliced thin and tossed with a simple saute of wild mushrooms -- I mostly use chanterelles or hedgehogs -- it's a killer dish.

Wild Game

Why Salt Matters

I used to think that all that fancy French salt was bunk, that it was all a scam. Sodium chloride is sodium chloride, right? Wrong. I now know that all salts are not created equal.

Wild Game

Roast Woodcock: A Dream Fulfilled

I finally get a chance to cook woodcock, thanks to a friend who traded some to me recently. This is the most sought-after game bird in America - and for good reason.

French

French Consommé

Making your own wild game stock sets you on the path to mastering game cookery, but making wild game consomme puts you on the path to becoming a Jedi Master of wild game. This stuff is mind-blowing!

Pheasant, Grouse, Quail

Retro-Fabulous Saturday Pheasant

Saturday chicken was one of my favorite dinners growing up. I had no idea how my mum made it, and when I asked, I was appalled... yet strangely excited. I had to make it.

Ducks and Geese

Ruddy Ducks, The Original Butterball

There was a time when the little ruddy duck stood next to the canvasback and the redhead as royalty among waterfowl. Now they are derided as trash ducks. It is an unjust accusation.

Mushrooms

Cooking Chanterelle Mushrooms

Chanterelles vie for my favorite mushroom with the great porcini. Chanties are the light to porcini's dark, pheasant not beef, white wine not red. Our season has begun!