And now for something completely different
By Tom Bryant
Kettle Time Deer Stew
Night before, soak dried beans. Day of, cut deer meat into chunks, add beans and boil till tender. Add any vegetables you got. Simmer slowly, nearly all afternoon. Try this with squirrel or rabbit.
— From the Touchstone Plantation, late 1800s
Friends were visiting from Arizona for several days, and as always when we have out-of-town guests, we planned to find something unusual and interesting to do. High on our list after the usual fare of historical golf courses, shopping and restaurants is a little museum in downtown Ellerbe, North Carolina, about a 30-minute ride from Southern Pines.
This was our third or fourth visit to the Rankin Museum, and I still saw interesting things I hadn’t noticed before. The museum was created from the lifetime collection of Dr. Pressley R. Rankin Jr. of Ellerbe and is named in his honor. It has always amazed me that this gentleman was able to collect so many artifacts. The accumulation fills a museum that would make a much larger city proud. Little Ellerbe is off the beaten path, but the Rankin Museum draws people from all over the country. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit the area, I highly recommend it.
On this trip I noticed, in a far corner, a recipe for deer stew from the Touchstone Plantation. I’m a hunter and fisherman, and although I do not hunt deer, I’m not opposed to the folks who do. With all my interests in the outdoors, I really don’t have time to add another sport like deer hunting. I am fortunate, though, because I have good friends who keep me stocked with fresh venison, and I’m always looking for new and different recipes.
After the War Between the States, the South was a destroyed, defeated country that had to exist on whatever resources the land could provide. Game from the forest and fish from lakes and rivers did a lot to keep Southerners from starving. That subsistence necessity in those terrible times hung on over the years; and many folks, not only from the South, but now from all over the country, enjoy food derived from the sports of hunting and fishing.
I’m mostly a bird hunter, specifically ducks, geese and doves. I also hunt quail when I’m lucky enough to find them, and I have several ways to prepare all kinds of nutritious and delicious game.
I collected the plantation recipe at the Rankin Museum from a historical perspective, rather than an epicurean one. It looked interesting but was probably created to fill hungry bellies rather than satisfy taste buds.
After our houseguests departed, Linda, my bride, and I prepared for a camping trip in our little Airstream trailer to Huntington Beach, South Carolina. We made plans for the trip back in the winter and really had not done a lot of planning for the adventure. The deer stew recipe got me in the mood to cook some game, so I decided to take along a few doves, ducks and a venison roast to prepare while we were there, to sort of live off the land, as it were.
A cousin from Charleston gave me a call right before we were to leave and wanted to stop by Huntington Park on her way back from a business trip to Wilmington. She was interested in camping at the park and had a friend with her, and I invited them to have lunch with us, then check out the place.
Many years ago, I found the out-of-print L.L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and it has been the anchor in my wild game cooking. Over the years, I’ve also added to my repertoire recipes from good hunting and fishing buddies. There’s a duck marinating concoction that I’m reluctant to pass along because it’s an old family recipe of Bennett Rose’s, and I don’t think he would wish to spread it around that much. I realize Bennett is a good shot, and with me, discretion is the better part of valor. Anyhow, it’s the best marinade I’ve ever tried and is also good on any dark red game meat. I did dress the mix up a little by adding a touch of good red wine, though. Red wine makes anything taste better and is also good to sip while the meal preparation is underway.
I had done the prep work on my game before we left home, so all I had to do to prepare for lunch was fire up the grill. The menu wasn’t going to be that extensive: grilled marinated teal duck breast, grilled doves wrapped in maple-flavored bacon, and grilled venison strips with horseradish dipping sauce. For hors d’oeuvres, Linda was whipping up some of her favorites, and I had some venison link-sausage to grill, then cut into 1/4-inch chunks to dip in Colonel Hawker’s sauce. It was going to be a dipping kind of meal, easy to eat and easy to clean up afterward. The ducks, doves and venison, along with a good tossed salad and Linda’s Southern cream cheese pound cake for dessert, should fill the fare, I thought.
I was wrong.
My cousin and her friend arrived just in time to do a little scouting around the park and then join us for lunch. Charleston was only about an hour away, so we could catch up on family goings-on, and they would get home in time for supper.
I had the campsite all prepared. The Airstream awning and outdoor rug were in place. Chairs were set in a semicircle, good for conversation, and I had the screen house set up over the picnic table to keep us out of the bugs while we ate lunch.
When my cousin and her friend returned from their scouting trip around the park, I had already fired up the grill. We sat under the awning and talked. Linda poured drinks and served the hors d’oeuvres while I put the sausage links on to cook. Our guests were comfortable under the awning.
In no time, the sausage was ready and I served it along with the sauce to our guests.
“Wow, this is really good,” my cousin said, as she tasted a piece of sausage.
“It sure is,” her friend added. “What is it?”
“A good friend who is a big deer hunter gave it to me,” I replied. “It’s venison sausage.”
My cousin’s friend made a weird noise and spit the piece into her napkin. I thought she was choking, and I prepared to administer the Heimlich maneuver.
It was soon evident, though, that the lady was not choking but was extremely averse to eating any kind of wild game. Needless to say, the conversation bogged down after the hors d’oeuvres, and my cousin and her friend made excuses and a hasty retreat toward Charleston.
As I watched them drive away, I wondered where in the world that lady, who hated the idea of eating venison, thought those packages of bacon, chicken and steak that she bought every week at the grocery store came from. PS
Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.
