Greg Tubbs and Eric Clark are hosts of the Where2Hunt podcast and creators of Okayest Hunter.  Okayest Hunter is an online brand that promotes celebrating every deer taken and promoting a positive message around hunting.  A message I can get behind.  As a self proclaimed “meat hunter” my trophy lies in the harvest, not necessarily what's on its head (not really a surprise).    

Having the opportunity to talk with these guys was a real pleasure, getting to know how these two utilized their venison differently.  Greg, from an early age having the chance to learn how to break down an animal and fillet the fish, was around lots of ways to prepare the game.  Eric, on the early stages of getting the most out of the game.  Using a processor to get him not only his steaks and roasts, but enjoys the meat candy that comes along with it.  The balance of these two shows that each hunter will have their unique approach.  Greg saves money and gains options, but spends time and effort.  While Eric saves time and effort,  gets less options, but finds it worth the extra money to have that done.  Each solution has its benefits.

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This episode of Huntavore highlights Annie Weisz, author of Peak to Plate.  Peak to Plate is a website all dedicated to things using wildgame.  Annie began her adventure by being along side her mother in the kitchen.  Developing a love and passion for food, even her day job has her looking at nutrition being a Dietitian.  Annie has been surrounded by hunting and fishing, her step father teaching her to flyfish, joining her husband on hunts for Elk (even while pregnant!).  Annie has had opportunity to play with wild game, but when she had her boys it took on more of an importance.

Annie started her website as a way to document her recipes.  She loves bold flavors, and interesting cuisine.  So translating her wonderful protein into dishes that are very exciting and different from the norm.  Personally, Nick was looking at the Whitetail Sushimi.  Anytime you are consuming raw meat, you should take great care, but the flavor and texture that you get doubled with an asian ponzu sauce is well worth the effort.  Annie also translated a staple in India into a fantastic Butter Pheasant recipe.  For these examples and tons more, head over to peaktoplate.com or follow along in instagram @peak.to.plate

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Jared Gortsema and James Zandstra are hunting partners and creators of the Bowga Hunting Podcast.  The two are native Michiganders who enjoy the thrill of exploring public land and pursuing game.  Their passion for being sportsmen has led them to Wisconsin for public land whitetails.  Jared takes a real liking to scouting and working the chess match for mature bucks.  Another adventure of theirs, takes them to the mountains of West Virginia to hunt black bear.  James is a traditional enthusiast, hunting with a recurve.  He was able to take a bear with that recurve.

Both Jared and James enjoy the opportunity to bring home wholesome wild protein to their families.  Being spring, Nick wanted to get their thoughts on what they are doing with their turkey.  James tossed around the idea of making his bird last longer, by making sausage that he could freeze and use throughout the year.  He is also not opposed to smoking a breast and and going cold cut style.  Thin slices with some spicy homemade mayo.  Jared is thinking of a smoked braise on the dark meat.  Translating a venison shoulder recipe with a dark beer to a turkey leg and thigh with some citrus and a michigan classic, Oberon.

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Jason Thornton hails for Lafayette, Louisiana.  In his own words, the Bayou is a sportsman’s paradise.  He chases just about everything down there; deer, hogs, turkey, small game, fish, and also tends an extensive garden.  His harvest is pride of his, but his passion is presenting that harvest in a pleasing, creative way.  Tossing a bird or rabbit into a crockpot with a can of cream of mushroom or wrapping large cuts in bacon isn’t a bad thing, but how often does that become the only way it's presented.  Jason wants to elevate that dish that brings honor to that animal, but also use all of the animal that nothing goes to waste.

One way Jason elevates his dishes is with sauces and homemade condiments.  Now we’ve heard it said “A good steak doesn’t need a sauce”.  There is some truth to that, a properly seasoned, and cooked steak no matter the doneness, will be juicy enough.  However, Jason would live to add a sauce of his foraged mushrooms, or a glaze made from his fruit marinade.  Going beyond just steak topping, Jason loves to make his own condiments.  Not just straight mustard and ketchup, but a Banana Pepper Mustard and Smoked Beet Ketchup.  Jason also lays out how easy making a homemade mayonnaise can be.

