A few years ago I did a dinner organized by my friend Mike Jozwik of Mushroom Mike LLC with James Beard Award Nominee Chef Dan Fox of Heritage Tavern in Madison. Heritage Tavern is a good restaurant, but one thing that really sets them apart is their farm they use to supply the restaurant with a…
Four-Legged Animals
Rabbit Ragu with Wild Herb Gnocchi
I love small game, and I have plenty of rabbit recipes on this site, but most of them are for the whole creature cut into parts, or maybe stewed. One thing I’ve been meaning to put up is a solid rabbit pasta sauce like I used to make working under my chef from Rome, Angelo,…
Venison Osso Bucco with Dried Mushrooms
There is possibly nothing more satisfying than eating an entire venison shank, and one of my favorite ways to cook them is a simple braise with dried mushrooms, herbs, stock and wine. Cutting down the shanks Venison osso bucco or cross cut shanks need some preparation during butchery to look as they’re pictured here. I…
Venison Flank Steak
Venison flank steak is a cut of meat that every deer hunter should know. This cut is one of the more under-used cuts on the deer, and it’s easy to see why. During butchery and gutting, it’s easy for it to get bloodied and unattractive, but more specifically, I think one of the reasons this…
Blackened Venison Tips
Blackened venison tips are a secret of fine meat cutting and butchery, and a perfect example of things I squirrel away for myself when butchering deer with friends. When you cut out a venison backstrap / loin there’s some trimming involved. Before you remove the silverskin, you remove another muscle called the chain, a sort…
Dried Morel Pilaf
I’ve been craving some comfort food and hurrying to use up my stash of dried morels before the next season gets here. Dried morel-venison was one of the winners I’ve been working on lately, and if you like things like Rice-A-Roni like I did when I was a kid, I think you’ll really like this. …
Venison Tenderloins “en Colère”
Venison Tenderloins en Colère is more of a fun kitchen hack for cooking the inner loins of a deer than it is a specific recipe. Story goes that one day after butchering deer with a friend, I came home and didn’t have any plans for dinner yet. If you butcher you’re own deer, you know…
Prickly Ash Sausage
If you harvest your own prickly ash berries (Xanthoxylum/Szechuan peppercorns) sausage should be on your list of things to make. I love the bright, citrusy flavor and gentle numbing quality that prickly ash adds to a dish, but it can be difficult to incorporate them into foods and have them taste coherent if you’re not…
Smoked Oxtails with Dried Mushrooms and Tomato
Oxtails charred over a wood fire and braised with dried boletes, stock and tomato is a great way to enjoy one of the finest cuts the cow has to offer. Literally the richest, most dense, collagen-packed meat on the animal, oxtails are a special treat, and I make sure to scoop up a few packs…
Meatloaf Steaks with Hedgehog Mushroom Sauce
Tender slices of poached meatloaf, napped with handfuls of hedgehog mushrooms in a sauce spiked with paprika and lemon is what happens when you were trained to cook like a French chef, but TV dinners helped raise you. I came up with this to showoff how much fun hedgehog mushrooms can be. Hedgehogs have a…
Boneless Rabbit Roulade
When I worked under the former personal chef to the princess of Monaco, boneless rabbit roulade was one of the dishes on my station. Essentially it’s a roll of rabbit, without bones, stuffed with a slice of prosciutto or other charcuterie that’s cooked and sliced, and served warm or cold. It takes some skill with…
Buttermilk Fried Rabbit
I’ve cooked rabbits a lot of different ways over the years, but buttermilk fried rabbit is, without a doubt, a contender for being one of the best rabbit recipes ever. It is everything you know and love about fried chicken, just a tiny bit different. Domestic vs wild Heck, with the domestic rabbits I used,…
Smoked Venison Kidneys
Smoked venison kidneys are not only one of the best ways I’ve had kidneys (steak and kidney pie is my other standby) but it’s one of the best recipes for offal and organ meats in my repertoire, period. If you’ve had kidneys are didn’t care for them in the past, or if you’re new to…