How to Make Delicious Survival Bread

These are by far the easiest camp bread that you can make, and they are all delicious. Most of these recipes are for campfire cooking using Cast iron pans or a Dutch oven. The first example can also be cooked over a fire using just a green willow branch.

The French Canadian Voyageur Method of Cooking bannock without a cast iron pan:

This method is the easiest prepper bread of all, it is done by rolling out a long piece of the bannock dough between your hands, and wrapping it around a green willow branch then prop it above the coals, rotating it as needed. Even the kids will love this way of cooking there own bread.

Simple Bannock Bread

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup butter or favourite oil, even bacon grease or rendered Bear fat
• 1 1/2 cups water

1. Measure flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir to mix. Pour melted butter and water over flour mixture. Stir with fork to make a ball.
2. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead gently about 10 times. Pat into a flat circle 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
3. Cook in a greased frying pan over medium heat, allowing about 15 minutes for each side. Use two lifters for easy turning. Sticks will work, in a pinch. May also be baked on a greased baking sheet at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

The beauty of this simple bread is it can be made sitting beside a fire just as easily as at home, and it takes only one bowl to make it. I like to have these dry ingredients pre mixed, so all I need to do is add water, and oil. You may even add dried fruit or berries or even dry cheese if you have some. I have even made this right in the Dutch Oven, by coating the bottom with flour first, and scrubbing it clean with an evergreen branch, and then simply adding some oil to the bottom, before baking.

Camp Biscuits

The next simple prepper recipe is biscuits’. These can be made in a cast iron frying pan with a lid, as well as a Dutch oven.

The simplest camp biscuit is not much different then the bannock, but with a twist if you have this ingredient.

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup milk

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Add the mayo, milk, and stir until soft dough forms.
3. Dust any flat area (A Board, Rock, or back of one of your cooking pans) with flour and turn out the dough on it. (Add additional flour if it is feeling too sticky.)
4. Roll or pat out and cut with any cup or glass.
5. Arrange the biscuits in your greased pan or Dutch oven and bake for 12 minutes.
6. Makes 12 biscuits

The simplest way to bake with a fire is by scraping aside some coals to place under your pan, and banking additional coals around the outside and the top of your cast pan. A truly good cast iron set, has a lip around the lid to hold the coals that are on top, and some Dutch ovens even come with cast iron legs. However, these tend to break off over the years.

Common Flour Tortillas

Next is a great camp bread, and very easy to make. Tortillas can be used with all kinds of filling not just Mexican styles.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup warm water

1. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Mix dry ingredients until well combined. Add oil and water until the mixture comes together and begins to form a ball. Continue to mix until dough is smooth. I like to do this with half the flour making a batter, and then add the additional dry ingredients until a smooth ball is formed.

2. Transfer from mixing bowl to a well-floured work surface. Divide dough in half, then in half again. Continue until you have 16 fairly, equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and flatten with the palm of your hand as much as possible. If dough is sticky, use a bit more flour. Cover flattened balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes before proceeding.

3. After rest period, heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 8 inches in diameter, keep-working surface, with rolling pin lightly floured. Do not stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other or they will get soggy.

4. When pan is very hot place one dough circle onto pan, and allow cooking about one minute or until bottom surface begins to brown. The uncooked surface will begin to show a few little bubbles. If tortilla is browning too quickly, reduced heat by raising pan or removing coals from under it.

You can adjust a fire by pulling coals off to the side before you start and using rocks as legs under you pan. If it is taking longer than a minute to see the golden brown spots on underside of tortillas, increase heat a bit, by adding more coals. Flip to other side and cook for about thirty seconds. You will want the tortilla to be soft and have a few small golden brown spots on the surface. Remove from pan with tongs and stack in a covered container until all tortillas are cooked. This will keep them soft and pliable.

5. Wipe out the pan in between cooking each tortilla, if flour has started to accumulate.

6. Serve warm or allow too cool for later use. When you are ready, place a slightly damp paper towel in the bottom of a sealed container to hold the finished tortillas.

7. Then store in an airtight container or zip-loc bag these tortillas will keep well. Store at room temperature for next day or freeze them for long-term use. To freeze the tortillas, separate them with wax paper or waxed paper, or even newspaper in a pinch, and place in a zippered bag before placing in freezer.
(Not sure, what is in newsprint nowadays, but you do what you can, with what you got.)
These are the most awesome tortillas, much better then store bought, and very useful for camp life, or when serving a meal around a campfire.

