In this episode of NDO Podcast Casey and Cayla discuss the decisions you make about wild game meat before you even pull the trigger, best practices for packaging and processing, and tips for integrating wild game into busy work weeks.
(Intro music)
Cayla: Welcome to episode 83 of the NDO podcast. On this episode, we have no guests, just Casey and I. Uh, talking about, like, probably our favorite thing. This just feels like one of our other conversations we have, uh, in the hallways, but, uh, so kind of everything from field to table when it comes to big game and birds and small game. Uh, tips and tricks, gear, things to bring with you in the field. Um, strategies, plans and then getting all that good stuff home and then, uh, sharing it with others in the kitchen. So yeah.
Casey: It's kind of that quality of your meal starts when you pull the trigger.
Cayla: Even arguably before that.
Casey: Well, yeah. I mean yeah, yeah. Practice to hit where you're gonna not ruin the meat or.
Cayla: Have a plan.
Casey: Mhm.
Cayla: Um, what you brought with you before you pulled the trigger. Hopefully something.
Casey: Yep.
Cayla: So yeah.
Casey: Maybe, maybe it's better to say that the quality of your meal starts when you get your tag or you decide to go hunting.
Cayla: Yeah. Because whatever we print it on is really gonna make that tag soup. Yep yep yep.
Casey: Yeah. If you're looking for big antlers, I mean, everything changes, right? You're looking for big antlers to put the tag on. That's going to limit the types of meals you can make because that animal is going to be a lot tougher. So yeah, I mean we've got obviously in North Dakota, we've got quite a few opportunities between big game types of big game. Um, you know, season, season, timing, all that stuff comes into play when you think of what ends up on your table, um, how you might prepare those meals, um, or utilize that animal so that it doesn't go to waste. I think, and, and, you know, there's a lot that goes into it. None of it is what I would call super daunting. It just kind of takes some thought, preparation as you go through it.
Cayla: I also think compared to, I don't know, I've only ever lived in Minnesota. I don't know, it feels like in North Dakota it's pretty common. I would say the average hunter deer hunts mostly, maybe throws in some other things, but like you.
Casey: Used to, used to. We only have 40,000 tags now.
Cayla: We have a lot of people though who just deer hunt. And then many people and many people who don't even really hunt that frequently apply for those big three. Um, and then get draw one and are sort of either have never done anything that big, have never done anything that early in the season, um, because they're just used to rifle deer hunting or sometimes not even, um, any hunting. And those are generally larger animals and sometimes warmer parts of the season.
Casey: Much larger animals. I mean, I don't know if if most people realize what a even a full-size cow elk, what that takes to, you know, handle one of those critters and take care of one of those.
Cayla: It looks like about 30 Jazmyn's basically.
Cayla: Yeah, yeah. Well, my brother was with my cousin when he shot his here this year, cow elk, and that thing looked like it was gigantic. And my brother was like, yeah, even for him, it was deer hunted a lot and done a lot of walking done a lot of backpacking. And carried a lot of stuff in and out. He's like, that was a lot. And so you want to be prepared for that even if it's like you said, you get the tag and you might want to think about getting in shape, maybe doing some carrying a rucksack a few places around, build up your ability to carry some weight in a backpack because you might need it.
Cayla: Yeah, brush up on your gutless method. Likely. Although, you know, you could have scenario, obviously, where you may know the landowner or have a way to get the animal out whole. But in a lot of cases, sometimes the landscape is going to require some.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: And breaking down.
Casey: You know, when you think of a, a really large animal and, you know, the gutless method works good. I personally would use the gutless method if I was short on time or the shot happened to be bad, and I don't want to mess with any more of the internal organs. And I have to before I get the meat off. If you if you make a really clean shot. Seasons warm typically, if you shoot it early in the season anyway, our elk season does go quite a while, but I may got the animal out just so that it's lighter, depending on if I'm by myself if I'm with other people.
Cayla: Yeah, to flip an elk.
Casey: You were to move it around to get the quarters off to those kinds of things, and then also if it is warmer, sometimes getting it can start that cooling process a lot faster. Um, and so, you know, there's, there's all those things to think about. Um, now, if it happened to be a gut shot or a follow up shot, that had to happen. That gut shot, I might not mess with gutting it until I'm all done and going in to see if the heart or whatever is, is still usable, or get the tenderloins out if they haven't been ruined, um, by that sort of shot. But um, but yeah, all those things you consider you, you shoot a a pronghorn, it's warm out typically. Um, however, you can maneuver a pronghorn pretty easy, even while the guts are in it. So you can start cranking out, you know, on that pretty fast and getting the meat off. But yeah, it's all those things to consider.
Cayla: I don't know the science behind this or why, but it's just like a sort of maybe it's a myth that pronghorn especially can get kind of gross if you don't get the skin off quick. I don't, I don't know. I haven't had a taste test, but I just know that we, with all of ours, have immediately began that process.
Casey: So the biggest thing with pronghorn is the season is typically warm. And so anytime that you're dealing with an animal and it's warm, clean cool and dry, that's your top three things. That's with any meat care. The best is clean cool and dry. Um especially ungulate meat, red meat. When you're talking about waterfowl or things like that, things change a little bit. But so the longer the hide is on in warm weather, the worse it's going to be. Um, pronghorn, you know, they have some different scent glands and things in them that can get on the meat the longer the hide stays on. Um, but realistically, I think the biggest thing with pronghorn is it's such a warm season. And if you shoot a pronghorn and treat it like you do a deer in November and throw it in the back of the pickup and even get it, you know, three, four hours later, back to the to where you're staying. That thing probably hasn't cooled down at all in most cases. And so it's been growing bacteria for 3 or 4 hours. You haven't slowed the bacteria growth. You haven't done any of that. And so by getting that hide off right away, you get um, you get the that outer layer of the meat crusted over. Nothing else can get in. Um, and it also starts to cool right away. And so that's, that's really your big advantage with pronghorn. I mean, in my opinion, pronghorn is one of the best if you take care of it. But and then also to have be prepared to put it on ice. Get it on ice. And it gets a little tricky when you talk about keeping it dry. But there are ways to do that, whether it's, you know, you have I use a lot of times like half gallon juice jugs that are empty and I've frozen water in them, put them in a good cooler before you go out. If that cooler doesn't get opened till you shoot or harvest a critter and the meat goes in. And so now you've got this. It's not melting on the meat. Um, it's, it's but it is cooling it down. And so that works really well.
