I am planning on using this recipe one of these days and before I lose the magazine I found it in, I thought I would post it up here and then it will be saved forever and ever.

So, what made me think of this?  Yesterday was St. Patricks day and a tradition at my house is Corned Beef and cabbage.

I have thought for many years, “why can’t other meats be ‘corned'”?  Obviously they can by this recipe.

So, even if your name is Lester Mcfink and you live in the deep south, only have access to a .177 cal. pellet gun and the biggest game around your parts are squirrels, you can use this recipe.

I read about this in the January 2012 copy of Fur-Fish-Game, which, by the way is probably THE BEST magazine printed for outdoors type people.  It has something for everyone in every monthly issue printed.  When you have a copy, you just can’t throw it away.  You save them and they stack up neatly.  You can share them with friends (be green and re-cycle).  And even after you have read them several times, you will enjoy them again at a later date.

So, back to the recipe.  It was submitted to the magazine and was printed under the “Letters from the readers” section.  A person named Ron Weiss from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania submitted it.  I give a hearty THANK YOU to Ron Weiss for this.

So Ron suggests you use a chunk of meat in the 2 to 3 pound range.  No bone and sliced less than 2 inches thick.  A good choice since most of my wild game meat is cut less than that anyway.  And if you are going to Corn up some squirrel, they aren’t more than 2 inches thick in the first place.

Ron says not to worry about the sinew because the brining and cooking will melt it away.

Ok, so my take on all of this is this:  Why does the meat have to be in one big chunk?  Why not take some smaller pieces and put them all together to get the 2-3 pounds?  Maybe it will be too salty, I don’t know.  If you try it and it is too salty, let me know on here by leaving a comment.  I’m sure other readers of this will want to know as well.

So, here is Ron’s recipe:

In a boiling pan pour in 2 quarts of water.  Add in 1/2 cup of canning salt (I don’t know what that is, but will find out.  1/9/2014 I found out that canning/pickling salt is salt with nothing else added and it was suggested that Kosher salt is a good salt for canning!  There you have it).  Then 1/2 cup of Morton’s Tender Quick (it is a salt that is very finely ground and it contains nitrites that kill bacteria).  2 tablespoons of sugar (I think brown sugar would work as well, just sayin).  2 tablespoons of pickling spice.  4 bay leaves (I think I will leave this out when I try it, maybe not).  8 whole black peppercorns and a fresh garlic clove all crushed up.

Bring all of this to a boil.

Let it cool.  Put your meat in a plastic bag, glass or ceramic container (NOT A METAL container) and pour the cooled mixture over the meat.

Now put it in a cool place, like your refrigerator for 5 days.  Ron says to turn it over a couple of times during those 5 days.  I would turn it over at least once each day.  Heck, you are probably going to go and get a beer anyway at least once during the day, why not turn it over then?

So, after the 5th day it is pickled real good.  Pour the mix off the meat and if you don’t like your meat really salty, Ron suggests you rinse the meat off.

Now here is where Ron and I differ.  He says to use a pressure cooker to cook the meat with 1 and 1/2 cups of water.  He says 45 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.  I say, just put the water in a pot and boil the meat up until it is tender to you.  Fork tender!  We all know what that is.

When the meat is all done up good.  Put it in another dish and place it in the oven to keep warm.  Use the broth in the pan to cook up some spuds, carrots, cabbage or whatever meets your fancy for the rest of the meal.

Ron, Thanks again!

Now, once the meal is all cooked, don’t throw the broth away.  Put it in freezer bags in amounts that will just fill a Thermos bottle and freeze it for later.  I have found that a hot Thermos bottle of the broth is WONDERFUL when you are out on a cold day hunting or ice fishing.  Nobody I have ever gone hunting or fishing have turned it down.

So, there you have it.  It seems to me the hardest part is the 5 day wait.

Bears Butt

March 18, 2012

P.S. Lester, if you are out there and try this on some squirrel please let us all know how it turned out.  Thanks!

UPDATE

April 19, 2012

I took 3 pounds of various packages of venison out of my freezer and mixed up the brine..soaked 5 days etc.  Then I split the meat up into 3 different packages and re-froze two of them.

I boiled up the first package and we ate it just like corned beef bought from the store.  This meat was better than the store bought.  Very good in every way.  It actually tasted much like beef.

A few weeks later, I pulled out one of the frozen packages and thawed it.  My thought was to cook it on the grill and see how well that went.  It did not go well.  I cooked it as if it was a normal steak and when we sat down to eat it was tougher than a jackrabbits hind leg, just below the knee.

The next day I baked it in the oven and it got really nice and tender, but when we sat down to eat, it was so salty it made your tongue hurt!  Nasty!  And so as not to throw it out, I told Sherry I would boil it the next day and see if the salty taste would cook out.  And it did!  And we ate well on the evening of the third night.

So, it looks like meat brined in this way will have to be boiled in order for it to be edible.

Lester?  Boil up those brined squirrels and give us an update on here.

Bears Butt