akaShag

Hell, I get tired just LOOKING at that pile of stuff!

When you are ready to can venison, feel free to shoot me a pm and I can give you some pointers. Of course, free advice is often worth what you pay for it! Doug

This place: http://www.northernontario.travel/thunder-bay/the-prospector-steakhouse-prime-rib-and-great-steaks-with-a-family-tradition-and-wild-west-atmosphere and the home-made buns are also exceptional, serve yourself as many as you want from the salad bar. One of the best restaurants I have been in, and that number is well into the hundreds........... ................but too far to travel from Kingston! Doug

Did you check out the Prospector Restaurant in T Bay for the prime rib? AWESOME. Doug

m2b2, you are down in Victoria?

Gravy on the sheets!!!!

Yep. My favourite brunch! Venison medallions, (but pan fried not deep-fried), with eggs over easy, cooked in the pan juices, and all served on top of hash-brown patties (best) or toast (second best). I have also served medallions and eggs on garlic toast, which is good, but I find that the garlic in the toast over-powers the other flavours. Heck, I just ate supper (Cream of Asparagus soup and an elk burger) and now I am hungry just thinking about this!!! Of course the BEST medallions are tenderloin slices, but smaller loin slices, and even eye of round slices all work well for medallions. You can also trim bottom round steak, or for that matter top round steak, for medallions, but in both cases I prefer to leave those steaks cut whole-size. OK where are those packages of frozen venison in my freezer!!!!! Doug

back to Misfish, yes the bones dissolve during canning, same as when you see the bones in canned salmon, they turn to mush. I often put a slice of Vidalia onion into my jars of fish, and jars of smoked fish too. It does add a nice flavour, but also adds quite a bit of moisture so the consistency of the canned fish is more watery. You can just pour that off, but you are pouring away flavour with the liquid!!! Doug

I have never tried those, but I imagine they would be good, because they would trap the moisture, correct? Same idea as using the cover on the pan. Doug

Well done! I have been doing this for about forty years and your video would have been extremely helpful back when I was getting started! Here are a few comments, NOT intended as criticism, based on my experience: I believe you would get closer to 100% of sealed jars if you soaked the lids in hot water before you put them on the jars. On the 250 ml jars, you can get away with half an inch of headspace. I was surprised that you put cold jars (out of the fridge) into the canner and did not get breakage. I guess if you are starting with good cold water in the canner that would help, but this is one area that I have run into problems in the past. You correctly point out that the pressure needed will vary with elevation. I use ten pounds for ninety minutes, and don't get too worried if pressure dips to about nine pounds for a short while. But fluctuating pressure say ten to twelve, back to ten, back to twelve, etc will probably cause the jar contents to siphon out, and might cause sealing problems. Your jars look VERY clean when they come out of the canner. Mine usually have a bit of a film on them, and I just wash them in the sink with hot soapy water. Again,. WELL DONE!!!! But it reminds me of the recipe for elephant stew: First, get an elephant................ Doug

PS to BillM: do you know what CUT it is? I may have some cut-specific ideas for you........... Doug

I cook a lot of wild game, including deer. With a roast, I ALWAYS add a bit of broth in the pan, and I ALWAYS cover it. It cooks fast as you have already seen, and this is made much worse by the fact that most deer roasts are cut small, like two to three pounds. So, into the roasting pan, pour probably 3/4 of a cup of (beef) broth over it, season it wit what you like (me: a light dusting of Montreal steak spice, a bit of seasoning salt and some granulated garlic), COVER IT, and into the oven at 325 F. Try ten minutes to the pound, then check it. For a very small roast, take it out when the internal temp in the thickest part of the roast hits 120 F, tent it with aluminum and foil and let it sit for about ten minutes, then slice it. You should have nice rare meat. If the roast is say three pounds, look for an internal temp of 130 before tenting it. For a roast about four pounds or better, you are probably safe going to 135 to 140, in which case you should have medium on the outside, medium rare inside that and rare in the middle. So: use liquid, cover the roast, and take it out well before you would with beef. Enjoy! Doug PS) If the roast has fat, it is best to cut as much of that off as possible. Deer fat is nasty stuff and does NOT add to the flavour like, for example, beef fat.

I'm on my way for some of those ribs! Tonight was a smoked pork loin roast with mashed potatoes and smoked pork gravy, YUM YUM!!!!! Doug

Last night was elk burgers - FINALLY got the meat home from my BC elk hunt last fall. Delicious!!!! Doug

Water? I flew in to a lake with Hearst Air Services, without enough jugs of water and we ended up having to boil water for coffee etc. On the wood stove. That had enough wood for two whole days. And no saw in camp to cut more firewood in the forest for the week we were there............ Oh yeah, and the week on Gouin Reservoir with a house boat, six men one "Culligan" type jug of water for a week. We gathered rain water and got the Hershey Squirts, great fun. So yeah, maybe take in WATER............or a Katydin filter. If you are packing in powdered milk, you must be on real light scales. Maybe consider a couple packages of powdered soup. Knorr makes very decent cream of asparagus and cream of broccoli soups that weigh nothing. And if you get a wet cold day there is nothing like a bowl of soup to perk you up. Hope you have an AWESOME trip! Doug

