The Holidays Were a Blur

Duck hunting during the holidays consisted of a variety of not so noteworthy hunts.

A trip to the China Island and Kesterson Units of the North Grasslands ended up being mostly a scouting trip. I’ve been to China Island twice now and I’m not impressed.

The afternoon hunt at Kesterson produced a little action. My friend Roger Matuska and I walked out to blind 3A, which consists of two barrels and a dog box on an island. Spoonies, wigeon, gadwall and teal passed by and I managed to knock down a greenwing teal and a gadwall. The spoonies came in like lasers and I missed three opportunities while muffing a couple other opportunities.

The barrel blinds at Kesterson were dry and very functional. The dog blind was adequate.

At least we didn’t get up at 2 AM for the hunt. Leaving home at 9 AM instead and hunting the afternoon was painless. We only carried three decoys and used a jerk string. The ducks passed within range, but didn’t slow down.

Trips to our Webb Tract club produced a few quality birds. On the Friday before Christmas, I bagged two sprig, an Aleutian goose and a spec. Boy did they give me and Lola a workout. I only killed one bird dead. The others all provided lengthy chases, but Lola came through. It rained so hard Saturday morning that I didn’t hunt. I was soaked before I left camp.

Another trip to Webb on the day after Christmas produced a couple spring and chances at geese. The island was holding plenty of birds, but they didn’t fly much.

The delta is holding plenty of geese.

I smoked a bunch of ducks and geese from last year. They were well received at our Christmas party and as gifts. Venison was also popular, both as summer sausage and smoked. I served smoked goose breast, smoked steel head and summer sausage with cream cheese and crackers. There wasn’t any left over.

I’ll be out again later this week. Still looking for a day with major action.

 

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When the Freezer’s Full

You can tell when people like meat. Their eyes light up at the mention of mallard and they smile and ask, “What’s this?” as they reach out for a mytery offering.

I appreciate people who have an adventurous appetite.

My wife will not eat game meat, except pheasant. She likes fish, but even fish often take a back seat to anything Safeway.

When I hunt, I prefer to shoot stuff. Bringing home a prize is part of the fun. I enjoy preparing game to eat, but without eaters I’m at a disadvantage.

That’s why my freezer fills up.

When that happens, it’s time to get to work.

On my Idaho trip I came home with 50 pounds of pure meat and also found a great Jerky and Sausage Supply store in the small Idaho town of Kooskia. I went a little overboard purchasing seasonings and cures, but I’m having fun with them. The company has an online store:  www.eldonsausage.com.

Over the past week, I’ve made three batches of jerky. The first two were with venison and I tried Eldon’s Original and AC Legg’s Maple Style. I prefered the Eldon’s original. While brining meat in Eldon’s Premium Ham Brine in preparation for smoking, I threw in some duck breasts from non-mallards. I often make jerky from the likes of spoonies, cinnamon teal, wigeon and gadwall.

Another good brine for jerky is a 50/50 mix of soy sauce and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. With these, overnight brining is enough.

On the other hand, the ham brine recipe calls for several days of soaking. After 5 days I decided to check out the meat. It was ready for smoking while the breasts were ready for the jerky maker. Yesterday I fired up my water smoker  and sliced the breasts in preparation for the dehydrator. (I use a NESCO, American Harvest Food Dehydrator and Jerky Maker. It works well.)

After a day of smoking, the meat (ducks, geese and venison) came out of the smoker looking quite good and tasting great. I have to watch myself while I’m doing all this because if I eat too much of the product I swell up like a balloon. You don’t want to take in too much salt! That’s why you need eaters!

The “ham-brine”  duck jerky also came out excellent, but the Eldon’s Original is still my favorite.

Last weekend I made a big dent in the venison by producing 15 pounds of summer sausage with  High Mountain Seasoning’s summer sausage kit. It came out perfect. I highly recommend their product – just follow the directions.

My grinder is a Cabela’s Heavy Duty Grinder that I purchased for about $70. It will produce two pounds per minute and that’s fast enough for me. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ve already got my money’s worth.

Now my freezer has some room, but (hopefully) not for long.

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Summer Sausage for Christmas

Made summer sausage the week before Christmas and gave almost all of it away. In fact I just opened the final hunk we have left for New Years.

The sausage kit recipe is excellent and it cuts down on the prep work. I mixed ten pounds of ground venison (from Jeff’s BC whitetail) with four pounds of ground pork shoulder. Then I added the seasoning and cure per the instructions which are very explicit and easy to read.

After stuffing the sausage into the casings, I let them sit in the refrigerator over night and smoked them the next day. I heated them for one hour in the oven, then smoked them for two hours and finished them off by putting them back in the oven for an hour until they reached 156 degrees F.

Here are a few photos of the process.

I purchased the kit at Bass Pro. It save a lot of time by eliminating the need to shop for seasonings and mixing them.

Smoking the sausage adds a lot of flavor. I prefer the apple wood. The water smoker is heated by bricketts.

It takes too long to heat the meat to 156 degrees in the smoker, so I finished the sauage off with the oven set at 200 degrees.

Wrapping the sausage using the foodsaver keeps it moist. If you leave it unwrapped it begins to dry out, something you won't like.

I served the sausage Christmas Eve and it was well received. I felt good about giving it away.

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