by Leon Pantenburg

A major benefit of deer and elk hunting is the superb meat. (Pantenburg photo)

Even if I wanted to quit elk and deer hunting – which I don’t – I’d still have to come up with venison. My family was raised on wild game meats, and there are some dishes that just don’t translate as well when you use domestic stuff.

Chicken fried elk or deer steak is one of those family favorites. The “chicken fried” part of the name comes from, I’m assuming, the idea of frying a steak like chicken. Variations of this dish are a mainstay in many southern states when it comes to converting a tougher piece of meat into gourmet eating.

My daughter requests chicken fried steak it at least once a week, generally after a long run at track. The recipe is a perpetual favorite at hunting camp, where the backstrap from a deer or elk is traditionally dedicated to an all-you-can-eat venison meal.

The recipe can be done very nicely on my Camp Chef double burner propane stove in a cast iron Dutch oven. That is generally what I use to cook this dish with, since my off grid cooking gear stays set up outside year round.

If there is time, I will marinade the meat in a combination of milk, an egg and various seasonings as the mood strikes me. I let the meat soak for half an hour to an hour, or whatever time permits. If you have a prime cut of backstrap or a tenderloin, no marinading is necessary.

The traditional side dishes are mashed potatoes and gravy, blackeyed peas and biscuits. And if that’s not southern comfort food, I don’t know what is!

Chicken Fried Venison Steaks

1 to 2 pounds of venison, tenderized with a meat hammer. Marinade if desired.

1 to 2 cups of all-purpose flour, salt and pepper

canola oil

Slice the meat to pieces about one inch thick. Pound the meat flat with a meat hammer, put in the marinade in a gallon Ziplock bag, and place in the refrigerator. If I think of it, I’ll periodically remove the meat to knead the marinade into the meat. This probably is not necessary, but little things combine to make a great dish.

Put the flour in a paper bag. (It has to be paper, according to my mother-in-law, Ethel Pickens. Ethel, from Vicksburg, MS, makes the best southern fried chicken and chicken fried steak in the world. She says a plastic bag will make the breading gummy and sticky.)

Remove the meat from the marinade, put in the paper bag with the flour, and shake it until the meat is thoroughly coated. Put on a plate. Put the meat on the plate in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This will make the breading “set.”

Put about one inch of oil in the bottom of the Dutch oven and heat until it’s hot. (You want the oil to be heated to the point where there is an immediate sizzling effect when you put the meat in.)

Fry on the first side until the blood comes to the surface, then quickly turn. The bottom should be browned, and keep frying the meat on medium heat until it is done to your satisfaction.

Make a lot. This will be very popular.

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by Leon Pantenburg

I’ve been a Boy Scout cooking merit badge counselor for years, and I really enjoy watching kids go from being totally inept at campfire cooking to near-gourmet proficiency. One mom pulled me aside after a meeting shortly after Mother’s Day.

Foil wraps are a great way to start out beginners in off grid cooking.

“Will cooked breakfast for me on Mother’s Day,” she told me proudly. “And it was GOOD!”

And I have to smile when a newcomer parent points out, with some concern, that their son is a fussy eater. My experience is that a healthy appetite, worked up outdoors, can make just about anything taste good. Add to that a campfire, some instruction and a simple recipe, and any kid can create his own delicious dish.

If I had to pick one recipe to start an off grid beginner cook with, it would be this foil wrap cobbler dessert. It is virtually foolproof, and you’d have to work hard to screw it up. Let the newcomer make his own on his first campout, and he’s set up for cooking success.

To the new prepper, learning how to cook with foil over a campfire is a survival technique. If you carry aluminum foil in your emergency gear, as I do, foil cooking can be a skill to combine with your other survival tools.

Top this warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and it becomes almost sinfully delicious.

TROOP 18 FOIL WRAP COBBLER

Pie filling

White or yellow cake mix

Pats of butter or margarine

This is a beginner recipe that adapts the time-honored dump cake to foil.

Place several tablespoons of pie filling on the foil, then top with cake mix and pats of butter. Fold the ingredients into the foil and place on the grill. Cook about 10 to 12 minutes on one side, then flip and cook another 5 to 10 minutes.

