doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: Kentucky Burgoo with Sharpies and Woodcock

Shoveling snow here today yet again. When is Spring coming? A local hunting buddy supplied the wife and I with a new game cookbook for Christmas last year, titled "Buck, Buck, Moose". In a much overdue review of the primary freezer here, we discovered some long-misplaced gamebirds that should be good fodder for this hearty, meaty shitkicker stew. The primary proteins include lesser elk cuts, long-frozen goose breasts, and even fresh chicken thighs, so the big freezer is now free from any remaining flotsam and jetsam. After a long brine bath, cleaning the sharpies was interesting in that they look remarkably similar to spruce grouse (but w/o the piney effect). Another interesting note (at least to me) was how much lighter the leg meat on a woodcock is, as compared to the breasts (never noticed that one before). The final assembly and stewing shall occur this evening, so I should have a report on the outcome tomorrow. Any good wine paring suggestions from the gallery here?

You want a substantial and hearty red for this melange a cuisine rustica.. I should prefer a slightly chilled Lambrusco- a Caesar Salad, wild grain rice with capers and mushrooms, Parker House rolls , dessert oprional. Bon appetit!! Le Reynard

Silver Oak Cab, the best cab for me but a bit pricy.

bill

Pick a color.

https://images.app.goo.gl/9LH4tQRn5TA3LBch7


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Carlo Rossi Paisano if you want to get fancy.

LMAO!!


On the pick of color. Spit my water out due to all of the old memories rushin through my mind.

Mad Dog and PBR memories and bad morning after's

Ah, hair of the mad dog...

I work hard now to avoid the "bad mornings after" effect, but that Sir was truly funny. The stew turned out surprisingly well. I had concerns about the overall quality of some of the ingredients (due to their long residence in our freezer) but a long soaking in a sugar/salt brine had very positive effects. I trimmed off some freezer burn, cleaned everything else up, and browned the meat in a skillet first. The woodcock leg and thigh bits were so good that the majority of them didn't make it into the final product(!). The combination of all the odds and ends produced a looser gravy than I had anticipated (so the next batch will likely have less veggies, more potatoes and perhaps even some cornstarch), and the meat cubes didn't break down as much as the cookbook photos indicated (perhaps longer simmering would help?), but even the sharptail chunks were darn good. It was a school night, so no vino as an accompaniment (sadly, a big red would have been wonderful, along with some fresh bread), but overall... a very nice mix of flavors. Extremely happy with the results.

So what is the recipe? Been experimenting with sous vide lately and impressed by what it does to tenderize meat before searing and roasting.

There’s a “town” (handful of houses) in Webster County, WV, named Bergoo, though others call it Leatherbark—and right there a little native trout stream called Bergoo Creek, named for the stew, that flows into the larger Elk River. I’m told bergoo is served around there at county fairs—basically whatever wild game on hand goes into the pot. I’ve never had it though. Goldenseal magazine did a piece on it years ago.