YOUR BEST HUNTING CAMP MEAL

This forum has been dead for a while. Let's wake it up!
What is the best hunting camp meal you can remember eating? Doesn't have to be fancy, just great food/company memories.
I'll start: 15 or so years ago. Grilled pork chops, blue grouse fried in garlic and butter, and last but not least, Elk tenderloin grilled over the fire and brushed with bacon grease and garlic. Dutch Oven taters, a tossed salad, and peach cobbler. We had all hunted hard and were successful in taking 2 elk and 4 grouse. Most years now at camp someone will say "watch out for pine hens, I wouldn't mind some for dinner" I've had fancier meals, but nothing that I enjoyed as much.

My first deer hunt and my best camp meal!



I had gotten interested in hunting so my dad (who had never really hunted before) took me on my first UT general season deer hunt. We set up camp that first night and as my dad is grilling the burgers we realized that we had forgot the buns and all the toppings and condiments! What we did have was pancake mix and syrup for the next morning! Well we ended up having our burgers but we just used pancakes for the buns and syrup for the ketchup. We never so much as seen a deer on that weekend trip but I will never forget that hunt or meal.... Or the fact that my dad who had no interest in hunting took me hunting just to spend quality time with his son!

'Twas the third week of November, 1972. Porcupine Hills, Alberta. Snow, between the knees and my butt. Temp., minus 10 +/-.

We killed two muley bucks, can't remember how big so they had to be smaller, or I'd have remembered.

We had pushed snow all day and drug those two bucks for hours through the snow. Just as we neared the truck and the end of the day we passed a old pine blow done. 30 yards away. Out of the snag, and up on the trunk, hoped a pine hen. I leveled the .308 and shot off it's head. No sooner than it tumbled off into the snow, up popped another. Another shot and off went another head. Without time to think, out jumps a third, and in a flash, three headless pines hen are dancing through the snow.

Three of best shots I've ever made. Couldn't duplicate it if I tried. Never touched the breast meat on any of the three.

Back at camp, I built a bed of bacon in the bottom of the cast iron skillet. I thin sliced the deer liver. Seasoned and floured it and layed it across the top of the hot frying bacon. Covered it all with 2 inches of sliced onions. Covered it and turned down the heat.

In another skillet with hot bacon grease in it, I put six pine hen breast halves, each seasoned, floured and wrapped with two strips of bacon. Covered and poured the heat to it, rolling each piece in the hot grease until it was crispy, then turned the heat down to allow it to finish without burning.

Turned the liver once , then stirred the onions, liver and bacon just enough to get all the onions glazed. Let the liver brown but not over cook. Deer liver is best if it's not over cooked. Course, rare liver is never going in my mouth.

Somebody had fried up some taters, and we got right after it.

What a meal, what a day, what a great memory. We were so exhausted I think we were off to happy hunting dreamland before the last bite hit bottom. At peace with the world!

I've chowed down on some pretty fancy fixing over the last 60 years, none more memorable than liver, onions and pine hens at the base of the Porcupine Hills in 1972.

The meal was as much or more of the memory as the hunt was,maybe more. Thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite hunting experiences.

DC

wow! im hungry!!!!

elk backstrap sliced on open fire rustic grill plus cutthroat trout in a luminum foil wrapper garnished with whatever condiments that were absent or present...somewhere in western wyoming on a day when perservance and luck intertwined...