Jason also finds enjoyment in not just holding onto his recipes, but sharing them with sportsmen who desire to get creative with their game.  Here is a link to his website where you can find his recipes:

https://www.edibleoutdoorscook.com/

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Jeff Benda loves food.  Growing up as a kid on an AirForce Base,  he and his parents enjoyed their time at home in the kitchen.  Whether it was making their own, or hearing about a great new restaurant to try, food was a common event.  Jeff however couldn't realize his second dream of being an outdoors man until becoming an adult.  As a kid, he watched fishing and sport shows Sunday morning before church, read familiar books like My Side of the Mountain.  It wasn't till his friends invited him on a duck hunt back in 2002.  Since then, Jeff has monopolized on his location in North Dakota being able to chase a whole host of animals from the Midwest and Western states.

Recipe creation is a task I find to be challenging.  Might be that I’m putting too much thought into relaying to the reader why certain steps are important, or that I am a natural presenter and hack my way through writing.  Jeff offered some insight that a recipe is more of a creative expression and be played and messed with.  Don't like spice, omit it.  Want the fire?  Add more.  Whatever you change though, make sure to make a note of it.  Jeff keeps a journal handy as he's in the kitchen.  Another thing that Jeff does is actually read cookbooks.  Old ones, new ones, wildgame or completely domestic.  He draws inspiration from this reading and keeps his creative jive alive.

Jeff recently published a mind blowing recipe of Jackalope Wellington.  While I wish it was from an actual buck Jack, Jeff brough the backstrap of a cottontail and antelope together in a rich crowd pleaser.  Here is the link to check out:

https://www.backcountryhunters.org/jackalope_wellington

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Focus today is on the Wild Turkey Breast.  Large cut of meat, Thick at one end, that narrows to a point, and hides an inner tenderloin.  The whole thing in nature is lean.  Quick,fast, and powerful, the breast is the power muscle for flight for these birds.  Not having the stamina for extended flight, the breast gets its light color from quick bursts of work, unlike the legs and thighs that do the bulk of the load, giving them the darker color and more pronounced flavor (that's another episode).  When getting the bird in the field, it is worth your time to pluck the feathers and keep the skin attached.  Any fat that the bird has will concentrate on the skin.  Leaving it on while cooking the breast can give you the advantage to juicy white meat.   

The whole crown is a great family gathering size.  Two lobes connected at the keel bone (breast bone)  Being all the same texture and consistency, you can focus on the white meat without having to worry if the thighs get done.  Season and brine to taste, in the oven covered at 375* for 45 minutes, then slow the oven to 250* for the remainder of the cook.  Figure 10-15 minutes per pound total, Use Probe to keep eyes on temp.  150*-155* Cut the heat, and rest for 20 minutes.

A favorite prep of Nick’s is a Marinated Tenderloin.  You could add any marinade that you like, but in this step by step recipe, He goes with a Lemon Pepper approach that properly signals in spring:

https://sportsmensnation.com/blog/recipe-marinated-wild-turkey-tenderloins

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Kevin Vistisen hails from the east side of Michigan, near Detroit.  Kevin is like a lot of us,  He has a passion for deer hunting.  He puts in long hours at work, spends time with his family, and daydreams about what is strolling past his soaking trail camera.  He and crew have in addition to just loving deer hunting, have put a foot forward in creating and strengthening the hunting culture.  Through his own podcast, DeerHunter Podcast, topics range from old school deer camp talk, to cutting edge tactics on getting closer to deer.  Usually accompanied by the familiar sound of beer cans cracking, their mission is Entertain, Educate, and Evolve the modern day deer hunter.

Nick and Kevin take their sweet time here on this conversation, going nowhere quickly but hitting some topics that are very timely and profound.  Kevin talks about his own experience with how social media can be a trap for sportsmen.  What starts as an innocent “this or that” can quickly turn into a divisive pissing match.  Kevin says that what our community needs is some flexibility with each other.  With the rest of the world becoming more polarizing and anti-hunting groups getting more organized, we need more than ever to unified.

Moving into the venison talk, Kevin is no stranger to having his deer dropped off to a processor.  Relationship is the key, he says.  I trust the man, whose profession it is to cut meat.  Near his home is a butcher shop, and through conversations and interactions has made himself known to the shop.  Maybe it’s cause Nick is weird, but in Kevin’s film “The Forest” he says the line “1 pound of ground, makes 10 tacos”.  It has not baring on the film, but Nick has been stuck on it.  For Kevin, it seems like a easy way to calculate how much to thaw for a large gathering.

