I love eating wild game. I get some of the best ribeyes in the country and yet I still favor fried backstrap with milk gravy and french fries. Or what about a smoked forequarter made into chopped BBQ sandwiches?

I’ve even noticed amongst the young yuppie crowd that there’s an interest in hunting/eating wild game due to it being the undisputed king of organic food. With the dropping number of hunters, I’m surprised that Fish & Game isn’t playing this angle.

The last two weeks I’ve written articles on meat and processing your game. It’s only logical to follow up with an article on recipes. But when cooking wild game remember a few things:

1. Big game doesn’t marble (intermuscular fat) like beef so it is not as juicy. Don’t overcook it or cook it as fast as you do beef. Cook your big game on the medium rare side.

2. Deer/elk haven’t been finished out the last 120 days on corn so it might have a slight off-taste that you need to mask.

3. If tough, use Adolph’s Tenderizer.

BACKSTRAPS/FILETS/CHICKEN FRIED STEAK

Backstraps and the filets are the all-time favorites. Here’s how the Claycombs like to eat them.

The filet mignons, I marinate mine for an hour or two and then apply seasoning. Right now, I’m favoring the coarse ground McCormick’s seasoning. Grill on medium heat. Also great for kabobs.

Now for everyone’s all-time favorite. I’m going to lump backstraps and round steaks together because I chicken fry these. My wife beats them with a tenderizer and sprinkles on Adolph’s Tenderizer.

Let sit 15 minutes. Dip in milk, roll in flour and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fry them in a black skillet until golden brown. I like them cooked medium but my wife cooks them a little crispy and that’s great, too.

I always make milk gravy with my CFS. Another twist is to sauté onions and make onion gravy and garlic toast. Fry up some French fries and drizzle the gravy on the steak, French fries and garlic toast.

A meal fit for kings. I can get the best beef in the country and yet this is my most favorite meat in the world. My family loves fried backstrap.

FLANK STEAKS/ TRI-TIPS

These make great appetizers. Marinate for an hour or two then lay on a pan and heavily sprinkle on McCormick’s coarse ground steak seasoning. Finely chop up some onions and green peppers and lay on the flank. Roll it up and pin it together with toothpicks.

Smoke on low heat for an hour and then turn up the heat. When done, slice paper thin across grain.

These make great hors d’oeuvres. After eating them once you will not believe that for all of these years you haven’t saved them.

KABOBS

Another way to use your steaks is to cut into 1x1x½-inch chunks. Marinate the steak, mushrooms, slices of green peppers, onions and squash for 2-4 hours. Skewer the above ingredients, sprinkle with Tony Chachere’s seasoning and cook on your Camp Chef pellet smoker. These are to die for.

FOREQUARTER

Now for my all-time favorite and after trying it once it will be yours too. The third most tender muscle on the carcass is in the shoulder, if you cook it slowly. Sprinkle the shoulder with your favorite seasoning salt. Smoke it on low heat for 3-4 hours. I used to lay bacon strips over it but haven’t in 30 years. Then put it in a black turkey roasting pan and put in about 2-3 cups of water. Put it in the oven all night at 180 degrees. If you wake up in the middle of the night check on it. If it runs out of water it is ruined. If it is low, add two cups.

When it falls off the bone with a fork, it’s done. If not, turn the heat up to 300 degrees. After cooking all night, it should finish in 30-45 minutes. But to make sure this is clear, if it doesn’t fall off the bone with a fork it is not done.

Pull the meat off of the bone. There will not be enough meat left on the bone for an ant to eat. All of the collagen and gristle has disappeared. Chop into ½-inch chunks. Sprinkle with Tony Chachere’s seasoning salt. Toast buns in a Lodge black skillet on both sides with butter. Throw on a handful of chopped meat and douse with your favorite BBQ sauce and a little Tabasco sauce. I cannot tell you how good these are. Your petite little wife will eat two. It will rival any beef brisket sandwich that you’ve ever eaten.

