Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie.

- I'm Kim Zuhlke.

We are in southern Monroe County, and we're out on a farm we call Little Blue Ridge.

I've been in this property for over 50 years, and there's never been a higher population of deer here.

Today, we're really hoping to harvest a deer.

That's the best thing for the future of the deer herd.

We've got some people positioned to where we think the deer are gonna be.

Fingers crossed, we're gonna be harvesting one or two deer, and then we'll go through the process of how to field dress and how to prepare venison for the table.

– Luke: What we're going to do is we're gonna take this leg, and, honestly, by confiting it, we're slowly drawing out flavor, and imparting the flavors that we really wanna taste.

That's always my measure for eating good wild game.

How much richness does it have?

How much flavor can we taste of the animal, and the animal's diet, without having to impart other flavors to mask it?

I can't wait to take a bite.

[gentle music] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [chuckling] Girlfriend's on a mission.

– Announcer: Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swiss"consin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[gentle music] - Luke: As a chef, I'm always on the hunt for flavors and ingredients that encapsulate local and seasonal.

We can't talk about seasonal food in Wisconsin without talking about venison.

Today, landowner Kim Zuhlke and Little Bluestem Farm have graciously opened themselves up to us to hunt with them.

I'm honored to, hopefully, harvest an animal with conservation ethics in mind, and love and respect in our hearts.

[gentle music] - I'm Kim Zuhlke.

We are in southern Monroe County, and we're out on a farm we call Little Blue Ridge.

This, originally, was operated by my father and his brother.

We, maybe, peaked out at 45 milking cows.

20, 25 years ago, when I started getting interested in prairie establishment and restore some areas to, kind of, its native habitat, I was just, kinda, out scouting around, and looking around on the farm, and I found little bluestem on the farm.

I had not planted little bluestem on the farm.

Probably was here for thousands of years.

So, I decided to call the farm Little Blue Ridge.

[insects chirping] In this area, we have an overpopulation of deer.

Basically, the objective is to reduce the size of the deer herd.

That's the best thing for the future of the deer herd.

And you know, DNR's recognized that in this area as well, and they have a program where, if you donate a deer to a participating meat processor, they'll basically help support the processing of that meat, and it goes to the local food pantries.

Venison tends to be high in protein, lower in fat.

It's healthy in the diet, and, a lot of times, in these food pantries, you don't get a lot of protein that's being donated.

Today, we're really hoping to harvest a deer.

The weather's been a little bit warm.

The deer have been kinda hanging out into the woods, and not coming out into their feeding areas too early because they just like the cooler temperatures.

And so, we've got some people positioned to where we think the deer are gonna be.

Fingers crossed, we're gonna be harvesting one or two deer, and then we'll go through the process of how to field dress, and how to prepare venison for the table.

- This looks promising; hey, friends.

- Hi there.

- I'm Luke.

- Hello!

Amber.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Bob Nack.

- Bob, nice to meet you, man.

- Nice to meet you.

- Hey Luke, Kim, good to meet you.

- Thank you, thank you.

Thank you for having us; this is incredible.

- You're welcome.

– Luke: You have this place curated for beautiful, beautiful animal harvest.

What are we looking for today?

– Kim: I've been in this property for over 50 years, and there's never been a higher population of deer here.

We really wanna protect the herd, we want a healthy herd, and it gives us an opportunity to harvest deer, and at a time of year which is comfortable in the stand.

It's beautiful outside, as you see, the beautiful trees.

It's an awesome time of year to be hunting.

– Luke: Yeah, they really had to twist my arm to come up for this shoot.

[all laughing] You mean I get to sit and be quiet in a beautiful stretch of woods; that's A-okay.

– Kim: Yeah.

- Best job in the state, I think; excellent.

So, who am I hunting with?

- I'm Amber Zuhlke; I'm Kim's daughter.

I've grown up on this property hunting deer, and excited to share the evening with you.

– Luke: Fantastic.

Well, shall we get in the stand?

– Bob: I think so.

– Kim: Absolutely, let's do it.

– Luke: Let's do it.

