Cooking

Many hunters find themselves having harvested a big game animal in an area that may require them to quarter the animal for ease of field removal. The key is to remove the quarters from the carcass or to remove the entrails as quickly as possible. This will help to cool the meat faster.

As I explained last week, in this iteration of Prepping 101 I plan initially to go through topics that I covered somewhat piecemeal originally. A big one of those is cooking. Because as I discovered new ideas and the associated products, and educated myself as to the options out there for cooking off grid, I [...]

This spiced vinegar marinade will tenderize small game. After braising, even Rock Chucks are a tasty meat.

Marmots are among the largest critters in the squirrel family and are are a challenging hunt. They make their homes in rock piles and eat grass. Yup, I’m talking rock chucks.

I’m the kind of guy who likes to eat what he kills. I’ve eaten 18 species of land animals, so far, and each of them has been totally tasty. This includes coyotes. Now, most hunters can’t fathom eating coyotes and they just assume that they are disgusting to eat. They’re dogs, after all, right? Well, [...]

You know what I hate? Recipes that call for special ingredients that I’m not likely to have on-hand. I don’t always have the opportunity to plan a meal and buy all the stuff ahead of time. Sometimes I just need to defrost a piece of meat and get it done for dinner right now. This recipe is perfect because it’s made of things you probably have in the cupboard, and it’s delicious and approachable even for people who don’t like “game meat.”

The title of this article sounds more like a scientific paper than a survival topic, and that is by design. I would prefer that the dufus brigade not read it. Canning food demands attention to detail, and though this method of canning is a fringe, do not try this at home kind of idea, it is still canning. You need to pay attention to the details. I would not suggest canning with just paraffin wax except in a genuine “use or or lose it” food survival situation, but it does work.

From the very start in this column I have been an advocate of “bug-in” as opposed to bug out. Stock up on flour, grains, rice, beans, and canned food, and figure out a means to cook them. In the past I have considered short term cooking solutions, like heater bags and alcohol stoves, and long term solutions, using wood and diesel fuel. This is the king of wood burning Rocket Stoves.

“Sustenance in the absence of perishable foods” is perhaps the most concise definition of survival food I have found. I just got that from the Wikipedia page on Hardtack, which is a hard cracker made of flour, water and salt, known for its long term storage and sustainment properties.