Sour Dough an Old Time Favourite

My next favourite bread is sourdough, the reason I have saved this for last is it requires the prepper to make it ahead of time, as the ingredient for raising your dough are what makes the sour part. This mixture is a self-rising concoction that you make yourself, out of flour, yeast, and sugar that grows continuously with fermentation. You simply take out what you need to use, and feed it with flour and sugar to keep it going.

Simple Sour Dough Starter Recipe:

1. In large non-metallic bowl, mix together dry yeast that has been working in the 2 cups warm water, and 2 cups all purpose flour and cover loosely as this will be giving off CO2, and will explode if in a sealed container.• 1 Tablespoon of dry yeast in a container of the warm water, and a tablespoon of sugar to feed the yeast.
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups warm water mixture with yeast, wait unit it forms a head like a dark beer.

2. Leave in a warm place to ferment, 4 to 8 days. Depending on temperature and humidity of kitchen, times may vary. If this mixture gets to cold, it will kill the yeast and no longer create sour dough. Place on cookie sheet in case of overflow. Check on occasionally.

3. When mixture is bubbly and has a pleasant sour smell (Yeasty), it is ready to use. If mixture has a pink, orange, or any other strange color or tinge to it, THROW IT OUT, and start over. Wild strains of yeast are all around us, and some will destroy the yeast in your mixture. After creating it Keep it in the refrigerator, covered until ready to bake.

4. When you use starter to bake, always replace with equal amounts of a flour and water mixture with a pinch of sugar. So, if you remove 1 cup starter, replace with 1 cup water and 1 cup flour. Mix well and leave out on the counter until bubbly again, then refrigerate. If a clear to light brown liquid has accumulated on top, do not worry; this is only alcohol a liquid that occurs from fermentation. Just stir this back into the starter, the alcohol bakes off, and that wonderful sourdough flavor remains! Sourdough starters improve with age, they used to be passed down generation to generation!

5. Use this starter to make any Sourdough recipe.

Sour Dough Pinch Bread:

This is a quick bread and traditionally it was cooked in a Dutch oven.

• 1/2 cup sourdough starter
• 1 cup of milk or powder milk mixed with water
• 2 1/2 cups whole wear flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons sweetener, (Sugar or honey)
• 3/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
~ Bacon fat or bear grease for later use.

Mix the starter, milk, and one cup of the flour in a large bowl. Let this stand in a warm place over night to rise, or until ready. When ready, turn the mixture out on a flat area cover this first with the remaining flour. I like to make a pile and put an indentation in it to hold the soft mixture.

Add additional dry ingredients, and if you are using honey dissolve it in some warm water first. Knead the soft dough by working it gentle into the additional flour until easily rolled out, or no longer sticky. Roll into a half-inch thickness, and cut into squares with a knife or round biscuit shapes using a cup. Dip each in the bacon fat, before placing in oven. Place as usual in a Dutch oven or arrange on a square pan, and bake for 30 minutes checking occasionally to prevent burning when using coals or a wood fire.

TIPS and Alternatives to Cast Iron Cookware when Cooking around a Fire, Outdoors

For those of you that do not have cast iron cook ware yet, all one simply has to do instead is, before building your fire, dig a hole, and fill it with sand from the river bank or some fine gravel, then build your fire. First, establish a sufficient coal bed over the gravel filled hole (Usually within an hour or two).

You will then scrape aside the fire over the gravel fill, and dig out a hot area large enough to place your camp pot into, then bank the pot with the removed hot gravel, covering completely the entire pot with the hot gravel. Add back the coals from your fire above the makes shift oven, and bake. This works for roasting meat or slow cooking stews as well.

As for Bannock, it can be cooked just as easily by wrapping it around a green willow branch and propped above the fire, rotating it as needed. It is like roasting a marsh mellow. I like to use a stick with a nub of a branch still sticking out to keep the dough from spinning on the stick as you turn it. I also usually peel the bark off before doing this. Kids love to cook it their own as they sit around the fire, and whenever you can get kids to do some of the cooking DO IT! This keeps them from nagging the cook. They can even just mold it onto the end of their stick like play dough.

When we speak of honey, the word sweet is usually not far behind.

When we speak of honey, the word sweet is usually not far behind. It’s because honey contains different types of sugars such as fructose, glucose, sucrose, and maltose.

