_shoestring Bull Recipes

SHOESTRING ONION RINGS AND BATTER

Steps:

• Slice onion,form into rings and cut rings in half.
• Combine egg,milk and sugar into a large baggie or bowl.
• Combine flour and seasonings into another large baggie or bowl.
• Dip onions in egg mixture than into flour mixture and place into a 400'degree deep fryer for 3 minutes or until lightly browned.

SHOE STRING FRIES

Steps:

• Heat about 2-inches of oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 365 degrees F. Line a pan with paper towels.
• While the oil heats slice the potatoes into shoestring fries with the thin julienne attachment of a hand-held mandolin or vegetable slicer. Swish the cut potatoes in a bowl of tepid water, and then spin them as dry as possible in a salad spinner. Spread them on towels, and blot with more towels-you want the potatoes bone dry so that they don't spatter in the hot oil.
• Increase the heat to medium-high, and working in batches, carefully add the potatoes to the oil and fry until brown and crispy, about 4 minutes. Scoop the fries from the oil with a slotted spoon, and drain on the prepared pan. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes, making sure the oil returns to 365 degrees F. before adding each batch. Season with salt and serve.
• Copyright 2005 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved.

_SOURDOUGH

Steps:

• Talk to a "Sourdough Cook" and almost immediately he'll launch into a history of his starter. (You may be reminded of folks who've just become grandparents for the first time!) It's not uncommon for a particular starter to be handed from generation to generation and considered to be a family heirloom. Fanatics, who inhabit the ranks of "Sourdough Cooks", will always like to tell how their starter was carried over Chilkoot Pass during the Klondike gold rush. They say this as if any starter with a less glorious past is inferior. Over time I've found it's easier to let such folks think their inferior thoughts rather than argue with them. The starter I have used for the last twenty years was given to me by an uncle who lived in the Seattle area. As I recall, a cook off a merchant ship gave it to him only after an hour long discourse on the lineage of this starter. Translated, it means if you buy or are given a starter, it is at least a day old. Don't worry though, "Sourdough Cooks" often like to fish as well and thus, share a trait for which all fishermen are famous. So, within a month or so of starting to cook with sourdough it's perfectly acceptable to me if you want to "stretch the dough" so to speak!At home I keep at least two containers with starter in them at all times. When I pack for a trip I take one starter with me and leave the other at home. Then should I roll a pack horse off the trail or flip my raft, I'll only be out of sourdough until I get home. The starter I leave at home, I like to think of as my insurance "dough"! Rather than this author attempting to write another "Sourdough Cook Book", Jack Trueblood graciously allowed the use of his recipes and an explanation of just what "Sourdough" really is. As a kid growing up in the 50's-60's in southeast Idaho, I often read stories in FIELD AND STREAM written by Jack's father, Ted Trueblood. Ted often mentioned sourdough biscuits and bread when describing camp life in those stories. At any gathering of the Trueblood clan, "Uncle Jack" will be found with his "sourdough fixins", passing on this knowledge to all his nieces and nephews.A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Bread in Camp

_HOW TO COOK A COOT

Steps:

• If you're not a duck hunter or married to a duck hunter, just skip this recipe. Personally, I've never tried to cook a coot, primarily because I've never even shot at an "Ivory Billed Mallard". Remember, this is the guy who will eat every thing except grits and green lima beans. In this modern age, it seems to me, too many people blame events in their childhood for the mistakes or failures they make as adults. Some rightly so, but I can't help but feel a lot of it is over done!So where is all this leading, you ask yourself? Yup! you guessed it, my childhood. Since my dad first took me duck hunting at age three, the list of things I've done in life longer than I've duck hunted is fairly short. Memories of those first duck hunts are still vivid. Back in that distant past, I learned that the preferred duck of those who wait at home while others duck hunt, to be mallards. Those of the green headed variety! My dad, being a pretty fair hand with a shotgun, seldom got skunked in those days. He'd been there before, but it was a new experience for me, just four years old. About the only thing flying in the marsh that day were coots, which Dad had several different adjectives to describe. I didn't understand why dad didn't shoot them as they patterned by. At that time I obviously thought-ducks are ducks! Wrong! How long I pestered Dad to shoot them, I can't remember. What I do remember is him saying, "Mother didn't like any kind of ducks except those with green heads" and it wouldn't be very smart to take something home she didn't like. Though I was just four years old, that part I understood! I'm sure Dad first passed this recipe on that day. Over the years, Dad repeated this recipe so many times I've memorized it without ever having cooked it.A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

