these are ducks.

These are ducks.

Not duck breasts, duck sausages, duck liver pate; but ducks. These birds lived in the wild and were hunted for food in the Mid-West in January. Shortly after the end of their lives, they were de-feathered (mostly), cleaned, tagged, and transported to California by said hunter. After some time chilling out in a freezer, they landed in my loft in Los Angeles to be roasted and presented to small gathering of friends.

Let's see you tell that story about a hot dog.

things I love:

This week, just to show my cynical side, I'm going to begin with something I don't love-- lab grown meat.

(source)

Although this article raves of the wonders of this product that is being developed in the Netherlands, touting that it tastes like a "soggy form of pork" and is PETA-approved (two things I look for when shopping for meats), I think I'll skip it. Have I mentioned that I also love sarcasm?

Now here's a trend that I can get behind. Last week, the New York Times ran an article about Urban Hunting. Though somewhat disturbed by inevitable mental imagery of shotguns aimed at briefcased businessmen, cheery children with balloons, or maybe an occasional well-fed squirrel, this actually refers to groups who are taking the localvore craze a step further. A handful of ingenious folk are teaching hunting, butchery, and cookery classes to city folk in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Anyone want to start an LA chapter? Though surely not for the faint of heart, the article points out some pretty noteworthy benefits:

Provides food that is as local as you can get--

“If you can shoot a deer in your own backyard, butcher it there, that’s zero food miles,” says hunting teacher Jackson Landers.

Meats are wonderfully far from factory-farmed--

“There’s nothing more organic and free range than meat you hunt for yourself and your family,” says Anthony Licata, editor of Field & Stream magazine.

May be an economical option for budget-crunchers--

Mr. Landers, who tries to take Virginia’s full limit of six deer a year, agreed. For the cost of the necessary licenses, $36.50, he said he can stock his freezer with nearly free protein.

And as anyone who has lived in an area that is populated with deer knows, promoting hunting cuts back on the nasty possibility of deer-related car accidents, which is just a total waste of a poor animal's life, an insurance claim, and many-a-tasty steak.

For your meat-loving friends and family, can I recommend doing some Christmas shopping with Sweet Meats?

They have some clever new products-- DIY plush toys, charms, aprons... Always crafty, thoughtful, and the perfect mix of savory and sweet.

Speaking of Christmas, there are a plethora of bacon candies and treats on the market this year. A stocking stuffer's delight!
Here are some links to get you started:
Bacon Chocolate
Bacon Jelly Beans
Bacon Gumballs
Bacon Coffee
Bacon Beer

cooking the goods.

What better occasion than a 4th of July barbeque to grind and grill up a round of my butchered lamb meat?! Now those were some satisfying burgers, especially since I got to share them with those who have supported my meat adventures!

I also discovered that I'm a pretty good shot, so you never know, maybe I'll make a hunting trip sometime in the future.

(The man agreed that a BB gun is the best use for a can of Bud Light.)

stick your pig!

so it appears to be true-- boar hunting is the thing to do in southern california!

who knew? i guess boar is coming close to overtaking deer as the top game animal in the area. and you know what? i think i'm for boar hunting on several levels.

• i sure don't want wild boar taking over los angeles. they are mean creatures and seem kind of dirty (perhaps that's a misconception, but any omnivorous animal lacking in a moral foundation has the potential to be kind of gross-- i.e. eating their young)... and i'm having horrible thoughts of a "hollywood swine: invasion of the boar" screenplay.
• seems like a good thing for a hesitant hunter to start with. boars are actually quicker and more clever than i imagined, but they sure aren't pretty (see below)
• wild boar will be completely happy and free of nasty chemicals
• wild pig "weighs about 50 pounds, yet is compact enough to fit into the trunk of a mid-’80s Camaro" (see this article)
• there are only minor restrictions on hunting wild boar, and no seasons or daily limits
• wild bacons, need i say more? i'm in!

here's a great article about boar hunting.

but here's a real kicker-- find out exactly how to exactly stalk, take, prepare, and dine upon your own wild pig from some bay area "swinologists." really. it is a definite must-read. along with exploring practical aspects of the hunt and the idea of hunters having, well, a conscious, it ends in a fabulous description of the resulting meal--

"...once you decide to cook your boar, quickly alert a team of gastronomes who are willing to eat a hog on short notice...[then] watch the expressions on the faces of your dinner guests when they first see the beast, turning on the spit, atop a roaring blaze... as guests feed, an odd silence will wash over the spectacle, interrupted only by an occasional mewl or groan...a certain barbaric poetry emerges from the ritual of slaying a beast and feeding it to friends..."

still feeling hesitant? check out these reads.

The Whole Beast: Nose to Toe Eating by Fergus Henderson



Unmentionable Cuisine by Calvin W. Schwabe

this week's cut:

elk!



and here's a link to a elk-butchering diagram- well, technically this is goes for any large game meat, which i think i'm on a kick with... maybe it is leading me to taking up a new hobby? we'll see about that.

i think that hunting has been completely misrepresented, perhaps because of hunting purely for sport or perhaps just for meat. the Native American outlook is something to be admired (in my opinion, at least), which is almost reverent. the animals are respected and every part of them used - protein for food, bone for implements, sinew for cordage, fur, feathers, rawhide and leather for clothing... this might be politically incorrect, but i don't understand holding an objection to wearing fur or leather or to hunting (for food, not for sport) but eating meat or being vegetarian/vegan but still wearing fur or leather. to be a good steward of our "resources," shouldn't we be willing to use all parts of an animal? (e.g. last week's buffalo diagram!) i would also like to think that if i am willing to eat meat and wear leather/fur, i would be willing, even just once in my life, to see the process all the way through, from hunting the animal to seeing it on the table. this may not be for everyone and i know i have to accept that, but i think it would be a very rewarding experience. i guess i am still working through my thoughts on this.

just from a health standpoint, i'm pretty fascinated by what i'm learning about the nutrition of eating meat from animals who live in their more "natural" states. i wonder if meats like buffalo and elk would still be lean if they were factory farmed? and are they leaner than beef and chicken in general, or only than meat from factory farmed cows and chickens? i was quite surprised to look at a package of elk from broad leaf game and find that it only had 120 calories and 0 grams of fat! don't get me wrong, i'm defiantely for having some fat in my foods- gosh, i could eat piles of bacon- but it seems so bizarre that there would be that much of a discrepency between tasty game meat and, say, ground beef.



and if you are so inclined, check out these websites:
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (click on the carnivore's kitchen link!)
Wild Eats

NOT murder.

much excitement ensued when i opened my email this morning to find a message entitled "meat is NOT murder" from good friends and fellow food lovers matt and bj barber (matt coined the "happy meat" phrase, must give credit where it is due!). last night, they were invited to a fabulous and exclusive dinner party featuring fresh roasted elk from montana that was hunted, prepared, hand-carried on an airplane, and perfectly cooked by their friend and documentary filmmaker shonda. shonda began hunting in montana handful of years ago under the influence of a boyfriend and she hasn't looked back!



they filled me in on all of the details of the wonderful and simple meal. i don't know much about cooking elk (yet!), but they said that the meat is so lean that it must be cooked very delicately... as you can see, it is very pink on the inside.




it received rave reviews-- very flavorful and filling and prepared with bacon on top.

see, sarah palin didn't totally ruin female hunter stereotypes... ehhh...


sorry, couldn't resist.

thanks, barbers!