It is produced by bees from the nectar of flowers and stocked up for the long winter season. We, humans, then harvest this honey for our own consumption.

We are all aware of the great uses for honey in the kitchen, but there is more to this sweet nectar than meets the eye. Much like your regular Swiss Army Knife, honey has a multitude of uses that goes beyond its wonderful taste. It is a little known fact that it contains a lot of nutrients essential to our health. It also possesses antimicrobial properties that are good for treating bacterial and fungal infections. Honey is also packed with antioxidants which prevent the formation of free radicals that cause a number of diseases.

And so, in prepping for any type of emergency, you better add honey to your stockpile because when SHTF, this sweet little treat will provide you with the much-needed calories for stressful situations. No need to worry because honey has a long shelf life so it’ll last a while, and if you’re still wondering how it will come in handy in disastrous situations, read on because I’ve made a list!

1. Treats wounds and burns

Topical application of honey on your wounds and burns works just as well as commercial antiseptics. The antimicrobial properties of honey prevent bacterial infection while hydrogen peroxide reduces inflammation and cleans the wound. Instead of applying honey directly in your wound, it is better to soak the dressing, such as gauze and cotton, in honey and wrap the dressing on your wound. The number of times you change the dressing depends on the level of the wound.

2. Relieves diarrhea

Diarrhea is usually caused by bacterial infection and this can be counteracted with honey. Honey mixed in water usually does the trick. Just remember to drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.

3. Treats urinary tract infections

Another example of bacterial infections you might get are those of the urinary tract. Bacterial infections are likely to happen if you run out of clean water and food. If you don’t have access to antibiotics, honey works just as well in reducing the level of bacteria in the body. No more burning sensation when you pee next time.

4. Soothes sore throat and cough

When you run out of cough syrups and you have to improvise, honey may just be what you need. The antimicrobial activity of honey will put an end to that persistent cough of yours. It works even better with lemon. Just squeeze the life out of that lemon and add honey to the juice. Stir until thoroughly mixed and then drink it. You’ll notice immediate relief on your sore throat.

5. Removes parasites

In a gloomy scenario where medical care is out of the question, any good survivalist has to make due with what he’s got. If you become infested with worms and other parasites, don’t hesitate to drink honey; you can mix it in water alongside vinegar. The combined action of the acidity in vinegar and the antimicrobial properties of honey can get rid of those nasty parasites living in your gut.

6. Promotes a good night’s sleep

In case of an evacuation and you have to camp outdoors, brace yourself for a lot of sleepless nights. You can rid yourself of all the tossing and turning by dabbing on a little honey on your tongue. Honey increases insulin production which in turn releases serotonin, responsible for alleviating mood and happiness. Serotonin is then converted to melatonin, which plays an important role in the quality and duration of your sleep.

7. Relieves stress and anxiety.

Consequently, the sweet and calming effect of honey can ease the stress that comes with trying to just get through the day alive. Drink honey with tea or simply with water to relieve those worries.

8. Boost energy levels

Because, honey helps reduce stress, it makes a good addition on your drink for a quick energy fix. The glucose in honey, which goes into the bloodstream, provides energy and relieves fatigue in the body. This works best in bug out situations where you need a lot of stamina.

9. Prevents viral infections

If you have managed to get out of a risky situation, you might not be successful the second time around if you don’t take care of your health. Honey is loaded with zinc and selenium, along with other nutrients, to help the immune system in fighting off bacterial and viral infections.

10. Prevents cancer

Honey can also aid in fighting off cancer, one of life’s greatest enemies. Honey is rich in antioxidants, which can prevent the formation of cancer cells as well vitamins and minerals to reduce susceptibility to cancer.

11. Improves blood circulation

Drinking honey is also good for your blood circulation. The glucose gives you energy and raises blood sugar levels. Glucose promotes better blood circulation which prevents capillary damage as well as reducing the risk of heart disease.

12. Prevents colitis

Colitis, a disease that damages the colon can be alleviated with continuous intake of honey. The antioxidants in honey can strengthen the colon’s resistance to colitis and other colon-related diseases. The enzymes in honey that aid in digestion also help in reducing strain in the colon.

13. Improves eyesight

Vitamin A is well known nutrient in improving eyesight. Pairing foods rich with Vitamin A and honey may enhance the vitamin’s effect on your vision, especially in a post-SHTF scenario where electricity is a thing of the past.