That's going to be one mother of a big sauna. The cedar IS for the sauna, right? Doug

and vis-a-vis bear, I should also note that if you were FRYING a bear steak or similar, then by all means cut off the fat, render it down in your frying pan at medium temperature, discard the solid fat that is left and fry the bear steak in the rendered fat. I just would not EAT the fat itself, it is not in my opinion enjoyable at all. Hence my suggestion that a roast have the fat removed. Doug

Bear is delicious, as long as the animal was properly cared for by the hunter after the kill - far more important than what the butcher did. (and that includes the hunter that butchers their own bear). I would not smoke a bear roast, unless I marinated it overnight first (apple juice, garlic, maple syrup) Remove any fat, if present, season like a beef or pork roast, and into the oven at 325, covered, with a bit of broth or vino in the roasting pan. take it out at maybe 130F and serve it rare, like 140. Forget about the old wives tales about having to cook it to well done shoe leather to kill trichynosis. When was the last time anybody in this country heard of anybody getting sick from eating black bear meat? If it is a nice looking piece of meat, then I would slice it up and fondue it. The best fondue I ever had was bear loin. The meat should not have a "gamey" taste unless the bear was not well cared for in the field after the kill. Enjoy! Doug

Make you a deal - you take me out on Erie in your boat I pay the gas, I fillet all the catch, I cut all the fries, I buy the vino and we have a big fish fry at your house. Grappa is on you. Got room in your driveway for my F-250 and camper? Doug

Come on over! But I am not doing hand-cut fries tonight. I was out on Tuesday and got into some lovely jumbo perch. So Valentine's Day supper was fresh-caught perch and hand-cut fries. Nothing tells your gal she's special like DEEP-FRIED food!!!! So the crappies will go for a dip in some Fish Crisp and then pan-fried, with rice on the side. Doug

There you go, OIM! I will be whistling and humming "Sweet Molly Malone" for the next three days, you know: In Dublin's fair city Where the girls are so pretty I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone She wheeled her wheelbarrow Through streets broad and narrow Singing "Cockles, and mussels, all alive alive oh............" Fresh crappies are on tonight's menu. Youngest son came home last night well after I was in bed, woke me up. "Dad what should I do with all these crappies I caught?" "How many, son?" "Lots, they're in a feed bag." Got out of bed, saw there was a goodly number of very nice crappies there, and told my son I was going back to bed and he had better get some sleep so he could get up and go to work this morning. So it had not been my plan to fillet crappies this morning, but by golly I don't mind putting the steel to some slabs in anticipation of my first feed of crappies for 2017! YUM YUM Doug

Ling is delicious out of cold water. I just take the "quarter-round"above the ribs, and then all of the meat behind the ribs. I leave the rib/belly meat on the fish as I don't prefer it (and it is pretty thin anyways). Yes lots of folks cube the meat and boil it in salted water until it is JUST cooked (not very long) and then dip it in melted garlic butter. It is good breaded and pan-fried, battered and deep-fried, and it makes an excellent chowder. I did smoke a ling once and it was OK, but definitely not the best use of that fish. Must be coming on for supper time, I am getting hungry.......... And well done on the PB, Big Cliff! Doug

I HEAR ya! I used to visit a physiotherapist for chronic epicondylitis (tennis elbow). I was the only patient she ever heard of who got it from filleting so many fish........... But the rest of them are not so bad compared to the agony your back can give you! Hence the back brace.............. Doug

I believe that Nipissing's glory days are in the rear view mirror. But yes, a fishing trip with buddies does not need a lot of fish to be successful. In fact, the BEST ice fishing trip I ever did was four or maybe five days and I did not wet a line! OIM do you wear a back brace when you are out? I find that the brace makes a huge difference when I am riding my ATV and when doing any lifting at all, even light stuff, and when ice fishing, sitting on my chair looking down the hole. In all cases, it saves a bunch of Robaxacets. Doug

Interesting read. I have owned a pile of boats and motors, never anything bigger than the old (1966 model IIRC) Starcraft Holiday 18' which today would I believe be classed as a twenty foot, since they seem to measure from the extreme edges instead of the waterline these days. And no motor bigger than a 120 Mercruiser. Having said that, when I was in the market the last time I was looking, I had a VERY PRECISE idea of what I wanted, what I needed, and what I liked. And I asked the Head of Mechanical Engineering from an Engineering school about the difference between fiberglass and aluminum hulls. He asked me, did I ever pull the boat up on sand or a rocky beach. hell, yes of course I do, I am a FISHERMAN!!!!! He said, "Doug, buy aluminum." (And I don't run fifty miles an hour in heavy seas, so the ride is less important for me) I bought a new Sylvan 16 footer, and a new Honda 40 HP, put them on a top-quality trailer, and never looked back. I did put the high side bunks on the trailer for recovering the boat by myself in strong side winds (that was the best money I ever spent on a boat accessory). I would never buy an outboard that is not a Honda. These things are quiet, don't stink, run forever on a tank of gas, and none of them ever gave me a problem. Oh, except the one time I dropped my 7.5 hp kicker on the garage floor, that was a problem...............but my fault. Lots of great advice here and mostly from people that have very clearly been there, done that, got the t-shirt. The folks that are emphasizing that the OP needs to do his homework have absolutely got it right. And that goes double for the folks that advise you to make sure you can TRAILER it with your vehicle, and STORE it wherever that will be. I had to put a swing tongue on my trailer to fit in the garage of this house when we moved here - but I knew that before I bought this house! Good luck! Doug