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Danielle Prewett
Danielle Prewett is the founder of Wild + Whole and a Wild Foods Contributing Editor for MeatEater. She is passionate about the outdoors because hunting, fishing, gardening, and foraging enable her to connect with her food and eat consciously. Texas is home for Danielle and when she isn’t in the kitchen, she can be found upland hunting with her bird dogs.
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Butchering & Processing
How to Clean a Gizzard
The gizzards of game birds like pheasants, ducks, and turkey are under-appreciated little nuggets of meat. Perhaps it’s because they look strange and are difficult to trim without proper instruction. Well, we’re taking the mystery out of preparing them by showing you how to clean a gizzard and how...
Butchering & Processing
Why You Shouldn’t Always Trim Silverskin
The first thing I learned about processing deer was to trim all the silverskin away from the meat. For a long time I held the common belief that all that sinew was worthless and inedible. After many years of cooking with wild game, I’ve found that was a huge mistake.
Part of the reason I wanted...
Butchering & Processing
How to Wet Age Meat
Aging meat isn’t really optional when it comes to wild game. For lean, tough cuts that hunters are familiar with, this is a necessity to create a quality end product.
There are two types of aging, each with their own pros and cons. Dry aging is considered to be the traditional form of aging. For...
Butchering & Processing
The Total Guide to Caul Fat
When field dressing a deer, you’ll find a thin, lacy net covering the stomach. Don’t mistake this for something to be left in the gut pile. Although it doesn’t resemble a prime cut, this web of valuable fat is great for imparting flavor, moisture, and shape into meals.
What is Caul Fat?
Caul fat...
Butchering & Processing
Best Practices for Freezing Meat
For hunters, freezers are perhaps some of our most valuable possessions. They preserve hard-earned meat and hold fond memories of time spent in the wild. Here are our best practices to ensure the meat inside remains as good as the day you harvested it.
How to Avoid Freezer Burn
Two things ruin meat...
Butchering & Processing
How Much Fat Should You Add to Ground Venison?
For some hunters, adding domestic fat to venison is taboo. For others, it’s a necessity. One thing is for sure (and no more evident than here at MeatEater): at-home butchers have a wide range of preferences regarding fat content and there are no set rules. Here are some of our thoughts on adding fat...
Butchering & Processing
What to Do With Wild Game Fat
One of my favorite things about acquiring my own wild meat is that it comes with an added bonus: fat. Many hunters overlook wild game fat and dismiss it as they would most stuff from the gut pile. Wild game fat has great value, though.
Duck fat, for example, is treasured by foodies and some folks...
Butchering & Processing
Is a Turkey Sponge Edible?
When I began to remove the breast from my first tom, I was dumbfounded to find handfuls of a yellow, jellyfish-like substance in front of the crop cavity. I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, so it stayed in the woods.
With a little research, I learned that this gelatinous tissue is called the...
Butchering & Processing
Can You Refreeze Thawed Meat?
The topic of refreezing meat is one that hunters discuss often. Most experts in the culinary industry strongly advise against this practice, but sometimes things happen that are out of our control. This leaves many to wonder if it’s safe to refreeze meat, or if this damages the quality so much that...
Butchering & Processing
Tips for Better Ground Venison
There are a lot of benefits to grinding your wild game at home rather than taking it to a processor. The obvious reason is having control over the entire process, knowing that only your hands touched your food. You also get to make decisions about how much fat you want to add and what seasonings you...