_LAS PIEDRAS

Steps:

• For those of you who didn't take high school Spanish this translates to 'The Rocks'. Las Piedras Ranch owned by Dwain and Sandy Riney of Montgomery, Texas, is aptly named. Located in Real County, WNW of San Antonio, Las Piedras Ranch exemplifies the Texas 'Hill Country'! Their ranch, though not large by Texas standards, supports a healthy population of native wildlife and is also host to numerous exotic species. These wild, free ranging exotics escaped from neighboring ranches years ago. Dwain and Sandy recently invited me down to cook for some of their hunters. This particular hunt is a 'special hunt' for both the Riney family and the hunters. Once a year Dwain and Sandy donate a hunt for exotic species at Las Piedras to the Montgomery County Cattle Barons' Ball and benefit auction. The money raised from this annual event benefits the Montgomery County Unit of the American Cancer Society. In the course of my visit Dwain pulled out the 'ranch recipe box' and selected several favorites of his and Sandy's that he thought I'd like. In addition Sandy has since called me with a couple of other old family favorites. We hate to think of family heirlooms disappearing, but it happens when you prepare these recipes. My thanks to Dwain and Sandy for sharing them and inviting me down to share their corner of heaven in the Texas Hill Country!Spiced with More Tall Tales - Appetizers

_VEGGIES FOR CAMP

Steps:

• Keeping fresh produce in camp requires some planning, especially if you have to plan for salad hounds. Consider taking cabbage and making coleslaw instead of lettuce. The cabbage will keep several times longer than lettuce. A couple of years ago we shredded cabbage for coleslaw and packed it in resealable bags for a river trip. Squeeze as much air out as possible before you seal it. On day five we popped open the bags and made the dressing and had fresh slaw in less than ten minutes. If soups or stews are on your menu, throw in a few turnips and parsnips. Like potatoes, carrots, and onions they will keep fresh in a cooler or pack box for several days without ice. If you don't grow a garden, stop if you can at the local farmers' market on your way out of town on a summer trip. Farm fresh veggies taste better and are better for you. I try to keep canned veggies to a minimum just to save weight in my garbage sack. Also taking fresh veggies instead of frozen ones will reduce the amount of money you spend on ice. Depending on how long your trip is, many fresh veggies can be peeled, sliced, diced, etc., at home, which also saves preparation time in camp and reduces your garbage to bring out.Spiced with More Tall Tales - Vegetables and Salads

_COOKIN' WITH KRAUT

Steps:

• Marriage changes everyone who says, "I DO"! Few will argue that these changes do not occur, and in all honesty one must agree that change is good! (Sometimes though it takes a while to see the Good.) For we men, these changes run the gamut from putting the seat back down to wearing color-coordinated clothes. Somewhere on the list, food choices show up sooner or later. Like a balky mule, some menu items cause the changee to curl his lip and others cause him to wonder why it took so long to make the change. Much to my wife's relief, sauerkraut fell into the later category!Years ago Mom would fix sauerkraut and wieners for us kids. It was a quick fix when she got home from work late. Few things were simpler! Slice up a package of wieners and throw them in a pot with a couple of cans of store-bought kraut and dinner was done. While a game warden, I'd throw a couple of cans of kraut and some pre-cooked sausages in my chuck box as a backup meal in case a trip extended longer than planned. Until I met my wife, kraut fell into the lowest 20% of foods I liked. It was palatable and would do in a pinch.Being Czech, she started eating kraut as soon as she quit taking her food through a nipple. By the time we met, she held an advanced degree in judging the quality of kraut and how to cook it! From her I learned the sour in sauerkraut doesn't have to be overpowering. If using store-bought kraut, she prefers fresh over the canned. First thing, she pours it into a colander and rinses it two or three times with warm water. Much of the sour taste ends up going down the drain. Kraut prepared after rinsing takes on the seasoning of the dish being prepared without an overpowering 'sour' taste. Store-bought kraut is a thing of the past around our house now though! Last year a neighbor taught us an anaerobic method of making homemade kraut with no muss, no fuss, no foul odors, and no skimming of scum. It seems that no matter how many quarts we put up, they disappear in just a short time. Whether planning a meal at home or a menu for a camping trip, I've changed the rating on kraut to the top 20%!Spiced with More Tall Tales - Fish and Fowl