FAJITAS

Use the skirts to make fajitas. Peel the tough skin off of both sides. Slice ¼-inch slices cross grain.

Marinate the meat, onions and green peppers for 3-4 hours. Cook everything in a black iron skillet. Fill a tortilla and feast.

BBQ RIBS

Trim off what fat cover is easily removed and sprinkle with coarse ground McCormick seasoning.

Place on your smoker for 3-4 hrs. then put in a covered dish in your oven that is preheated to 325 degrees. Cook until the meat falls off of the bones. Douse with BBQ sauce and dig in.

SAUSAGE

Years ago I decided that I like a good hot dog but not the Joe Cheapo $.99/pack hot dogs. So now I make hot dogs out of sausage. Everyone will die for them. Smoke your sausage and then for condiments put out bowls of chopped onions, avocado slices, Wolf Brand chili and spicy mustard. Eat one of these and you’ll fall back in love with the lowly hot dog!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

You hear about aging meat but does anyone really understand what it means to age meat? So first off, what is aging? It is basically controlled rotting. So why do people age their meat?

1. It makes the meat more tender.

2. Some people favor the aged flavor.

DRY AGING

Dry aging is when you hang meat to age in an open environment. You’re supposed to hold it at a certain temp, humidity and for a certain time period. If you want to age your meat just do a rib rack or a loin rack. If you age the whole carcass the trim will be green and you’ll waste a lot of meat.

WET AGING

Now, I bet over 99 percent of the beef is wet aged in a cryovac bag. If you’ve been to a supermarket and seen a “primal” displayed in a bag that’s what a cryovac bag is. (Editor’s note: According to nebraskastarbeef.com, “primals” are the large muscle groups from which commonly known steaks, such as ribeyes, T-bones, etc. are cut.)

Aged in a bag changes the environment. The bag creates an anaerobic condition (lack of oxygen) so a different flora of bacteria grows as compared to meat that’s hung in the open (aerobic — oxygen is present) so it will age differently.

You can get by with aging beef longer for a couple of reasons:

• Usually you’re doing so in a cooler that has a controlled temp.

• Beef starts out much cleaner than your wild game due to the environment. So the initial bacteria load is lower.

When you age game it’s usually in your garage. It’d be best if you could keep it at 32 to 36 degrees. Equally important will be how clean your carcass is. If it has hair/dirt on it there will be a high load of bacteria present. The dirtier it is, the less time you can age.

RIGOR MORTIS

At a bare minimum, you want to let it go through rigor mortis before you bone it, though. If it’s boned out before going through RM, it will be tougher. It’s going to shrink up but if it’s tied to the bone it can only shrink so much. If you bone it hot it will shrink twice as much. In the backcountry, sometimes you don’t have a choice but given the opportunity, let it hang at least one day. Or if you can just quarter it out so it is still attached to the bone, that would be the next best option.

One good thing is that a lot of bacteria, though not all, will have visible indicators. If it starts to get a slight off odor or turns a slight off color, don’t panic, just cut it up and freeze it.

I know it sounds complicated. That’s because it is. So how have people survived? Because sometimes we worry way too much. I remember my nutrition professor from South Dakota said when they had a horse die they’d tell the local Native Americans. They’d always wait three days to come get it. They lived. I am just giving you rules of thumb to go by.

One of my past bosses would age his beef ribeyes in cryovac in the fridge for six to eight weeks. Anymore, I won’t even cut up a ribeye unless I’ve aged it for a minimum of 45 days. I’ve even had them up to 90 days old. But, that’s beef in a cryovac bag in a cold fridge.

Don’t age your meat loose in the fridge. It will pick up odors.

Here’s what I’d recommend. Start off cautiously. Age a few days more than you normally do and progress from there.

Five things make your meat tenderer: 1) Letting it go through rigor mortis before boning, 2) let it age, 3) young animals are more tender, 4) use tenderizers before cooking, and 5) cook your meat slower.

TIPS

• Remove the hide. It acts as a blanket in warmer weather and spoils your meat.