14. Strengthens memory

The antioxidants in honey also work in improving brain function. One study shows that a spoonful of honey helps increase memory. You never know when recalling a small piece of information can make a difference between life and death.

15. Aids in digestion

Honey also assists in digestion because it contains a lot of enzymes that participate in the breakdown of food. This is a good alternative from your regular sugar, which can actually impede your digestion.

16. Cures hangovers

Even in post-SHTF situations, you can still enjoy drinking alcohol by making some. And so, when that hangover finally hits you, you can always turn to honey for help. Fructose accelerates the metabolism of alcohol, easing that incessant head-pounding in no time at all. The key to getting rid of hangovers is hydration.

17. Another special property of honey is it aids in absorbing calcium the bones, based on a study conducted in Indiana. This reduces the risk of acquiring osteoporosis. On the contrary, the use of commercial sugar contributes to calcium leakage. 

BONUS

Surprisingly, even with all the benefits mentioned above, there are still a lot of practical uses for honey.

18. Prevents hair loss

For those with thinning hair, it’s best to start adding honey to your hair regimen because there are also reports that demonstrate honey’s ability to improve hair loss. Honey can be used to target damaged, unhealthy hair and the fungal infections associated with baldness. For men desperate to hide those bald spots, a dab of honey on your scalp won’t hurt.

19. Treats dandruff

If you think, that’s all honey can do for your hair, then you have another thing coming. This study shows that honey can also treat dandruff as well as seborrheic dermatitis, by reducing redness and scalp itching. The antimicrobial properties of honey wards off fungal growth associated with dandruff.

20. Prevents dry skin

In a situation where survival means constant motion, you may have to bear walking under the scorching heat of the sun. This will leave you dehydrated and your skin dry and rough. The antimicrobial agents as well as antioxidants in honey protect and nourish the skin. Apply honey in those dry areas and leave it on for 15-20 minutes. Then wash off with water.

Final Word

It is amazing just how many uses there are for honey especially in life-threatening conditions. The good news is that honey can easily be found in stores and supermarkets. You can use it to your liking, may it be for consumption, for medical emergencies, or as an antibiotic. So all you preppers out there, better stash some honey away to leave you covered for emergency situations, should they arise.

Just remember to use honey in moderation because too much sugar also puts you at risk for diabetes and other ailments. It should also be noted that honey works better as a supplement in preventing and treating diseases and should not be SOLELY substituted for medicine. Say you what you will, but you can’t deny the practical uses of honey.

How about you? What other uses of honey can you think of?

The world we live in is full of dangers, many of them two-legged.

The world we live in is full of dangers, many of them two-legged. Protecting our homes and families from these dangers is paramount. Fortunately, most states have some version of the “castle doctrine” otherwise known as “stand your ground” on the books, allowing us the right to defend our homes, rather than having to flee if someone invades our homes.

There are three basic types of attacks our homes can come under, if we assume that the United States isn’t going to be invaded by extra-terrestrials or zombies. While related, each is unique:

• Robbery – Someone breaking into the home, with the goal of grabbing what they can of value and getting out of there as quick as possible. Robbers want to get in and out, without alerting anyone that they are there, so robberies generally happen when nobody is home. The perpetrators look for unlocked doors or windows to gain access.
• Home Invasion – Someone forcibly entering the home, either by tricking the occupants into opening the door or by physically breaking in, through a door or window. Perpetrators of home invasions don’t care if anyone is home or are purposely waiting until someone is there, in the case of rape. Violence against the occupants is part and parcel of a home invasion.
• Gang Attack – This is most likely to happen after a disaster, when people are breaking into homes, looking for supplies so that they can survive. These desperate people may band together, especially if they find a home which they believe has a lot of surprise. In such a case, they will attack the home, intending to overwhelm the occupants and steal what they have. Violence is seen as a tool to get in and get what they want.

Obviously, the first two are much more likely to occur than the last one. But a full home defense plan must take all three into account. As there is some overlap in the defenses that we use, preparing for a gang attack that never comes isn’t a waste. It’s insurance that can help you defend against a home invasion as well.

So, how do we protect home and family? There are a variety of different things we should do, but just like there are three different categories of attacks that can come, there are also three different categories of defenses. A good defensive plan has to take all three of them into account.