You can find Deerhunter Podcast wherever podcast are downloaded or head over to: 

www.deerhunterpodcast.com

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Nate Judice, or @therecreationalchef is a sportsman who enjoys the game as much on the plate as chasing them in the field.  Waterfowl and whitetails are his gotos and being in south Louisiana, fish is a mainstay.  Being a guy who has put some time in behind the knife, I wanted to get a grasp of what are some of his quick draw tools in the kitchen.  Nate likes to have his cast iron at the ready all the time, in fact he said that one lives on the stovetop.  Next up are the immersion blend, and temp probes for both his freezers and the meat.

The game Nick crafted is Buy it, Borrow it, or Bury it.  A couple of passionate game cooks, giving their input on popular kitchen appliances that have recently hit the market.  Here was our votes for each:

Grinder: Nick:Buy Nate:Buy 

Sausage Stuffer: Nick:Borrow Nate:Borrow

Meat Temp Probe: Nick & Nate:Buy 

Instapot: Nick:Buy Nate:Bury

Smoker: Nick:Borrow Nate:Buy, buy a multipurpose grill/smoker.

George Bluth Cornballer: Nick:Bury Nate: WTF is a cornballer?

Air Fryer: Nick:Bury/Borrow (Wife says im bias) Nate:Bury

Deep Fryer: Nick:Buy Nate:Buy

Vac Sealer/Chamber Vac: Nick:Buy Nate:Buy

Sous vide (water circulator): Nick:Buy Nate:Borrow

Pizza Oven: Nick:Bury Nate:Depends, use mine every Friday

Dehydrator: Nick & Nate:Borrow

In Nate’s 2 Dish Breakdown he mentioned an osso bucco style shank recipe (anytime shanks are involved, I'm all ears)  He was invited by Bayou Wild TV to cook this dish.  Here is the link to tune in:  

https://www.bayouwildtv.com/recipes/large-game/299-venison-shanks-osso-buco-style.html

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Dave came into the hunting lifestyle later in life, standing in the grocery store, and thinking about how many hands have touched this piece of meat.  He came to real conscious awareness of the fuel he was putting in his body.  He now lives out west playing the tag game, procuring his meat either direct from the farmer/rancher or chasing mule deer and pronghorn.

Along with approaching his meat differently, Dave had the same epiphany when it came to seasoning his prized protein.  A backstrap already for the grill and glancing a look at the back of some store bought seasoning to find a lot of fillers and chemicals, a crying shame.  Dave took matters into his own hands and wanted to create a spice blend that would enhance his meat, not merely cover it.  Dave selected fresh, high quality ingredients for his blends and keeps batches small to maintain freshness.  One particular ingredient that caught Nick’s attention is the Tellicherry Peppercorn.  These are peppercorns from the same black pepper plants as all other peppercorns, but they are graded according to size and punch.  Tellicherry is the top 10 percent of the crop, making them the largest and most potent.  Nick who enjoys a good peppery pop, making this go-to spice blend for a wide range of wild game.  Not an overpowering flavor, but makes the protein sing.  Huntavore and Wilde have teamed up to offer you a 15% savings on your order.  Use the coupon code HUNTAVORE at checkout.  Not just for the backcountry, but on all the Wilde blends.  Head over to wildespice.com or @wildspice.

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Gina and Jacob Bourrett own Tappecue, a Missouri based company who produce the original cloud based, wifi enabled, meat thermometers.  Seeing a niche for a hardware unit with a heart of software that could connect to the cloud and be on any smart device,  Tappecue was launched.  Their first unit is a 4 stereo port that can handle 8 probes or 4 dual probes (internal and chamber thermometers in one probe).  These are wired probes.  Recently launched are Tappecue’s Air Probes that are bluetooth connected to a smart device.  These probes are wireless making them very versatile for applications where wires would be an issue.  

Knowing that probes are not new to the market, and come as an added feature on grills and smokers, Tappecue separates itself as a stand alone thermometer which can be used on your existing setup or even on your next upgrade.  Not to mention its accuracy of +-2 degrees.  Tappecue is a family owned business, who manufactures the whole product in Missouri, including the circuit boards.  The software is written and run in house as well.  Customer service is a passion of theirs, making any problems a breeze with phone calls to them.  Depending on your level of cook; competition bbq with several smokers, or a hunter waiting to cook a backstrap to perfection, Tappecue has the solution.  Whether you got a milti probe or single Airprobe, you will always be one Tappe away from your cue.

Huntavore is proud to partner with Tappecue.  Use the code: HUNT10 at checkout for 10% off your order.

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