These posts will chronicle my journey as a fatally nostalgic masochist. I am continually drawn to the "old ways" and history, methods, and means of the low technology past.
Monday, October 30, 2023
Another Try for Longbow Bear in MD - Almost!
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
My Hill Style Longbow Journey Movie
I decided to play around with editing a video of my longbow journey. I had fun putting it together with years and years of old practice film and photos. Who was that young fellow at the beginning? Thanks.
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Braised Vension Shanks Recipe
I've been experimenting lately with ways to make my deer butchering more efficient. Last year I decided to vacuum pack and freeze these two deer shanks whole instead of trimming and grinding it for other uses as I would typically do. Researching Osso Buco recipes, I decided to give the basic principles a try with a whole shank instead of cutting them into rounds. I was very pleased with the results. Because I had a squirrel quartered and frozen, I decided to also add that to the recipe and even a tough old squirrel came out sooo good! I may even do a repeat of just squirrel if I can get a few more.
This particular cut of meat from a wild deer is about the toughest and most sinewy chunk of meat to cook. It is even a chore to cut it from the bone to feed the grinder!
The first step I took was to coat the meat copiously in salt and pepper, one could also coat with the flour at this point. I heated up the iron skillet on the outdoor BBQ to sear it, so as not to smoke up the kitchen. A couple teaspoons of olive oil in the pan. Next time I will use a larger skillet also.
After browning I de-glazed the pan with a little venison stock that I had previously canned. I poured everything into a large casserole dish with:
1 cup of wine (I used persimmon wine I had made)
1 cup of garlic sausage Prego tomato sauce.
cup or so of diced carrots
2 cloves of minced garlic
Half a small sweet onion diced
1 teaspoon of thyme.
1 teaspoon of salt
Ground black pepper
teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of minced parsley
1 small can of diced tomato
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
Here is everything ready for the oven. I put the pan in covered at 325 degrees for around 4 hours.
You could also use a heavy dutch oven, but since I was at home I used the Corningware. This recipe would also work well in the ground slow cooking at camp which I intend to try at some point.
It came out of the oven looking like this:
This dish was super tasty and tender. I was highly pleased and even the squirrel came out fork tender and so very savory. The liquid was just the correct thickness for a light gravy. Pair this with some rice, noodles, or some mashed potatoes and you have a super home cooked meal I would venture to say that even those that "do not like venison" would probably enjoy!