This is beautiful prairie.

[acoustic guitar music] [footsteps rustling] - Kim: We have been known to take a little snack into the deer stand with me.

It just happens to be on the way.

No chemical at all applied to that apple this year.

It's just the way Mother Nature gave it to us.

Maybe I'm going back to my roots, in trying to understand why, maybe, my great-grandfather came here, and what attracted him, and I wanna be a responsible steward of the land.

Do we enjoy shooting mature buck with big antlers?

Absolutely.

But it's more about, you know, maintaining the herd health, making sure we have a healthy herd, making sure that this next generation can enjoy the same things we have.

And when you take care of the deer, you also take care of the turkeys, the songbirds, and all kinds of wildlife benefits by having a conservation ethic.

[acoustic guitar music] Okay, in the spot I wanna be.

Everything's all set.

Stage is set.

Right kinda day, right kinda night, right kinda of wind.

All I need is for this cameraman to get outta here now.

- So my name is Bob Nack.

I work for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Well, private landowners are a big part of Wisconsin's conservation heritage, and not only with hunting, but taking care of the land as well, and Kim's lucky enough to be a landowner here in the state, and has done a great job of managing his property for the benefit of all wildlife, that we all enjoy and benefit from.

[whispering] All right.

So, I think we're pretty much set up and ready to go.

Just need the deer to cooperate now.

Well, there's a number of reasons to go hunting, and hunting for food is one of them.

And certainly, hunters take pride in eating the animals that they harvest, and providing that food to other people.

Being outside and hunting can be great for your mental health.

Good stress reliever.

So, there's a lot of other benefits that come with securing your own food.

[whispering] I see some deer.

They're just coming into the food plot on the far end.

Looks like two of 'em, but they're gonna need to come a lot closer for us to get a shot.

– Amber: [whispering] So, right now, this early in the season, we're seeing the most amount of deer movement really close to sunset.

As the temperatures cool down, the sun's going down, deer will start moving around.

- [whispering] I'm thinking about how beautiful it is to be out here.

How peaceful and serene.

[insects chirping] [bowstring twanging] [gentle music] [zipper buzzing] [footsteps rustling] - Kim: So what's the score, guys?

- We saw a couple, but no good shots.

I think she saw us.

- Ah, bummer.

- Yeah, we saw two deer, as well, but they were a little outta range, and so they just didn't come close enough for us.

- Well, maybe tomorrow, huh?

- Yeah.

- Don't you wanna go get my deer?

[Luke chuckling] - Really?

– Kim: Yeah, really.

Yeah, I thought you wanted a deer.

[Luke laughing] That's what we were out there for.

- I told you I was lucky.

[all laughing] - Bob: You didn't say that.

- I didn't say how; I just said that I was lucky.

– Kim: Yeah.

– Luke: Awesome.

Still in the woods?

- It's still in the woods.

- Well, let's go get it.

- Yeah, we...

I know about where it is, so, I don't think it'll be too bad to find, but... Yeah, we'll have fresh venison soon, guys.

– Luke: Sounds great.

– Bob: Excellent.

– Kim: Well, there's blood right here.

Here we go... [grunting] One more, one more trail.

Oh, here we go, guys.

– Luke: Oh... - Kim: All right, here's our deer.

– Luke: All right.

– Kim: She did not go far.

Maybe 50 yards from where she was hit?

- Good shot.

- Thank you.

Just exactly what we were planning on doing.

[Luke laughing] Yup.

- You obviously put so much care and time and energy into the hunting culture.

– Kim: Mm-hmm.

- To harvest an animal that is this healthy and this beautiful, it really is...

It's a much bigger harvest than just one single animal.

It really speaks to the ethic of conservation that you practice here, and it's an amazing thing to be a part of.

– Kim: Yeah, and, you know, it never gets old.

You always have tremendous respect for the animal, and when you harvest an animal, you look at it, you admire the animal, and you're just thankful that you have this sort of resource running around in this Driftless region; it's amazing.

We've never talked about victory when we harvest an animal like this.

We've always talked about, you know, just how thankful we are to have this opportunity.

