The Intrepid Eater

03/24/2025

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been around much of late!

(Edit: the link seemed to be broken for a few of you. I reposted in the comments so give it another try and let me know! - Link to my Substack can be found in the comments!)

After years of using Facebook as a medium for sharing my thoughts, photos, and recipes, I eventually became burnt out.

Between constantly shifting algorithms, social spam, data and identity theft, having to pay to get new followers, having my content being funnelled away from my followers, and proffering my neck to tech bros who would gladly lop off my head for a few more bytes of my information, I found myself done with the whole thing. Just done.

I discovered that I was happy and very willing to leave this stage for greener pastures - which I've done. Since wresting myself away from this app, I've been busy creating a portfolio and selling recipes and articles to publications like MeatEater, Petersen's, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Deer and Deer Hunting, Hunting Life, Mule Deer Foundation, Hook and Barrel, and many more.

I've also been continuing my work as managing editor with Harvesting Nature, helping to create a community of like-minded, wild food-focused individuals through the creation of amazing podcasts and excellent online content. We've also been working on writing cookbooks - one of which, The Art of Venison Sausage Making, will be available for sale very soon.

The time spent scrolling and swearing at FB has been redirected to chasing Arrow around the woods and spending time in the kitchen, doing what I do best.

The one thing I miss about all of this is the reason I started it all in the first place: YOU.

The little community that grew out of the seed I planted here some 4 or 5 years ago has buoyed me throughout this entire process and I am nothing but thankful for all of the support all of you have lent me over the years.

I'd like to offer somewhere else to continue being part of it, so I'm starting a Substack (a platform designed for writers and creators to publish newsletters and build a direct relationship with their audience) where I'll share some updates as to what I'm doing with my life and hopefully start producing recipes and essays for readers.

If you'd like to join, I'll include the link in the comments. It will be 100% free for the time being, and mostly free for the foreseeable future. I'm also migrating my dormant email newsletter subscription over to Substack. Please feel free to opt-out if you'd rather not be a part of it.

I'll be leaving my page up and running for posterity's sake, so if you need to find something I wrote about in the past, it will be available for you. I also half-maintain an Instagram page (.intrepid.eater), so definitely check me out there.

I'll likely check in every once in a while but please don't expect timely answers to questions or messages.

Thank you for all of your support; it has allowed me to turn this pandemic-era experiment into an actual career, and I'm so very grateful!

12/24/2024

The Intrepid Eater's Top Wild Sandwich Recipes

I've compiled a list of my favourite wild sandwich recipes from the Intrepid Eater recipe vaults.

Whether it's wild mushrooms, hand-caught fish, venison, moose, duck, goose, beaver, or wild turkey, it's been slapped between two pieces of bread and made extra delicious!

Featured:

The Walleye Rueben
Venison Cube Steak Sandwiches
Nashville Hot Pike Sandwiches
Portuguese Moose Heart Caçoila Sandwiches
Buffalo Chicken of the Woods Sliders
The Best Tuna Melts
Shaved Venison Bagel Sandwiches
Egyptian Duck Liver Sandwiches
Venison Heart Sandwiches with Chimichurri
Fried Lobster Mushroom Po'Boys
Bourbon Brown Sugar Beaver Steak Baguettes
Wild Turkey Pesto Melts
Fried Lemongrass Bluegill Banh Mi
Senegalese Shredded Goose Leg Ndambe
Garlic Butter Panfish Sandwiches
Venison and Provolone Baguette Sandwiches
Bullhead Catfish BLTs
Korean Fried Venison Heart Sandos

Head to the Intrepid Eater website to see all 18 recipes!

12/21/2024

Got an unidentified piece of venison (or beef!) in the bottom of your freezer? Make Venison and Mushroom Gravy on Toast!

This recipe works great with small shoulder, neck, or shank roasts, but can be made with pretty much any cut of meat - including the random bits you may not have labelled as well as you should have!

This venison and mushroom gravy on toast is a great way to utilize a small venison shoulder roast or shank and turn it into pure comfort food!

12/15/2024

Can't help but agree!

12/13/2024

You've probably been seeing some kohlrabi in the grocery stores or your CSA boxes lately as they tend to store well over winter. What do you do with these strange-looking vegetables?