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by Leon Pantenburg

Click Here to Buy Survival Kits: All these items, including a piece of aluminum foil, will fit inside this small tin. When fully loaded, the kit will weigh about four ounces, the same as an iPod

I killed my first rabbit with a single shot .22 rifle when I was 13 . Like many of my peers in rural Iowa, as soon as I got out of school in the afternoon during hunting season, I grabbed a rifle or shotgun and headed out. My family lived on a small farm, south of Gilbert, and prime small game and bird habitat was literally just out the back door.

During pheasant season, I pursued the birds with a near-fanatical devotion, but in September and October I’d take my .22 after rabbits and squirrels.

Cottontail rabbits are prolific and widely distributed throughout the United States. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife photo)

That was the situation many years ago on one sunny afternoon. I was easing along the edge of a cornfield, concentrating on moving quietly, stalking and staying downwind of my quarry. I was rabbit hunting, but in my mind, also practicing for later, when I would move west to hunt big game in the mountains.

I had big plans, from reading Jack O’Connor’s books and stories in outdoor magazines. I was going to get a .270, with a four-power scope, and I would hunt elk and bighorn sheep in the mountains of Idaho and Montana. I would choose my gear with care, and I would have to get some really cool knives and learn how to survive outdoors. I might even get a job to help pay for some of the stuff I was going to need…

I approached a likely-looking tuft of grass and cornstalks, and ever so carefully, parted the grass with the rifle barrel. To my complete and utter astonishment, a cottontail rabbit was crouching there. I eased back a step, cocked the rifle and an instant later, was a successful hunter.

The rabbit, shot through the head, was dead when I picked it up by the hind legs. I ran all the way back to the house, where my dad showed me how to skin and gut it. Mom made a big deal over my rabbit and soaked the carcass in salt water to get all the blood out of the meat.

I did grow up, get a job and moved west to Idaho to hunt big game. I have nurtured a deer and elk hunting addiction for decades, and have hunted all over the country. But sometimes, even during big game season here in Oregon, it is fun to take a .22 rifle and hunt for rabbits.

This recipe, from “Linda Stephenson’s Wild Game Dutch Oven Cooking: From the Hunt to Your Table” combines off grid cooking techniques with fine eating! The combination will work with a variety of small game animals.

Rabbit and Broccoli Casserole

Learn how to cook wild game outside with this cookbook!

1 large rabbit

2 Tbs salt

4 Tbs butter

1 – 16-oz package frozen broccoli spears

1 (10.5 oz) can cream of chicken soup, plus 1/2 can water

1 c. cheddar cheese, grated

salt and pepper to serve

325 degrees, 10-inch Dutch or camp oven

Place rabbit in the Dutch oven. Add enough water to cover rabbit. Add 2 Tbs salt to boiling water. Cook for about 1-1/2 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone.

Remove rabbit from water, let cool and then pull meat off the bones.

In the empty Dutch oven, melt butter. Place rabbit pieces in pot. Spread thawed broccoli over rabbit pieces. Pour mixed cream of celery soup and water over broccoli, add salt and pepper to taste.

Bake covered for one hour. Remove lid and spread grated cheese over the top of mixture.

Linda Stephenson at a Dutch oven cookoff.

Linda Stephenson is a past president of the Central Oregon Dutch Oven Society, one of the

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largest International Dutch Oven Society clubs in the nation; a former IDOS regional director and she has sponsored several Dutch Oven cookoffs. Linda is also active as a Dutch oven teacher and judge, and is the author of several other gardening and cooking books.

Linda grew up in Central Oregon, hunting with her dad in the high desert. At age 12, Linda began preparing the evening meals at hunting camp, often using the wild game they had brought home. While camping the woods, Linda perfected her cooking skills over a campfire. Linda’s favorite recipes, and family favorites, are the basis for her Dutch oven wild game cookbook.

FYI: Another favorite cookbook, and my go-to publication for using storage foods is “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” by Jan LeBaron.

I have an EcoZoom biomass stove that cooks very well, using only twigs, sticks and assorted pieces of yard debris. My Dutch ovens are most frequently fueled by charcoal. I have a couple of cast iron cooking tables that make using the oven and coals easy and convenient.

But the  workhorses that get used on at least a weekly basis are my Camp Chef  Double Burner Propane stove, and my gas grill.