I’m proud of the fact that I make my own blood sausage from lambs on the farm I harvest myself. It’s a process that’s pretty intimate, and not available to everyone, and from there, people that harvest their own animals probably don’t harvest the blood, so it’s a special sort of circumstances that have to…
Charcuterie
Beef Neck Terrine
I’ve created more versions of pates and terrines than I can count, and some of them blur together, but one sticks out above the rest: the beef neck terrine. It was a crowd favorite, but also burned in my mind as one server repeatedly asked me to show her where the fruit was. She was…
Venison Jerky with Serviceberries
I loved eating beef jerky as a kid, and I always liked the Pemmican brand, it was simple, and good. But, when I found out years later that pemmican was actually a sort of mashed up paste of dried meat and lard, I was a little confused as to why people would have eaten it….
Spring Sochan and Watercress with Venison Ham
When spring arrives, greens are on my mind, and there are tons for cooking: nettles, waterleaf, violets, wood nettles, but sometimes I want some raw. Two of the best wild greens for eating raw are sochan and watercress, the watercress being harvested above the water to avoid liver fluke, of course, especially if you live…
How to Make Venison Bacon
Venison bacon is a thing, a smoky, delicious thing. But I don’t see many people making it. Do a google search for how to make venison or deer bacon and what you’ll find is definitely not bacon, they’re basically recipes for a sort of spiced meat loaf made with pork. Calling something like that bacon,…
Chicken Blood Sausage
I love cooking with blood. It’s hard to come by though, so that usually means it’s a once-a-year thing when I might help someone butcher a few lamb. I typically get enough for about 15 pounds of sausage out of that, which is plenty for me, and leaves enough so that I can donate some…
Meat Garum
Meat garum (just think soy sauce made from meat) was the first thing I planned to make after flipping through copy of the Noma Guide to Fermentation, by Rene Redzepi, a book I know plenty of my friends have been experimenting with. It is some seriously mind bending, technical restaurant ideas and experiments, and not for…
Puffball Mushroom Bratwurst
Here’s a fun way to use meat, and dried mushroom powder, specifically puffballs. In charcuterie and sausage making, milk powder is often used, especially in finely ground emulsions like bologna and hot dogs to achieve a nice, bouncy texture. Here, instead of using milk powder in the sausages, I use toasted, dried puffball powder, which…
Smoked Heart Sausage
A while ago I was planning the menu for a dinner revolving around lamb, which was going to take the shape of 3 separate courses dedicated to the animal. The first course in a menu like that I usually like to include offal, to convey the importance of whole animal butchery and how creative you…
Turkey Terrine with Venison Bacon, Lobster Mushrooms and Wild Caraway
One of the best, and oldest uses charcuterie can provide is how it helps use up odds and ends in the kitchen, especially meat scraps. Sometimes I have a little of something left from one project, or two, and I’ll vacuum seal some of the meat away in a larger container made from scraps, just…
Venison Breakfast Sausage with Wild Blueberries
Looking in the freezer I had sausage on my mind. Seeing a couple bags of wild blueberries I remembered a moment of fear I had one day picking berries in a remote spot, and seeing a picture one of my friends posted about bears being seen harvesting berries in the area I was in. I…
Wild Fennel Seed Salami
Salami, cured meat with a couple crackers, a slice of cheese and a cold drink, there’s just about nothing I’d rather snack on while making dinner. With the dizzying variety of high quality salami brands available, it’s easy to go to the store, buy some and call it a day, and most of the time…
Pickled Lamb Tongues
My first time cooking with tongue was at Heartland, along with most of the other organs I learned how to cook. Usually I remember us cooking them and serving them as a small plate, tossed in a salad, or maybe warm mixed with a little pasta. I learned about pickled tongues when Lenny had us…