How To season Wild Game before Cooking

Few things can inspire, relax, rejuvenate and humble more than the classic American campsite. In the wild, one's true nature, in all its flaws, is brought to the surface and enveloped in the infinite stillness of the woods. We open ourselves and share our pains, face our fears, and shed the troubles of modern life in a silent exchange between the winds, the trees and, for a lucky few, the big open sky.

Here is our wild game processing tools and accessories catalog if you need game gear.

Who Uses Wild Game Seasonings?

I find myself settled in and relaxing at a campsite in Beaver Creek Park just outside Havre, Montana cooking some Wild Game sausage and enjoying a delightful cup of Twisp, Washington's Blue Star coffee. Prior to living in Montana, I lived in a homestead style house nestled deep in the woods of Okanogan County.

My family and I did everything we could to take from, and give back to, the land. My culinary background proved an invaluable resource for my family and me. Cooking with fresh vegetables and "picked straight from the plant" herbs was a blissful and wholesome experience that encouraged my passion for food while nourishing my family and you can't get more fresh, local and from the source then Wild Game.

Cooking Wild Game as a Tie to the Past

Cooking wild game, to me, is reliving our ancestral heritage, our grandfather's and great-grandfather's traditions each trim and cut a familiar action, a memory not yet forgotten yet foreign all the same. A distant echo of the past, when this was the way people regularly prepared their meals, the traditional fare of the Northwest resident stretching back beyond the first homesteaders.

This talk of food have you thinking about hunting season?

The acts of preserving and preparing wild game are, for the most part, the same as with other meats, only they demand a different respect. One must be aware of different traits in the meat, traits one doesn't usually deal with in grocery bought food. The meat, typically, holds less fatty tissue and requires a more attentive cooking process. The result is well worth the effort.

We only cooked wild game when one of our friends were fortunate enough to give us some. When those days came it was a big deal! My mind raced with ideas of what to do; sausage? roast? burger? salami? pepperoni? To smoke or not to smoke?

Black Bear Chili, Whitetail Venison: It's all Delicious

My last Wild Game meal was black bear chili with fresh vegetables and venison broth. Today I am cooking whitetail venison breakfast sausage using Lodge's pre-seasoned 12" cast iron skillet, ensuring that I get an even sear and lock in the flavor. I highly recommend using cast iron for outdoor cooking. Cast iron gives you a beautiful sear and provides reliable even heating by reducing hot spots.

The sausage was made with Wild Game's own Breakfast Sausage Seasoning Kit called "Sage Meadow Country Blend", one of my all-time favorites! This 15 oz. package can season up to a whopping 35 pounds of meat, making it an indispensable tool for anyone preparing large batches of food for both friends and family.

Whitetail Sausage with Wild Game Breakfast Sausage Seasoning

To create the sausage, I started with 25 pounds of white-tail venison and 10 pounds of fatty pork trimmings known as 50/50. You can ask your local butcher for fatty pork trim or even just bits of fat. Since Wild Game is so lean you typically want to mix some fat into your mixture. I prefer using pork fat because of its flavor, but you can use whatever you prefer. You can augment this process and do any ratio of Wild Game to fat you wish. There's no right or wrong here, only preference.

The whole process was fairly simple. I simply chilled the meat, making sure to work in small batches, and began running it through a number 32 Lem Hand Meat Grinder. It's a tedious task when you get up into 35 pounds, however I prefer the hand grinder because I can control the speed more, ensuring that no heat builds up in the process. Motor driven grinders will build up heat no matter what.

You can order your meat grinders, game bags, jerky canons and more right here.

Heat is a sausage maker's worst enemy. Always keep it chilled and work in small batches. I ran the meat through the first grinder plate, which is a larger size than the second, making sure to refrigerate before switching to the next grinder plate. I prefer a fine grind, but by all means feel free to stop the process after the first plate.

The Mix, the Grill and the Satisfaction of Eating Wild Game

Once I completed grinding all the meat, I simply followed the directions on the box and thoroughly mixed the seasoning into the batch, making sure to mix by hand. I prepared a batch of small patties and packed the rest in Food Saver bags for long term freezer storage.

As I enjoy my second cup of Blue Star coffee, waiting for my patties to brown, I get to take in the beautiful scenery of Beaver Creek Park. Cradled in these Bears Paw Mountains, Beaver Creek is home to many different recreational areas like rolling grasslands, pine and cottonwood groves, pristine lakes and cold rushing streams full with angler's game such as rainbow trout, northern pike, bass, and walleye- but that's for another blog.

For now, Beaver Creek is home to just my family and our delicious meal.

Visit our meat processing section and get the supplies you need to prepare your own game.