Crazy

Crazy? I should say not! We do the same sort of thing. Not just when deer hunting, either. Even in the summer, while, say, trout fishing, we always carry a one-burner camp stove and something for a hot meal.

What I always thought was crazy are the hunters who do not take any sort of break during the day. How can you be at your best in the afternoon if you've spent the day cold, possibly wet, and hungry?

I really had that lesson driven home when I took up waterfowling, and learned about duck blind stew, and the difference it made.

The area I deer hunted had small towns all over so for us it was usually a stop at the closest bar for a burger and fries and a beer :lol:

It depends, PJ. We've done both, depending on time and how long a break we wanted to take.

Most often, however, we make the mid-day meal ahead of time and put it in a boil-in bag. Then we just have to heat up a pot of water and drop in the bags. One less thing to clean up, among other benefits.

Other times we'll actually forgo the camp stove and cook the meal over an open fire. Nothing, this time of year, like a wood fire to take the chill off. And, being as the fire is burning anyway, why not cook over it? The open-fire thing is more likely when we're fishing, this time of year, then when we're hunting.

Duck blind stew is a combination. It's always made from scratch, but some of the ingredients (such as canned potatoes) are convenience products. Here are the details: Outdoor Cooking. Duck Blind Stew and Like Minded Meals.

We've done it that way too, Mary, when such places are convenient. Most often they're not, the areas we hunt & fish.

I think the important thing, something too many outdoor people neglect, is to take that mid-day break to both warm up and stoke the inner fires.

We went for a weekend hiking/camping trip to Mammoth (Sierra Mnt's) in June. The temp in the town of Bishop was in the 80's, 40mins up the road into Mammoth we had snow and evening temps in the high 40's. Crazy California climate!

Our little camp stove has served us well, from California all the way to Chile. We get creative with our food, but still throw in some freezedry for those quick recharge meals. The best we've found is from MaryJane's Farm Organics. It's worth trying some of her meals and you can get it at REI

Tailgating Hunts

I read KYH's Duck Blind Stew article, and his reminiscing brought back the same type of fond memories for me. When we had the deer lease, I would have my two boys collect some rabbits for the slow cooker for supper, or we would fry some young ones for breakfast with biscuits and cream gravy. Doves and quail on the grill were also wonderful the day of the hunt. They came in one time and they had harvested one of our corn fed coons - and we even cooked that. (I think the coons ate more of our corn than the deer). These meals are etched in all of our minds as much as our most memorable hunts.

My grandson goes with us now on our dove and duck hunts, and has for years. This is his first year to actually carry a shotgun and harvest game. We have done some tailgating after the hunt, and the food in the field is always special. A venison sausage wrap is true gourmet fare on a cold morning. I suspect years from now he'll be fondly remembering these special meals as much as the hunts. I know I do.

Don't know what goes into OldPro's wraps, PJ, but you might try this:

Prepare white/wild rice mixture per package instructions. To each cup add a cup of shredded cooked venison (other game works too, or even beef).

Put a large dollop of this mix in the center of a frybread round, fold it over, and enjoy!

Alternatively, you can prepare it as patties by adding a little flour or breadcrumbs and beaten eggs, then cooking like a burger. Top with a fried egg and you're good to go.

So much in-the-field eating depends on where you are and what you're doing.

When I hunted with the boys in the south Louisnian swamp country they didn't even take a thermos out to the blinds. "You ain't gonna be there long enough for a cup of coffee," they insisted. And were usually right.

Wouldn't dare mention that we actually cooked in the blinds. The very thought of spending all day in a duck blind is alien to them.

But the meals back in camp more than made up for it.

The south Louisianna experience is like nothing else. I used to hunt around Lake Arthur and Jennings on a 4,000 acre freshwater marsh. We would crank out the mudboats in the morning after the dogs got through fighting, and head for the blinds. Before the hunt you were lucky to get a cup of coffee. But after the hunt - it was something else.

Gumbo, boudain, mud bugs, and meals in stop-and-gos that would rival New Orlean's best. What a unique part of the country and our culture.

I know what you mean, OldPro. But it's misleading, for folks who haven't been there, to discuss the "south Louisiana experience." Say, rather, "experiences"

Hunting the swamps of Lake Maurepas is one experience. Hunting the salt marshes south of Lake Charles (where it's debatable whether the ducks or the mosquitoes are bigger) quite another. And hunting the bayous out of tree stands up by Lafayette something else again.