Kohlrabi (one of the many offshoots of the wild cabbage plant that includes broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and more) is actually quite versatile, being perfectly suited to steaming, roasting, stir frying, baking, pickling, etc.

One of its best qualities though, in my opinion, is that it stands in surprisingly well for unripe papaya in the ubiquitous Thai som tam salad.

Another homely winter vegetable, the rutabaga, also works as a papaya substitute.

Try it yourself and let me know what you think!

This is a great solution for what to do with a CSA basket full of kohlrabi!This kohlrabi som tam salad is a take on the traditional Thai salad made with unripe papaya. Kohlrabi manages to stand in effortlessly and green apple adds the appropriate amount of sourness.

12/08/2024

Some food highlights from Harvesting Nature’s 2024 Fall Wild Pig Culinary Camp

I’ve spent the last few days at our Texas Pig Camp cooking up a storm as usual!

It was another great camp where I got to meet some new friends, hang out with old ones, and see people’s eyes light up at the culinary potential for wild pigs.

As has been become the custom, we got to try some fun exotic treats as well.

The menu this year included:

-Tajin dusted pork shoulder sushi rolls with soy lime dipping sauce
-Grand Marnier liver pâté
-Hog shank rillettes
-Sliced tongue with chimichurri
-Breaded and butter-fried testicles
-Grilled Moroccan kidney brochettes wrapped in caul fat
-Teriyaki-glazed heart skewers
-Tropical tequila ribs
-Thai moo menau tenderloin salad
-Pork shoulder Cubano sandwiches
-Wild pork tacos al pastor
-Bbq pork lard cookies
-Pork Parmesan and Caesar salad
-Pork souvlaki and Greek salad
-Wild pork breakfast crunch wraps
-Wild chicharrones

We also had some special bites, like:

-Jalapeño-Honey grilled black bear loin
-Grilled lemon-butter snook
-Alligator and wild pork liver boudin sausage
-Beluga caviar
-Green tomato and okra fritters
-Seared snipe breast and truffles

What a weekend!

Looking forward to a full night’s sleep, and maybe a bit of a fast… that was a lot of food.

If you’re interested in coming to one of our camps, check out Harvesting Nature’s website for more details!

12/03/2024

Just in time for the holiday season!

This wild duck liver pâté is perfect for charcuterie boards laid out for guests and visitors.

You could use Triple Sec or Grand Marnier instead of the Cointreau and even make the pâté out of wild goose, chicken, turkey, or farmed duck livers instead of the wild duck livers I used in this recipe.

Serve on crackers or baguette, on its own or as part of a charcuterie board.

This wild duck liver pâté is perfect for charcuterie boards laid out for the holidays. You could use Triple Sec or Grand Marnier instead of the Cointreau and even make the pâté out of wild goose, chicken, turkey, or farmed duck livers instead of the wild duck livers I used in this recipe. Serve ...

12/01/2024

11/29/2024

Searching for an incredible sauce idea? Try smashing two well-established ones together into one insanely tasty super-sauce!

This big and hearty steak and eggs breakfast benefits from the steak being made from goose breast, which tastes like the best grass-fed beef sirloin you can find, and the chimichurri-hollandaise sauce draped over everything.

This sauce adds velvety richness, while at the same time, cutting through itself with spiky tart herbaceousness, making it the perfect complement to steak and eggs!

If you don't happen to have a freezer full of goose breast, try making this big ol' breakfast with sirloin steak instead.

This Canada goose steak and eggs with chimichurri hollandaise sauce is perfect for breakfast, or dinner… or breakfast for dinner!The coffee rubbed goose goes fantastically with the chimichurri hollandaise and works just as well as beef steak, as long as you cook it rare to medium rare. If you don....

11/21/2024

A lot of people get hung up using only French, American, or Italian recipes for their wild game.

I'll tell you something though, wild game works in so many different cuisines!

Try this South Asian recipe for your venison (or beef!) stew meat and let me know what you think.

This venison dal gosht is a wild take on the North Indian or Pakistani dish made with lentils (dal) and meat (gosht). Though it is usually made with mutton or lamb, I used chunks of venison stewing meat, cut from the shoulder. You could make this dish with bone-in pieces of meat (which would be more...