Cayla: I have two spur off thoughts from this one, in preparation for this podcast, I was just thinking about our little whiteboard meal schedule this week, and I was just like, ah, this is the best. We had pronghorn backstrap on Mon, What day is it? Tuesday night we had pronghorn backstrap. Wednesday night we had grilled cheese, tomato soup. But the tomato soup was from, uh, our garden. Monday was venison like. Ground venison, was used in our, uh, spaghetti. And then tonight we're having fish chowder. But it's Alaskan rockfish. Yeah, it's just like, I don't know, how can anyone complain? It's just the greatest time of year. But I was thinking about how I'm not a big, contrary to you. Not a big meat chunk person. Like, we grind a lot of stuff. I just don't always want a steak. And I'm pretty picky about it. And especially if I was, like, very involved in the meat process. Sometimes that gets to me. But pronghorn backstrap was, yeah, really, really good. And and I was kind of grumpy about it, like because sometimes it's just like, well, we better just eat this.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: But it was really tasty.
Casey: And you, you bring up a good point like depending on how you like to utilize meat.
Cayla: Mhm.
Casey: That's how it should be frozen in your freezer. So in my opinion. So like you know you can chunk up deer, you can take the roasts off. And if you package them all as roasts it's going to be really hard to utilize that meat It especially like at my place if I do cubed venison, ground venison, venison, roast venison backstrap the steaks instead of leaving it like, if you're going to do round steaks instead of leaving the round roast and cutting it after it's thawed, you cut the steaks up and freeze them like that. Because now when like, say, if my wife is cooking, she takes it out. It's, you know, it's ready to throw in and cook however.
Cayla: Right, one less step.
Casey: One less step and it just gets utilized easier.
Cayla: Yeah. It also feels like even when you go down and open the freezer, it's like more obvious what should be done with this. Like even just a mental step of like, instead of just looking at that package and being like yeah.
Casey: Or and I would say it's probably goes even more so when you get into birds. If you're a big pheasant hunter. I know a lot of pheasant hunters. I've shot a lot of pheasant in my life. I have never cooked a whole skinned pheasant as a whole skinned pheasant. Just most people don't do it. So what they're doing is they're there. If you're going to freeze them like that, then they're thawing them out and trying to cut the breast meat off, trying to cut the thigh meat off. Um, or even if you use pheasant and sometimes people will just keep the keel with the breast meat on and freeze it like that, and it's like somebody's going to have to take the breast meat off, cut it off, fillet it off of there, cube it up, dice it up, whatever you're going to do. And it's kind of like that just makes meal preparation slower, less likely to be used. And so to when you get home, after you get to pay attention to transport rules and things like that, but after you get home and you're cleaning like a pheasant, cut off that thigh meat, cut off the breast meat, package it as just the meat at minimum. Um, if you know you make a lot of fajitas, maybe you want to slice it up already.
Cayla: Or even.
Casey: Package it flat.
Cayla: Uh, you know another I can't say I've done this, but I've heard people just cooking, like, spend a weekend cooking a bunch of, in this case could be pheasant fajitas or deer shanks into fajitas and then you could freeze fajita meat honestly and then even one more step.
Casey: One more step. Yeah. And even at that we do can some meat, we can venison, um, canned fish. And that's an easy open dump it right in the hot dish or whatever you're going to make. Um, so yeah, to think all the way through the process, you know, we've, we've even started depending on where we're at and what we're hunting. Sometimes if we're out camping for the week and we shoot a critter, whether it be a pronghorn or whatever it is, if the if where you're at and the transportation rules allow it, that critter is prepared down as far as it can be when we get home, to minimize the amount of time it takes to do something at home after you've been gone for a week. And so those things are all things you can prepare and maybe make life a little easier as you deal with meat and make it as high quality of, uh, you know, harvest enjoyment meal as you as you can.
Cayla: Plus, it gives you something to do if you're…
Casey: Right, yeah. If you're out there. I mean, yeah, we've brought the food saver with and.
Cayla: But you do have to be mindful of, like you said, transportation rules, uh, proof of sex, whatever the situation.
Casey: And so obviously, like bird hunting, if you're bird hunting out of state or even, you know, you're bird hunting three hours away from home, you got to get those home. You have to follow the transportation rules a lot of times, depending on where you're at, those are fully feathered wing attached to the legal parts of meat you have to bring home, and you have to pay attention to attached or just with, um, you know, and waterfowl. The same way you may have to keep a wing attached or head attached, um, all the way until you get home and are able to process those.
Cayla: That's another one, like the deer hunting thing. I'm always surprised, you know, again, our network of people, you know, lots of people hunt. But then like, we've gone on a few just in state, but yeah, away from home trips and people are like, well, what do I do with it now? Yeah. Like they didn't know. Well, I'm guessing they were just not leaving identification prior or just yet. Never been on a trip where you're not going immediately to your house.
Casey: Right. Or put in the deer hole in the back of your pickup and taking it home, you know. And a lot more people used to do that than do now. You know, deer season, of course, is a lot colder. In a lot of cases you the colder it is outside, the more leeway you have. Um, but a lot I mean, I remember skinning frozen deer with my dad when I was a kid, and I'm like, I am never going to let a deer freeze before I skin it. Never. It's awful.
Cayla: Yeah. Even when it is cold. I was thinking about a doe. I shot super cold 2022. It's like when you're skinning it fresh in the field. It's nice. It's warm. You don't even need...
Casey: Yeah. And realistically to pay attention like so some people like when you when you butcher a beef, there's a reason to hang it. Um, and you could do that with a deer. However, it's very temperature sensitive and moisture sensitive. And that doesn't happen at zero degrees in your shop. It cannot. It will not happen. You're not making the deer any more tender. You're not. You're just making it more frozen.
