Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Thanks a heap for the shout-out! I rarely get noticed for the my veggie side, what with all the wild game and fish recipes I do. But I think vegetables are a true mark of a good cook - if you can do them justice, you can cook anything. Thanks again!

- Hank

It's a bummer we're competing against each other this year. I am a big fan of Serious Eats, and with so many contributors I don't see how I have much of a chance. Still it's nice to be nominated -- and I will be carrying five little stones from a stream in my pocket on awards night...

Hate to break this to ya, but the risotto process began with barley back in Ancient Rome. A version of this was the main food of the gladiators, who were nicknamed "barley eaters" for it. I make this all the time as it matches better with the wild game I cook than does modern rice.

To get the creaminess up, you will need to stir more. Barley has similar starches to short-grain rice, so it'll go with some effort and more moisture than with rice.

Another good alternative "risotto" is a farrotto, made with emmer wheat called farro (which is NOT spelt). This one is much tougher to make creamy though...

As a game cook, I use several pounds of juniper berries every year. Venison and duck are classics, but they go well with moose, antelope, goose, chupacabra, wild boar, wombat, pigeon, dove and especially hummingbird...

Seriously, the berries are soft and resinous, making them very tough to grind to a powder. You need to toast them first if you want this. I typically just coarse grind them. More rustic that way...

One interesting note I have found over the years is that white mold is rarely worrisome. In many cases it is actually penicillin, and whatever it is, I not only encourage it on my salami when I am curing them, but will happily scoop off little spots o'mold where I see them and eat the rest of the item; tomato paste springs to mind.

Black mold, on the other hand, is no bueno.

As for aging of meat, one man's rotten is another's delicacy. I like to hang my pheasants for several days before gutting them, but I know a few people who will hang for more than a week. The meat stinks by then and will drive everyone out of the kitchen when cooking the bird...but by all accounts, is the finest flavored and tenderest poultry ever eaten. I've not been brave enough to go beyond 5 days.

I make a salad with them dressed with warm duck fat, salt and Meyer lemon juice.

Not a lot of new ground plowed here if you have read or watched many of the recent food politics films or read the books (Omnivore's Dilemme, Fast Food Nation, Corn, etc) but the movie is a good primer for someone who doesn't live this stuff, as I am sure many of my fellow Serious Eaters do. What was especially interesting was the Monsanto bit -- pretty chilling...

I have a standard vacuum sealer with a "pulse" function that lets me stop the seal where I want it. I have used it for poached salmon as well as antelope with good results.

I also use the vac sealer method for confit of wild duck and goose and I LOVE it -- doing it this way uses less fat and because the fat sets up firm in the fridge, keeps the confited meat coated and sealed. I have set confited goose legs in the fridge this way a month and they were still delicious.

I have not been able to get that compression effect Thomas Keller talks about with fruit, however. I think that needs the high-pressure model.

I miss the Two Fat Ladies...

OK, so I read the study in question, because a few people asked me about it. I will say at the start that the op-ed was not my favorite, and as a former writer of pieces like this I detected all sorts of tricks clever opinion writers use to bend reality to their point of view; it is part of the craft.

But let's just take the writer at face value: The study he refers to looked at 329 "free range" hogs and tested them, and then found 2 -- yes, only 2 -- that had even the presence of antibodies for the trichinae parasite.

Now the presence of antibodies is not a 100 percent guarantor that the hog is infected. They probably do have trichinae worms, but the presence of antibodies also can mean that the hog has defeated the parasite at some point in its past and has a strengthened immune system because of it. (think Nietzsche)

But for the sake of argument, let's just say both of those hogs actually had trichinae: 2 pigs out of 329 is a REALLY good set of odds. Why? It's all about perception. Most consumers are still convinced ALL hogs carry trichinae worms, so given this, even the Gucci hogs are beating the odds.

So the bottom line for me is that I'd still rather buy pork from a "walkin' around pig" that had an honest immune system -- and yes, a less than 1 percent chance of carrying trichinae parasites -- than a factory hog. And I'll cook that walkin' around pig the way I like it: with a nice blush of pink at its center.

This is a tough one to comment on as there are so many ways to go with it, but the iron-clad advice I would give is to serve the breasts in one meal done hot, fast and medium-rare, the legs/thighs/wings in another done slow, low and falling off the bone -- and make a quart of duck stock with the carcass.

Ok, since someone called out "Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!" I have been drawn to this site...Deer neck, eh? Odd one, this. If you are a good boner (couldn't resist), you could remove the vertebrae the way you debone a lamb's leg. Save the bones for stock with lots of aromatics (rosemary and juniper are a must).

As for the neck, make a stuffing. I'd suggest lots and lots of mushrooms, herbs, and various onion-y things (garlic, leeks, onions, etc), and maybe some pine nuts or chestnuts tossed in. Smear onto one side of neck meat and then tie and roll like a roulade. Smear outside with bacon fat (OK, you can use salt and olive oil) and roast at 250 degrees for about 4-5 hours, then put a hate on the thing at 450 degrees for a final 15 minutes or so to get a nice crust.

If you are not such a good boner (again, couldn't resist), make stew meat out of it or use it for sausage or a venison sugo. If you are feeling especially unadventurous, use it for chili.

At any rate, that's my $0.02.

~ Hank