Meat Eater

Steven Rinella hosts the television series Meat Eater, an hunting show airing on the Outdoor Channel every Monday at 8:00 pm.  He hunts for the right reason.  Many hunters kill animals so they can hang a trophy on the wall.  Others (more than any pro-hunting organization would ever admit) simply like to kill animals for the hell of it.  On an episode of one of Anthony Bourdain’s television series the host went hunting with a bunch of duck hunters who didn’t like the taste of duck.  Mr. Bourdain, an accomplished chef, changed their minds when he showed them how to correctly cook the birds.  But still, I don’t get it.  Why did all those men go duck hunting, if they didn’t like to eat duck?  Mr. Rinella is not like that at all.  Most Meat Eater episodes show him cooking and eating whatever animal he killed for that week’s show.

Steve Rinella, host of the tv series Meat Eater.

Mr. Rinella first published an interesting and well written book about 10 years ago entitled The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine.  The book is about his year long quest to produce a 45 course 3 day feast of recipes from a century old cookbook authored by the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier.  Many of the recipes used animals once popular but not commonly consumed today.  He caught stingray off the Atlantic Coast, trapped house sparrows and pigeons in the inner city, hunted wild pig in California, and helped an eel fisherman gather eels from his weir in Delaware.  He discovered he no longer enjoyed gigging for bullfrogs in Michigan.  Although this was an activity he enjoyed as a child, he admitted it grossed him out as an adult.  The frogs he killed for the feast would be his last because he decided to retire from frog-gigging.  Of course, he hunted bear, elk, mountain goat, and pronghorn out west–the main guest stars of his current television series.

Mr. Rinella’s book is interesting and well-written.

My favorite chapter in the book was about his trip to coastal Alaska when he had the opportunity to fish for halibut.  I know I will never have a chance to visit this region and see all that wilderness and rich marine life.  By reading about his experience, I at least enjoyed some vicarious satisfaction.

Ironically, Mr. Rinella’s girlfriend at the time was a Jewish vegetarian.  He successfully converted her into a fish and shellfish eater but his feast of headcheese, pigeon cooked in pronghorn bladder, crayfish mousse, and 11 other old-fashioned dishes made her sick.  Most of the dishes he served at his Thanksgiving weekend feast of 45 courses were hits but there were misses as well.  I suppose his guests were friends close enough to give him their honest opinions.

I own a copy of Escoffier’s cookbook, but I rarely use it.  The book has over a thousand recipes, mostly consisting of various fancy ways to decorate a plate.  I am more of a blue plate special kind of cook and eater–hamburger steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, chili con carne, smothered pork chops, chicken and sausage jambalaya, stuffed cabbage, Greek salad, pumpkin pie, blueberry cobbler, etc.  Good food makes presentation irrelevant.  Escoffier doesn’t inspire me, but I’m glad it inspired Mr. Rinella to take on this project and write a book about it.  I concede Escoffier’s book is a decent primer on cooking technique.  It has helped Mr. Rinella become a really good cook.  Just look at all these delicious recipes posted on his website.

http://www.themeateater.com/section/recipe/

Mr. Rinella shares my disdain for the euphemism of the word, harvest, as a substitute for kill.  It always irks me when hunters say they are harvesting an animal.  Harvesting means a person is picking an apple or an ear of corn.  If an animal isn’t killed instantly, I’m sure the bullet or arrow piercing its nerves and flesh hurts a lot.  Hunting is killing, not harvesting.  Hunters who use the word, harvest, are dishonestly sanitizing what they do.  I’ve taken some flack for my opinion about this, but at least 1 person agrees with me.

 

Tags: Auguste Escoffier, harvest is a dishonest euphemism for kill, Meat Eater, Steve Rinella