I’ve worked for years with a lamb and goat farm. Occasionally customers send in requests, and one that caught my eye awhile ago was the Barnsley chop. What is a Barnsley chop, you ask? It’s a saddle chop: a thick, cross-section of the loin that creates a lamb double-chop or double loin chop. History Accounts…
Carnivore
Backstrap Bresaola
If you like making charcuterie, or are charcuterie curious, bresaola is a great place to start. Bresaola is a traditional Italian charcuterie, and it’s a lot easier to make than other types of cured meats as it’s a whole-muscle cure. With whole muscle cures, all you have to do is season a piece of meat,…
Wild Fennel Venison Chorizo
I’ve been making a lot of charcuterie using UMAi DRY casings lately, and, after a month, my first one is done: a chorizo-style salami made from elk flavored with wild fennel seeds. It’s been years since I made salami, but after my first bite of these, It’s going to be a regular thing. Making salami…
Smoked Shank Stew with Huitlacoche and Tepary Beans
Venison shanks (any shanks, really) make great soup and stews, and this one, with Mexican flavors of dried beans and huitlacoche, is fantastic. Originally I was trying to recreate a soup my mother described to me from a trip to Mazatlan, but, instead of the brothy soup I intended, it turned into a more stick-to-your…
Venison Biltong
If you like making charcuterie at home, or even just like a good bag of jerky, you’ll love biltong. Just think beef jerky, but softer, more tender. If you’re not familiar, biltong is made by cutting meat into slabs about an inch thick, seasoning, with black pepper and coriander, and allowing to dry for 1-2…
Venison Tasso Ham
Venison tasso may not exactly be a traditional charcuterie, but if you like spicy, smoked ham, you’ll love it. If you’re not familiar (it’s kind of an obscure ham) tasso is a smoked creole ham that, from my experience, typically has a spicy rub of paprika and cayenne, among a bunch of other things. When…
Boneless Venison Ribs
Rib meat has to be one of the most underrated cuts of venison. Typically it will go in the grind pile after getting a thorough trim, or, as I see more often, left on the carcass for the cayotes. Today, I have for you, solid proof that deer ribs make for great eating, and…
Sochan with Bacon and Tepary Beans
Fresh spring sochan, simmered with a little homemade bacon, prosciutto, or another salted and or smoked meat, along with a generous helping of tepary beans, is my Midwesternized take on a combination of ingredients involving wild plants common around the world, typically in areas that have robust wild food traditions, often based on scarcity or…
