00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three fifty four, and today in the show, I'm joined by meat Eater Wild Foods contributing editor Daniel Pruittt to discuss everything you need to know to make this your very best summer of wild game cookouts. All right, welcome to the wire ton podcast, brought to you by Onyx. Today in the show, I'm joined by Daniel Pruittt. She's a contributing editor over at meat Eater and the founder of Wild and Whole, a dedicated website cooking and eating wild game. You might have heard her on the podcast I'm about half a year ago during the holiday time period. She's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to cooking, preparing and eating venison and other wild game. And I thought was summer officially kicked off now it was time to talk summer cookout. So I wanted to pick Daniel's brain on all sorts of topics and ideas related to cooking outside and eating great wild game. That's that's kind of fitting for this time of year in this season, so we cover all your favorite summer food ideas, everything from grilling the perfect venison, steak or burger, to Mexican night ideas, two thoughts on barbecues and marinades and rubs and even Sloppy Joe's just all sorts of great summer eating. So if you've got a freezer full of wild game and an outdoor space to enjoy it, whether that's a deck, a boat, or a campsite, this is the podcast for you. So without further ado, let's get into it all right with me. Now on the line is Danielle Pruett. Welcome back to the show. Daniel Mark. It's it's good to get to chat with you again. Last time we talked, it was just before Christmas, I think, right in that right in that time frame, so everyone's thinking holiday foods and now we're talking just before summer and everyone's thinking summer foods. So it seems like a really good time to connect with you again. I'm getting hungry thinking about the summertime. I know. It's it seems like this is the time of the year. Just everybody knows that Memorial Day is coming up, and it's just like it's official summer is here, and I'm gonna since everybody's quarantined at home and we're all sick of dishes, like what better times just crack that grill open or fire and cook outside. Yes, agreed, I am very sick of dishes. Have been doing a whole lot of those, and I'm excited for some outdoor eating and still dishes, but for some reason they'll feel better. Uh so you said, you said a Memorial Day, which when we're recording this, it's just a couple of days, four days before Memorial something like that. Um, I don't know what we're eating yet, but do you do? You know what's on the Memorial they menu? No, mostly because it's going to be pouring down rain and Houston, which makes kind of it kind of rains on the parade, a little bit of deal outdoor get outside stuff. But no, you know that's that's a good like thing. Like what am I cooking this weekend? I get so wrapped up and what I'm cooking for for meat eater, for work or content wise. And then my husband is like that all sooeems great? So like what are we eating now? And I'm like, oh, I have no idea, no idea, I haven't thought about that. So do you guys eat as good at home as you make food for the website? Or does your husband get stuck with leftovers and the good stuff just gets made for the camera. Well, now that he's working from home, he gets to eat pretty pretty darn good, um, because so the stuff I do, I do it in the middle of the daytime. Um. And so when he was working in the office, he had to miss out on that and had to eat leftovers. And so now he gets to be a part of everything. Um. But like, for instance, yesterday I made some Neapolitan pizzas, Neapolitan style pizzas, and I've been doing a little foraging and I had a handful of Shane chills and so I did like a pizza bianca with all those mushrooms and it was so good. It was so good. I'm like, I rarely make pizzas, but that was that was memorable. Yeah, that sounds off eat pretty normal. Do you guys eat different when you're at your ranch because you're you're you're at your ranch right now right in Texas? Is there like a certain when you guys are there. Do you have like any kind of I don't know, like when I go certain places, like Okay, this is the kind of place I'm always going to gurl out. Do you have something that like when you're here, it's this kind of food that just seems to fit the location. Yeah. Yeah, So my ranch is an hour away, and I'll just give you a quick backstory. I think it's a very cool place. It's my husband's family ranch. A guy named wind Windhall, right after World War One bought this property and he got married, had one girl, and so the ranch passed to her and she married Travis's grandfather, and so that's kind of how it got into the Prutt family because because um, so this this property, the original house is still here and we've kind of built an add on around the original house, if that makes sense. Um. And so it's really a cool place because there are pictures. I mean, gosh, that's like getting around a hundred years old, um, this this area, and so there's pictures like you can see of parts of the ranch where you know, they were practically homesteading and I mean not home setting, but you know what you did in nineteen thirties, I got you lift off the land and um, and you know, it's just it's really cool. Like the garden space that I have my gardening now has been gardened by the family for like a hundred years, and so like the Rads. But do we have dew berries Not radsberrys. We have dew berries out here. And so like every time I like pick or forge or do anything out here, I just think, like how much family history is is out here. And this part of the state of Texas is particularly known for um, watermelon and okra, especially now that summer is approaching. And there's a farmer's market down the road that I just adore because this is like the farmers market where you you know, it's all open air and you go in and they have popcorn machines filled with cheat your owners. It's just like it's such a unique little place. And the barbecue joint is down the road. And and like I say, we're known for the watermelons here because when we lived in North Dakota, one time I was at the grocery store and I saw Dario's Watermelona, Like, You've got to be kidding me, this is from instead Texas, kidding me. So whenever we come out here, like we really kind of play and just sort of like the Southern comfort foods, Like we grill okra pretty much every single time. Um my husband could eat okra all day every day. Um, and pickled things like you know, just sort of really simple, simple foods. Nothing, nothing fancy, but kind of like a Southern twist to everything. Yeah, ounds pretty good. Um yeah. Do you find kind of similar to how you have some things that come to mind for a location when you go out to the ranch, though some of those types of food sound particularly good or they're local for you. Do you have the same thing at all with the season? So when it comes to this time of year, when Memorial It hits and summer arrives, are there some things that all of a sudden, like this is gonna be on the pru At menu for the next couple of months. There's like some summer mainstays. What are those for you guys? Yeah? I mean so for me like here in Texas the zone that we're in, like I kind of okay, let me let me back up for a second. I think it's really important to eat seasonally, mostly because the food is, you know, from a cook perspective, the food is just ten times better. If you've ever tried to eat a tomato in the middle of winter, it's terrible, Like it's just terrible. I don't it's just not good. And so like, you know, when summer comes around, it's fantastic. So I always try to eat ever ripe, either at the grocery store at the farmer's market, because everything just tastes so much better that way. But um, this time of the year here, what's ripe for me is probably definitely not in season for you now. Um, so like it's kind of weird. Like when I tell people, all I am already finding chantrells and my tomatoes are one of them is already turning orange, is all starting to ripen. Other people are like I still have snow on the ground, So like I've been complete a little bit of a different like setting just because of location. But yeah, this time of the year is when I think about, well, while it's hot, what's really refreshing and easy to cook? And you know, obviously there's a lot of grilling outside, but I use a lot of fresh ingredients and serve them cold on the side. So like my favorite is like a steak with like a either not even like a backstraped steak, but and any kind of tinder kind of meat from a from a deer um in server with like a cold chimmyturey sauce or some sort of like pickled relish. Anything that's kind of cold, acidic just naturally or acidity pairs really well with wild games that I find. That's something that's kind of cooling because it's already in the nineties here, and so I'm like really ready to just cook outside and not have an oven or anything going in the inside the house. Which, by the way, this ranch house has no a C. As I'm saying this, I'm like, God, that sounds really good. I need a fan