Cayla: Mhm.
Casey: Um, you know, those temperature gradients where the proper bacteria grows and moisture gradients where proper bacteria grows, like you need a controlled environment.
Cayla: Or the perfect week.
Casey: Yeah. Or the perfect week to actually hang a critter to get it more tender. Now what you do want to do is you want to hang it or cool it long enough to get it to rigor mortis at a minimum. Um, which then allows, you know, lactic acid and things to, to settle out. Um, and make it just easier to easier to make the cuts of meat you want to make. Um, but yeah, realistically, you know, my dad used to think we could hang these deer for seven days at 0 to 14 below is not doing anything at all, it is freezing it solid. If you could do that, why don't you just cut it up and put it in the freezer? Yeah, it would get more tender, right? Um. And so. Yeah. So to think about that, the reason you're hanging a deer, a reason, I mean, obviously, if you can't get to it, like I said, cold weather is more forgiving. It might get frozen, but you're not going to ruin the meat if it gets frozen, necessarily. But, um, if you're doing it because you think it's going to make it more tender like you would hanging a beef, it's probably not. Unless, like you said, you've got the exact temperature moisture gradient that you need.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: But so we could get into, you know, some preparation stuff for big game. I don't know, um, how you want to.
Cayla: Yeah. I was just gonna say. I mean, yeah, I don't want to get into again. There's videos and resources for how to do some of this stuff, but just some of the basic gear and then. Yeah, like kind of like we mentioned just going in with a plan. I feel like, um, again, sometimes we frequently hunt people. That's like, we're on a bird hunting trip and you don't have a knife or a Ziploc bag with you. So like, yeah, I guess I just feel like. And we've come a long way too. But having a plan when you go out hunting for, like, maybe that was our problem before. Maybe we just had no confidence that we were actually going to shoot. Yeah.
Casey: Or you didn't want to jinx yourself by being all prepared and then not getting anything. That was why you didn't get something right.
Cayla: But yeah, you're sacrificing meat care if you just pile up your pheasants from three days in the back. Un gutted or, um, I know I've yet to have like a solo big game kill, but I've definitely been on some where I just like, well, if I get a deer, I don't really have a plan.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: Um, which wasn't great. Good thing I didn't, uh.
Casey: Mhm.
Cayla: So yeah, just thinking about some of this ahead of time and then carrying the things you might need with you. Yeah. So like, I don't know, stuff we have obviously knives. Um, if you're talking big game what what's in Casey’s pack on a..
Casey: So it depends on it's going to depend right. It's going to depend on whether um, you know, look even looking at the forecast, um, temperature and those kinds of things, what I'm going to need, how fast I'm going to want to do things, um, you know, and then even as you hunt or you or you plan your hunt, like, how far am I hunting? Am I hunting private land, like, so say you get a deer tag and you're hunting private land. And whether it's your own land, whether it's, you know, friend's land or whatever, but they allow you the ability to drive out and get your animal after you harvest it. That's going to be a lot different than if I'm going out to the Badlands, and I'm planning on walking four miles in. Um, what I'm going to have with is going to be a lot different. And so let's, you know, let's just since I've been running around the countryside chasing pronghorn this year, I'll talk a little bit about that warmer weather. You know, I'm going to have good knives. Sharpening stone. Um, you know, maybe I've got a folding bone saw that's usually with me. And then there's the other things that maybe you don't even think about that you're going to use because of harvesting an animal, but like, headlamps, things like that. You shoot one towards the end of the evening and you're working on it past dark, walking out.
Cayla: Headlamps are like a lifelong struggle for us. We have approximately 46 of them.
Casey: And they're never in the backpack.
Cayla: Feels like they're everywhere. Well, if they are in the backpack, it's like staying in the backpack, so I don't forget it. But then the batteries die because your backpack is in the cold, or there's one in the truck that dies cold, but then you can't possibly remember to grab one. It's just like we've got rechargeable ones. We've got like whatever ones. We've got really nice ones. Hoping the battery would last longer. We've got $10 ones and it's like, it's just there's no solution. It's just keep. We just put them in each other's stockings every year and hope that eventually.
Casey: So that brings up a good point. Like, you know, I have a hunting backpack that I, that I carry that I can carry an animal out, I can get a whole deer, um, you know, boned out or quartered out in that pack and carry it out myself. Right. So like, a lot of the stuff stays in there.
Cayla: That's when it runs out.
Casey: But before I go on a trip, everything comes out of it and everything's checked and everything goes back in. If even the knives are usually sharpened, even though I'm probably sharpened them when I put them away after I wash them. So like but like that. That's just kind of a routine that I'm in. And like you said, then I'm then my headlamps always got good batteries. Yeah. And even if it works, I still might. I'll either have batteries for it or replace those batteries before I go. But yeah, when you talk about meat care, it's always good to go through everything you've got. Like, and you know, you can get as crazy as you want. I'm always the guy that's prepared. I know my brother one time, the first, my oldest brother. The first time he was going on a long hunt with me. He had called my dad and asked, you know, like, am I? What am I getting into here with Casey and Dad’s like, if you're going with Casey, you don't have to worry about anything. He'll probably have enough for you and him, you know, and so now, like this year with my brother and he harvests his antelope. And I was like, you got any game bags? No, you got em. And he's right. I have to I had enough game bags and I had, you know, even things all the way down to if you don't want to get your backpack super dirty, like if, you know, some people will strap it on the outside of their pack with a good game bag. That's the other thing for meat care, you want a good game bag. But in my opinion, if you're going to spend money on something for me, care, spend money on game bags. Buy a cheap knife that you can sharpen. Um, and so like a good game bag. But if you're going to put it in your backpack, you probably don't just want to put a bloody game bag in there. You might want a garbage bag to put that game bag inside, just to keep your pack clean until you get out to the truck or whatever. And then you don't leave it in the garbage bag because that'll hold heat in. You want to get that out and get it airing out. But, um, so yeah, I mean, it's just kind of going through all the scenarios in your mind with the information, you know, what the weather is going to be like where you're hunting, how far you're going to have to go. Um, and then like you said, you know, have if you're going to hike in, you might as well have a backpack with you. I know a lot of people that shoot something and walk back to the pickup and get their backpack right. It's like, that's up to you.