• Passive Defenses – Your home should defend itself, at least to some point. That means having good quality locks on doors and windows, so that it is not easy to break into your home. It also means making access to windows difficult, so that someone with criminal intent can’t easily jimmy open or break a window. Properly done, passive defenses can help you with your active defenses as well.
• Appearance – The appearance of your home is important, as criminals “case” homes, looking for ones that look like good targets. Part of what they are looking for are homes which are likely to have easily disposed of goods, that they can make a profit off of. Another part of what they are looking for are homes they can get into, without being seen. If your home is isolated, with entry ways that are not visible to the neighbors, the chances of criminals getting in unseen increases. You can counter that by adding motion-activated lights, which attract attention and make the criminal more visible.
• Active Defenses – Part of your defensive plan has to include taking up arms in defense of your home. No passive defense system you can put into place will be perfect, unless you turn your home into a concrete bunker. If attackers are determined enough, they will get through your home’s defenses. At that point, your family’s safety is dependent on you, with a gun in your hand.

These three must work together. Controlling the appearance of your home, so that it doesn’t look like a good place to rob, helps prevent your passive defenses from being tested. Those passive defenses buy you time to prepare, so that you can actively defend your home. They also provide you with some protection from the bad guys, while you are defending your home. At the same time, your active defenses back up your passive ones, encouraging those bad guys to give up and leave, before they breech your defenses.

I have spent years in the outdoors. Over that time, I have accumulated many recipes from simple home cooking recipes, camping, and survival meals and some very unusual meals that seem truly desperate.

In no time, at all, I found out quickly by simply searching the Internet that there was no shortage of recipes out there for exactly that purpose. Not wanting to sound like everyone else on the net, I decided to gather, together some of my more unusual, but successful meals. Here are some of those meals that I have tried in my life, and was pleasantly surprised by them all.

The more unusual recipes have been given to me by some of the more unusual backwoods characters that I have met over the years. Those grey-bearded men, the trappers, and woodsmen that I have encountered in my many travels over as many years. Now some of these recipes can be substituted for whatever is readily available, but these recipes are tried and true recipes for the game they are designed for.

First the Fish

Fish Balls (Canned for the Prepper)

This recipe is many years old and no one knows where it comes from. I have updated it by using modern kitchen equipment to speed up the process and ease the labor.

• 1 ½ pound of ANY WHITEFISH, cleaned and boned, cut into small pieces.
• ½ cup light cream
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch.

Place the fish pieces a few at a time into an electric blender. I use a coarse blend and a purée and mix the two. This can be adjusted to suit your particular tastes. The old recipe calls for a purée I prefer a more coarser chop. Suit yourself. The purée helps to bind the fish afterward when forming the fish balls. Repeat this procedure until all of the fish is blended.

Put all of the purée into a large mixing bowl, and beat in the salt and pepper, and the 1 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch. Slowly add the leftover cream to the mixing bowl, and beat until light and fluffy. Next place the entire bowl of mixture in the fridge to cool. After the mixture has cooled (About one hour), remove the bowl from the fridge. Next, using a tablespoon of the mixture at a time roll the fish mixture into golf ball sized balls to be boiled in water. Using a large saucepan full of salted water, bring to a boil then set low to simmer, and add the fish balls to the water for 5 minutes at a low simmer.

Place the finished balls into sterilized jars, and add the STRAINED water from the cooking process to cover the fish balls completely in the jars for later use. Seal and store them in a cool place as you would any canned goods.

Later, these can be served by cooking them in a simple shrimp sauce, dumping the fish balls into the sauce and heating it over low heat and served with rice or potatoes.

Pan Fried Trout in Sour Cream

This is a great recipe for the campers, especially if you have had some cream go sour on you and you do not know what to do with it. Try this on your next fishing trip.

• 4 fresh trout (about ½ pound each) cleaned with head and tail left on.
• Season the fish with Salt
• ½ cup flour
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ teaspoon Vinegar

Preparations; wash the trout in cold water. Pat dry inside and out with a dry cloth. Rub the salt into the cavity of the fish, roll in flour, and shake off any excess. IN a heavy iron frying pan, melt 4 of the 6 tablespoons of butter over high heat. When the butter turns brown and gives off a nutty aroma, lower the heat and place the trout into the pan two at a time, so as not to cool the pan to quickly. Cooking time should be about 8 minutes per side.

Stir in the remaining butter, and scrape the drippings from the pan, then deglaze with the sour cream adding a little at a time.  Cook the cream about 5 minutes while stirring constantly, DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL. Stir in the vinegar, and simmer for 5 more minutes, then pour the sauce over the fish and serve, with your favorite side dish.

