NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1028906
26 NEBRASKAland • OCTOBER 2018 T he first cool days of autumn bring a nagging urge to be outdoors – a primal upwelling to hear the crunch of leaves underfoot, stare up at migrating flocks and breathe the sweet smell of harvest. Every fall I look forward to days spent hunting deer and quail, Cornhusker football games, trips to the pumpkin patch and rich meals of wild game. Like many Nebraskans who also love wild game, I often look for inspiration from Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley, who is our third "Nebraska Table" feature in this four- season series. Jenny's culinary talents frequently grace the pages of NEBRASKAland, but I followed her work long before her time at the magazine through her website, foodforhunters.com. As a college student, I remember looking for wild game recipes outside the "wrap-in-bacon and smother-with cheese" category. Her recipes taught me preparations and techniques I still use today. Having learned so much from Jenny, it was a pleasure to interview her and learn her thoughts on hunting and cooking wild game. How did you become interested in hunting and cooking wild game? My husband, Rick, introduced me to wild game years ago when we first met in California. He hunted in Nebraska every year and would usually fly home with a deer or two every season and some ducks as well – whatever his cousins could send with him. He did all the typical recipes: Manwiches, burgers, wrap-it-in-bacon steaks … When I discovered his freezer full of game, all that changed. I was still in college at the time and that's what I did during my spare time – I taught myself how to cook with wild game. We cooked on the weekends together when I was home, and during the week, I'd take some meat with me and experiment at my apartment near UCLA. We created our Food for Hunters website to chronicle our experiments. The Daily Bruin, the university newspaper, even wrote a story on me. One of their journalists sat behind me in class and saw that I was working on the website instead of – ahem – paying attention. The paper contacted me, and I invited them over for dinner to have venison steaks with boysenberry sauce and blue cheese. They loved it, and the evening provided them with a unique story. Hunting is a completely foreign concept to most people in the big city. How did you learn to hunt and cook? What would you say to someone interested in learning to hunt? Just do it. People get so worked up about cooking because they're afraid of messing up. Screwing up a recipe is little loss. If you burn dinner, there are grocery stores and restaurants to remedy that. Then try again later. To me, cooking is a creative outlet. Some recipes work out and others don't. It's not a big deal. As far as where to start, check out my book Hunting for Food for instructions and tips on hunting a wide variety of game. There are also some great websites out there dedicated to wild game cooking: Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog was a great resource when I was learning how to cook game. What are the advantages of hunting your own food? As long as you don't overdo the butter, oil and cream cheese, wild game is healthier than store-bought meat. It's lean. The animal also lived a free-range, natural life. And depending on your situation, if you have easy access to hunting near your home, it can be cheaper to fill your By Ryan Sparks Part 3 – Autumn The Nebraska Table Venison steak tartare served with a farm-fresh raw egg yolk.