in here. Yeah, I complain, we don't have a C at my house, but that's in Michigan. It's much less, uh uncomfortable that I'm sure. No a C in Texas is well, I mean, there isn't a C. But when I come out here for the day, that's just me. I haven't. I don't turn it on. It's we only turn it on if we're planning on being here for a whole weekend or something. You know. Something I got to wonder and you mentioned how you know there's certain types of foods that taste best fresh you want to eat you know, for the season, ripeness like that, and like tomatoes are best, you know, right off the vine. Maybe, But it's kind of funny with wild game, with venison, a lot of the time we're eating it, you know, months later. Have you looked into it all? Like when the very best? Like what's the sweet spot for? How long you should wait to eat venison? Like there's some that will eat it right away, which has got a certain specialness to it. But then there's questions about like freezer aging your meat and how long it's in there is it? Is it great at six months? Is it better at first? That's a thing freezer aging. I don't know what I am, not the person I ask that question, but I've heard people use that term before, heard people I've heard I need to google this, look into it, am I this? Um I understand like aging in the terms of when an animal dies, you know you've got the rigor mortis. I have a hard time saying that for whatever reason, you've got that going on, and the muscles stiffen up, and so when you let it um tang or age. Those enzymes that are still present in those muscles will continue to break down tissue even after the animal is dead. And so after after that stiffness, let's go, you know, like a day or two later, then the muscles relaxed and those those enzymes continue to sort of digest that protein. And that's what aging really is. It's it's doing two things. It's it's um tenderizing and also because it's in a dry environment with airflow, it is um sort of dehydrating innocence, so that you're concentrating those flavors, and so it's a it's a more bolder meteor savory and tender flavor. And you know, I used to get real wrapped up in that kind of stuff. I'm kind of veered away with it just because I eat so much wild game that I don't know, always felt like I don't have the time for it. I do age in the fridge. You can do it in UM like a what do you call it, like a wet aging like what I just described is known as dry aging. You can do a wet aging, which is vacuum ceiling. But I've had both good results not so bad results with that UM and so I'm kind of, I guess the more and more a cook wild Game, which has been living still off wild Game for seven years now. I kind of try a lot of things, and I go back and forth, and I'm way less rigid these days when it comes to stuff like that, and I don't I don't get too wrapped up and how that's all? Is it aged? And I think it's fun to do. If you have the setup and you have the time, and you're you're really investing into it, then it's great. But if you don't, like you're not you know, you're not missing out on the whole world. It's not gonna not gonna ruin Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about the opposite? So I don't know anything about freezer aging. I was gonna say, what about what's like the longest it can go in the freezer before you wouldn't want to eat it? You know, I've I've heard some people say, oh, you know, I was digging around the freezer. I found this package here at the bottom that's from four years ago. What should I do with it? Can I still eat it? What are your thoughts on that? That's a really good question, because I just took out a package of goose breasts from two thousands seventeen so that they were vax field And like the problem is you have to ask yourself how much fat is on that animal. If you're talking about a deer, there's way more leniency because there's not the same type of fat like you would find on bear meat or like a fatty duck or goose, because the fat is really what goes rancid the fastest. So when I eat the frosted that bag, it smelt pretty pretty bad, um, but not too terrible. And I've kind of gotten to a point because I've I've dealt with freezer burnt meat so many times. Sometimes I have to throw it away, which is just makes me want to cry, and I tell myself, then you'll stop letting meat in the freezer for that long streame on me. Um. But I've also kind of like figure it out that if you have like a really good boning or filet knife, you can um take a thin slice off the top and usually you can kind of solve the problem that way. And then and then my other suggestion is cooking it in something like really really bold and flavors. So like with that goose that made gumbo with it, and you couldn't tell at all. I actually had friends over for dinner and I was terrified staring improsbit and goose. I was like, what am I? Why am I serving this toadum? And they had no idea. They thought it was awesome. UM. So there is a limit, um, I would say for deer, I don't like going more than two years. I think two years is definitely. I mean, I think it depends on how how much how much game you have. If you're hunting every year for a variety of species or more than one deer, you know, you should really try to clean clean it out before the next season rolls around, because it's just gonna sitting are even longer. Like when when do you actually get to it? You know, I'm usually about a year and a half rotation, I would say, So I'm eating Yeah, I feel like I'm eating a lot of venison right now that was killed in two in the two thousand eighteen season. I'm eating a lot of that stuff right now. So by the time hunting season comes around, I will be getting probably done with that and I'll be eating like two thousand nineteen deer probably by this fall. So usually. Yeah, year year and a half is what I'm behind, I would say, and that's that's been fine for me. I'd say most of my stuff, you know, if it might be a little bit of freezer burn like you mentioned, um, you just trimmed that off and then it's great. From what I found. Do you vaccual? Do you use paper? So I used to vac seal um, but I have a lot of those bags like fail on me. So I'll pull out a vac seal bag and it's it's not sealed, you know, tight anymore, and so then there's these gaps that then allow that freeze freezer burns just to start. So my just saran wrap and paper just seems to be a while. It's a little bit more of work, I guess on the front end. Maybe it just seems to be more consistent. And maybe that's my vacuum seiler. That could be like a error in how I'm doing it or the equipment or something. But for whatever reason, that's what I found. What about you, Yeah, I've had the same same exact issues. I still use the vac stealer um because when it works, then you've got like a year more of life. When it doesn't work. Um, you notice immediately, you know, like once the meats frozen, like it doesn't take about a month or so that you can see if there's sprossed in that package, then you know something's wrong and get it, you know, defrost it, don't like bury it at the bottom of the freezer. And that's kind of the way I treat it, you know. I have this bad habit of of wanting to savor my meat. Like, Um, I found some Sandhill crane breath that we're going to have tonight for dinner that was shot two seasons ago, and like I have been ever, I see it all the time in my mind, we should have that. Now, let's say that for something special. And then all of a sudden, you like you take it out and you're like, actually it's not special anymore. It's a little off. Um. I'm so I'm the worst about doing that. And I think part of it. I read somebody said this, and I think they kind of hit the nail on the head. When you've finished off like the last package of meat, it's like you finished the hunt. Like it makes me a little sad. It's an interesting one. I like that. Do you have that you know, I think there's something to be said about that. Yes, when that lasts, because every time I eat, I know what deer was, and I will always think of that, dear, I'll think of that hunt. I'll think of that moment. And so yeah, you're right, like I know that when the last package, which I'm getting very close to it, of the buck I killed in Michigan a couple of years ago. Uh, it was a real special one. That that will be a weird ending, which is interesting way to think about it. Good food though at least we'll go out with on a high note. Uh. Speaking of speaking of that and what you mentioned a little bit ago, you talked about how you know, one of those go to summer meals is grilling something and then having like a cold side like a chimmy cherry sauce or or something along those lines. Um, I feel like I just want to get from you what we absolutely have to know about grilling better venison steaks. Because last time we talked, we talked about backstraps, but I think we mostly talked, you know, cast iron stove kind of thing. But if we're outside cooking on the deck or the pad do or whatever, Um, let's talk about outdoor cooking on the grill with venison, various cuts, whatever. Um, can you run through a few common mistakes or a few things that we should definitely be doing to make sure it's as good as possible? UM? Give me like the high level master class on becoming a great griller. Um. I feel like I'm still learning how to grill. That sounds I shouldn't probably have said that. I feel like I'm still learning how to cook too. But always it's just absolutely I think there's kind of this kind I used to go back and forth. You know, you always hear pull your meat from the fridge early and get your grill hot, and like, what is early? Is it ten minutes? With just fifteen? You know? I used to be like, wow, ten minutes is pretty good, but it's actually not. It's still pretty cold. And I used to like let it rest for a pull it like at least thirty minutes early, And I noticed that definitely made for more even cooking. But if you're the kind of person that that like has this tendency of overcooking, I know so many people that cook it cold because you're like, well, I'm not going to overcook it because I'm cooking it cold. Um, And I'm like, well, you know, there's there's some truth to that, but you definitely get a little bit of that black and blue sort of thing, which a lot of people like, what does that mean for people that don't know black and blue? Am I saying that? Is that the right term? Or what is it? Is it the Chicago or there's a Detroit style, Pittsburgh style it is I'll take your work. I'll take your word for it. I'm assuming you mean like really cold inside. It's like where the acts the outside is like super charred and then it's still um, like like rare in the middle, cool and rare in the middle, but the outside is really charred. And that's because it's cold cooked cold. Um. I hate the char on the outside. I think it just overpowers the flavors so much. I mean, I want a little bit, but but that particular style is just way too much. And so when you really think about that, you have to take two things into consideration. How early are you pulling? Meaning like how cold is your meat versus how hot is your fire. The hotter your fire is, the more the outside is gonna cook. So if you want like a blazing hot fire. You better pull that meat really really early, if that makes sense, so it's not so cold in the middle. Otherwise you get like blackened on the outside and cold in the middle, which is a really common mistake. UM, But I think have in the patients. Two. If you're going to cook over wood or coals, letting it burn down, um is really important because you always like misjudge how hot a fire really is until you put food on it and you're like, oh crap. Um. That's one mistake that I see often, um when grilling. But I mean I really, I really think about it the same way that I think about any any other type of any other way that I would cook a steak is is you just don't overcook it. Um. You know, like you throw it on the grill hot and fast because it's so lean, there's really no fat compared to like a beef steak, and so it doesn't take very long it gets it gets cooked really fast. And that's why I like to pull it early, at least thirty minutes from the fridge, so that you don't end up with an over the charred outside and cold little unless it's what you want. I was going to ask you if you put any fat on the outside of some people that will coat the steak in like olve oil or something before grilling it. Um, yeah, I do that. I do. I do like grape seed, canola or avocado oil. Well, first a season it with salt and pepper. Salt and pepper way in advance, um, like early that morning or the night before, if if I happen to remember, and then I pull it from the fridge and then kind of like cut it dry and then put oil all over it. And that's another good point, Like when it comes to like say, just if all you want to do is salt and pepper your steak, I think I think that's a great idea because I mean, as as the purest wild game eaters would would want to believe is like that's all a good steak needs because the meat tastes really good if you took care of it in the field. And I totally agree. But one thing people don't really consider as much as a type of salt and the type of pepper, because texture really really matters. And I have gone through the extreme on this. Um, if you've got like a sea salt or like a black pepper, like cruncher. You know, those are pretty good because when you you've got some texture on there. I can't stand when those like little tens of black pepper, you know what I'm talking about, Like, I hate those. I hate those. I've gone kind of extreme lightly with all of my steaks now. I um, I use a sea salt or a kind of a flaky salt, anything that's kind of like a crunchy, textural salt, because you can actually just it's just totally changes the meat when you have that texture from the salt. But in addition, I buy peppercorns and bulk, Like I'll just buy like a bag of them and I stick them in like a little like a tablespoon worth and a mortar and pestle and a hand handmash all my peppercorns now to rub on my steak. Because so the texture is just phenomenally better. I don't I just I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm going a little overboard and extreme with it. But if you're going to just do a salt and pepper for the state stake of doing a salt and pepper, like, having that texture really changes it to something significantly better. Interesting, I get where, Yeah, it doesn't make sense. I totally get what you mean, because I have done we we do. Sometimes I have a sea salt. It's like a larger flake, I guess, and I have noticed like, oh, that is a nice little extra crunch of sorts, different different texture. Know what about the next step from that, which is applying something on the outside like rubs? Do you what are your thoughts on putting rubs on a big piece of meat or a steak or something like that for grilling. Is that is that an idea that you ever look at? Um? Yes, I mean if it's a steak, so this is like, um, so here's one example. Um, it's basically a rub. Even though I'm just making a salt and pepper steak, I would do the same thing I was just telling you about Grant hand mashing those peppercorns. And then I have a big herb garden, and I'll snip a thing of rosemary and then take garlic and mince it and mince the rosemary, and then add the salt. And so I've got all three of those things just sort of getting mashed up in that mortar and pestle. And when you're done with it, you've got this like really granule rub basically like a garlic and herb rub. And that's kind of like it's far as. I take a steak usually, um, sometimes depending on what type of steak, Like if it's the inside round steak, which is actually a phenomenal steak, is as is disturnoin tip, which a lot of people never even think to cut it like a steak, but I do it all the time. Um, those I kind of do it to what I call like the Cowboys steak. Um, maybe that's just a Texas thing, but that salt pepper, a little cayenne, and brown sugar. And let me tell you that brown sugar caramelizes on the grill. Like, oh, it's it's my secret to any kind of rub. Add just a pinch of brown sugar and you just get this like really nice flavor on the grill. I like that idea a lot, speaking of these text these uh these steaks. If you're cutting your own steaks, what's the ideal thickness in your mind? Oh? I don't know. I play around with that all the time when I come into a backstrap. I do not like the butterfly method. Um. I just think they overcook way too fast. For what it is, and so I usually cut those like cut the like the loin out and and intervals of like for six inches long, and then other pieces like the inside round which that cut is kind of like a which it's like a big rectangle, and so and so most people kind of do cutlets out of it. And just recently I decided instead that I would cut it lengthwise or I would cut crosswise. Instead of cutting a whole bunch of steaks down the whole thing, I cut it through the middle lengthwise or cross wise. Does that make sense? Two wide flat pieces. And then I took those wide flat pieces and pounded them out flat, and that's the closest two kind of kind of a Tahita like texture because it has a really strong green line. And then you pound it out thin. I mean I saved thin, I mean like maybe an inch because that they're like an inch or two. And then you grill it as one whole piece, and you can apply whatever kind of rug you want on it, whether it's like a steak rub the cajun or whatever you want um. And then when it's done, when you go to cut it, you take the knife at a forty five degree angle so you get these long strips, and the forty five degree angle is so that you get like more surface area of neat versus just cutting it straight down, if that makes sense. That's a new thing that I've been doing lately, and it kind of gives you like that tahita like bruskity still like like strips of meat, but it's such a tinder cut that and it's really good for like putting in tacos or on sandwiches, stuff like that. But that's kind of a new thing I've been doing. But but most of the time, I like, if I want a steak, I want like a big thick steak two inches something like that. Yeah, yeah, at least yeah, I would say, okay, So I'd just like to feel like I'm biting into something. Yeah, I hear you