Soup's On!

Stews and Hearty Chili Recipes to Clean Out Your Freezer for Hunting Season

One of the simplest ways to use an otherwise mismatched variety of game is in a soup or stew. Served at weeknight family dinners, to friends and fellow outdoorsmen at hunting camp, or portioned out in single servings to take for lunch, a hearty concoction you make up yourself can add that much more satisfaction to eating your own game. As long as you don’t grossly overseason the soup and you cook it long enough to make sure everything in it is done, there’s no wrong way to go about it. Even if there’s no recipe for what you have in mind, making it up as you go can yield some positive surprises, provided you follow a few general rules.

First, plan a soup that would be edible even without the game you intend to add. Chopping celery, onions, and green peppers, then cooking the lot in a small amount of bacon fat or vegetable oil is an excellent place to start as the base for almost any soup. If you want to sear the meat you’ll be adding later on, do that first, then take it up and cook the chopped vegetables until the onions are translucent. You can use carrots also or instead of green peppers if you like.

A Little Goes A Long Way

To this base, you’ll add your liquid. If you prefer a thicker soup, you’ll want to add a roux at this step. Water and broth-based soups are easier to make than gumbos or cream soups because they don’t require special skills or constant attention, just water and broth. Chicken broth significantly adds a good bit of flavor, but using broth entirely instead of water may well make the finished product too salty. Using broth for about half the total liquid is an excellent place to start. You can always add more salt later if you want.

Seasoning the soup well is key, but it’s important not to overdo it. Any ground spice or herb, like black pepper, will be more potent in a soup than in other applications because every speck of the flavor-bearing oil will cook out into a solution, so be mindful that a little goes a long way. Plan to give your soup a long simmer, a couple of hours or more, so you can add whatever seasonings you favor a little at a time, tasting as you go. Including wild rice, pearled barley, or any other grain is also a good way to thicken and add texture to any soup. In the case of barley, it adds flavor as well as character.

Game On

To all of the above, add any game in pretty much any quantity you like. If the soup appears to be getting too thick, just add more water or broth. As you’re preparing the thawed meat, check it over one more time to make sure it’s clean, then slice it into bite-sized pieces. In the case of doves, ducks, and other birds, check carefully for any shot that may remain. Soup is a great way to experiment with cooking the game you bring in because most mistakes are adjustable and are almost always edible.

Venison Barley Soup

• 2 pounds elk (or any game trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces)
• 2 tablespoons bacon grease or oil for browning
• 2 teaspoons High Mountain Seasonings Western Style Cajun Campfire, or Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning
• 2 tsp teaspoon fresh ground pepper, or to taste
  
• 1 finely diced onion
• 2 tsp minced or crushed garlic or to taste
• 1 can sliced mushrooms
  
  
• 4-5 tablespoons Better than Bouillon Beef Base
• 8+ cups of water
• 1-2 teaspoons Kitchen Bouquet
• 1 cup pearled barley, rinsed
• 1 large crockpot
  

Trim and cut meat into bite-sized pieces. You can use any big game you prefer. Heat bacon grease in an iron skillet, brown meat, salt and pepper to taste. Then add onions, garlic, and mushrooms with their juice. Add a cup or so of water to deglaze the pan and put this mixture into the crockpot. At this point, add your water, bouillon base, Kitchen Bouquet and barley. Cook until meat is tender OR put it on in the crockpot on low and let it cook overnight.