If you read my article Blazed Salmon and Brotherhood, you know, that we have a group of college buddies (from 1990’s), who organise an eventful weekend every September. Every year two of us create different activities and the others just enjoy the ride. We have had few stag parties along the years, but now we just have fun because of fun and relax from the hustle of the work and everything.
I managed to keep my hunting hobby as a secret, after all. My friends had no idea, that I am a hunter, and even less, that they are about to carve some meat out of the legs of a roe buck I’ve shot, and prepare that on the campfire.
I had hunted and shot my first deer in June. I already ate some of it, but kept most of the meat in the freezer for this occasion. My friends – a lawyer, a doctor and businessmen – are somewhat used to camping (we live in Finland after all), but they seemed to be truly impressed by the fact that they are going to eat something, that their friend shot only few kilometres away. I have also mentioned, that they are beasts in the kitchen and masters of BBQ. But when we had nothing but a campfire to cook with, it took some extra planning to get everything organised.
But man, that was again delicious! The idea we have with these weekends is, that every year people learn something new (for me it was even more as I took on hunting). Now we had the possibility to explore different parts of the animal and how that tastes and feels in the mouth. We had of course some sides, as barley risotto and fried cabbage, but the main part was The Meat. Ribs, roasts, tenderloins etc. all have different specialities.
We worked our way from the ribs and roasts towards the more inner parts of the animal. Each bite we took, were more tender than the other. And at the end there were no need for knives anymore. It was just like pudding, orgasm in the mouth. And at the end, we also finally needed the whisky we brought along to digest everything. (Our theme this year was Scotland, and this was our ‘Red Deer Stag feast’.)
Nothing beats some crackling in the fire, light smoke (in the meat too), sounds of nature, good food and great friends. I bet, that if you close your eyes, you can feel the fire warming your face and hear an owl somewhere in the distance.
Like I mentioned in that other article, I dared you to take your friends out in the wild and cook something outdoors together. We did just that, and as I predicted, it was a hit. So, if you haven’t done that yet, I really encourage you to try the same. And… I’d love to read how Your campfire cooking event with the ‘city friends’ succeeded.