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Dentry: Chef's new DVD is cut above

Published November 30, 2005 at midnight

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Now that all but a few late rifle seasons have ended, let the season of the chef begin. With the holidays upon us, here's a chance for hunters to invite over a few friends to understand the heart of the matter.

Culinary delight. One of my fondest après hunt memories is of a nonhunting couple having an epiphany over their first serving of elk tenderloin. The experience explained - indelibly, and better than I could have - at least part of why we hunt.

Afraid your best efforts at epicurean delivery will crank out some dry, gamey mistake? Chef Milos can be your guide on a new DVD, Wild Game: Field Care & Cooking, ($20, plus $2 shipping, from www.Wild HarvestVideos.com).

For years, master chef Milos Cihelka has enjoyed a reputation as a champion of the hunt, a man of good taste who bags his own venison with bow or rifle, then takes viewers on first-person instructional journeys from field to table.

Not your average master chef, Cihelka - he's now retired in Michigan - won gold medals at the Culinary Olympics. He was among the first five chefs certified as masters, in 1981, by the Culinary Institute of America. His specialty covers the wild spectrum from deer, bear and moose to waterfowl, upland birds and fish.

The new DVD is a digitally remastered set of three of Chef Milos' most popular Wild Harvest Video Co. shows. All on one disk, they are Big Game: Butchering Field to Table, Venison: Cooking Healthy & Tasty and Venison: Aging, Smoking & Sausage Making.

Many hunters will find the butchering segment alone compelling. It also should help dispel what I call FOB - fear of butchering - which seems to be widespread in the big-game hunting community.

Nothing against paying professional game processors, but cutting and wrapping your own harvest deepens the bond between hunter and hunted. It reveals nature's miracles in intimate detail. It also encourages the imagination to explore culinary possibilities. Cutting up venison is educational. And it isn't difficult.

In the three-part DVD, Chef Milos starts with a doe whitetail he killed with an arrow and moves seamlessly through dressing, skinning and quartering to removing the major cuts of meat and sorting out the important muscle groups.

His tips cover the gnarly to the delicate - literally, from how to skin a deer in minutes using a pickup truck to producing succulent butterfly steaks and complementing the finished product with elegant marinades, sauces and vegetable dishes.

Recipes include classic venison stew, venison in sour cream sauce, venison roast in red wine and currant jelly sauce, and spicy sausages.

On the subject of aging the carcass for tenderness and mellowing, he votes a resounding yes, if the temperature is right. Ideally, that would be 34 to 40 degrees. And he would age a young deer two weeks, an older deer, three weeks.

Whether you agree with that, you might be inspired, as I was, to pay close attention to his brown stock recipe. It wastes nothing, using bones and trim meat boiled down, with veggies, and thickened into a stock he saves and uses instead of water to cook a venison roast.

His best generic tip for any kind of venison: Go slow.

"You should always simmer stews and cook pot roast at a very low temperature," Chef Milos advises.

Cooking too hot and too fast is what creates that dry mistake.

SPINNEY CLOSED: Spinney Mountain State Park officially closed for the season at sunset Tuesday because of ice developing across the reservoir. State Parks and the city of Aurora, which owns the water, buttoned up the Gold Medal Reservoir as usual, with promises it will open in the spring when the ice melts.

Park manager Kevin Tobey explained Spinney closes because of fluctuating water levels, which create unstable ice conditions.

Nearby Elevenmile Reservoir will stay open for ice fishing, but it is temporarily unfishable because of thin ice. Tobey said a cold spell froze up about 80 percent of Elevenmile on Tuesday.

Tobey said ice fishermen should be patient; good ice still is several weeks away. He recommends against venturing out until 5-6 inches of solid, clear ice are underfoot.

Park ranger Mark Young said no shoreline is available for fishing, either. However, the Gold Medal stretch of the South Platte River between the two reservoirs remains open.