• Game doesn’t have a fat cover like beef and will dry out faster.

• A hanging carcass derives most of the benefits of aging within the first nine days.

• The end of a cut, for instance the ribeye, will dry out and look almost like jerky. Before you cut your steaks slice off this layer of tough, dried up meat.

• Don’t cut your meat into steaks to age. Either hang the whole carcass or as primals. By primal I mean a whole shoulder, hindquarter, etc. If cut into steaks it will deteriorate faster. This is due to oxygen and bacteria hitting all sides of the meat.

Hopefully I’ve sparked your interest to experiment with aging your meat.

It will surprise you as to how much tenderer it is. Let’s end on a quote from Ben Franklin: “After three days fish and company both start to stink”! Don’t age fish.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

You hear about women who buy a different pair of shoes every time they get a different outfit. I’ve got buddies whose wives’ closets are full of shoes. Us guys may all roll our eye in disbelief and count our blessings that our wives aren’t like that — but are we outdoorsmen really any different?

I know that this article is going to start a range war and all of the men in the reading public will call me a traitor and tar and feather me. But think about all of the boots that we really believe we can’t live without.

I need Chaco sandals for when I’m unloading the boat and in the boat fishing. I also use them when backpacking and fly fishing so I can wade out into a river, fish and then jump out and hike down the trail and be dried off before I get to the next hole. Then for fishing we actually need some slip-resistant deck shoes don’t we?

And if we’re wearing waders then we need wading boots, right? And felt bottom soles are outlawed in Alaska because you can transport invasive species of bugs or something? So you may have wading boots that have multiple bottoms that you can detach.

Then my buddy up in Alaska wears calf-high rubber boots because of all of the rain/bogs that they hunt in up there. She came to Idaho elk hunting and had a heck of a time scrambling around the mountains in her rubber boots. (But she did get a huge bull).

Then what about cowboy boots? You need cowboy boots to ride horses. Yes, I pack back into the mountains wearing hiking boots, but deep down I’m always worried that if I get thrown that I may hang a boot in the stirrup and get dragged due to the heavy lugs on the sole. Oh yeah, at last count I have seven to nine pairs of cowboy boots.

What if you’re hunting in a snake-infested area? Then we know that we need to wear snake boots. I know the yuppie trend is to sing praises about not killing venomous snakes, but I hate snakes. When I was a kid, a copperhead bit my dog. Since then, I’ve had no use for poisonous snakes. So if you’re hunting in snake country, you can justify wearing snake boots.

And then what about hiking? You have to have a pair of lightweight, canvas-sided hiking boots, don’t you? But what about hunting in colder weather? You’ll need some leather hiking boots. Leather ones are warmer/more waterproof in light snows and rains and cooler weather.

BUT what about hunting in deep snow in subzero weather? You’ve got to have heavy-duty leather high-top boots. Otherwise in deep snow it will come over the tops while hiking and pack into your boots.

Curse of all curses. So then we also have to have gaiters to strap on.

Oh, but what about ice fishing? Not only is it ungoshly cold, we’re also standing on a block of ice. So some Sorel Pac boots are nice aren’t they? Nothing is more miserable than having ice cold feet.

Since we’re on a roll, I might as well slam a few more nails in the coffin! A lot of us work for companies or in environments that require steel toe boots. And it is best not to wear the same pair of boots 12 hours a day, six days a week. My dad always said it is best to have two pairs and alternate every day wearing them and they’ll last a lot longer.

I can only pray that my wife doesn’t read this article and finally put two and two together and figure out how many pairs of boots that I actually own. What are you laughing at? You’d better get to praying, too! get prepared for the upcoming firestorm!

Sidenote: If you’re smart enough to hide this column so your wife doesn’t see it, then here are a few words of advice. For your deer/elk hunts this fall, buy a good pair of hiking boots. I’ve had good luck with Irish Setter VaprTrek boots. They’re lightweight. For heavy-duty snow, I like the leather Irish Setter Elk Hunting boots.