Cayla: I mean, I guess it's better for all the other times that you don't get something much more enjoyable. Maybe, but than the one time you get something.
Casey: I don't know. I like having a backpack where I've got a coat rolled up. So when the sun starts going down, I can, you know, I got my coat with or my other knives or whatever. And I, I guess a lot of times I walk far enough from the truck that it's a possibility, I might decide not to walk back to the truck that night. So yeah, I like to have my pack with me. Plus, I hate extra trips. I'm the one that will probably wreck my back, putting too much stuff on my backpack then make one trip out after I get something, than take half of it and come back in and take half of it.
Cayla: But yeah, and you mentioned, I mean, we pretty much always have a cooler, but I would say we're not great at pre having ice. But again just knowing where you're at I feel like that's those are situations where we know we can readily get to some ice quick enough. But um.
Casey: Mhm. Yeah that's the thing. And, and so I just, I like to keep my meat dry. I'm really picky. You've seen that. Kayla's seen, seen me work with stuff but I, I'm really picky with my meat to the point where. I'm over the top for most people. Um, but it all comes like when I got married, my wife had not eaten wild game, and I had enough friends that had not eaten wild game. And it was kind of like if you didn't do everything you could, you have you run the risk of them never trying it again. Um, and so I've always been pretty picky and, and I like I like meat a lot, but I don't just like to eat any meat. I like to eat good meat.
Cayla: I just like to eat good food so.
Casey: Yeah. So I get I get pretty picky with my own stuff. Um, but that also makes me pretty prepared for almost any situation when I'm if this situation happens, you know, I think is is I have a list at home on my computer that's like everything that's in my hunting backpack. And like, if I decide, oh, man, you know, in these situations I want I'll even have like what the situation was if I had something weird because I don't want to carry extra stuff if I don't have to.
Cayla: This is a fun like winter activity.
Casey: Yeah, yeah. So go through your hunting backpack.
Cayla: Think about..
Casey: Put batteries on the list, and then you check it off.
Cayla: But if you put batteries in your pack, don’t those die too?.
Casey: No I mean, like to check it, like.
Cayla: Ohhh.
Casey: I’mgonna put new batteries in for my headlamp. See?
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Just little reminders.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: But, no, it's, uh. And, you know, it's a it's a weight game when you get into a lot of backcountry stuff. You know, if you're if you're mostly hunting, you know, where you can get stuff or on private land, you still might have a hunting backpack, but it doesn't look anything like, like that. You know, you just have what you need to take care of the critters as far down as you're going to before you can get somewhere else.
Cayla: I feel like birds is some simpler knives. We like to have shears to cut legs off. Wings off? Uh Ziplocs. We don't use gloves. Yeah, but if you'd like. Gloves.
Casey: Yeah. I mean, it's it's always a good idea to have gloves with if you want to use them. I mean, when I, when I work on big game, a lot of times I have gloves with mostly because I might be somewhere where I'm not going to probably be washing my hands for the next, you know, six, eight hours, ten hours, whatever. So I might be eating a sandwich in the next two hours, you know. So it's it's one of those things where just kind of helps you stay generally clean. Um, but, but yeah, birds are a little different in a way. Keeping birds dry isn't as important. Just the way the fat and the muscles, um, are built on birds. It it, uh, it's a good way to cool them. Get them in cold water. Um, but you still want to cool them down? Keep them clean. You want clean water? Obviously. And cool them down because you don't want the wrong bacteria to grow on the meat. Um, or flies or things like that to get on there. And so. So yeah, there's multiple ways to clean birds knowing the regulations like we said earlier that you have to keep, you know, whether it's a fully feathered wing or whether it's a, you know, fully feathered head on for identification. Um, and then really thinking about how you want to prepare those birds when you get home. With ducks. I'm a big fan of baking a whole duck or grilling a whole duck with the skin on. So then I pluck a lot of ducks. Um, some people, you know, don't like that, or it takes more time, you know, depending on what you got. And so a lot of people don't pluck pheasants. They're a little hard to pluck skins, pretty thin, you know. So skinning them and doing something else with them is what a lot of people do. How do you guys take care? Like you go on a weeklong, you go on your weeklong bird hunts or multiple day bird hunts than I do. I hunt from home.
Cayla: Yeah. We just, um. We don't take too many legs. Sometimes we do. Um, but I would say we mostly just take the breasts, so, I don't know. Scott's got some. I cut skin off and he's got some thumb here. Finger here. Just rips and breast come. Breast plate comes out with two wings. Um, I don't know. He's got it down pretty slick. Yeah, I'd say mostly Scott does the, uh, away from home bird cleaning I've done. We have also a couple I've skinned, so it's just like, yeah, the whole bird with. And then leave the head, uh, fully feathered head on, or a foot with a spur. And for pheasants. Um, but then when we get home, I just, like, cut the breast meat and thigh meat off those, uh,
Casey: before you freeze it.
Cayla: Yeah. We will. Like, we just did, uh, Montana sharp tail and sage grouse. We'll clean those, like, even, you know, before we at the next spot, or for sure at lunch or something like that. So we're not leaving birds when it's 90 degrees in the back of the truck all day even and then get them in a cooler. Um, I feel like more so when. When the seasons a little cooler, like, now, if we go out for a day, we're not doing that. But, um, if we're on a trip, we're cleaning them before they freeze, hopefully. Cause that just sucks.
Casey: Right? yeah. Um, yeah. Well, and I think, too, it's like you said, that when the weather's warm, there's a couple ways you can do it. I would say, like, you know, if you're if you're gone for multiple days, you might as well clean them down to transportation level as soon as you can.
Cayla: And clip.
Casey: Get them cool.