_ROAST COOT

Steps:

• Dress out as many coots as you can find folks (fools) who will accept an invitation for a coot dinner. i.e. allow one coot per fool or one fool per coot! Birds should be dressed out within one month of being shot. Soak birds for 2 - 3 days in salt water. (Use 2 - 3 lbs. salt per gallon of water)Rinse birds and pat dry. Place each bird on a cedar shingle which you've seasoned to taste.Place coots and shingles in a preheated oven, 450 - 500°F for eight hours. (Smoke usually clears out in 3 - 4 hrs.)Allow to cool about thirty minutes. Scrape the coots off of the shingles into a steel drum for transport to a "Hazardous Materials Disposal Center."Serve shingles garnished with crab apples!A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

_STEW

Steps:

• My pocket dictionary defines stew as "to boil slowly" or "a dish of stewed meat and vegetables served in gravy". So even for those folks whose cooking talents are stretched by just trying to boil water, they only have to add some meat and veggies to make a stew. In other words, beginning Dutch oven cooks and stews were made for each other. Someone with a new Dutch oven, wanting to cook something, is just like a student pilot landing an airplane. Any landing you walk away from is good, some are just better than others! For first time Dutch oven cooks, that translates to if your dinner guests do not leave the supper table in search of immediate medical attention, it must've been okay! As with flying and many other things for that matter, the results usually improve with a little practice.You can make a stew as simple as Tony Latham's "Warden Stew" or create a masterpiece containing exotic vegetables and spices. If you're bored with just plain old cooking and you want to try "ethnic cooking" there is no better place to start than with a stew. For example, take your Great-great-great Grandmother's stew recipe which she brought West in a covered wagon and add some oriental vegetables and seasoning to create a stew with a distinctive, new taste.Most of us who hunt big game, when rummaging around our freezers, leave those packages of meat labeled "stew" until everything else has been used. At least the way I cut up my animals, the amount of stew meat always exceeds what I'd call prime cuts.Though you can't cut chunks of elk shank with a fork when fried in butter, to me it's no reason to leave it till last. Cooked slow in a Dutch oven with your favorite veggies and spices, an old elk shank will produce as many oh's and ah's as tenderloin sauteed in butter and garlic! A good mathematician could fill a fair sized room with nothing but stew recipes by calculating all the combinations and permutations of possible ingredients for stew. So if you fancy your self a creative person, take your new Dutch oven and a "Stew" recipe and create a master piece! Around my house or camp, stew tends to end up as a "kitchen sink" dish. i.e. everything except the kitchen sink is likely to be thrown in the pot. As a result no two are the same. Besides being easy to make, nothing tastes better when one comes in from the cold than a steaming bowl of stew and a chunk of homemade bread. On more than one occasion the last night in camp, dinner consisted of some leftover meat and everything else left in the bottom of the camp box with some baking powder biscuits to soak up the juices. What ever the occasion, whether at home or in camp, A Dutch oven stew will fill'em up and keep'em smilin'A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Camp Chili, Stews, Soups and Sauces

_PITCH IN AND PITCH OUT

Steps:

• Two things act as magnets on little boys, mud puddles and pitch. I'm not talking about the card game "Pitch," but sap from coniferous trees. When the folks took us kids camping, despite repeated warnings and dire threats by Mother, I usually managed to get the sticky stuff on my hands, clothes, and in my hair within thirty minutes of getting to camp. I did it to my folks and my son did it to me. As an old cowboy buddy of mine told me when my boy was born, "You don't pay for your raising till you raise one of your own!" That particular saying has proven true on many other occasions! Anyway...Like many situations in life there is 'the easy way' and 'the hard way' to remedy the situation. Normally the first line of defense in most situations requiring cleanup is soap and water. Besides being sticky in the first degree, pitch immediately attracts dirt. Pitch on a kid's hands will just smear and spread with soap and water. Anything the kid touches ends up sticky, which if he handles enough stuff will wear the pitch off his hands! That is an option, but one most mothers would rather not exercise. Unless you take a set of full body restraints to camp, don't even think you can successfully comb a wad of pitch out of your kid's hair!For a quick fix, dig around in your camp box for your charcoal starter fluid. Any other petroleum distillate, such as white gas, kerosene, etc. will dissolve pitch, but charcoal lighter seems to be the least harsh. Just squirt a little bit in your hands and rub the spot, then wash with soap and water. To clean clothes, first change into something clean and soak the spot with the lighter fluid and work it into the fabric. Repeat a couple of times then hang on a limb to dry. Getting the stuff out of one's hair is a little more difficult. Soak a washrag and gently massage the pitch to dissolve and repeat if needed. Soak another washrag with warm water and rinse. Of course, I shouldn't have to say this, but if it's after dark, use a flashlight or other source of light, not firelight or gas lantern!Spiced with More Tall Tales - Breads

_GETTING BREAD IN CAMP

Steps:

• I can't remember exactly which chapter and verse in the "Good Book" mentions bread as being the staff of life, but even back then camp cooks included bread on the menu. I'm not saying bread is a must at every meal, but I wouldn't advise trying to feed a bunch of hungry campers for a week without it. Two days would be my best guess as to how long it would take before they got kinda surly. Though not mentioned specifically in the "Good Book", I suspect when Moses headed for the mountain to try and sort out all his troubles, no bread in camp was on his list. Should you forget to pack it or run out, as did Moses and his camp, deliverance through prayer would be an option. (However, don't have high expectations of seeing french toast scattered about on the ground and a six point bull hanging on the meat pole the next morning when you peek out of the tent!) It doesn't matter whether you're car camping, horse packing, or beaching your raft on a cobble bar, bread can "make a meal". Other than car camping, when space is not such a limitation, packing bread gets to be a real pain. For instance, try horse packing enough loaves of bread into camp to keep five or six hungry elk hunters in sandwiches for a week. You'd end up with one pack horse which appears to be fully loaded, but in reality is only carrying fifteen pounds. Then, no matter how carefully you pack, it's always half mashed when you get to camp. Dough ball sandwiches for a whole week might haunt a camp cook for the remainder of his life. Hope exists though, read on to find out how to get to camp and get bread too!With but one exception, I never pack store bought bread on a horse or raft trip. On raft trips I will take a couple of the round brown and serve loaves of sourdough bread. These fit perfectly in a 12-inch Dutch and make great garlic bread on spaghetti night. In place of "sliced bread" I pack flour tortillas and/or pita bread. Both pack in a fraction of the space and with the exception of trying to make french toast, make great substitutes for sliced bread. A couple of squeeze bottles with mayo and mustard make off road sandwiches a breeze to fix. Squirt a little mayo and mustard on a flour tortilla, roll up a couple of slices of your favorite sandwich meat and or cheese and you're done. Peanut butter and jelly works for the kids. If you want sandwiches to put in your day pack while hiking or hunting, use the pocket pita bread instead. In addition, the "torts" work just as well as "sliced bread" for sopping up gravy etc.Fresh baked in camp qualifies as the ultimate bread experience in my book. (Which I like to think is a "Good Book", too.) Whether sourdough, from scratch, or a dry prepared mix, your companions will hold you in very high esteem if your menu includes hot fresh bread. The camp cook who graces his table with such fare rarely requires the power of prayer to deliver him from evil especially any perpetrated by his companions! ** The individual (s) who speaks badly of any cook that bakes bread, should be remanded to REMEDIAL CAMPING 101 until a member of the clergy certifies that such a sinner(s), through penance and other sanctions, has admitted the error of his or her ways! A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Bread in Camp

_BROTHER-IN-LAW DUCK

Steps:

• Throw the mud duck in a roaster that was last cleaned out by your hound dog. Mix all of the ingredients, except caster oil and beer. Stuff the duck with this mixture. Give the duck a good dose of castor oil and then pour beer over all. (Beer is very important since brothers-in-law go into a frenzy when they smell it.) Cook in oven on low heat for 1 hour. Garnish and serve piping hot. If this does not stop your brother-in-law from coming to your house and drinking up all of your beer or asking for seconds or thirds, there is only one sure ingredient that you can add next time. It is illegal and you may have to do some time for it, but it probably would be worth it. Add ARSENIC! LOTS OF ARSENIC!!A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

_SHOESTRING BULL

Steps:

• The mountain men and free trappers who explored the Intermountain West in the early 1800's referred to it as their "possibles" sack. A small leather poke sack with essentials they might 'possibly' need in the course of their travels. Such items as flint, steel, tinder, whetstone, needle and thread were staples along with other small items each individual deemed essential. Today's equivalent takes the shape of a fanny pack or day pack in which we carry things we might need during our trip outdoors be it a day hike or an extended stay. Today's "possibles" most likely include matches in a waterproof container, a map and compass, an extra shoelace, etc., and other important small items excluding of course cell phones and GPS Receivers!What's included with one's "possibles" varies according to a person's wants and needs. Sometime when you're out in the woods with a bunch of folks, sit down after dinner and have everyone go through their "possibles" to see the variety of things that folks consider essential. For sure there will be things peculiar to each individual and include items which at first glance appear insignificant! But...there are those occasions when one of these seemingly insignificant items tucked away in the bottom of a day pack saves the day. Such a day occurred for my pard, Rich Rodgers, on a cold, snowy day in mid-November, 1983.Rich, Tom and Bill Beck, and I were hunting deer and elk out of a horse camp on Indian Creek Airstrip on Middle Fork of Salmon River. A wall tent with smoke wisping from the stack and the glow from a lantern greeted Rich as he trudged in about an hour after dark on the third day. Before he said a word, we knew from the grin on his face and blood on his boots that he'd connected. His first elk, a six-point bull, needed packed out the next day. Starting out as a city kid from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, another dream came true for Rich that cold, snowy November day. Other dreams already realized by Rich included being a collegiate All-American football center at 5' 10" and 210 pounds, obtaining a MS in Range Management on a NCAA scholarship, becoming a farrier under the tutelage of Henry Ketchie, and marrying Sue.Happy hour that evening extended until way past supper as Rich told and re-told the story with more detail each time. After describing where the bull was down, the trail, and the heavy snow conditions, we decided to walk in leading a packhorse, bone the elk, and backpack the meat up to a ridge top where we could get the packhorse with minimal difficulty. One of the details Rich had added the third or fourth time he told the story concerned the steepness of the hill where the bull lay. He told us he'd tied the bull to a short, scrubby tree to keep it from sliding down into the bottom of Mowitch Creek.Rich, Tom, my Black Lab, 'Snoose,' and I left camp in the gray light of dawn leading Black Jack, one of my packhorses. Where Rich's tracks from the previous day hit the horse trail I loosened his cinch and tied him securely to a tree about forty feet off the trail. If recollection serves me correctly, we dropped about 500-600 vertical feet through a foot plus of snow on a mountain steeper than a cow's face to get to the bull.It wasn't the fact that Rich had tied the bull up to keep it on the face of the 'earth' that struck me. It was how he tied it up which caused Tom and I to bust out laughing! The previous day Rich had quickly realized how precarious a position this bull was in if he expected the rest of us to help pack it out. Had the bull slipped into the bottom, it would have been easier to just pack in a frying pan and eat him on the spot! To stabilize the critter, he'd started with a piece of rope from his day pack and tied it to the antlers. This chunk of rope was way too short to reach the only scrubby Doug Fir tenacious enough to grow on such a steep slope. Scrambling up to this scrubby Doug Fir, he tied his remaining piece of rope and stretched it out towards the first line. Guess what? We've all been there! He was still short! Having once been a football player, Rich knew the importance of having an extra shoelace. Connecting the two lengths of rope was a shoelace from among his "possibles"!Whenever campfire talk turns to elk hunting, this bull will forever be known as the "Shoestring Bull!" The last time I saw Rich before he passed away from cancer, the telling of this story again brought the smile from that cold, snowy November night in the wall tent back to his face.Spiced with More Tall Tales - Dedications