on that one. And then also I feel like you just get at least in the past, when I've had processors do my meat and you get those back, they cut those steaks so thin and it's just so easy to oversus. So that is a beautiful thing of processing your own meat, is to be able to get those cuts just the way you want them and allow for that thicker, better piece of better bite better, uh, you know, easier to cook with. But um, so there's the salt and pepper method that you talked about. There's some rub ideas. I like to rub ideas. The third way that I could see people thinking about steaks or working with a wild game in the summer would be marinades. A lot of people talk about using marinades. I know you just did a whole big rundown for the Mediator website about your thoughts on you know, why, when and how to use wild game marinades, and I want to kind of hear your thoughts on that, especially in regards to venison, but but everything too. What's what's your take there and how should we be thinking about marinades, Like I hope I think maybe this is just the way people are, But it seems like people just like like they're just like really all for something or they're really all against it, And I don't really find I mean, I've been on both sides. When I very first started cooking wild game, I was like, well, this is supposed to be gaming, let's put it in a marinade. And then after I like really got into it and like this is too good for that I would marse marrining, how dare you? And now I'm like a little more equilibrium and realizing that there is a time and a place where I think marinades are really helpful. I don't. I don't really love them on my steak. It's not how I would choose to eat a steak. But there are a lot of other cuts that could benefit from having a marinade. Um, if you have like a lesser like if you have feel like the sterling tip, or like or some sort of cut like the try tip or something that's that's sort of tender, but it's you know, not a tenderloin or anything. Those do well under a marinade. Or game birds like turkey pasn't all those kind of things. I love marinading those meats. And I really like to think as a marinade primarily being used to add flavor and and not so much as a tenderizer. I think people kind of get back and forth about whether or not a tenderizes, and science has proven that a marinade could really only like permeate a meat about an eighth of an inch, So if you've got like a huge chunk of meat, you're not really doing much for it. But a marinade usually contains some sort of salt, and salt can do amazing things for meat. Um it helps us stay like really juicy whenever you cook it, like a kind of like a brine the way you brine a turkey. Um. And so that's like a positive thing of using marinades is you get to eat like a very juicy, flavor ful meat. And if you're eating you know, stalt and pepper steaks all the time, it can get a little boring. Like having something different is is nice. I like that for a change, And I think some some cuts really benefit from that, like um, heart, you know, a lot of people have a hard time eating it in general, and a lot of people think that there's a real irony taste to it or you know, it's it's a stronger flavored meat. And I think marinating it can really really be a great thing for things like that. Um. So I like marinates. I use them like um, whole shoulders, like whole big cuts that I plan to cook later on. Like I'll marinate it in some sort of rub or not a rub, like a haste or like since we're a liquid, and then I'll actually cook it in that liquid. So like that's a new way. I think when people think of marinade, they automatically assume like a kabomb on the grill or something like that. But there's like some other traditions where they'll take meat soak it in like a vinegare marinade, and then when they take it out, they just boil it inside that marinade, which is an actually fantastic way of cooking really tough cut. So that's something I started doing a lot with like the shoulders and and just really tough cuts of meat. Is marinating it and then throwing it in the crock pot and cooking it in the marinade. It's like, you couldn't really make it easier something when you're doing something like that or whatever you're marinating, how long do you have to let it marinade for? You know? It's like I was saying, there's really since it can't like go very deep into the meat, Like marinating for days isn't really great idea. I did a marinade recently for for a tried tip. It's like lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and oil, and it's a really good summer marinade for grilling, and I'll do steaks that way sometimes, but I forgot about it, like we so like I was gonna cook it, and then we we've got to trap out here at the ranch and we've trapped a bunch of pigs. And then I was like, oh crap, we need to go out there and take care of that. And then like two days later, I came back and I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot about the steaks we were going to cook. And I took it out on the marinade and the meat was just gray. The inside was fine, but once I cooked it, it was like just eating it looked very unappealing because that lemon juice and that asset had just changed the outside. So I think there's definitely a limit on how long is too long. I think two days is too long. Um, But if you're just trying to add flavor to it, you know, anywhere from four eight twelve hours when dough is good. So if you do it the night before you plan to cook, I think that's a perfectly good amount of time. What are some of your go to marinades. I know you you published a Venison Cababi Venison cabab recipe recently, and you mentioned one in there that you like a lot. What do those what's that look like? Um, let's see. I my god, dudes are kind of like it's like, what do I want to eat today? And sometimes in my head, I like take it a little trip around the world. I'm like, oh, Mediterranean sounds really awesome. And so if you have turkey, having some sort of like Greek yogurt or like something like that um in your marinade like totally changes the flavor profile. Or um buttermilk, Like I have a clail recipe that's just buttermilk, and I don't even remember what I was gonna, probably a bunch of herbs and garla like um. But when it comes to steak in venison, I don't really like to get anything too crazy or too um, too bold. I really just keep it too sort of the same category of something acidic, whether it's a red wine vinegar or a lemon juice. And then some fresh herbs rosemary and thyme are usually my favorites, and then garlic, um, those are kind of my like the things that I always add in the marinade. And then of course either salt so I think the kebab recipe uses toy sauce. Um, But most of the time I'll just add just sea salt or something. And then, like I was saying before, sugar, I think sugar it's held balance out, like how like puckery it tastes, But once it hits that grill, you totally noticed whether or not there was sugar, because it gives you that like caramelized flavor. Oh. I have one more text mix. That's something that I eat like on a weekly basis, just because it's it's been ingrained into my culture and since I was born, it's just I eat text Max's a huge part of my life, which for me that is just always equal parts lemon juice, orange juice, garlic, sometimes onion, a regano, human salt, pepper, chili's cilantro. That's a recipe on line. So what kind of what kind of meal would you play with that kind of marinade or that kind of set of like mexicany kind of flavor. The heart is a really good one because it's so tender. You can slice the heart, then marinate it and then cook it like that. Um. I always recommend people who are eating heart for the first time to try the tahita marinade and put it in a taco or something. Um, I just think it's a more approachable way to eat a heart. But I use it like I was saying, like if you have like a tinder top round or something like that, that anything like with a strong grain line as the meat will make a really good tahita or steak meat. And then it's really versatile for turkeys or any other white meat too. It works kind of across the board. It just depends on what cut you're using on a deer, like how tough it is, because you don't really want to grill a top cut, right. You got me thinking though, as you mentioned this text Max marinade, what are what are some other things we can be thinking about as far as summer Mexican text mex kind of themed meals with our venison or other wild game for this time. Yeah, because I mean I eat a lot of Mexican it all through the year, but especially summer. It seems like such a great thing to eat outside or out in the boat or wherever. Um. You mentioned fahitas, that's a that's an easy one to tackle. But do you have any tips on either how to make your feet as better or or anything else is a little bit outside of the ordinary. You know, Fahitas are hard because the cut of meat is so important. You know, like when you go get a tahita at a steakhout or steak at like a at a restaurant, you know, you're eating a skirt or a flank steak, which is a really thin, flappy cut of meat. Um. And then