Cayla: Just leave one wing on. So that's why we like to have sheers to just clean, get the other one off. It just saves room in the Ziploc and less.
Casey: Less stuff that's not meat in the Ziploc.
Cayla: You had some, didn't you have some tip about keeping the wing out or something?
Casey: Yeah, I'll. I'll, uh, I'll bring quart sized Ziplocs and I'll put the actually put the wing in a quart size Ziploc. Oh, okay. And it's not up against the meat. Yeah, but, see, that's back to my maybe paranoid meat care.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Um, but if I'm going to be traveling. But a lot of times where I'm bird hunting, I'm. I'm not traveling very far. I'm usually coming home to clean them.
Cayla: Okay. Then you get home with your.
Casey: Yeah. That's where that's where when I was talking earlier about kind of for those people that have never done much of, say, a certain species hunting or much hunting at all, like really think about how you would want to cook it once you get home, because that that's going to determine maybe how you package it up and how you clean it. So. So like I said, with waterfowl, a lot of times ducks I'll pick a lot of those. My plan is to roast them um or grill them with skin on has a lot of advantages. You know, they don't dry out. Um, ducks have a lot of, you know, a lot of fat in them, usually. And so you retain all that flavor. Some people like that flavor. Some people don't. Um, but if you're going to make one of my boy's favorite meals, duck McNuggets. You know, obviously there, you're just testing them out so you can skin them, save the breast. You know, and I usually I usually have a bowl of water and a hose, you know, that's there. And so like, even if I pluck a duck, I'll rinse it out and then put it in a bowl of water. It just starts to chilling process, um, faster or you're slicing off, um, breast meat fillet, you know, the filleting them off and throw them in a bowl once you're done. Um, and so yeah, thinking about how you want to cook it is ultimately going to come down to maybe how you clean it. If I'm going to make a bunch of fajita duck fajitas, I don't need to pick them. I don't need to spend the time picking them. Um, and so, yeah. And then as you package them up, it just makes it, like I said, a lot easier to utilize once they're packaged.
Cayla: Yeah. It's so easy to be lazy on the front end because you're back at midnight because you cause you were up dealing with a deer in the evening, and you just don't want to, or I don't know, but it saves you. I think it makes it just easier to consume it the rest of the year. Yeah. If you can just try not to be. If you've got a garage, fridge or nice temps where you can deal with it over the next day. Um, yeah, just get it. Or even for us, I would say less. So now it seems like Fischer puts some pretty decent food away, but sometimes, even just like I like to package stuff, we've even adapted that. Like, uh, sometimes I just want a half pound of ground meat. And so, like, having a full pound means, like, now I gotta make two of something or, um, or. Yeah, just like how many breasts we put in a bag we've kind of tailored to, like. Well, this recipe I use four breasts, this one, I just want two. So we do a mix.
Casey: And one thing to remember is you can always take out another package.
Cayla: Yes.
Casey: If you have a half pound packages of burger and you wanted a full pound, you do a full pound. You just take out two bags like it's easier. It's easier to utilize them if you have them in smaller packages than in a larger package. And now you have to think about what you're going to do with the rest of it. But another important thing is, and it seems silly, but like labeling, you know, we're talking about putting stuff in the freezer. So if I go out duck hunting and I shoot five different ducks, I might pick them all. But I'm going to label what each one of those is, because cooking a mallard is different than cooking a canvasback. Seasoning wise. And the taste is going to be different. And so like it helps you prepare that meal. Um, or say for example, like a couple of years ago, I, I shot a, a doe and she was nine years old. She was tough as nails. And so like, if I wouldn't have packaged her, as, you know, Casey’s whitetail doe, we wouldn't have known which package that was, because the boys each shot a deer. And so, like, that's a whole like, that's either crock pot or sausage. Like, that's the only way you're gonna eat that critter, and otherwise you're gonna try to eat steaks or try to eat a roast and you're not. And it's not going to be enjoyable. And so to really, really label stuff down so that you know where it is or you know where it came from. Um.
Cayla: And some people take that, I can't say where the greatest at it or there's also just fewer people hunting. So we kind of know what, what's what. But, um, I've seen it for like, fish fillets, even like some people like to put, um, something that reminds them of when that was caught or when that was shot. So it's just kind of a fun thing you can reminisce over while you're eating it too, like, oh, this was.
Casey: Yeah, like my boys. Like it'll say like Bjorn's rifle deer.
Cayla: Mhm.
Casey: Um, and so like whenever, when we sit down to eat, it's like, oh this was Bjorn's deer, you know, like and it gives especially those younger kids and other, other folks that aren't as into hunting as maybe you and I are. It gives them a sense of accomplishment that, hey, we're eating something that I, you know, was able to supply for us. And so.
Cayla: Um, two other just hacks. Neither of which I can, uh, take credit for are, uh, a friend of ours was like, oh, you should save all your dog food bags. Oh, so now we do, because they make really excellent. Like, uh, when you're cleaning birds, you can put fish guts or, like, deer quarters after. They're, um, they're just really sturdy bags. And otherwise we were just throwing them away, and they kind of take a lot of room. Um, but. Yeah. So now we have a, we store all the.
Casey: So you're using that to put them in your trash? Right.
Cayla: Yes, but they're just like a really nice sturdy trash bag. Like it'll hold a one dog food bag will hold like, uh, all the deer bone quarters and, like, just kind of stands there nicely, even while you're.
Casey: So here's here's another interesting thing. So like, you talked about the deer bones. So the last couple of years now, we've been keeping some of the bones to make stuff to make bone stock out of.
Cayla: I gotta get even more homesteady.
Casey: Yeah. So. So I've got now I've got two packages of just pronghorn bones, like the thigh bones. They're the best ones to use the heavier bone. And then we'll slice them before we start making stock. But you kind of build that up, make some stock. But, you know, there's a lot of options to utilize as much as you can.
Cayla: We've got a lot of people around here retiring and they all just or on the fringe of retiring. And they're always like, I just don't know what I'm going to do. And I'm just like, what are you not going to do now? I can make stock and I can make homemade everything.
