Brining

I'm not much of a dove hunter but last year I shot a few- they tasted okay but sort of dense- like a chicken heart. This guy told me to brine overnight, then parboil 15 minutes, and then lightly brown in a pan. Man, what a difference, nice and tender like a chicken thigh. Really good. Just thought I'd pass it along :grin:

What's the recipe for the brine? May help with some tough squirrels around here. Haven't been hunted much and are sorta tough...

The brining won't do much for the toughness, but will improve flavor.

I've found that when I cook squirrels (in the stewpot), it will take 2-3 hours of simmering to get them tender.

Well I just put about a 1/2 cup of salt in a small cereal sized bowl and added the dove breasts. I parboiled them about 15 minutes and then used a spoon to scrap the meat off each side of the breast bone/ribs. These were added to a greased pan to lightly brown a couple of minutes (2-3 minutes). I did this because browned meat just tastes better but I didn't want to cook so long as to dry it out. The pan already had fried onion and mushrooms. I thickened with a little flour and water and then added a 1/2 cup of milk; pretty simple but then again I'm not a big time cook. If you wanted to kick it up a notch I suppose some herbs (tarragon?) and a 1/2 cup of marsala or maderia would be nice. Maybe the herbs ought to go into the water used to boil the dove breasts.
On the squirrel, I've never really figured out how to tell a young tender squirrel from an old tough one. I usually go by size which isn't always certain. If it is a young tender squirrel I think the meat is very akin to the "little drumstick" on a chicken wing and I'll fry them. On an old squirrel I usually stew a long time but I think I might try the brining on them as well. As I said, a guy told me about it and it is the first time I tried it and it seems to make a big difference. It maybe that BOTH the brining and parboiling are needed to keep some game meat from dryng out too much. I started this thread on the hope maybe some other folks know more about how to brine and could add some advice. I should add that I like pretty uncomplicated recipes as I'm at best only a fair cook. If I keep it simple the result is usually better.

Brining adds flavor and moisture to meats. It has to do with osmotic pressure and diffusion of solutes (and water) across the cell membranes (which are selectively permeable).

But to sum it up and avoid all the science-speak, it adds flavor and moisture to meats.

bet it would be good wraped in bacon and roasted after brineing and parboiling

Could be but as I said I'm worried about the meat drying out. Roasting might dry it out somewhat- it might be better to add bacon to the pan and then spoon over the dove. I'll have to experiment on my next batch. Another thought is to take what is basically already cooked dove- roll it in bread crumbs/cornmeal and deep fry 60 seconds or so- just enough to cook the batter/coating.
I've heard about people cooking racoons, etc- I've haven't try that yet. I'm wondering if brining would help.
Anyone know how long you can brine? A day? 2 or 3 days? Longer? With corned beef I think slabs of brisket are just salted and packed in a barrel and then the salt permeates the meat. I w2onder if anyone has ever done a corned venison, etc?

Not to answer my own answer...but I got thinking about the bacon, actually if it covered the entire dove breast it wouldn't dry out- I wonder how it would be on a spit over a grill- I've done bacon that way and it gets a little charred but not too bad.

I have done corned venison it is good I do ours in the crock pot and glaze in the oven, we brine and smoke deer roasts. I use a gallon of water boil 1/2 gallon add cup of salt, cup of vinegar and cup of 1/2-1 sugar I use 1/2 gallon of ice to cool it down. I brine chickens 24 hr, the deer roasts 2 or 3 days. then smoke. you can

Dove and quail are both great wrapped in bacon and grilled. Most game here is fried, dove, quail, ducks, squirrels, rabbits, venison is cubed and fried or made into hamburger, jerky, or sausage.

I have a favorite way to turn these birds into tasty morsels. Marinate the dressed birds(doves, woodcock,pidgeons, ducks, geese,even wild turkey), in a teriyaki sauce over night and put in your smoker. One hour for the smaller birds and up to 2-3 hours for the larger fowl. With the larger birds I usually only use the beasts. :wink: Real good eats, even for friends who have said they don't like wild game.

Brining works well on birds, but not so much on red meats. If you have tough squirrels, consider Brunswick Stew.