they cut it against the grain line when they when they cook it, and it's just cooked really hot and fast. And I've tried tried doing that with deer before. I've never had a deer big enough where the flank was. It was big enough to cook. And by the time I got the silver skin off, I was left with like this pancake like anything. And I was like that looks so like this shapen and weird, and I was like, this doesn't gonna work. Um, just grind it um. And then I've I've tried brisket, which works very well if you get all the silver skin off, which is a there. It's a project, and I do it every now and then, and every time I do it, I'm like, that's really that's really a lot of work, but you get the closest result to like the actual kind of meat that you would get at the steakhouse. And then just recently, like I was saying, with that inside round or like like the way you would get a hand steak out of from a deer, that piece um cut cut down, cut through the middle long ways to get too wide rectangles. That is probably the closest way of creating the same texture of meat. Um. So I think the kind of meat is really the most important. But if you didn't want to do like Tajita's, if you wanted to do something else, um, when me think what else do I do? Do you? You know, I used to work at a in the cooking classes at SARLATB and we used to do those a lot, and I just never I never carried that on and I never do that at home, mostly because, like the community and the culture where I live, there's a strong, strong Hispanic influence, and those women who make tomali's for like a dollar are just so freaking good at it, and I'm like, why would I just why would I compete with it? When I can go and get these tomalis from these women who've been doing it from their grandmother and their grandmother, you know, like passed down from generation. Like it's just so hard to like when you have something like that. Like and the same thing with tortillas, you know, I feel the same way. When I can get these homemade tortillas down the street, I'm like, they're just so better than what I can do. Very jealous about that right now when we're we're on this Mexican COO's deer hunt, I guess it was almost two a year and a half ago or so, and so we're having fresh homemade tortillas every day, and we made tomali's with someone down there who helped us do it the right way, and and Goli we brought someone was home and that was great, but there's no way I could replicate it so well. The thing about is like you, they're like the way you make it. You don't just make a few tamali's, You make like a hundred, you know, like you don't just do small batches because it just requires a lot of work, so you just do a ton of it. And then I'm also like, what am I to do with all these tomalis? Who's going to eat these? Um? Now? Those are you know, I think there's part of me that wants to cook everything, and then there's there's the side of me that realizes that there are some people who are just so good at it, and like when I taste their food, like I I just allow myself to just enjoy and respect what they do and I don't feel like the pressure to try to replicate it. So if somebody was visiting your house, or maybe maybe I came down to the ranch and you know, I was eating some of the things that you cook, what would be the thing that I or a visiting cook would say, Oh, there's no way I should try cooking that at home, because that's Danielle's thing. She's just so good at that. What's your What's that specialty that no one could could compare with? I don't know if I have that. Come on, don't be too modest. You've got to have that home run that you just know is going to be great every time that people want. You know, a lot of my friends know me. It's like the girl who cooks duck and geese. I do. I just I think I just have cooked it so many times that people just always want me to cook Snoe steakhouse gooose. That's kind of one of my specialties, although I don't think it's that challenging because I use a suvid, so it's like cheating. Um. The people people love love that one. Um. And then what else do I do? I would say, I do text mix really well. I would say, if you came over, I would have fresh salsa, a good roasted salsa, or like a roasted corn and pablano salsa, or like a fresh piko to guayo. I'm like one of those people who believe that you should have a Schmortis board of stuff, like I would definitely have guacamoli, and I would definitely have either a Veronese sauce or roasted tomato sauce balsa, and then probably a fresh pulled piko to guayo or or some sort of fresh salsa. Like depending on what time of the year, like summer, I'll definitely pull as many vegetables together to get some sort of fresh salta. And then it just depends on whatever I throw or pull out of the freezer. Um. Like carnitas, I do quite a bit. Um. Carneta's with hog is santastic. Or we live near the coast and so we have a lot of red fish, and so I'll do fish tacos. Yeah, I would say if you came to my house, the best thing I make is some sort of text mix mostly because like you're just gonna have like ten things to eat from that sounds very very good. So if I'm trying to do something like you just describe, So, I'm gonna fix up either you know, a fahita recipe or tacos or carnitas or something. But I want to spice it up a little bit and want to say but it's not literally, I mean figuratively, I want to make it this next level kind of Mexican night. Uh, Taco Tuesday. We do our taco tuesdays here. Um, what would that what would that smartist board tip be, or what would be you know, that fresh salsa? What would someone do to just kind of level up their game on that front? Well? Step one, choose what you're eating. Um, you know I wouldn't serve the same salsa that I served with red fish that I would a dear Actually yeah, I would probably would to lie. Um, are there certain types of salsa's that pair with certain types of meet? So is there certain like if I'm thinking about my salsa. Is there's certain types that pair with veniceon versus something else or no, I mean, I guess no, not really. I think it depends on more how you want to serve it. Like like if if you were doing like a ground meat taco, I wouldn't want to roast corn peblato, if that makes sense. If you're doing a ground I don't know, it just seems meat. Yeah, You've got like a corn and it's like real bunch of little circles, and and then you've got a ground meat, which is more circles. I don't want this is okay. I think about everything not only in terms of flavor, but in terms of texture, so like shapes and softness and crunchiness, and like all those things should all like like that's what makes something really good. You know, if you have a taco and you've got say either so you've got grilled fish tacos um this fish or soft because they're grilled, you know, like having something like a little crunchy added into the taco, like in like a salsa with some radishes for that crunch um. You know, like all those little things start to play together. And if if you've got fry dish or fried something you know, think how good like sour cream or guacamole is because you've got like counterbalancing like textures there. But I don't know how. I don't know how to answer your question. How do I take a pocket to the next level? Is that the question? Yeah? I mean ye, would there be a salsa or I guess I'm wondering is for the average person out there listening, if they want to take one suggestion from you to improve their Mexican night or whatever their meal tonight, and they want to since that's your specialty, is there like a homemade salsa they should consider? Or would it be as simple as what you just said, which was add the counterbalance of texture, which I think is a great tip. I would say counterbalance to texture for sure, because if everything in your taco is real soft and mushy, you notice it, and you've got a soft shell tortisa or a tortilla versus like hard shell or something like that. Um, even something simple like shredded at a sad texture. But um, I would say, if you wanted to up your jutaco game, adding learning how to make a really good fresh salsa, um, either a roasted tomato salsa or a pico ta gaio, And I prefer pico to guayo, something cold now that it's summer. And say you're gonna grill something um, like a venison, even if it's just a steak, or like say you got a steak and you want to just do salt, pepper, cayenne and brown sugar and you run that on the steak. I would do some sort of cold salsa on the side. And I keep saying salsa, I should say pico to gaio, which is usually um, a blend of tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, um, jalapeno, lime, juice, UM. And then like you it's depending on what you have on hand. Then you can start adding other things, like I think corn is really really good in that UM. But yeah, that's a That's that's one thing I make. I call it the Cowboys sandwich, which is that same rub on a steak cut really really thin and then you put it on an open faced sandwich and with a porn sauce on top. Actually that the first time I met my husband's parents, that's what they made me. Maybe that's why I like it so much. It sounds