The unifying force: With the exception of part of the Texas Gulf, waterfowling as practiced in south Louisiana is unlike anything else in the world. The numbers of birds, the methods of hunting them, and the attitude about the resource are inconcievable to other waterfowlers. Perhaps explaining why waterfowlers worldwide dream about hunting that country.

I've hunted wildfowl all over the U.S. But south Louisiana holds a special place in my heart and in my memory. The food not being the least of it.

I learned the basics of Cajun cooking in the swamps, from Paul Dubbison and Warren Coco. The camp was a 40 minute boat ride into the swamp, and was just an overgrown blind, with bunks and a kitchen. In fact, the night I stayed behind to learn how Paul made his seafood gumbo we got as much shooting from the porch as did the boys in the blinds. It was great. Stir the gumbo, get out on the porch, bam, bam, then back inside to stir the gumbo and snatch a fried oyster out of the grease or a mouthful of smoked duck to keep starvation at bay.

In Lafayette, Phil Robertson had us to his house, to share in his family's Christmas dinner, and boy did I collect recipes. First time I ever truly thought a table would collapse from the volume and diversity of food it held. And where else do they invite strangers to a family celebration.

Hunting Lake Charles with Eli Haydel and his crew, where Friend Wife finally understood why we stay out there long after the guns are silent, and Eli fed us dirty rice, and duck gumbo, and maque choux til we thought we'd burst.

Enough. I'm making myself hungry.

You really have had some rich Louisianna experiences, both culinary and in the field. One of the distinctions I noticed in the way Louisianna natives cook waterfowl is that they always go for the long, slow cook. It was pretty amusing when there was a recent potluck dinner with ducks and geese at the island. One of our residents is a registered coonass. Another of my island friends, who is a well traveled gourmet cook, is an advocate that all waterfowl should be rare enough to fly off of the plate if given half a chance. And he will age it in the feathers for a couple of days to boot.

I go both ways on this, but it was amusing watching them sample each other's food.

I can see it, OldPro; a battle of the titans. Although frankly, I didn't think anyone---not even the Brits---hung waterfowl anymore.

Blue duck is not the name of a species. :lol:

Yeah, I have been blessed with widespread experiences down there. Long past due for another trip, as it's been awhile, and I've got an envie for a visit.

One interesting thing, which I've never seen remarked on, is that in different locales they have different names for ducks. F'rinstance, although it seems like every duck in the world heads to the swamps, it ain't so. They don't see a lot of mallards there, for instance---the greenheads prefer wintering more in the freshwater marshes where you used to hunt. So, around Maurepas and Ponchetrain, they call them French Ducks, and prize them above all others because they see them so rarely.

Ah, chere, we took two dem big French duck yes'day. Good eating, him.

Similarly, I've heard wood ducks called "jaguars," and pintail called "squeelers." But if you drive 30 miles and use those terms they look at you like you were crazy.

Weather permitting, he will leave them outside. If it's too warm, in the fridge - guts, feathers, and all. I don't.

Mallards were definitely the duck where I hunted. Also "grey ducks" (gadwall), butterballs (ring neck ducks), spoonies, and teal. "Squeelers" around here generally refer to tree ducks, like the black bellied whistling duck. I would imagine the wood ducks got their nickname from that piercing spueal.

Referring back to one of our earlier threads, if you shot a spoonie you had to buy a case of beer for the camp. The locals did everything they could to con you into shooting one.

As to cooking the birds, I don't ever remember grilling waterfowl in Louisianna, and we do that a lot in my neck of the woods. Do you use the grill much for game preparation?

Do you use the grill much for game preparation?

Not too much with waterfowl. Occasionally I'll grill breasts. Or smoke a whole bird. But that's about all.

With other game, it depends. Big game lends itself to grilling, because it is, in general, a fast-cooking type thing. So, yeah, a venison steak, for instance, or chops, works really well.

No reason upland birds wouldn't work on the grill. I've never cooked them that way, for no particular reason. Same thing applies to small game. Odd, in that respect, because I have cooked rabbit and squirrel over open fires.

Says she who lives in the Ruffed grouse capital of the world. :smoking: