Bristol’s World

Stu Bristol is a custom game call maker living in southern Maine, building custom turkey deer and owl call for three decades. He is a widely published outdoor Writer . His features and columns have been published nationwide for more than 60 years.

“FAIR CHASE” FOOD

“Field to table.” Sounds great doesn’t it? Enjoy shooting sports like deer hunting, bear, grouse and waterfowl hunting, then bring it back to share at the dinner table with family and friends. Magazines and social media are alive with recipes offered by hunters of all stripes but, beware, there is a growing number of “Wild Game” cooks out there that offer meat that is no more wild than my old milk cow Bessie, lounging around the back pasture.

The increase in shooting preserves and game farms over the past ten years is astounding. Most are legit but some are deceiving. For a variety of reasons, it’s important for readers to understand what is happening and how it can affect your sports and you.

The entire industry centers around “fair chase,” what it is and what it means to you as a hunter who loves the taste of wild game.

Fair chase means just that; the animal being sought after for human consumption needs to have a fair chance to escape. No rocket science there. The rub comes when a “hunter” and I use the word lightly, takes advantage of deer, elk and other big game animals by killing them in a small enclosure.

If all the person wanted is food, I have no more problem with that killing any more than slaughtering domestic animals. However, a disturbing trend is to kill penned animals that are grown for antler growth or other trophy qualities, then register those animals for prizes or awards. Even more disturbing, to me at least, are the people who boast about taking penned animals, deceiving their friends and the general public into thinking that they were taken in the wild, “fair chase.”

Such people are actually “groupies.” Many who fit this category never had mentors such as fathers or siblings to teach them woodsmanship and hunting skills so they cut corners and visit game farms to “harvest” trophy animals.

Veteran hunters never fall for the woke version of killing so instead of using terms like “harvest” they instead say deer meat etc. groupies prefer the sanitized, “venison.” I grew up the youngest of a family of 17 children and we all subscribe to the “Kill it and Grill it” vocabulary.

We want deer meat to taste like deer meat, not beef or any other doctored meat to mask the wild taste. We are not fussy about how it looks on the plate, just how it tastes.

Game farms and shooting preserves have value in that they provide the opportunity to sharpen wing shooting skills as with pheasant and quail farms. They also lessen the pressure on wild populations. That said, there are drawbacks.

It has been proven that nearly 25% of all chronic wasting disease carriers are game farm raised deer and elk. Disease such as this are to be expected when animals are confined in small enclosures. The same goes for game birds. Each year a percentage of enclosed birds and animals escape into the wild and infect current populations.

Now, for the growing number of cooks and chefs out there claiming to offer “wild” deer, elk, boar and buffalo. I have no problem with these operations so long as they don’t attempt to deceive the customers.

The meat of game farm raised animals generally contains more fat and the flesh is much more tender than true wild animals. Penned animals seldom get the opportunity to run while wild ones build muscles through running to escape predators. Their flesh is more dense and by eating a variety of wild foods their meat has a slight gamey taste. It’s that gamey taste we serious hunters crave.

There are also a number of culinary schooled “chefs” that offer wild game cooking but, I ask, are they really offering penned raised meat or a mixture of wild and domesticated? Friends who hunt wild game and gift it to these chefs are enabling the deception.

So, when I see an outdoor publication featuring a so-called “wild game” cook or chef I am skeptical. I enjoy the cooks who grow their own gardens, hunt their own game and present that food in it’s true sense; “wild game.”

I’ve helped pass laws dealing with outdoor topics over the years and if I were to address the “fair chase food” problem I would demand that anyone presenting “wild game” cookery be required to print or offer a disclaimer, advising the origin of the meal.

It is said we eat with our eyes first but when it comes to eating wild, I could care less about a pretty plated dish. I could care less about the multitude of spices sprinkled onto the meat before and after cooking. In my opinion they most often are added to make both game farm raised and wild meats taste like domestics.

I don’t want my der meat to taste like beef nor do I want my grouse and turkey to taste like chicken. Field to table, in my world is just that. Me and my friends head out into the forest and endure the hardships to bring home wild game. We sit for hours in sub-zero weather and rain and blinding snowstorms. We are deeply offended by those who shoot deer off the back deck of a game farm then try to register it in state and national awards programs. Even worse are those who take the easy route and pose a persona of being a veteran hunter. To us such killers are not hunters, they are phonies.