IGNEOUS ROCKS

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Grilled Venison

Ingredients:  Venison, stick, fire

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I have been a hunter since I was only 10 or 11 years old, my father would take me along and taught me how to set up in the right place for a better chance of seeing deer, and how to kill them in the most humanely way possible to alleviate any suffering on their part.  

 

Mostly what I learned though, was how to sit quietly in a tree stand for hours at a time in cold weather.  This hunting experience I received is very rare for most Americans, only about 2% of people in the US actively hunt, but because of exploding deer, bear and turkey populations, hunting is becoming more popular.  Also, the idea of feeding yourself off the land is absolutely becoming more popular whether it be hunting or gardening or even mushroom hunting.  

 

Our species, Homo sapiens, has been around for a few hundred thousand years, and up until about 13,000 years ago, all of us were hunter-gatherers where all people would have been a hunter in one way or another.  So, to go from everyone in the world being a hunter, to only 2% of the population in the US being hunters is pretty extraordinary.  

 

We don’t really know what the earliest meat cooking would have looked like, if people just threw chunks of meat into a fire, or put them on sticks or hot stones to cook, but it was probably some combination of those.  

 

Igneous rocks that come from volcanic lava are really some of the best rocks that retain heat, so if ancient hunter-gatherers had access to lava rocks, they can be easily placed in a fire and carefully removed after heated up, these rocks can retain that heat to cook on for about 45 minutes.  I got myself a fancy lava rock to cook on, basalt to be exact, and it actually works really well.  I like to marinate venison backstrap for a few days and slice it thinly.  That way it will cook really fast on top of my heated basalt.  It’s really just for show, as it doesn’t actually affect the taste of the venison at all, but it definitely entertains dinner guests.