One thing that I now swear by — a good pair of hiking socks. I don’t want to exaggerate and say that it will be like walking on carpet, but it almost is. When you go to buy boots, wear the thicker hiking socks; otherwise if you buy boots while wearing a thin pair of socks then they will be too small and cramp your toes while out hiking hard. I’d rather have my boots a hair big rather than small.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

You hear about women who buy a different pair of shoes every time they get a different outfit. I’ve got buddies whose wives’ closets are full of shoes. Us guys may all roll our eye in disbelief and count our blessings that our wives aren’t like that — but are we outdoorsmen really any different?

I know that this article is going to start a range war and all of the men in the reading public will call me a traitor and tar and feather me. But think about all of the boots that we really believe we can’t live without.

I need Chaco sandals for when I’m unloading the boat and in the boat fishing. I also use them when backpacking and fly fishing so I can wade out into a river, fish and then jump out and hike down the trail and be dried off before I get to the next hole. Then for fishing we actually need some slip-resistant deck shoes don’t we?

And if we’re wearing waders then we need wading boots, right? And felt bottom soles are outlawed in Alaska because you can transport invasive species of bugs or something? So you may have wading boots that have multiple bottoms that you can detach.

Then my buddy up in Alaska wears calf-high rubber boots because of all of the rain/bogs that they hunt in up there. She came to Idaho elk hunting and had a heck of a time scrambling around the mountains in her rubber boots. (But she did get a huge bull).

Then what about cowboy boots? You need cowboy boots to ride horses. Yes, I pack back into the mountains wearing hiking boots, but deep down I’m always worried that if I get thrown that I may hang a boot in the stirrup and get dragged due to the heavy lugs on the sole. Oh yeah, at last count I have seven to nine pairs of cowboy boots.

What if you’re hunting in a snake-infested area? Then we know that we need to wear snake boots. I know the yuppie trend is to sing praises about not killing venomous snakes, but I hate snakes. When I was a kid, a copperhead bit my dog. Since then, I’ve had no use for poisonous snakes. So if you’re hunting in snake country, you can justify wearing snake boots.

And then what about hiking? You have to have a pair of lightweight, canvas-sided hiking boots, don’t you? But what about hunting in colder weather? You’ll need some leather hiking boots. Leather ones are warmer/more waterproof in light snows and rains and cooler weather.

BUT what about hunting in deep snow in subzero weather? You’ve got to have heavy-duty leather high-top boots. Otherwise in deep snow it will come over the tops while hiking and pack into your boots.

Curse of all curses. So then we also have to have gaiters to strap on.

Oh, but what about ice fishing? Not only is it ungoshly cold, we’re also standing on a block of ice. So some Sorel Pac boots are nice aren’t they? Nothing is more miserable than having ice cold feet.

Since we’re on a roll, I might as well slam a few more nails in the coffin! A lot of us work for companies or in environments that require steel toe boots. And it is best not to wear the same pair of boots 12 hours a day, six days a week. My dad always said it is best to have two pairs and alternate every day wearing them and they’ll last a lot longer.

I can only pray that my wife doesn’t read this article and finally put two and two together and figure out how many pairs of boots that I actually own. What are you laughing at? You’d better get to praying, too! get prepared for the upcoming firestorm!

Sidenote: If you’re smart enough to hide this column so your wife doesn’t see it, then here are a few words of advice. For your deer/elk hunts this fall, buy a good pair of hiking boots. I’ve had good luck with Irish Setter VaprTrek boots. They’re lightweight. For heavy-duty snow, I like the leather Irish Setter Elk Hunting boots.

One thing that I now swear by — a good pair of hiking socks. I don’t want to exaggerate and say that it will be like walking on carpet, but it almost is. When you go to buy boots, wear the thicker hiking socks; otherwise if you buy boots while wearing a thin pair of socks then they will be too small and cramp your toes while out hiking hard. I’d rather have my boots a hair big rather than small.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.