– Luke: Well, should we put this animal in a place where we can field dress her?

– Kim: Yeah, let's...

It's a little thick right in here.

– Luke: Yup.

[laughing] - Kim: So, I think what we ought to do is pull her over to a trail to the south of us, here.

It's not too far of a drag, and let's take her over there, and then we can field dress her over there.

– Luke: All right.

– Kim: Okay?

– Luke: Mm-hmm.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] - Kim: Watch your foot behind you; it's a step up.

- So, I think for tonight, if it's okay by you, we'll let her cool.

- Mm-hmm.

Then we'll come back in the morning, and we'll take the skin off, we'll pull it apart a little bit, so we can see a couple of the different roasts, different cut options, some of the things that people may take for granted, if you just take an animal just like this to the processing facility, and you don't see it until it comes back as snack sticks.

We wanna, like, demystify that, just a touch.

– Kim: Sure.

- So, if that's all right?

You think she'll be all right overnight?

– Kim: Absolutely.

– Luke: Okay.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] [knife scraping] [gravel crunching] - Luke: So, Kim, we've got the deer out here, now.

This is the process of quartering it.

So, now we want to take this front shoulder off, right here.

And the way that I usually approach this is, there's a little bit of flexibility in here, and we are right in the trauma center for this animal.

So, what we have here, we have a couple different pieces that we're looking at, but this is a front quarter, specifically, and with the front quarter, you have the shoulder roast right in here, which you can actually get a lot of, you know, like, a flat iron comes off of here.

You can also get a chuck flap.

I like these as roasts, quite frankly, and I prefer my roasts, oftentimes, bone-in.

The reason I like that bone in that roast is that bone will actually help absorb heat, but also moisture.

Venison is very lean.

There isn't a ton of intermuscular fat on this animal, so anything we can do to increase that fat, that richness, and also, you know, you get a lot of really good, dense nutrient quality out of that bone, as well.

We wanna make sure that that's preserved so we can get it in the soup pot later.

[knife scraping] So now, we're gonna actually come in and remove this quarter.

There's not a tremendous amount attaching this quarter, so what I like to do is, I like to find that, kinda, that hip bone, right there, and I want to come down at an angle, across that saddle, and just like we did with that tenderloin, run your knife as close to that backbone as you can.

And I'm gonna take it right down the side.

– Kim: You know, breaking it down like this makes it easy for, you know, a hunter that's waiting for his CWD test.

When it comes back and you're ready to process it, it's already in these, you know, very, very easy-to-handle sizes.

And you can throw that on your island in your kitchen, and whatever, and work on that piece, and wait, you know, and do another piece a little bit later.

– Luke: That's exactly what I want, that big whole roast, like that.

I'm wondering, for the purposes of walking people through the process, could we, maybe, take one of these venison hindquarters home with us, and confit it back at my place?

So, once we get, of course, the CWD testing results?

- Sure.

- Once you get the test, yeah.

- Great.

- You're great, fantastic.

- Kim, you and your family have been amazing hosts.

We feel really fortunate and extremely blessed to, number one, be able to harvest this beautiful animal on your property, but I really feel incredibly fortunate that you're a neighbor that believes in the conservation ethic, that believes that, through your actions, we create a stronger web of connection between us and the natural world around us.

And we end up as being a part of that facilitation of that connection.

I appreciate your time, I appreciate your energy, I appreciate your efforts.

Please, keep up the good work.

– Kim: Yeah, and I wanna just say, I appreciate folks that understand the conservation ethic, and we have a chance to share it with others.

So, hopefully, we can help others as well along the way.

[dreamy music] - So, we have this entire leg quarter of this animal that we harvested.

What we're going to do, is, we're gonna take this leg, and simply, I'm gonna place it in this square-head pan.

And so we're gonna start with my favorite, and yours, salt.

Next, I'm gonna go at it with the black pepper.

This is freshly-ground Tellicherry peppercorn, but any black pepper will do.

We just wanna make sure that it's fresh.

For this piece, I wanted to keep as much of that fat cap on as I could in this animal.