Recipes c. 1879

BRUNSWICK STEW
A Twenty-five cent shank of beef.
A five cent loaf of bread ”“ square loaf, as it has more crumb, and the crust is not used
1 qt. potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 qt. cooked butter beans
1 qt. raw corn
1½ qts. Raw tomatoes peeled and chopped

If served at two o-clock, put on the shank as for soup, at the earliest possible hour ; then about twelve o’clock take the cahnk out of the soup and shred and cut all of the meat as fine as you can, carefully taking out the bone and gristle, and then return it to the soup-pot and add all of the vegetables ; the bread and two slices of middling are an improvement to it.
Season with salt and pepper to the taste ; and when ready to serve, drop into the tureen two or three tablespoonfuls of butter.
This makes a tureen and about a vegetable-dish”¦.. Mrs. Richard Pollard ”“ Lynchburg, VA

Brunswick Stew
About four hours before dinner, put on two or three slices of bacon, two squirrels or chickens, one onion sliced, in one gallon water. Stew some time, then add one quart peeled tomatoes, two ears of grated corn, three Irish potatoes sliced, and one handful of butter-beans, and a part pod of red pepper.
Stew altogether about one hour, till you can take out the bones. When done, put in one spoonful bread crumbs, and one large spoonful of butter. ”“ Mrs. Mary M. Dame ”“ Danville, VA


Brunswick Stew
Take one chicken or two squirrels, cut them up and put one-half gallon water to them. Let it stew until the bones can be removed. Add one-half dozen large tomatoes, one-half pint butter-beans, and corn cut from half a dozen ears, salt, pepper, and butter as seasoning. ”“ Mrs. Isabella Harrison ”“ Charles City County, VA


Brunswick Stew Take two chickens or three or four squirrels, let them boil in water. Cook one pint butter-beans, and one quart tomatoes ; cook with the meat. When done, add one dozen ears corn, one dozen large tomatoes, and one pound butter.
Take out the chicken, cut it into small pieces and put back ; cook until it is well done and thick enough to be eaten with a fork.
Season with pepper and salt. ”“Mrs. Roane-Lynchburg, VA

LD

wow thanks for the recipes Loyalist, the top one sounds worth trying.
also I'd like to hear of any method of corning beef (brisket) that could be done at home with minimal equipment. have you checked the prices of canned corned beef lately? I remember clearly when it could be bought for 99c a tin. and it was 16 oz too.
now cheapest is 3.99/lb

You can find good DIY corned beef (or use venison) recipes on the internet. Just check to be sure they use some nitrate or nitrite in the recipe, otherwise they are simply pot roast meant to taste like corned beef.

Also, don't worry about nitrate or nitrite cures..., the BS about nitrate forming cancer compounds is true when it happens in a test tube, but in a human stomach those same compounds don't form. A follow-up study was done after the "scare" about processed meats that actually tested the contents of the stomach..., the cancer stuff was found to be untrue, but nobody cares about actual science these days ... (sorry off the soap box now)

OH and not only is the canned stuff expensive..., but it's often a cheaper cut of meat than you would've used back in the day when DIY was all that you would've had.

LD

corned beef and cabbage with onion, carrots or parsnips is good chow. with cornbread.
I'm fairly sure it's Irish orgin

It is sorta Irish, however, back in the old country, they used mutton. (don't know what cut) It was only after they came to the states that they started to use beef brisket. They used the brisket because at the time it was a throw away meat good only for grinding for sausage. Funny, how the price of brisket has gone up. I suppose it's due to the popularity of corned beef and smoked brisket.

Yeah- New England Boiled Dinner.

L.D. have you corned any beef and how long did it take? I've often thought about trying it. I was also thinking potted meat or meat encased in lard/grease might be faster. On either- not sure if used on the frontier.

Check out this website. Many different brining recipes for different meats. Pick the one that you like best and give it a try.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Brine-for-Smoking-Meat/Detail.aspx

Once in there, you can type "brining" in the search box and get even more recipes for brining.

You may also enjoy looking at some of these recipes. They may give you some ideas. http://allrecipes.com/search/default.aspx?qt=k&wt=wild game&rt=r&origin=Recipe Search Results