Three Tasty Recipes For Wild Game and Gravy

Many folks like gravies of various types so much, they consider these sauces a food group unto themselves.Just ask Erma Bombeck!

Several gravies are delicious with wild game meats, so if you have some deer, pheasant, wild turkey, or other game, do try some experimentation.

For any of the recipes given below, try your favorite meats, whether they are game meats or tamer fare from the market.

Serves 4 to 8

Ingredients

• 2 rabbits cut into quarter sections; looks almost like chicken
• 1 gallon jug of spring water
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped onions
• 4 Whole cloves, 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 Cup dark raisins
• 1/4 Cup dark brown sugar

Instructions

• Put rabbit meat into a large deep pot and cover with spring water.
• Add 1/4 cup of vinegar to water and bring to a boil.
• Boil rabbit 5 minutes and throw out this water. It will be gamey and acrid.
• Cover rabbit with additional spring water and add vinegar, salt, onion, cloves, bay leaves, and allspice.
• Cook over moderately high heat until the rabbit meat is nearly tender.
• Add raisins and brown sugar.
• Cooking rabbit meat is fork tender.
• Remove rabbit from liquid.
• Thicken liquid for rabbit gravy with a paste of ¼ Cup flour and ¼ cup hot spring water [heat the water, don't get it from a hot springs :) ]
• Replace rabbit meat in the thick gravy and heat it through.

This is almost a rabbit stroganoff.

Ingredients

• A whole rabbit
• White or red onions to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Flour for dredging
• Olive Oil
• 6 Tbsp bacon drippings
• 1 Cup sour cream
• Optional: 8 oz. mushrooms.
• A skillet with a lid that fits pretty tight.

Instructions

1. Cut up 1 rabbit (fresh or frozen, thawed) into pieces the size you like.
2. Dredge the rabbit pieces one at a time very well in seasoned flour (1 Cup flour and some salt and pepper) and rest on a wire rack for 5 minutes to make sure the meat "grabs" the flour.
3. Saute the dredged rabbit pieces in a skillet in 6 Tablespoons of bacon drippings or Olive Oil, until well-browned.
4. In the same pan, cover the meat with a deep layer of thinly sliced white onions.
5. Cover the onions with 1 Cup of sour cream.
6. Cover the skillet with a lid and simmer for 1 hour over medium-low heat to make the meat very tender and to cook down the onions.
7. Cover skillet tightly and simmer for 1 hour.
8. Another option in to place 8 oz. fresh sliced mushroom on the meat first, before adding the onions.

Serves 6-8

You can use several other types of meat for this dish - I've tried alligator with much success!

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. rattlesnake meat, cut into bite-size pieces (or you can use pork or chicken)
• 1 lb. ground beef or chuck or beefalo, browned and drained of grease or fat
• Broken tortilla chips (optional)
• One 64 oz. can [or smaller cans to make 64 oz) of pork & beans or dark red kidney beans. Open the can and drain off the liquid and save it in sauce pot.
• 30 oz. stewed tomatoes with the liquid
• 4 oz. diced jalapenos (jarred or canned)
• 1 large red onion, chunked into 8ths.
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

1. Place beans into a large pot and add tomatoes, tomato liquid, jalapenos, onion, salt, garlic, browned beef, and rattlesnake (or other meat).
2. Sir together well over medium heat.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Heat bean liquid over medium heat and add ¼ cup flour and dissolve.
5. Add liquid to meat mixture, stir and thicken.
6. Put broken tortilla chips into the bottom of 4 bowls add the meat mixture on top.

Once, long ago in a land far away - New York City - A friend and I ventured into what I mistook as a spice shop for gourmets and cooks.Surprise hit me in the face like a Nor'easter!

I found many interesting and colorful spices in the front of the store, but then I entered farther into this wonderful place.

It was a Chinese Medicine shop and the items nearest the door were powdered and whole spices.

As I reached mid-way into the narrow, fragrant shop, I found dried frogs, tiny dried sea horses, and other things I could not name. At the back of the shop were whole dried fruit bats (very large) and several sets of antlers hung on pegs.This was certainly wild game.

Most antlers I saw were were those of deer and pretty expensive, because they are used for a vast lineup of medicines that include soups with many exotic ingredients. However, one pair of antlers belonged to the elusive cryptid, the Jackalope.

These 'lope antlers were the most expensive items in the shop, besides the ginseng root as long as a man's arm. At the end of this shopping trip, we bought a few Chinese spices, but decided to use them on meats more usual to the USA. The spices made fragrant, flower- and fruit-like gravies that pleased us greatly.

Do experiment with spices and gravies when you have the opportunity!