I have just returned from a weekend in Winnipeg where I visited my daughter, who is attending university there.
In September, she had phoned and invited me to attend the Phantom of the Opera with her and that she would buy me a cheap seat ticket for my birthday. Seeing the Phantom has been a dream we have both had for years. The seats were the highest in the Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall right at the back, but they were great. We had taken binoculars and thoroughly enjoyed our evening out at the theatre.
Read Also
VIDEO: Bittersweet harvest for this family farmhand
Bruce Burnett helps his brother harvest wheat and canola for the last time on the family farm in Manitoba where they both grew up.
I must admit to thinking that I could offer to put in some money so we could have more expensive seats, but I also appreciated that this was her gift. We had a wonderful weekend and an experience that we will both treasure.
Christmas is the season we most often associate with gifts. We thought it would be fun to reflect on some of the most memorable gifts that we have received. We invite you, our readers, to do the same.
Traditionally in this column we have had a Christmas cookbook draw. This year we are offering a metal cooler and 10 beverage vacuum containers, donated by the Western Producer, for memories of your best gift.
Dorothy Long of Canolainfo has also donated canola-based soaps, spa kits and canola cookbooks. We invite you to send us your reflections along with your name and address to Memorable Gifts, c/o TEAM Resources, The Western Producer, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or e-mail: team@producer.com. The draws will be made Dec. 4. We will be share some of your stories in our December columns.
Wild game cookbooks
We have had a number of readers looking for recipes for wild meat, in particular for deer, moose and goose.
Centax has a series of books written by Helen Webber and Marie Woolsey. These books contain wild game and fish recipes, plus an array of tempting breakfast, lunch and dinner specialties that are served at Webber’s Northern Lodges located in the Churchill, Man., area. These are easy preparation recipes using basic ingredients. The series includes Blueberries and Polar Bears, Cranberries and Canada Geese, Black Currants and Caribou, and Icebergs and Belugas. To order, contact Centax, 1150 Eighth Avenue, Regina, Sask., S4R 1C9, 800-667-5595, e-mail: centax@printwest.com, www.centaxbooks.com.
Lone Pine Publishing has a Wild Game Cookbook, by Doug and Peggy Kazulak. It can be ordered from Lone Pine Publishing, 10145-81 Ave, Edmonton, Alta., T6E 1W9, phone 800-661-9017 or website: www.lonepinepublishing.com.
At the library I also found a cookbook
called 500 Wild Game and Fish Recipes available from the American publisher on-line at www.willowcreekpress.com.
The Saskatchewan Association of Conservation Officers put the SACO Cookbook together. It contains more than 400 recipes for game birds, wild game and fish, including soups, salads, appetizers and desserts. Conservation officers submitted all of the recipes. The cookbooks are available from conservation offices in Saskatchewan for $19.95 (taxes included) or phone 306-752-2987 to place an order.
Marcel Ferland, the conservation officer in Kindersley, Sask., said that after he has hung his animals, he debones all of the meat and carefully removes the fat, dry and damaged portions and trims to clean the fresh meat. He is careful not to cut into the bone or spinal cord. The large portions of meat he then cuts into chunks about half the size of a large fist.
These meat chunks are put into plastic bags, each weighing 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms). The meat is then frozen until he wants to make sausage or ground meat.
He only grinds what the family can use in three months. He mixes nine to 14 kg of ground game meat with about five kg of ground lean beef or ground pork.
For sausage, he adds some garlic powder, lemon pepper and seasoning salt. The ground meat can also be made into patties, meatballs or meat loaf. The meatballs are baked in the oven and then refrozen for quick meals. He warns that the meat is lean and cooks quickly. His preference is to cook it slowly at a low temperature until the pink is gone.
Another hunter said he debones the meat at the kill site and then wraps it in lengths of cheesecloth. This keeps the meat clean and it is easier to transport in chunks. He maintained that by not cutting the bones, there is less of a wild flavour in the meat.
If you have game recipes or hints that you would like to share, please send them in. I would be interested in a goose sausage recipe if any reader has one.
The following recipe is adapted from 500 Wild Game and Fish Recipes.
Smoked venison summer sausage
8 pounds lean elk meat or venison 3.6 kg
2 pounds fat pork trimmings 1 kg
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper 15 mL
10 teaspoons household salt 49 mL
3 tablespoons sugar 45 mL
1/2 teaspoon saltpeter 2 mL
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coriander 20 mL
1 teaspoon ground ginger 5 mL
1 tablespoon ground mustard 15 mL
1 teaspoon mustard seed 5 mL
1 tablespoon garlic powder 15 mL
2 cups rose wine 500 mL
This recipe is calculated for 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of sausage.
Chill meat to 38 F (3.3 C). Then grind through a 3/16 inch grinder plate. Place the meat in a large plastic, glass or ceramic tub or crock.
Mix all ingredients by hand to blend spices evenly and chill in a cooler for two to three days.
Stuff into 23/4 x 24 inch (seven x 61 cm) beef middles. These are usually available from a butcher. You can also use three x 28 inch
(seven x 71 cm) fibrous casings or use two inch (five cm) casings. Make the sausages about 12 inches (30 cm) long and then tie them off. Be sure they are stuffed tightly.
After stuffing, hang so they do not touch each other and dry in a cooler for five hours. Transfer the hanger to a smoker or smokehouse and smoke at 120 F (49 C) with a heavy smudge for six to eight hours or until an internal temperature of 145 F (63 C) is reached.
Smoking longer will increase the flavour.
When smoking is completed to your satisfaction, remove and shower with tap water until an internal temperature of 120 F (49 C) is reached. Hang in a cooler for two days. The sausage can be refrigerated or frozen.
