Connor’s goal this year is to try to go the whole year without going to the grocery store to purchase meat. This is quite the jump for me as I’ve never eaten wild game before last year. I know I’ve mentioned in the past that my first experience preparing venison failed. It was tough, gamey, and I was not a fan. When Connor was determined to bring a deer home I was so nervous because I assumed venison would taste as awful as that roast had been. I was so far from incorrect. Each cut of venison should be treated differently, and if prepared correctly it can be delicious! I’ve grown up eating meat from the grocery store so I’ve never had to adapt my recipes to include wild meat.
After Connor was fortunate enough to shoot a deer, the satisfaction of eating wild meat without any added preservatives, etc., was exactly what we wanted. We transitioned to eating nothing but venison day after day, which surprisingly doesn’t get “old” as long as you’re constantly updating the recipes and trying new things. However, Connor was talking to a friend and he mentioned that if we don’t start supplementing the venison for other wild game, it’s going to be gone before the end of the winter. Connor has put so much time and dedication into getting animals for us to eat, and I’m so lucky to have him.
He’s been out duck and goose hunting, and been up north one time to go ice fishing since deer season has ended. Since we live on the coast, the ocean regulates the temperature, so it takes longer for the ponds and lakes out here to freeze. He’s hoping by mid-January that they’ll be safe enough to go out on. On his trip up to northern Maine, he was able to grab a couple brookies (brook trout). He filleted them for me, brought them back, and I threw them on the scale and they came out to two pounds! I couldn’t wait to cook them up, but I had to figure out how I wanted to prepare them. I wanted to fry them, but I didn’t have access to a fryer so I had to put that on the back burner.
Conveniently enough, my oldest sister Kendyl gifted me an air fryer for Christmas! I was so excited! The first thing I wanted to do was try the trout in the fryer. Since this was all so new for me I tried to find any recipes on people who had experience with air frying trout, but to my disappointment I couldn’t find much. I was on my own. Connor and I floured and breaded our fish and experimented with how long we should leave the the fish in the air fryer. By trial and error we realized that 5 minutes on either side at 325°F would yield a perfectly cooked result. (Go check out my instagram page with the full recipe!)
He has trips planned to go get cusk (also known as poor man’s lobster), turkeys, and ducks in the next coming months. He wants me to experiment with coyote too, so I’ll keep you all updated on how that goes…I can’t wait for what he’ll bring home to me and how I can prepare it!
Let me know in the comments how you prepare some of your wild game, I’d love to hear it!
Dinner w/ the Dugans 