Fishing and hunting are Wyoming’s two main pastimes.
After having a successful outing, the number one task is taking care of your game and cooling it down fast.
Fishing is easy, depending on what time of the year it is.
For the fish you are taking home, place them in a zip-lock bag and put in an ice chest. I prefer to filet my fish, but if you are lucky and catch the big one, grilled fish steaks are great. There are premade sauces and rubs at the store, but don’t be afraid to experiment on your own.
Rubs for fish can be as simple as a light sprinkle of salt and pepper, or even some lemon pepper. Or as a complicated mixing of onion, celery, garlic, salt, white or brown sugar, white or black pepper, chili, and dill powders. Just remember to mix your ingredients in a bowl, and not directly on the fish. You don’t want to overpower the fish, because you can have too much of a good thing; just pinch it from the bowl and lightly sprinkle it over the fish. If I am grilling fish, I mix in my dry ingredients into extra-virgin olive oil and marinate for a half hour. Using olive oil and a tight mesh screen will keep your fish from burning, and sticking. And for me, I like a little fresh squeeze of lemon or lime on my fish to finish it off.
Whatever you can do to a chicken, you can do to game fowl. My all-time favorite is barbecue dove with mesquite wood chips in the smoke box on the grill. For an easy sauce, I take store-bought, fresh-cut salsa and run it through my food processor till it is completely liquid. Then I add a little Pepsi or Coke and bush it on each time it turn the doves on the grill.
For red meat game, if it was young all you might need is a little salt and pepper. But for some game, no matter how good you took care of it, it might taste gamey. Depending on how gamey it is, you can go with as little as a light dusting of Hi Mountain or McCormick seasoning, to a full blown complicated marinade.
For an easy first time marinade, try McCormick’s Grill Mates marinade, and follow the easy directions on the back. Mix marinade and pour over steaks in a large zip-lock or vacuum bag and let set overnight in your refrigerator, turn bag over at least once while marinating. I like to mix the Zesty Herb, and a Montreal steak marinades, together and change it a little.
Instead of water, I use a whole bottle of a good dark beer, New Belgian’s 1554 for example, one-fourth cup of extra-virgin olive oil, and four tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and extra dried chopped onion. If I am doing a larger cut, or a roast I do two batches so I can inject one. Make the first batch, and let it set for a couple hours, then drain it through a screen. I inject the first batch and place in a large vacuum bag, and then pour over the second batch and vacuum seal. Depending on how large the roast is, I marinate one to two days and turn over bag every six to eight hours. I then use my rotisserie oven or the electric rotisserie on my grill. Cook time depends on temperature of what you are cooking with; generally it is 18 minutes per pound for medium. Check with a meat thermometer after the first 45 minutes, and 10 minutes there after till it is done at what level you want.
Then for the gamiest of red meat you can or have it made for you, is jerky or sausage. You can do this in your oven, but a dehydrator works better for me. Just don’t have any fat in your meat for jerky, and for ground meat I add 1 cap full of liquid smoke per pound.
There are some ideas, and remember to include your family in the cooking. Cooking together always taste better!
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