Casey: Exactly.
Cayla: I don't have time. It feels like I don't have time to do all that. Yeah, I don't know what they're so afraid of. I'd retire tomorrow.
Casey: If you could have the funds to go hunting.
Cayla: Yes
Casey: you'd retire tomorrow?
Cayla: Yeah, I could just. You could just dive into all that stuff. Yeah. Um, but my other thing was, again, no credit. I think a lot of people here do this. I just hadn't thought of it. But especially more so with fish in the summer is to. We now put the fish guts in the dog food bag. Put it in your freezer until trash day. Oh, I've cleaned too many maggots out of our.
Casey: Yeah, Yeah, yeah. That'll help.
Cayla: But you just have to remember to take it out.
Casey: Yeah, right. I mean, fill your freezer or you take those fish guts and bury them in your garden. If you get a garden and use them for fertilizer.
Cayla: And my other thing, so I guess I had three was I'm sure a lot of people use these, but those like big meat totes. I feel like we just use those for everything. Oh yeah, we have like five. It's like picking the garden or yeah, you get home and you have like, all these birds. We'll just put them all in one and then use one to clean or obviously, obviously if you're using deer or doing sausage you're using them. But I mean we just are using them a lot. Yeah.
Cayla: Like separate out the deer quarters and then.
Casey: Or like you're outside, you get the ones that have a cover on them and it's like you start putting stuff in, you put the cover on it, the flies can't get into it or whatever, you know, and it kind of or my dang farm cats, you know, they're they're the biggest trick. They'll jump up and rob something right under your nose.
Cayla: They're only like, get yourself some meat. Totes. Yeah. You never know what you'll use it for.
Casey: They're just handy.
Cayla: So we got label everything.
Casey: Well we had what was the. Was it Scott Peterson or or.
Cayla: Sausage.
Casey: Old. The old deputy director. I'll call him old. But before I was um, like that's another thing to think of is like, am I going to make sausage? What am I going to make? How do I package the scrap meat up? You're going to grind it right away. Are you going to wait till you get your pork to grind it? And then the handiest thing I ever started doing was we usually package the scraps up from one animal in a couple bigger bags, um, whether that's two-gallon Ziplocs or just a bigger foodsaver bag. But to weigh that before you freeze it so that you can just go in the freezer and add up how many pounds of grinding meat you have, or you want to use to make a batch of sausage so you get, you know, you get the right amount of pork or whatever you're going to use, um, and your seasoning mixes and stuff. It's made it so handy.
Cayla: Scott is like, well, I think it's more so his son, but they are meticulous and I know they always complain because good Ole Ron brings his like,
Casey: is not meticulous
(laughter)
Cayla: frozen, unboned deer quarter vs this is precisely measured out as 5 pounds of clean cut up, ready to grind.
Casey: Ron can come to my place, but we're gonna do his separate. I can guarantee you that. And we make different things. You know, it's not just all sausage. So we're going to make batches of summer sausage, batches of, you know, breakfast sausage or link sausage, whatever you want to call it, and then some, you know, maybe venison bacon. So like to have those labeled out because it's like you order one of these venison bacon packet seasonings. And it's for 25 pounds, 12 and 13 pounds, 12 pounds of venison, 13 or vice versa, whatever. But it's like, I don't want to take out 24 pounds of venison. And now what do I do with the other part? Because I only have enough seasoning, you know. So just to know what you've got, um, when you plan to do some of that other stuff and then didn't Scott keep a Spreadsheet on the freezer.
Cayla: This is not us, but yeah, I'm a, the spreadsheet is in my head.
Casey: Bad idea.
Cayla: I have a pretty good idea what's in our freezer. But, yeah, he had a spreadsheet on the flip of his chest freezer. That's like everything they have by pound year. Um, I bet there's even cause I think, like, really fancy fridges now have that. But I wonder if.
Casey: You get one of those fridges with a chalkboard on the outside.
Cayla: Yeah, you get some. Cool. Um, I bet fridges can. Freezers can even, like, make your meal plan for you now. Yeah. Here's what I've got. Plan out my meals for a year.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: And make the grocery list. Order them.
Casey: Yeah. Amazon them. Right? Yeah. Yeah. No.
Cayla: Who knows.
Casey: Uh, but yeah, I mean, there's a lot of ways to keep track of what you got to plan on, how you're going to use it. And all of that kind of goes into from the beginning, you know.
Cayla: Even what.
Casey: You're going to do.
Cayla: If you want to go full circle, it's like, um, again, just knowing us. And you can find you can, uh, donate it. You can find people, I'm sure that want it. But, like, we're taking a pretty light big game year because of a moose last, you know. So it's just even that is like planning where we're going to be at what we're going to do. And, uh, yeah, kind of planned our hunts for this year.
Casey: Right. And if you. And if you are gonna, you know, that's another thing to think about as you, as you take care of meat and stuff, like the better job you do, the better you're going to feel about giving some to somebody to try. You know, whether that's the landowner that lets you on. Um, obviously, you know, it's probably a bad idea unless they say, just drop me off a mallard and I'll pick it.
Cayla: Oh, yeah.
Casey: You know, but it's like, if you're going to give them a mallard or something, you know, it's probably you don't want to give them the one that was shot up the most. You know, probably the one that was the best taken care of, you know, at some level. And so if you just kind of keep doing that with all of your stuff, you never have to feel bad about, you know, offering something or or having the landowner over to eat, you know, a meal that maybe is from it. And so.
Cayla: Yeah. So the best part in the kitchen?
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: Um, yeah. Like you said, invite people over. I gave a couple years ago. Gave some as gifts with the recipe included, like the meat you would need. And then a recipe. Mhm. Um, yeah. Obviously when you got people at hunting camp or one thing I've said I've gotten probably less good about since having a kid but was really good about prepping a lot of our meals for hunting trips with previous wild game. Um.
Casey: Our biggest problem is like a lot of times I think we're going to make summer sausage or link sausage to be able to take on those hunting trips, and then it's gone by the next fall and I'm out. I'm like, what happened? I should have put a freezer in the back of the shop that nobody knows about. Maybe.
