by Colin Kearns

If you haven’t seen the Wild Chef column in the new December-January issue of F&S, you’re in for a treat. Our food columnist, Jonathan Miles, takes a staple tailgate cooking technique (beer-can chicken) and refines it for the home kitchen with a terrific holiday recipe—Christmas Beer-Can Goose. And because holiday feasts are as much about the side dishes as the main course, Miles also prepared the perfect side for the goose: maple cranberry sauce. We hope you enjoy.

Maple Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:
-2/3 cup brown sugar
-1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
-1/3 cup pure maple syrup

by David Draper

About a week or so ago, the New York Times Magazine published their annual Food & Drink Issue, which took the form of a series of questions and answers about food, drink, dining, etiquette, and more. While some of it was stereotypically pedantic and elitist as only the Times can be, the issue includes enough entertainment and information to make it well worth a thorough read.

Among the best Q&As, was an article by noted food-writer Bill Buford answering the question “What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?” For Buford, it was a taste of warm pig’s blood, drunk from a ladle immediately after butchering a hog. While a cup of blood doesn’t sound particularly delicious, Buford’s description of the events leading up to the meal and the taste as “…ridiculously vital, as rich as it was vibrantly red, and weirdly, unapologetically full of health,” is as good as food writing should be. It also got me thinking about the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.

by David Draper

Another piece of news from that venerable British newspaper The Guardian. This one is about how eating might affect your mood. "Foods to be avoided: beefe, venison, hare, heavy wines, cabbage, fresh-water fish." With these words the 17th-century Oxford don Robert Burton outlined – in The Anatomy of Melancholy – his recipe for avoiding depression and achieving mental wellbeing. What you ate determined your happiness and soundness.

Hare was to be shunned with particular vigour, he argued. It is "hard of digestion, breedes incubus… and causeth feerful Dreames. So doth all Venison". The article is particularly timely because I was recently out for breakfast with my girlfriend, who was having trouble deciding what to order. She really wanted the chicken-fried steak and eggs, but was afraid it wouldn’t live up to her high expectations and thus ruin her entire day.* As crazy as this sounds, it’s true. Food has that kind of effect on her, which is both endearing and, at times, maddening.

It’s not that eating doesn’t affect my mood. It does, but not to that extent, and certainly venison or hare does not “breed incubus” or “causeth fearful Dreames”. Instead, eating wild game always makes me happy, unless it’s the last antelope backstrap in the freezer, at which time it does induce a bit of melancholy.

by David Draper

You guys overwhelmingly handed me the win last week, giving me a strong 77% of the vote over Colin’s pickled halibut. Personally, I think he kind of got shafted as I thought the fish and Ritz cracker mixture sounded delicious. But then, I’m a sucker for about anything pickled. Still, thanks for giving the goose jerky the nod.

Fried Northern Pike w/ Potatoes, Onions and Baked Beans

Vs.

Grilled Caribou Loin w/ Scalloped Potatoes and Spicy Beans