good to me. I like that idea a lot. Um speaking of of of sandwiches, then now my mind's turning to burgers, and I was just thinking about this whole texture thing you talked about, how you want to add crunch or you want to add softness, depending on what you're making. Um, When it comes to taking your burger game to the next level, which is another thing a lot of people are trying to do this time of year, what are some of your thoughts on that when it comes to making a better venison burger on the grill? Um. You know, I season heavily on burgers just because making it bland really quick. But I don't really like to Um. I don't get crazy and add like how the bacon or cheese or do any of that stuff. I'm a straight up just meat and some fat. I do like fat. Um, I'll do like a fat added to my my neat mixture. My husband actually likes it a hundred percent venison, which gets a little crumbly sometimes. Um, But I like to add fat, and then I really do go pretty heavy heavily on the salt and pepper on the outside of it. I don't actually well now I'll do it in the mix, so like before you form the patties, I'll blend in salt and pepper to the mix um and then make the patties. I guess there's a lot of different ways you could do it, but that's probably the best us. Did you really need to moltify the meat and the fat together after you've ground it up um, so that it sticks a little better, and so adding that salt and pepper right after you Well, I guess, okay, so this is another thing I should mention. I grind all my meat before I cook it. I remember you mentioned this last time. That was sounded like a lot of work. Yeah, yeah, no, is it? No? I don't think it's maybe so I guess that's probably why I would say that I would do it this way, as opposed to somebody else who's like already has the meat ground up um, view formed patties and then freeze it, or you just like have the ground meat. So yeah, I just got ground meat packaged. I grind it at when I do my processing and this package and then I'll defrost it. And I've just got a block of defrosted burger and then what I usually personally would do is I would add an egg and I make pad ease, and then I would salt and pepper just before putting on the grill. Is what I've historically done. But now you're you're making me think maybe I should try adding it before it creates patties. Yeah, kind of almost the same way. Like you would think of why a sausage flavoring is so good is because all all that seasoning is already blended in. You know, you don't season outside of the sausage um, although it's still wrapped in casing. But I used to do the egg method, and if I have a ground nissine, I'll add an egg. But if there's if there's enough fat like ten to fifteen percent, then I'll try to make it stick together without the egg um. And then you know, I'm not like super picky about how it's cooked. I mean, I personally like it on a cast iron. My husband would disagree and say it's better around the grill. We argue a lot about growing because I think it's his territory a little bit kind of not really, but I'll let him have it sometimes. Um, I don't think there's a better way. I don't. I don't think that one way is necessarily better than the other. I think it just depends on what you like, you know, like having If you've got a really good charcoal grill going, then absolutely I think putting it directly on the grill is the way to go. But if you're using a propane, I just assume you might as well put it in the cast iron. Why is that get a really good because the propane grill isn't gonna get as hot or as direct to heat or what's the thing there. Well, I think charcoal produces a better flavor, and I think you get like actual flavor from the flames versus a propane to me, has a specific like flavor to it. You can tell the difference when it's cooked over a propane versus charcoal. And I like the cast iron because you you can put oil in the bottom of it and get a solid sear across the whole burger, you know, like a flat top grittle cooking kind of mentality. I don't always do it that way. I do it with my steaks sometimes my burgers. I mean, I'm kind of back and forth on it, but I think it just depends on what what you're cooking over, if you've got a fire or charcoal, I think I think it's better directly on the grill grates. What about um A mistake I used to make a lot when I first started trying to grill venison burgers. And this is when I like just started trying to cook myself, you know, like in college, and I was I would throw a patty on the grill, and I just keep flipping it and flip it, and then I want to check it, so I check the bottoms that I flip it again, and then I check it, I flip it again, and then I eventually read somewhere that you really don't want to do that. At least what I remember is that I said, put on the one side, let it cook something like through on that side, and then flip it just to kind of see or the other side, and then you're done. Something something like that. Um, so I only do one flip? Now? Is there anything to that? Am I just living off of some weird article I read a long time ago. No, that's good advice. The more you flip it, the more you're chances are you might mess it up or like crumble or you know, like just you what kind of the cooking Like I used to have this habit of like the same sort of thing like stir stir st or like you feel like you always need to mess with it because you don't want to mess it up. So you're always like messing with food and checking it and and you you kind of lose the the meats like ability to sort of char and get all that flavor and the caramelization that happens, you know, Like so the best foods are always like let it, like put the meat down and leave it alone, like let it work its magic. Like you messing with it isn't making it better, you know, like you need it needs time for the flames and that like mired reaction to take place and to sort of caramelize into work. Because when you flip it, you're just kind of I don't wanna say you're baking it, but you're not creating the same crust as if you had just left it there. Yeah, that crust that you get, Yeah, that seems to be the key. It adds that texture, right. I feel like sometimes I've made burger petties that don't have that grow marker crust on the outside. It's kind of like soft, mushy. But those really good burgers are the ones that have like that firm or crunchy outside in my in my opinion, seems like yeah, yeah, absolutely, And that's what it is, is is you've you've allowed it to sort of do its thing and create that crust on the outside. And that's sort of why I like the cast iron so much. Um sometimes is is you create a crust on the outside and it's like full coverage over the meat versus a grill. Great, you're only getting like a few wines like the grill marks. Um. I think. I think a lot of that's just personal preference. Though. How do your yeah, how do you go about making sure you don't overcook your burgers? What's your way of telling when they're done? Intuition? Um? No, you can poke and you can feel it, and you can you know, kind of like the way you check for the duentness of a steak. You can kind of feel how it's cooks, you know. Um, Honestly, that's probably the best the answer is is feeling it. Um. Also, as they start to release juices to um, so start to notice the juice as it comes out, what it what it looks like and how much. Um, when you don't see any juice coming out anymore, you've dried it out. Um. But and then yeah, and I honestly like mine steaks to still be a little pink in the middle, not raw by any means, but I don't. I don't like a well done steak. And in the same thing from burgers, like a medium rare burgers. Yeah, I don't like a well done burger. Yeah. Yeah, So, speaking of check and dunness, I didn't ask you when it comes to steaks. One thing I've I started. I used to do like the hand the hand trick where you put your middle finger and your thumb together and or different different fingers with your thumb, and that tells you, like how a steak should feel when it's a certain So I've heard like, if you put your index finger and your thumb together, that's what a rasst will feel like. And if you put your middle finger in your thumb together, that's you should be poking like that. Yeah, I'm talking about poking this little pad of your hand underneath your thumb. That's what I'm touching. Um. So I heard that, and then that kind of worked. But then I decided to start using a meat thermometer. So now I use a meat thermometer and I actually try to see what the temperature is and then take it off at the right time. But one of the things I've wondered is can you poke a piece of meat too many times? Because I've found I'm poking it. You know, I'm checking and checking, check in, and now it's three pokes in there, four pokes and juices are coming out when I poke. Is that a bad thing I'm doing? Yeah, you know, checking it once is at the end of the world, maybe three times is a little bit much because each time you do that, juices leave the meat. So you know, after you're done cooking a steak, there's that there's always the instructions let it rest because juices go back into the meat tissues