Cayla: These are not wild game chef meticulous ideas by any means. But I would say like, yeah, we go through a lot of brats. Uh, as like, Scott doesn't really like it brat that much, but he'll eat it. Obviously, we use him a lot for, like summer camping and sharptail camping or like camping hunting trips. Those are really nice. Or a country sausage like everyone makes with mac and cheese. But if we're camping, we're going to use a Velveeta because then you just boil the noodles. Yeah. Squirt the stuff in. Slice up some, um, country sausage. Oh, it's so good when it's cold. Or I was telling you for, like, a warmer season. We just did it for his pronghorn hunt. But I made, uh, like, taco dip with a ground meat ground venison taco. Then you got your beans, sour cream, cheese, salsa, whatever layers you want to put in taco dip. But it's a nice, like, cold lunch, Um. That doesn't. Then you just dip chips. You don't need, like, silverware.
Casey: Yeah, that's what we use. Like the summer sausages, the salamis. You know, I want to do some corned venison this year. I don't know how I would ever make it. Keep it until hunting season. That's always my trick. But jerky, you know, those types of things you can take with.
Cayla: Jerky is a good one, but that's always kind of fun. It's like we're eating. What? What we shot last time we were doing this, but.
Casey: Or like when my son Jasper just shot his pronghorn. We ate some of that that night. Yeah. Like right away, you know.
Cayla: Mhm.
Casey: And we've done that bird hunting before too. You know it's like the only, the only real bird hunting trips I've taken are for grouse and we've, we've usually ate grouse as soon as we've harvested them that night or something. And there's not like some kind of magic for cooking wild game or making wild game like
Cayla: I know
Casey: there's, there's a few little things that'll make it better, you know? But like if you're used to using, like, lean ground beef or something, you're not going to have any problems making something out of venison burger.
Cayla: I think if you do all the stuff we spent the first part of the podcast talking about, yeah, it's like you'd be I feel like whenever I'm looking for inspiration, it's just a either a chicken or beef recipe that I'm going to swap for whatever. And I've learned, like I like this one better with this and this one better with this over time. But yeah, I don't think it's like. And then the other thing I was thinking is like, um, part of it is that you're forcing yourself to make everything from scratch because you're starting with this meat. So it almost just inherently ends up better because you're like one of my favorite pheasant ones is pheasant Potpie. And like, I love a Marie Callender Potpie. But when you make it from scratch because you have to to get the pheasant in there.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: It's so good. Or like. Yeah, or just too. Don't skimp on since you have the opportunity because you're gonna have to cook anyways. Don't skimp on all the other ingredients. And then it's just like, so good.
Casey: Yeah, well, and, you know, there's slight things to remember, like if you're used to eating chicken, you can substitute pheasant for chicken, but it's going to be drier. Pheasant is going to be drier than most of the chicken that you eat. And so like you want to think of that. So then it's like more of the potpie type recipes with pheasant or noodle. The old German, you know, hot dish with pheasant instead of chicken. You're hardly going to notice it. Yeah. Um, but if you're going to, like, bake a pheasant, it's going to be a lot drier than chicken. And so those are just some nuances to remember. And, you know, like a lot of times wild game should it'll most people will like it more if it's rarer than other meat that you're used to cooking, whether that's waterfowl, venison because it has a tendency to dry out faster. It's not as as fatty or as marbled as beef or those types of things. So it's less forgiving in those, in those ways. But for the most part, substitute red meat for red meat and, you know, chicken for pheasant. And you get into grouse, it's going to have a different flavor. Um, and probably a lot of it is how it's taken care of, how much of a different flavor it has. But, you know, one of our favorites for sharptail grouse is grouse Alfredo lasagna. You just chop up the grouse breasts and thighs and fry them, and then start adding your Alfredo sauce and mushrooms and whatever else you want in there, and make some noodles and pour it over it. Stroganoffs.
Cayla: We've been having a lot of we've had a lot, uh, grouse fajitas and they are so good. I marinate them usually with some taco seasoning and olive oil. Like, even just sometimes on my lunch break. So it won't necessarily be all night. Um, the peppers, onions. And then this is like a newfound again. There's probably already know this, but I've been spreading this word like crazy. I started buying, like, uncooked tortillas. Oh, they are so good. It's like 10 million times better than, like, a mission tortilla.
Casey: And you're just quickly frying them and.
Cayla: Quickly sear them on each side. And it's. They're so good. They're so like chewy and um, we I've had like, yeah, we've had sharptail fajitas like five times in the last.
Casey: Just for the, just for the uncooked tortillas.
Cayla: They're so good. Um, but that's what I mean. Like, elevate your other ingredients too, because then since you're gonna have to cook anyways, like, um, um, and then I just feel like everything is so good.
Casey: Yeah. It's just food. It's preparing. Like, for those that aren't used to using ingredients from scratch, that's what you're dealing with.
Cayla: And it's a lot of work. I guess that made me think the lunch break thing is just like, uh, we're having fish chowder tonight, but I actually made it last night. I mean, I would love to have it fresh, but it's just, like, on a workday schedule. It's gonna be really nice to go home and heat it up.
Casey: And so. So that was one thing you and I had talked about the other day was when you, you know, this is going to take longer, right? If you're if you're used to using ready cooked meals or eating out a lot or something like that, like you have to you have to meal prep, you have to plan ahead. You have to take meat out so it's thawed and ready to go. But there is ways you can package some of this meat to make that stuff a lot faster. And one of the ways that you and I were talking about the other day is we take we use food savers a lot, but we'll take, say, a pound of ground venison or a pound of, um, venison sausage bulk, we call it, without casings, and we'll put it in a food saver bag. But then before we freeze it, we'll press it flat. So it's maybe half inch thick. Not even. And so I can thaw that out in a bowl of warm water in about five minutes. Um, and so just some of those little tricks to, to make it a lot easier to, to utilize. Um, and that's our biggest thing is like we get, you know, we get home and it's like, oh, nothing's thawed out. Like, what are we going to do, grab one of the frozen pizzas or whatever? It's like, that's just easier. But if you if you do some of those little things to prep, it's like, well, I can put that in a bowl of warm water, and by the time I'm done changing into my comfy clothes and getting ready to cook, it's going to be thawed out, you know?