Game Birds

Roast Stuffed Duck

This is an awesome way to serve duck and it is easy to do too.

• 2 Ducks, oven ready
• 2 Tablespoons red wine
• Salt and pepper for the birds
• 2 Oranges, peeled and quartered
• 10 Prunes, soaked in water
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 squares heavy tin foil

Pluck and wash the birds in cold running water. Place them in a stainless steel pot and cover with cold water and the red wine, and let stand for at least 2 hours to marinate. Remove the ducks from the water and pat them dry, seasoning them generously inside and out with the salt and pepper. Stuff the ducks loosely with the orange slices and prunes. Lace the openings with a skewer, and string. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the ducks in the center of the foil, smear with butter and wrap the foil around the ducks, enclosing them completely. Cook for one hour then remove the foil from the ducks and broil until golden brown.

Grouse Soup

• 2 Large Grouse cleaned and cut into serving pieces
• ½ Pound Salt Pork
• 4 Wild Onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• ½ Pound Moose meat or stewing meat cut into strips
• 3 Quarts water
• 1 Cup young tender cattail shoots cut into 1-inch lengths. (Obviously a spring recipe)
• 4 small discs of Bannock Buttered and Fried (to serve under the soup)

Wash the birds in cold water and cut into serving pieces. Place the bird into a large soup pot for cooking. Next, melt two Tablespoons of butter, in a frying pan adding the salt pork and onions to cook until the onions are caramelized. Then put the onion and salt pork mixture into the pot with the bird pieces.

Place the strips of Moose meat on top, and cover with 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, until the meat is about to fall off the bone. Remove the birds, and the moose strips, from the pot and set aside for later, you may cover these with foil to keep warm. Then continue cooking the soup broth for another hour. After removing the soup from the heat and strain through a sieve into a large saucepan, and add the cattail shoots, and cook for another 15 minutes or until shoots are tender.

Prepare the bannock and fry in melted butter until golden brown. Cut each disc of bannock into four slices, and add to the bottom of a soup tureen. Pile on the bird pieces and cover with soup stock. The moose strips can be used as a side dish or added to the soup.

Yellow Line Yummies

No sense wasting those critters you ran over, coming home from bingo night. The next recipes may not sound appealing to some, however, I assure you they can be very decent fair for an open mined prepper. They are a collection of odd recipes by some of the best survivalist that ever lived, those people who lived through the last depression and our pioneers, and ancestors from the distant past. The first recipe is one of my favorites, just for its unusual ingredient. It is a real survival recipe and is always good to know you can turn anything into a gourmet meal if you have the patience.

French Fried Skunk

If you want to serve something out of the ordinary to your guests, this will certainly fit the bill. How about French Fried Skunk, the meat is usually darker then a rabbit, so you can call it wild turkey if you like.

The best thing about this animal is its usually around every night during the warm months and is found all over the country roads, from north to south. Here is how you prepare it.

• 2 Skunks, skinned and cleaned (soaked in a salt brine)
• 1 Tablespoon salt in water to cover.
• 2 Cups vegetable oil for frying later
• 2 egg yokes beaten
• 3 Cups milk or cream
• 1 ½ Cups of flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons baking powder

Clean and wash the skunk, making sure to remove the scent glands. Cut the skunk into serving pieces. I usually cut them into 6 pieces of shoulders ribs, and hindquarters. You can also cut them as those chicken houses do it, where every piece has a little chunk of solid meat on it still. Prepare a soup pot with enough water to cover the meat, while not allow the water to boil over during cooking. Next, boil the Skunk for about 35 – 40 minutes until tender. Removes any scum from the surface of the water as you cook it. In a separate bowl, combine the other ingredients together for the batter. Mix the egg yolks, the milk, flour, salt, and baking powder, and beat into a batter. This should resemble cake batter. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep fryer to around 360 degrees. Dip the pieces into the batter and fry them in your hot oil until golden brown. Drain well and serve with seasoned fried potato wedges on the side.

Baked Stuffed Raccoon

This is best with a freshly killed raccoon. As with our previous recipe, these critters are abundant throughout the lower 48 states, and even up into lower half of Canada. Here is a great recipe for them.