instead of all over your plate. So every time you poke it, that's how much juice has gone from the meat that won't reabsorb. Yep, that's a that's all worried about. Yeah, I mean, I think I think meat thermometers can be a good thing, especially if if you are intimidated by like cooking a steak or and you want something to be just right, and you're excited about it. I think it's a good thing, um that you use it. My problem is that meat thermometers aren't really always accurate. I have to meat thermometers and they're never saying the same thing. Um. And so that's like one thing that I just I'm like, well, how much more accurate is this meat thermometer than like the years of cooking and my intuition and feeling like how much like you know, like what what's actually better at this point? I mean, I think it takes time to get there, but I think a meat thermometers can be a really good thing. Um. I think what you would probably more helpful is the first time you pull it out to check that done this. But if you feel it and it's like mega squishy, like you know, you can do the finger test and you're like, okay, well that's probably needs more time. Don't worry about poking it. Just stick it back on the oven for a minute or two and then try again instead of having like to do it three times. If that makes sense, Yeah, yeah, that does. That does. Um. Another I'm pivoting here a little bit, but if I'm I'm thinking about all the things that I want to cook over the next weeks, I enjoy some nice summer weather and I'm thinking, okay, Mexican food is a great thing to eat during the summer. Burgers, of course, Steaks of course. Another thing that I know a lot of people like to get after is some kind of barbecue or smoking meats if they've got a smoker. Have you do you have any thoughts on on those types of preparations. Do you guys experiment with that at all, with venicine or anything? You know, a little bit, but not a lot. I'm actually getting ready to get a smoker soon, just because I there's so many things that I want to smoke, and I haven't had a whole lot of opportunity other than out here at the ranch. We have like a big pit smoker, but we don't always use it because it's just so time consuming. Um. But you know, now these days of pellet smokers make things really really easy. But I kind of approached barbecuing smoking very similarly to the way I would approach any other tough cut and it's the same low and slow method. And with wild game it can dry out really really easily. You know, if you think about, like what makes a really good barbecue so delicious, like a brisk get or something like that. And you know, they create a bark and they've got these beautiful smoky flavors, but you're also sinking your teeth into like a layer of fat. You know, your poor GRIBs that they have. There's a layer of fat in there that wild game doesn't have. And so that's probably the number one thing you should consider if you're going to try to like do venison ribs or or like a whole or whatever you're gonna do, like a shoulder barbecue or something like that. Um, it's just consider that that fat's not there. And and one of the things that I want to do is experimenting a little more with smoking it mostly for flavor, and then kind of doing the cheater method where you then either wrap it and foil and have some sort of liquid in there to finish so it doesn't dry out, or transferring it to the oven or a crop pot to finish. Um, just because I know that if you just leave it in there I just smoked the whole time, it's gonna get pretty dry. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that this. This is exactly what I've been experimenting with recently, UM and I've done it was like a big roast off the haunch one time, and then I actually use a backstrap to do it once where I basically put it on my trigger and let it run at two fifty degrees for a couple of hours. And then and then I found a recipe somewhere that talked about doing this, and so I'm just kind of following this recipe. So what they say is used I think a chuck roast or something. I can't remember what it was they used, but they said to run it for three and a half hours until you reach a hundred and sixty degrees and then wrap it and foil and fill the foil with beef broth and then finish it for another hour and a half in beef broth wrapped in foil. UM. So, I did that exactly with that first roast, and it got I mean it was it was very very very good, but it was dry on the inside still. So what I did? You take it out? You've got this kind of looks like a brisket. And then I just sliced it up real thin and then we ate it on sandwiches. UM. So I tried it the second time with a backstrap, and I was going to do the same kind of deal I have, like a backstrap brisket style sandwich. UM. And I'd reduced the cooking time on the front end pre broth significantly to try to just keep the internal temperature lower to try to get more of a medium rare finished by the time I was done for the inside to try to keep that moisture. And it was a little better, but still pretty dry. UM. So I don't know how to keep the inside juicy while getting that crust on the outside. Right now, it's still pretty darn good, but I just don't have the juiciness which I would prefer. Say, the first temperature was too fifty and then you went to three fifty. No, so I kept the cooking temperature degrees in the trigger the whole time, but you you run it until the intern temperature of the meat was a hundred and sixty degrees, is what have said. Once the internals at one sixty, then you're supposed to wrap and foil, fill it with broth, and then run it until it reaches two hundred UM. But that the backstrap, you didn't cook it to two internal though correct for the backstrap. I knowe the backstrap. I took it off in the one fifties, so like if you wanted it to be medium rare, I would have taken it out at But I think two fifties, well that's so low enough. UM. I would probably would have tried even a little lower, maybe at two hundred to two or two UM, And that's pretty pretty low. But meat, like whenever it gets heated, it's kind of like if you think about a towel that's wet, so if you wanted to ring it out, you twist it get all that like water out of a towel. The same thing happens whenever meat is being cooked. Does fibers start contracting and things kind of start to to like lose all of its moisture. And that happened that a hunter. It starts happening at like a degrees And so usually, like when I think about low cooking, like in the two five range is a good number. But I think, um smoking is a really dry heat method. Even though you that first half, it's still like being a dry heat. Um how long I mean, I think it was probably just too long of a dry heat. And also another thing is, did you brine it beforehand? Put a rub on it? That will make a huge that will make a really big difference. Any any kind of rub or a brine beforehand will will make a world of difference. So what I did is I did I did a rub which has put olive oil on the piece of meat, and then on top of the I used a rub of salt, pepper, uh, cayenne pepper, and brown sugar I think was what I used. Mix all that up and then applied that as a rub on the outside and um, and yeah, so that gives me the crust. But but the Brian, I guess when you you seious sunds like a saltwater brin yep, just like a turkey. Interesting, I've never done and it's a really weird thing to think about. With a backstrap and I I'll do um kind of the same approach, but I do it with the stuvid um that a twenty four hours ahead. I just rubbed the whole thing with salt and pepper, like a generous rub with salt and pepper, and I just leave it alone inside my fridge for at least twenty four hours. Um, and you can soak it in a thing of water if you want. But I think it's just effected to just rub it with salt and pepper. So like, if you have your favorite rub or whatever you want to like barbecue with, just use that. Yeah, yeah, you'll you'll notice a huge difference. I'll be honest, I haven't. I don't have a pellet grill, so I haven't really missed around with some of those things. I'll be getting one soon and I'll better be able to tell you how to make that better. But off my first thought, Um, I think the front end with the dry cooking is too much, too long or or something. Yeah, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep messing with it because it's it's really good. I mean you it's it's darn good as it is. The flavoring and stuff. It's just the thing to put over the top to just to just drop drop your jaw. Kind of good would be to get those cuts extra moist. So I don't keep playing with it because it's I'm a fan of it. Now here's something the brine will help. Yeah, here's something in kind of the total opposite of that. It's a sandwich, but it's kind of like your simplest kind of sandwich. When I grew up, what my grandma called a barbecue sandwich was just essentially like a sloppy joe. It was just ground meat, and I think she put brown sugar and catch up and mustard and started all up and cook that, and that was this and onions and this was like, for whatever reason, the thing we loved it. Grown up. Um, I saw you