Wisconsin Hunting Season Starts With A Hunt For Homemade Peasant Bread Recipe

I heard gunshots this morning. The sun wasn't up and somebody was shooting firearms in the woods. Has hunting season already begun? And which animal was the intended prey, - human or non-human? Perhaps some heinous murder happened over that way. But likely not. For sanity's sake, I'm assuming the gunshots were aimed at game, meaning turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, grouse, pheasant, fox, deer, mourning doves, you name it. If it  flies or runs on four legs, some Wisconsinite has considered shooting and eating it. Fall is hunting season in Wisconsin, and the over-abundant turkeys and deer are free food for any who are skilled enough to get it.

Wisconsin has a deeply-grained hunting tradition. Hunting parties comprised of multiple generations within a family walk through the woods, sit in trees, and stand very still. Often they're easy to spot; everybody's wearing electric orange. Deer don't see electric orange, they perceive it as brown. But those birds, now those birds are the crafty ones, many bird species perceive a broader spectrum of colors than do humans. Hard to fool the birds with orange. Better dress in camouflage and be extra quiet and still.

The only hunting I've ever done is fishing. Fishing counts as hunting. I took a live animal out of its element, killed it and ate it. And I only did that once, I felt so sorry for the flopping trout. And although I had been casting a fishing line for years, once some fish actually bit my hook I never did it again. But I'm not against hunting. I don't deny the hunter his prey as long as he/she kills it humanely and eats it. I just prefer to hunt for my meat in the grocery aisle.

I've never cooked game, although once my family thought I did. Instead I prefer to cook food that accompanies the game meat. After all, people don't live by meat alone, - let's share the hunter's meal with bread. Game meat and homemade bread enjoyed on a chilly evening after a day in the woods fit the rustic image of a Wisconsin hunting season. and no better place to look for a recipe for bread to be eaten with game than in John Motoviloff's cookbook Wisconsin Wild Foods: 100 Recipes for Badger state bounties. As well as giving recipes for preparing numerous kinds of game, John also gives a wonderful recipe for peasant bread. Click on "continue reading..." for John's recipe for peasant bread.

The bread is basic, easy-to-make, and has a crusty crust, chewy interior, that makes it perfect for ripping apart and sopping up gravy. Or spread gourmet, organic butter on it like I did at a dinner with friends. They supplied the salmon dinner, I supplied the homemade bread. Homemade bread makes a marvelous hostess gift and is just as appreciated as a bottle of wine.

John Motoviloff is an avid hunter and chef. When he's not writing about hunting and the Wisconsin outdoors he's in his kitchen creating new recipes for cooking game and the wild plants he's foraged. Here's John Motoviloff's recipe for peasant bread and his introduction to it:

"Peasant Bread: There's something strange in the notion of upwardly mobile Americans paying four dollars a loaf for peasant bread when European laborers and office workers alike buy crusty loaves of the stuff for a few coins and bring it home for their evening meal. This golden toothsome bread - at once soft inside, hard outside, and sour-sweet throughout - adds richness to any meal, and the cost to make it is pennies on the loaf. What's required is patience, a rarer commodity than expensive ingredients."

• 3 to 4 cups unbleached bread flour (such as Gold Medal)
• 1-plus cup wrist-temperature water
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 envelope of Highly Active, Quick Rise yeast
• corn meal

Turn oven to 350 degrees and place large ovenproof stoneware bowl in it. In 5 minutes (bowl should be warm to touch), turn off oven and open oven door so excess heat escapes. In heated bowl, combine water, salt, sugar, 1/4-cup olive oil, and yeast. Mix and let stand 10 minutes; yeast should be foamy. Then, add flour roughly one cup at a time.

Knead dough until smooth and slightly shiny, keeping hands moistened with olive oil. Add more flour if dough is sticky. Form dough into ball, oil sides of bowl generously, and set dough in bowl. Cover bowl with a dish towel and put in closed oven. Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Dust a baking sheet with cornmeal. Punch dough down and shape into a loaf that's 3 to 4 inches wide; dust with cornmeal. Cover with dish towel and allow to rise again, until doubled in bulk, in a warm place. Bake at 375 degree for 25 to 35 minutes, spraying or brushing crust with olive oil-water mixture every 5 minutes after first 10 minutes of cooking. This helps create a crust that is rich and golden-brown.

Placing a pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven, as the bread bakes on the top shelf, helps the crust develop.

Comments

[Amanda]

I loved archery when I practiced it in high school. It was my most favorite sport. My aim was good as long as that archery bulls-eye stayed still. So I never thought about using archery to hunt; I imagine that is REALLY hard.

[archery hunting equipment]

This bread is great alongside a delicious prey