Thats a kitchen knife. When they say boning, they mean like a chicken, not field dressing a deer. Im not a hunter, so I can't recommend a good alternative, but I dont think a kitchen knife is what youre looking for.
Cube pork shoulder/picnic shoulder/boston butt about the same size as your deer chunks, mix and grind. 80/20 is going to be pretty lean. Season accordingly. Don't be afraid to pat out some patties and cook them to get your seasonings right.
I don't know about pork shoulder I just made some venison breakfast sausage with it and went 50/50 and it is still leaner than it should be. Maybe some pork belly would be a little fatter? Yeah, like I said my chef buddy who butchered my deer last year used his Miyabi Chef/santoku knife to break it down and recommended I just get a high quality chef knife. I think some day Ill make that plunge but not willing to spend that 170+ right now. Since I'd like a dedicated boning knife I thought it might be a choice. He only told me to stay away from Wustof and Global knives since he doesn't think very highly of them. Don't know how much difference it makes hunting it, just cutting the primals from the animal.
Have you thought about the morakniv line, there's metric fuckton of them and some that are just for butchering. I haven't tried them but for the price and the reputation you cant go wrong. Check here they have better prices then amazon, but you need to buy a couple for shipping to be worth it <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html</a>
I know people have mixed opinions about the guy, but Tim Ferriss's new book The 4 Hour Chef has some pretty decent and simple recipies in it for someone looking to learn the basics of cooking. The first recipe in the book is his take on Osso Buco that if you have a couple of hours to kill is really simple and really good. Basically, make a bed of carrots in the bottom of a dutch oven, put lamb (or veal if you'd prefer. I went with the lamb and it had a really good taste to it.) shanks on top of the carrots. Add 1 whole can of San Marzano tomatoes, a few cloves of crushed garlic, and enough white wine to bring the liquid to about halfway up the meat. Finish with salt and pepper, cover and put in a 350*F oven for 2 hours. My first attempt came out pretty decent, but I think I used too much wine as I would prefer more of a sauce like consistency when finished instead of a broth-y like leftover.
I've thought about this one for a while. I clean a lot of small animals, not much large game and a whole pile of fish and find that one knife won't always do the job. For a first-time knife, I'd be more concerned with durability and ease of sharpening above everything else. After all, your preferences are probably going to change after you've had the opportunity to clean a deer or two. The few deer I've helped process were with a guy who did everything up do and including dry-cured sausages. He is one of the most proficient with a knife that I've seen, from goat all the way to Elk. One thing that I noticed was his knives weren't particularly expensive- one was the standard PVC handled boning knife found in butcher shops across the world, but he stopped to straighten his blades on a honing stick pretty frequently. He also hand-sharpened with a diamond stone regularly. I'd look for a decent fixed-blade skinning knife and two boning knives- a smaller one with a flexible blade and a larger one with a stiffer blade that can be used to cube and chunk shoulders and such. It looks Victorinox has a great reputation for a basic boning knife. From what I'm seeing, you'd be in it for $50 or so, which isn't bad when you're trying something out. As an aside, I bought a chef's knife for $8 while on a camping trip. It has replaced a $150 chef's knife as my go to simply because it takes an edge so quickly.
Just a quick tip for those that are grinding meat at home, pop it in the freezer for a little while, it makes it firm and a whole lot easier to grind.
Anyone have advice on something fairly simple for breakfast that can feed a group of ~10, be transported easily and preferably made the night before? I've already done quiche & mini omelets.
My mom always makes several "egg bakes" for when their house is packed around holiday time. This recipe here is pretty close to what she does: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Hash-Brown-Egg-Bake" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Hash-Brown-Egg-Bake</a> You can substitute sausage for the bacon (or do both) and add stuff like salsa, peppers, spinach, etc. to make it even better. It's a pretty flexible recipe and good for preparing ahead of time.
You could do a sort of European breakfast and put together a really pretty spread with nice breads, jams, cheeses and meats. Or make some sort of savory pastries (cheesy popovers or ham and cheese croissants perhaps) and have them with a nice little salad. They're both a little non-traditional, so I guess it just depends on the audience.
Sorry for the double post, but in my caffeine-induced frenzy I threw together a dinner with things we had in the fridge/freezer and ended up making something really delicious and relatively quick/easy. I think it's name is parmesan mac and cheese with baby kale, peas and caramelized shallots. I neglected to make meat to go with, but I could see it tasting awesome with chicken, steak or salmon. I also neglected to put some breadcrumbs on top and bake it, but that would probably make it even better. It was rather improvised, but it went something like this: 1. Put water on to boil, chop some shallots and grate a shitload of parmesan cheese. 2. Caramelize the shallots, then set them aside. 3. Throw the pasta in the (hopefully now-boiling) water. 4. Return the shallot pan to the stove, and on med-high heat combine ~1T butter and 1T flour, then whisk them together and stir them around for a few minutes, then gradually add milk, whisking all the while and giving it a chance to thicken. Keep adding milk and whisking until it's a little thinner than you want your cheese sauce to be. 5. When you get it to the right consistency, take it off the heat and whisk in the cheese, then the shallots. 6. About 2 minutes before your pasta is done, throw in some peas and baby kale (I call it blanching instead of boiling to make myself feel better about it, but it saves dishes). 7. Strain pasta/veggies, return to the pot, and stir in the cheese sauce. *I realize there aren't amounts, and I apologize, but if I made them up they would probably be wrong anyways.
What started as just a beer can chicken on the grill last night turned into a chicken plus some burgers, venison cuts, and a venison heart. I used half of the chicken in a great cream of wild rice and potato soup today and will make fajitas with the heart tomorrow (sliced and re-heated in an iron pan with peppers and onions). I like grilling meat and cooking with it again later because it adds a lot of great flavor (smoke!) and just speeds things up too.
Pulled smoked chicken, hickory lump with a pork butt thrown on for good measure Chicken pulled Butt still has a ways to go
Im looking to make my own smoker for summer sausage and all the delicious type stuff you have there. Where did you get the instructions for building that? Is it just a coal powered smoker? I'd like a gas one as it probably would be easier to control temps right? Some of the stuff I'd like to smoke would be low temp stuff. Any suggestions?
VERY easy to build and outperforms just about any smoker commercially available. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43943" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showt ... hp?t=43943</a> Short learning curve and yes its coal fueled, I can set it up before I leave work and come home to pulled pork, I have less than 100 into both of mine. Piece of advice is to try and find a refurbished unlined drum, burning out and getting the red liner out of most drums is a bitch. PM me with any questions, I have made 7 of these in the past year, you don't need a welder, just a drill and a hole saw bit.
Just got this delivered today, won it in a raffle, worth $2650. Haven't decided if I am gonna sell it or not.