Cayla: Yeah, there's lots of things like, uh, again, it takes work and thought and that's not like we're also in that boat where sometimes we just don't have time or didn't make time to do it. But yeah, like we'll plan out our meals for the week. I'm intentionally avoiding. If I have something that night, someone's going to get home late. We want to get out the door or whatever it is. Then I might be avoiding a meal that takes a little bit more time. Or.
Casey: Um, we might be cooking it the night before.
Cayla: Yeah. Cooking? Yeah. Last night. Now I just have to make something to go with it. Or. Uh. Yeah, like we talked about. One of my pet peeves, too, is like. I mean, I guess you could get away with it. Beef, but, like, if you took a piece of beef and didn't do anything to it and then just fried it in a plain pan, it's not going to taste that good either, right?
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: Um, I feel like that's sometimes the bad rap that wild game gets, but yeah, like, I'll often be thawing things again. Gotta think ahead. But like, thawing it the day before morning when I leave for work. Because that night I want it thawed so that I can cut it up and marinate it so that I can have it for. Yeah. Um, you know, just thinking through, like, marinate and also when I cut and marinate things and again, it's just kind of like one less thing. Now I just get home and dump it, or I'll even, um. Again, I don't always have time to do this every night, but, like, cut veggies, like, for the fajitas, I'll cut up the onion peppers the night before, and then the meats cut up and marinating. And then it's just like, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, it takes a long time to cut up peppers after work.
Casey: It does. Especially you get all the seeds out. Yeah.
Cayla: You got a toddler crawling all over you. So I'll do it after he goes to bed.
Casey: I mean. Insta pots?
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Insta pots are magical. You can take a frozen deer roast, stick it in Insta pot, and 35, 40 minutes later, it's done.
Cayla: Yeah you can. So I use the Instant Pot to make the soup, which is why almost. I was maybe just gonna chop everything and make it tonight. But the soup takes a long time to pressurize, but, uh, yeah, I'll use instapot a lot, too. Again, maybe just shred like my pheasant. Like I'm gonna cook it in there slow. Cook it. Because it only takes 30 minutes. That would take 12 hours to get my pheasant shredded to put it in enchiladas or something.
Casey: Yeah. Um, yeah. So, I mean, and I, I don't know if everybody's got an instapot now, but I feel like they're pretty, pretty normal for most people to have that do, do any cooking at all.
Cayla: Yeah. I mean yeah, I don't have an air fryer though. And I feel like there's some cool things I could do there, but I before that too, I sometimes do things, weird things like cook pheasant breasts overnight in the crock pot while I'm sleeping. Yeah.
Casey: And then crock pots were awesome.
Cayla: Do you think people are gonna listen to this and think we're crazy?
Casey: What they're gonna think, Cayla, is that we're both, like, 75.
Cayla: Yeah, I promise I'm also busy. I just yeah, uh, really like to eat good. I think Scott appreciates the good food, but, like, he's one of those people that could just kind of care less what he eats. So he's just like, here we are again, getting groceries and cutting things up.
Casey: Yeah. Well, and I especially, we've always probably ate a little more whole foods, um, than a lot of people. I mean, we have acreage, we have gardens. We, we do all that stuff. But like, especially since I'm a type one diabetic now for the last four years, that's kind of changed. I don't cheat a lot on the whole foods thing compared to maybe what I would have before, but um, so yeah, I just kind of put a little more pressure on us to just eat as, as healthy and or I don't even know if you want to call it healthy, but whole foods are just different in the glycemic index and, and that kind of stuff. So but yeah.
Cayla: I feel like I can talk. Talk about this for hours.
Cayla: Yeah, we probably could.
Cayla: But my other thing, last thing and then we'll cut her off was like, same with like what we're gonna hunt the next year too. Like again, maybe it's different in a bigger family, but like, okay, so we have a bunch of we like to make Italian sausage quite a bit because then I'll use that in pizza, lasagna, spaghetti. But it's like, okay, we made Italian sausage last year. We still have some left. Now this year we're gonna make, um, something else, whatever. The brats. And then it's nice to like.
Casey: Yeah, mix it in.
Cayla: Rotate what you make even by year. Um. Yeah, okay.
Casey: Okay.
Cayla: I’m ready for fish chowder.
Casey: I can't wait for fish chowder. I don't even know what we're having tonight.
Cayla: Uh oh
Casey: We had pronghorn. We had pronghorn last night, but. So we'll see. We'll see what happens.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: I'm not always in charge of it, so.
Cayla: I unfortunately, I am.
Casey: I know it's a mystery to me sometimes, but I have to do my part to make sure it's all packaged up so it's easy to use. That's the biggest thing.
Cayla: Okay, we'll get into the department droppings. We don't have that many, but, uh, advisory board meetings are ongoing. Starting up, ongoing. Um, so, yeah, find your closest one or one you can get to and and get engaged.
Casey: Yeah. We've got a couple a couple new advisory board members. Um, so it'll be interesting to see, uh, where they kind of choose to have their meetings. Um, but yeah, we'll be making the rounds here in the next few weeks.
Cayla: Rifle deer season opens November 7th at noon.
Casey: Um, for those of you lucky enough to have gotten a tag.
Cayla: I know, I just feel weird. I think I'm gonna be one of, like, four people here on Friday.
Casey: I might waterfowl hunt. Maybe you want to come up and go snow goose hunting?
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Um, also, we have our CWD surveillance is going on in the northwest quarter of the state. Um, so you're hunting if you're hunting up kind of west of Minot, north of, uh, the Missouri River. Um, and you're interested in helping us out with CWD surveillance, you can go online and, and figure out how you can, um, submit samples and exactly what units were we're looking at this year. Well, now that we've dropped the droppings, you can get off the pot and get outdoors.
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