• 1 Medium Raccoon (skinned and cleaned of course)
• 4 Large Onions
• 4 Strips Salt pork
• 2 Cups Beef Stock

The Stuffing

• 5 Large Tart Apples
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter
• 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1 Cup dry Bread Crumbs
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Skin and clean the Raccoon. Wash well removing as much of the fat as possible. Place in a large soup pot and cover with salted water, simmer for 30 minutes. Next peel, core, and dice the apples into a mixing bowl. Melt the remaining butter into a small saucepan and add some cinnamon, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Remove the Raccoon, and let it cool.

Stuff the raccoon, and sew up the cavity. Place the Raccoon breast down, with the legs folded underneath trussed with a string like a roast chicken then place in the roast pan. This is best done with a roasting rack. Drape the salt pork over the back of the raccoon with toothpicks to add flavor. Place the onions beside the raccoon, and season all with salt and pepper.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes to brown the meat, then reduce the temperature in the oven to 325 degrees F and add the 2 cups of beef stock and cook for at least one hour or until tender. Making sure you baste every 10-15 minutes with the beef stock to keep the meat from drying out.

My Wild Game Cooking Tips

Preparing Wild Game

I would like to leave the readers with a few tips on preparing wild game. Over the years, I have been fortunate to have some of these tips passed down to me by experienced outdoorsmen, many of the tricks I, unfortunately, had to learn the hard way though. I want to pass these tips on to you readers, and I hope this makes you appreciate the wild game as much as I do.

Some people unfamiliar with proper game handling or preparation will complain about a gamey flavor of their deer. Often they mistakenly blame it on the deer’s age, thinking it was because he was old, this is hardly ever the case with bucks or bulls. Old bucks never get that old in nature. Granted some late-season bucks can be a bit worn and tired beat down by the rut, but they started out in their prime.

The beginning of the season these deer was in top shape with plenty of fat on their ribs, but by the end of the rut, the ones in the 4 -7-year range are beat and tired. Some of these bucks will not make it through the winter, after losing to much weight; they often die from the extreme weather. Those people that complain about gaminess have usually been fed an improperly butchered animal. Because game animals such as Deer, Elk, and Moose require a completely different way of handling then Beef or domestic animals do.

The game animal should be bled immediately upon killing it. The blood is what is responsible for the liver taste in some wild meat. What one should also do to prepare a feast of game meat for the more squeamish eaters is soak it in brine overnight. The brine can be just simple salt water, with some pickling spice. I use this for the deer family, and for game birds, you may even add some sugar to the salt-water brine. The salt in brine uses capillary action to draw out the blood from the meat and works as a way of killing bacteria too.

Thus, the blood will not leave that liver flavor and no… the salt-water brine does not leave a salty flavor either, that is a myth. Although you should remember to rinse the meat after brining it, and pat it dry with a cloth before cooking it, especially if you are trying to brown the meat in a pan for a stew or even a roast. Even a commercial abattoir, will bleed a domestic animal immediately, often while they are still kicking.

Next, the fat on deer is not regular fat, its tallow, and just like sheep’s tallow it is best removed or cooked over an open flame to melt it away, it can taste very waxy to most people. Now when boning out a deer, I try to remove as much of this tallow as you can, if not all of it, most of it. Also, after back at camp or home, and you are wrapping the game in butcher paper, try to trim off all silver skin with a fillet knife.

This is easy enough to do with a little practice. The silver casing is what is wrapped around the individual muscles of these animals. This is absolute, necessary to remove it before cooking any. This sinew is far too chewy to be eaten, and it shrinks up during the cooking process, like a snare drum. Some hunters leave the outer silver skin on as a protection against freezer burn, and then they removed it just before cooking. In fact, this skin is so tough to chew it was used in the making of bowstrings by the Native Americans for thousands of years… that is how tough it is.

Poor butchering technics also often miss the foul scent glands of these animals. The glands are on all wild deer and pig species. A butcher who is only used to domestic buttering, may not be aware of these glands and where they are located. These scent glands, if not removed from the meat especially before grinding it into hamburger or sausage, will contaminate the final product, making it inedible.

During the high point of a Rut even if you get your skinning knife on one of these glands it can contaminate the rest of the animal simply by running your blade along it after while skinning it out. This is often the case with the tarsal gland near the rear bend in the leg of the deer. There is also a strong gland between the major muscles of the hindquarter.

I hope some of you will try these recipes, and let us know what you think of them, and the very least keep them for the future, for when times get tough.

You never know when a skunk might be the only thing you have to eat.