This is an annual re-post. We'll post more game recipes over the next few weeks to help our hunters with their bursting freezers -
With hunting season winding, it's time to get cooking what we have in the freezer. It all begins with the sauce:
Uncle Bill's Jus de Gibier (mixed game) sauce, aka Brown Game Stock, aka Clean out the Freezer Sauce
Technically, it's a jus, not a sauce. Add a little roux and it will become a sauce.
This will be the tastiest sauce base you have ever had in your life, for chicken, game birds, turkey, venison, pork, veal, pasta, ravioli, etc. It's an ideal base for pheasant, chicken, venison or goose bourguignon. It has an earthy richness to it which is remarkable. We like to make a woodcock ravioli with black truffle, and this sauce is essential for that.
Gibier refers to mixed game, but we do it with mixed meat too, but not beef, which would overpower the subtler flavors. It is the best use of freezer-burned game and other stuff in the freezer. It's fun to make (but it takes a while), and you can clean out the freezer and the fridge at the same time. I freeze the used carcasses of Thanksgiving turkey, ducks, goose, random deer bones, etc. to use when I make this, once or twice a year, along with freezer-burned chicken, pheasant, etc. You could do this with entirely store-bought stuff if you lack a hunter in the family. The more stuff, the better.
You need a 10-12 (or larger) quart pot to make this, if you have a lot of stuff to use, but it freezes fine when made. It's good for a few months, at least.
Bake in oven until browned (not necessarily cooked-though) your saved carcasses and freezer-burned game meat and meat, especially pork and pork bones are good, and veal bones, (even if they have already been cooked). Yes, you bake the bones too. Do not burn them in the oven. I tend to use freezer-burned venison, pork chops, all my game bird carcasses, venison bones (cracked with a mallet), a bunch of veal bones and veal scraps if I can get them nowadays (it doesn't hurt to hit up the butcher for some stuff for this), turkey carcass, woodcock carcasses, and a pile of chicken wings. Chop this stuff roughly with a cleaver into 3-6" chunks and toss in the pot. Try to crack the bones.
Take a large saucepan and sautee hot in olive oil and butter (skins on): Very coarsely cut carrots, onions, garlic (just smash the whole hunk of cloves, skin and all), shallots, mushrooms, celery, until slightly browned. I use about 3 onions, a bunch of carrots, a whole garlic thing, a pile of mushrooms, and a whole clump of celery. Dump them in the stockpot. Make about 6 strips of bacon or a hunk of salt pork, cooked but not crisp, and toss them in the pot.
Almost cover what's in the pot with white wine, leaving room for the other wine. Throw in some salt and a bunch of whole peppercorns and turn to simmer. Throw in about 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped, or a little can of tomato paste. Throw in a handful of dried or frozen blueberries or huckleberries. Throw in a big handful of fresh parsley and several generous big twigs of fresh thyme, and a couple of bay leaves. Throw in a couple of handfuls of dried porcini mushrooms - these are required - plus any other dried mushrooms or fresh mushrooms you might have around. Got any spare truffles or some truffle oil lying around? Use them, too.
Pour in a half or whole bottle of ordinary port (minus one glass for the cook). Pour in 2 bottles of drinkable cabernet, depending on how much sauce you are making (minus one or two glasses for the cook).
Low simmer, covered, for around 8 hours to extract all of the flavors, sniffing the etherial fragrance frequently. Or you can put the whole pot in the oven at around 350 for 6-8 hours. Careful about salt, because you will want to reduce this sauce. Add water or wine if needed. You might add a little sugar if you want, but the port, carrots, and blueberries should eliminate most of the bitterness if there is any.
Let cool a little bit, then strain through a strainer, or preferably cheesecloth. And give the big bones to the dogs.
Then gently cook down to whatever degree of reduction you want for your use, or freeze it and reduce it when you use it. You can cool and scrape off the fat if you want to. If you used enough meat and bones, this sauce will be firmly gelatinous when cooled in the fridge. Make this without the red wine, if you know how to clarify, and it makes a heck of a Consomme Gibier.
When I make this, I make a lot. I freeze what I am not using at the moment. It works a miracle on plain roast chicken.
Here's a good site on sauces. Once you have the rich stock, there are tons of things to do with it.
It's the end of hunting season, and I have not killed enough stuff this year. I have two does in the freezer, countless pheasants and chukars, a few Canada Geese and a bunch of ducks of several species. A couple of grouse, but we have eaten most of them
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