took a stab at making a fancy sloppy joe. I think we talked about this. Didn't you try to, like, didn't you try to improve version of the sloppy Joe? I feel like that you were trying to the regular sloppy jo. I think, well, then I haven't tried your recipe yet, But tell me, tell me how to make a good sloppy joe then, because that's a good summer sandwich if you want something like that. So the way I approached the sloppy Joe thing was okay. I went through dozens of traditional sloppy Joe recipes and I kept seeing the same theme over and over. And so what I translate those ingredients to be is is it convenient way to make a barbecue sauce? You know, the catchup and all that, and so I basically just broke it down and simplified it. But because I'm from Texas and barbecue is a bit of a religion around here, I just sort of imparted my my Texas barbecue influence on that. And so I don't have a barbecue sauce and that's no bar Sacute Joe does have ketchup in it. I did make it like a barbecue sauce. Yeah, I do so many recipes, I can't always remember what I did exactly. Um No, I basically broke it down and made like a barbecue sauce with it. But the difference between like mine and maybe what you had is I have a lot of black pepper and like a pinch of human The quan is kind of what makes it a little Texan. Um. Probably what you're not used to in the and the seasonings of finding in a sloppy Joe recipe. But to me, it tastes kind of kind of like the barbecue flavor that I grew up eating and that we eat around here. Um, it's it's definitely a peppery ketchup. The sugary ground me concoctions. It's that humans kind of the taco traditional taco seasoning kind of flavor, right if for trying to like relate this to someone, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just a hint. It's not something that I think you necessarily know is there when you try it, but it's it's you, you know, something different, but you're not really sure how to put your finger on it. And it's to me, it's, um, it's very very Texan. What have we missed? If we're talking summer venison or other wild game, is there something that's just like a screaming miss that you would be making over the coming months that we've got to touch on for people? Um? Or do you feel like we've covered kind of the mainstays. I think those are the main things. Um. I think those are the main things, unless you want to add in like camping, you know, likemping, camp mail ideas. Yeah. I My favorite thing to cook is fish, which probably sounds like the worst thing you'd want to eat while camping, but if your truck camping, or maybe you're camping by the beach or by the river and you're catching fish cooking it over the open fires, like the best camp food for me. I just I just love it. And I think part of that comes from living near the coast. We have red fish, and so when you filet those out, um, you can eat them on the half shell, which basically means you keep the scales and the skin on when you filet them, and that becomes its own cooking vessel. So you basically just put it right on the grill great or whatever, great over a fire. Um. That to me is like my absolute favorite camp meal, and I've gotten to the habit now. My favorite way to like prepare it besides just salt and pepper is I start bringing along pickle jars because acidity just pairs so well with everything and so um, and just bring little jars with different types of pickles. I've I've been pickling stuff from my garden and then when you eat it, you pour that cold pickling over it, and it's just so good. So hold on, you're pouring pickle juice on your fish. Filet's now like not like the juice necessarily like um, Like I'll do like the last one I did was a pickled relish, was like chopped green beans, onions and jalapenos pickles, And so I just take the relish out and pour that over. But if you have like sort of that like Guardinia sort of pickling stuff or like the relish, or just just pickled peppers or pickled um pickles, um, not necessarily the juice, but just like the actual pickles pickling ingredients. Now doing it that half shell method, Um, you're doing it with redfish. I'm assuming you do the same thing with a bass or a trout or whatever you're catching wherever you live. Um, it's a little different, you you know. They So what makes the red fish so special about the half shell thing is you keep the scales on because if scales are really hard, like they're I don't know, have you ever had redfish before? Okay, they're als are like mega hard versus like you know, any other fish, you could take a bottle cap and scale it. I read fishes. You just cannot scale it. I mean you can do, you like, it's a real pain to scale a red fish. So you keep it all on there, and that's what protects it and sort of keeps keeps the skin and everything together, and it basically hardens on the grill um and so other fish. If you wanted to do it that route, I would just cook it whole, So like you, you would go ahead and scale like I do this with spectled trout. I'll scale it and then make some slash marks, and sometimes I'll stuff it with herbs or lemon and then put oil it really really well and put that directly on the brill the the whole fish. And then you stop it up and open it up and pull out some delicious flaky meat. Yeah. I mean after it's cooked, the flame just comes right off so easily. That sounds pretty good. That sounds very good. It's uh, it's approaching, not quite approaching dinner time, but enough that I'm getting hungry as we talk about all this stuff over here. So no, I haven't had lunch yet. Oh jeez, you gotta get to that, Daniel, I gotta let you go. Um. So okay, so this is this is good. I feel like I'm armed with some new ideas here for the coming months. Um. One thing we haven't talked about, and I know you've experimented with some of these things, and I haven't got to trime yet, our our new meat eater spices. Are there any that you can recommend for some of these summer dishes we've been talking about that we we could try. Yeah, you know, all the barbecue ones are good. I'll say, if you're going to go with the barbecue ones, they're sweet, so be careful on the grill with really high heat because you don't want it to burn. But they're really really good. So like if you're doing something on a load tim for sure, like a pellet grill. Um, they're they're perfect. I can't remember the names of them, but we have to barbecue flavored barbecue. Yeah, yeah, what's the other one? Then there's a drunken squirrel hickory bourbon rub yeah, yeah, yeah, those two. Um. I think the Mastodon is a great one because it's so textural. Um. I just think grilling, there's just something about having a really textual rub. Um if you're gonna do a steak, like if you wanted to go that route. I think it's a really really good one. And I've actually found that the Macedon works really well with fish, which sounds kind of weird, but I've been playing with that. I got somehow I was in Oregon earlier in the year and I got some halibit and I've doing some stearing with that, and that rub was just fantastic with it. What else? Yeah, well, we've got plenty of cooking ideas and options for all of us to get to now. So it's funny right now, you know, we're under quarantine in some certain ways. We're starting to come out of it now up here in Michigan. But we've been locked down for a long time. And then I also have got a newborn kid. So with two little kids and lockdown, my wife and I have felt just like claustrophobic, just like stuck with nothing interesting to do in our lives anymore. And so the one thing that has been like the spice it up factor, has been trying new recipes. We've been trying a bunch of different things, um and and just that change of pace is such a nice thing to add to your day to day existence that I think this summer, I want to take this conversation we had today and just use this to launch my summer into the summer of better wild game food the Kenyan household. So thank you for helping kickstart us on that, Daniel, You're welcome. I hope I had helpful tips. Definitely definitely did. Where where can people find all your recipes and all sorts of good stuff and follow along with what you've got going on. So most of everything you'll find is on the Mediator website. Um, definitely all the wild game stuff. And I'm pretty active on social media, so my my Instagram handle which is Danielle Pruitt perfect. Okay, well, good stuff, Danielle. This has been a lot of fun. I appreciate it taking time to do this. Thank you have a good one you too, and that's going to do it for us today. So thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully this one got you armed with some new ideas for the upcoming meals you're planning this coming weekend or week or vacation, whatever it is. And if you want to get more from Danielle, make sure to check out the meat Eater website. That's the meat eater dot Com for all her recipes as well as a whole lot more from other contributors from the Mediator website to lots of good food ideas there. So check it out and until next time, thank for listening and stay wired to hunt.

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