Pluck a zucchini from a vine in the backyard then transform it to a plateful of fritters for supper, and the chin tilts a bit with pride. Pop the vacuum seal of plum tomatoes jarred in September then use them as a base for red sauce in January, and the chest puffs.
The real strutting begins, though, when the hunter brings home the bacon _ or the deer or duck, quail or squirrel, as the case may be.
Odds are that if you open that same proud hunter's freezer you will find at least one wrapped parcel of something from last season. Or last year.
Often, that's because the thrill of the hunt and the pride of the catch has ended all too often with the ubiquitous deer chili, venison roast or bacon-wrapped duck breasts. Complaints about wild game dishes range from being same old, same old to too gamey to too dry to too gross. I'm thinking of my own reaction when my mother-in-law waxed poetic many years ago about how Daddy would create a thrill in Mother's kitchen when he walked through the door at suppertime with a string of squirrel or rabbit that Mother would fry in some rendered bacon fat. I wanted to hop in the other direction at the mere thought back then. Silly girl.
My aversion to eating wild game evaporated when I got a few tastes of some properly prepared catches.
If you're not buying the deliciousness factor, consider this: game meat is high in protein, lower in fat than many other good protein sources, comparatively economical and free of growth hormones.
If you're willing to give game a go-round, the most important point to understand about any game _ especially wild game, as opposed to captive bred _ is that it will always be leaner than domesticated meats. Game animals lead an unpampered life, fending for their own sustenance in the wild. That's not the makings for a lot of extra body fat.
And, if there are any layers of fat observable on the meat as you survey it on your kitchen counter, you must remove them. This tallow can be the source of an unpleasant gamy taste.
In the end, you will be cooking a meat that is nearly devoid of fat and that requires proper handling.
Firstly, marinade is your friend. Tenderness in wild game meat will be achieved with a marinade. Take your pick _ a long bath of buttermilk, with its tangy acid; dry wine with black pepper; and a blend of soy sauce and lemon juice. The key is the acid.
As for cooking style, there are two main courses of attack _ moist, as in low-and-slow braising; or quick, as in searing of game pieces such that the meat can be served medium-rare to rare.
If unaccustomed to cooking game, some aspects of the process can be off-putting.
Rabbit looks like a rabbit. The venison, when defrosted, can give off more blood than what might be expected. The cooking aroma can be strong. In the case of roasted duck, that's a particularly good thing because few meats smell as delicious as roasted duck. With venison, however, the olfactory stimulation can be bothersome. If the smell bothers you, put some lightly salted onion and garlic in the cooking pan with a bit of butter and oil. Problem solved.
If you don't have a hunter in the family, captive-bred game can be purchased from several regional purveyors. It won't be an exact match to that caught in the wild, but it will be close.
If you simply can't convince your family to go whole-hog on wild game, yet you don't want to waste the fruits of your hunting labors, consider these subterfuge tricks. Cooking venison stew? Add a portion of beef to the pot. Making deer sausage? Mix in some pork sausage. And if all else fails, wrap whatever you're cooking in strips of bacon.
