Dan on the Rock asked about cooking and eating snipe. As snipe are small birds - it takes more than a few of them to provide a real meal. I combined
the two I killed recently with a single dove to make some tapas before a more substantial meal of grouse in blackberry/pepper sauce. After a long day in the field, the expedience of just breasting the birds out seems to be the way to go. If you have more time, a plucked and roasted bird is a perhaps more fitting way to prepare them. If you're short of snipe recipes, they can always be cooked in the same way as woodcock, though woodcock may provide slightly more meat. The first game birds I ever managed to kill were woodcock near Williamsburg Virginia.
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Snipe and dove breast tapas.
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Sauteed Snipe Breast on Toasted Baguette RoundsIngredients: As many snipe breasts as you can muster; butter; salt, freshly ground pepper and a medium hot chili powder; rounds cut from a baguette; and (optionally) a few drops of truffle oil.Method: Breast out the birds. Salt and pepper the breasts and sprinkle on a dash of chili powder. I use Fernandez Chilie Molido Puro which is available in my Safeway store in 7 oz. bags. Slice the baguette into thin rounds - about 1/4". Melt a generous portion of butter in a frying pan, add a drop or two of truffle oil and then dip the bread into the butter and place them on a plate in a warm oven. Add the breasts to the butter and brown them on both sides until medium rare. Place them on the toast and enjoy with a favorite glass of wine. A dry white or a light red like a Pinot Noir goes well.
There is
a nice web site devoted to snipe hunting. They have a
list of recipes including the old standby, snipe wrapped in bacon. Also a favorite way of mine to cook dove - wrap a small piece of jalapeno in the breast and then wrap the breast with bacon - grill until the bacon is nicely browned. Hank Shaw at
Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook has done
some nice writing about snipe. He has a somewhat elaborate
recipe and a
plainer one too. The Derrydale Game Cookbook by L. P. Gouy lists 24 recipes for woodcock and any could be used for snipe as well.
Well thank you very much. I get a half dozen to a dozen points on snipe while ptarmigan hunting here on the barrens when crossing the bogs. I will try them for sure.
ReplyDeletethanks
Dan
Your hunting environment is damned interesting. Ptarmigan, snipe and moose. Woodcock must pass over the rock on their way south as well - or maybe not.
DeleteWe have caribou, snowshoe hare, arctic hare, ruffed abd spruce grouse as well. Plenty of waterfowl but no woodcock. We are north of their range (woodcock) this far east.
ReplyDeleteOf course - you have caribou, hare and grouse too. What an amazing place to live and hunt. First morning of deer (and in some areas, elk) season here. Deer populations in SE Wyoming and Northern Colorado have crashed over the past few years so the season is only open for a week and only bucks are fair game.
ReplyDeleteYou must at least try snipe or woodcock roasted rare in a hot oven with trail in and head on. WAY better than it sounds!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever read Guy Valdene's disgusted reaction to cooking them in a crockpot with cream o' mushroom soup? He wrote: "why not just go all the way and boil them all night in Pepto Bismol??"
I have shot a few but unlike woodcock never in numbers. Used to hear them "drumming" high above in the evening air of N Vermont when I taught writing there in the summer... but have only found them to shoot in MT and NM.
I have eaten Woodcock as you suggest. They were the first game birds I ever shot - when I lived in VA. Reading Datus Proper at the time had turned me on to Brillat-Savarin - who suggests cooking them very rare - having them fly through a warm kitchen, and no more if I remember correctly. I have also sauteed Woodcock trail in butter with hearts and livers and served on toast with a dash of salt and pepper. I am with Valdene. I object to the cream o' mushroom soup recipe for any bird - wild or domestic. Judging by the frequent appearance of this recipe in game cookbooks it seems to be a favorite among American upland shooters. I can not imagine why.
DeleteAnd thinking about it some more - I have come to the conclusion that I lied - I do not believe I ever roasted an undrawn woodcock as you suggest. The vagaries of memory. ... but I have eaten the trail and agree that one of the best ways to eat a woodcock (or a snipe) is roasted rare. The dark breast and white meat legs are so surprising. Hank Shaw has some nice pieces about plucking birds as opposed to breasting them out. Also, woodcock and snipe really should be hung. We ate these two snipe the same day we shot them because my son was leaving the next morning.
DeleteDid you know Datus? he could cook AND shoot-- and step over fences I had to crawl through.
ReplyDeleteThe new Scandinavian locavore cookbook "Faviken" is full of good game and radical advice-- hanging Capercaillie for 30 days, woodcock BEFORE migration, rifles for birds and 22 mags for deer. Not used to seeing trendy Euro cookbooks with ballistic advice...
Never met Datus though he had a very significant influence on me. I sorely wish I'd had the privilege of meeting him. I wrote about him (briefly) in Proper Impetus. His pheasant hunting book was what started me on the path of hunting.
ReplyDeleteI've added the Faviken book to my amazon wish list. It sits just above your Eternity of Eagles. Those Swedes love a 6.5mm for moose so a 22 mag might be just about right for deer.