Vittles from the Hills

Peppercorn Crusted Deer Tenderloin with Wild Blackberry Glaze

We hunt to eat.  Don’t get me wrong – we love chasing wall-hanger bucks and waddling, beard-dragging gobblers as much as anybody but when it comes down to it, we’re in it for the food.  We’ll wait for a chance to harvest a monarch buck but if Mr. Big doesn’t show himself by mid-season we’re gonna cut down on Junior every time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over 36 years of hunting and fishing, it’s that pride makes thin soup.  And, while it is still a form of recreation, in today’s economy when hunting or fishing season comes around its also serious business because both our freezer and pocket book need all the help they can get.  Fun, food, exercise, and life lessons all at the same time – it just doesn’t get any better than that!  

In the land of Hillbillies the best grilling, like the best cooking in the kitchen, is done on cast-iron. Deer tenderloin cooked 10 minutes on both sides on the Hillbilly Hibachi is a delicacy fit for even our ‘Flatlander’ city cousins. Don’t tell’em its deer meat and they will swear its a choice filet from the butcher shop.

Food in the form of wild game and produce make for the best tasting and healthiest sustenance available to mankind.  When you harvest from the bounty of Mother Nature, not only are you participating in the cycle of life, but you are also enhancing your health by avoiding the pitfalls of industrialized processed food – no antibiotics, steroids, hormones, pesticides, preservatives, etc., to worry about.  And, knowingly or unknowingly, you become an environmentalist of sorts by reducing environmental pollution due to reduced plastic and cardboard packaging.  It’s true - I haven’t seen too many Styrofoam and cellophane wrapped deer chops come from the skinning shed.  Likewise, I haven’t seen too many crappie filets from the lake hit the freezer in brightly colored cardboard packaging.  

Now here's a challenge for a hillbilly - you have to multi-task when preparing this recipe! (Or get Maw to do it for you!) Maw preparing the wild blackberry glaze.

Isn’t it ironic that in society today when it has become fashionable to be ‘green’ and environmentally conscience, the media does not mention the obvious fact that harvesters of nature are the original conservationists and environmentalists?  In the hills we never got away from being ‘green’ and environmentally conscience in the first place.  It’s been passed down to us for generations as a matter of necessity – we just call it surviving on the land. 

The high heat will char-crust the cut of meat but the center will be pink and delicious. Maw cutting the tenderloin into medallions.

Our parents and grandparents pass down to us how to process game, forage in the woods, can from the garden, and finally, cook what we harvest.  All natural and organic vittles from the hills are amazing when prepared with a good recipe.  And, in the information age, with Google only a click away, recipes that can substitute wild meat are virtually at your fingertips.  Deer tenderloin is a delicacy that rates second to none in fine meat cuts and when grilled and combined with other natural ingredients, such as wild blackberries in a red wine glaze, it is spectacular. 

Now those are some great Vittles from the Hills! Char-crusted Tenderloin in Wild Blackberry Glaze with bacon-fried greenbeans and mashed 'taters...Ummmm, I'm hungry.

My wife and I have come up with a new way of extending our outdoor experience by spending time together in the kitchen preparing wild game in new and tasty ways.  One recent adaptation from an old recipe was peppercorn crusted deer tenderloin with wild blackberry glaze.  You start off by rubbing down a generous piece of tenderloin with olive oil.  Next, in a bowl mix together 2 table spoons of cracked peppercorns with two teaspoons of salt.  Rub this mixture over the entire cut of meat.  Over high heat on a charcoal-fired cast-iron hibachi grill cook the tenderloin for 7-9 minutes per side or until char-crusted on the outside and pink in the middle.

While the meat is being prepared start the glaze by combining in a sauce pan over medium heat 1 cup of port wine, ½ cup red wine vinegar, ½ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns, ¾ cup crushed wild blackberries, and 1 teaspoon flour. Cook this mixture down to a medium thick consistency (Note – for a sweet onion glaze you can substitute 1 cup of diced onions in place of the blackberries).  Layer medallion size cuts of meat on a plate then drizzle the glaze over the cuts.  Paired with fresh garden green beans fried with bacon and onions these vittles will please even the most discriminating flatlander palates of our city-folk cousins.  Give it a try.  So says the One-Eyed Hillbilly.

Greg Stephens is a 35-year veteran & life-time student of the great outdoors. His column appears weekly in print & online publications. You can email him at gregstephens@one-eyedhillbilly.com. For more columns go to www.one-eyedhillbilly.blogspot.com.