By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
September 24, 2004
Eating the flesh of wild game is one of mankind's very oldest activities. Long before even primitive recordings of history, some early man or woman took a rock or a club and conked an animal on the head in order to have a taste of it because the weapon-wielder was hungry.
No one knows how long it took those first hunters to grow weary of the taste of raw meat and learn to cook it over a fire, but the first to do that was slapped on the back to the point of physical endangerment. These celebratory expressions were merely love taps compared with the joyous pounding of the chap who scratched out some salt from the ground and sprinkled it onto a hunk of rotisseried yak. This was indeed the very origin of what we now call a recipe.
Progress ensued and other seasonings were applied to wild meat resulting in a variety of tastes, many of which were greeted with delight. One day someone scratched out on a flat stone the images of what they were doing with and to their mammoth roasts. The first recipe book.
Recipe bandwagon
As with all other of man's endeavors, we have practically idolized progress. So today we have gadzillions of recipe books. Everyone on the face of the earth who can write, or speak words to someone who can, has written at least half a dozen recipe books. The publishing industry is probably pressuring the news media to refrain from revealing how many housewives have disappeared, having been inundated with recipe books, their bodies never to be recovered from beneath avalanches right there in their own kitchens.
As I write these lines, I am keeping one eye on my book shelf. Some of the boards are creaking in protest of the weight of my wife's recipe books that have overflowed from the kitchen into my den, Lurey's organizational skills having saved her from death by inundation.
So with all these books on cooking wild game that are out there, how does one go about selecting one from legions? Here's how. Find one written by a person or persons who actually hunt, process and cook the game they include in the book, produce an attractive and easy-to-use book, write with clarity and turn an interesting phrase and who love eating. And oh yes, the recipes should taste good.
Such a book has just become available authored by our good friends Jim and Ann Casada. "The Ultimate Vension Cookbook" is the latest work I am aware of by this gifted writer, perhaps the finest wordsmith among today's outdoor writers, and his lovely wife who happens to be a great cook.
The book arrived at my house just yesterday, so I haven't tried the Greek Venison Wrap on page189 or the Southern-Style Spicy Corn Bread with Sausage, page165. These two caught my eye. A favorite dish for me is Great Northern Bean soup and the Casadas have provided a recipe on page 29 for a "Health-Smart" version with venison kielbasa and dried Italian seasoning that I cant wait to try. There is an entire chapter in "The Ultimate Venison Cookbook" that emphasizes the healthy, low fat, high protein nature of venison although this ideal meat brings those characteristics to virtually all the recipes in the book.
Low carbs
The book supplies 200 low carb venison recipes. They include festive fixings for special occasions, ethnic entries and creative dishes for ground venison, soups and stews. It features a special hidden spiral binding for lay-open convenience during cooking.
This cook book is a follow-up to the Casadas successful "The Complete Venison Cookbook." No recipes were repeated in this new volume.
Now is the time to clear the freezer of venison in view of the upcoming hunting season. Try some of these new recipes.