And, honestly, by confiting it, we're slowly drawing out flavor and imparting the flavors that we really wanna taste.

Next, we're gonna start building up the base of this confit.

I have Morita chilies.

Now, Morita chilies are a small, brown chili that's dehydrated, and what I love about these is they add a delicious complexity, a little bit of heat, but a little bit of sweet at the same time.

And as these slowly rehydrate in this oil and cook, they impart a wonderful, wonderful flavor.

Local garlic.

I'm gonna, actually, just place these bulbs whole next to this entire leg.

Second to last, we're gonna take and put in some lard.

The reason I like adding lard to a confit like this is it imparts a richness.

And last, but not least, olive oil.

We are going to take, and basically engulf this entire leg in this beautiful, beautiful richness.

Oh, my God, that's pretty.

We wanna completely submerge this venison shank.

And the reason we want to is because we want all of the fat and deliciousness, and actually, the amazing health benefits of this oil to also permeate this venison.

In turn, the venison will pull out flavors from the garlic, from the chilies, from the salt, from the black pepper, and from the oil itself.

And it will make very, very rich and succulent meat.

That's always my measure for eating good wild game.

How much richness does it have?

How much flavor can we taste of the animal, and the animal's diet, without having to impart other flavors to mask it?

Once we have the leg completely submerged in oil, I wanna season the oil.

This, for me, looks like just one more good handful of this sea salt.

The reason I wanna season the oil is, again, we're gonna impart flavor slowly, methodically, through this confit process, and I wanna make sure that, as this permeates into the leg, all of that seasoning has an opportunity to reach all of that interior meat.

Another handful of black pepper, and already, this smells amazing.

This is a slow process, and we really wanna use that time to slowly cook this meat.

[foil rustling] [pan scraping] All right, now we're gonna seal this up.

[oven door clunking and scraping] And we'll see you in eight hours.

[dreamy music] [water splashing] [ducks quacking] [pot juices bubbling] Our timer's gone off, and it's been eight hours.

Now, I want to gently smoke the venison leg, and one of the ways we're gonna accentuate that smoke is by basting the leg with a very simple solution of sorghum and apple cider vinegar.

[soft music] Now, my favorite part: we're gonna actually baste this venison leg, and I'm gonna use cedar boughs that I've tied together in order to create a brush of sorts.

And what happens is, we're gonna paint this leg, and as we do, some of this liquid is gonna fall off on those coals, causing it to smoke.

As this smoke hits the grill and it hits these coals, the acidity is released in that vinegar.

I can smell the sweetness and the caramelization, and it's that sugar content on the outside that really helps trap that smoky flavor.

Oh, man.

All right, it's time to pull the venison leg off.

We're gonna lay our confited venison leg right on the slab.

This, obviously, is beautiful enough to serve at any gathering, but because we're here today to honor this animal, and the celebration, and the harvesting of the animal, I wanna garnish this with some of my favorite pieces to accent this beautiful confit venison.

This was harvested on Farmer Kim's Little Bluestem Farm, and it speaks to the time-honored tradition of not only ourselves, but of people who have been here since beyond time being measured.

I can't wait to take a bite.

That's so rich.

Venison, sometimes, gets a bad rap.

Some people say it tastes like gamey beef, that it's dry.

But I can assure you, when treated with love and care, there is no flavor that I would rather have grace my table than something that was honorably and sustainably harvested.

This venison, when slowly roasted with all the aromatics of the chilies and the garlic and the olive oil, takes on a whole new level of succulence, and I can't think of anything that's more local than something that came straight from our forest.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] - Arthur: And then, maybe, walking back, the way you just went up this... - D'you want me to walk backwards?

How's this?

- Yeah, that's perfect.

[Kim laughing] - And we get our results, hopefully, in effect, quicker... Ugh!

We get our reser-- [laughing] Because it's such a large piece of meat, I'm gonna be extremery...

I'm gonna be extremer-- I'm gonna be extremer-- [laughing] [light music] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [chuckling] Girlfriend's on a mission.

– Announcer: Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swiss"consin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.

[whimsical music]