venison meat muffins

[Guest guest]

This post is a partial recipe, partial concept-sharing

and query for similar recipes.

Lately as I've expanded my cooking to include more

animal flesh foods (we all know why, duh!) I've finally

gotten around to making flavored meat loaf-type dishes.

This, after about half a year on the solid animal high-

protein low-carb type-O diet... I know, it's about time.

I was originally just a good hamburger man, so that my

ground meat repertoire expanded naturally into ground

meat dishes (think sloppy joe's without the bun!) and

especially the style of dry spicy ground meat of the

Indian (sub-continent) persuasion (remember the " sookha

keema " nori roll recipe?). The last month or so I've

made my second traditional large meat loaf, formed in a

bread pan; now I've made my second batch of what I like

to call " meat muffins " . I call them meat muffins because

a meat loaf is the meat version of a loaf of bread, if

I'm making eight small meat loaves in a muffin pan I

think the term " meat muffin " would be the most

appropriate equivalent, don't you think?

So this second batch of meat muffins was made out of

ground chuck cut of venison. Mmmm! Deer! I chose deer

for this batch because I made it just prior to going on

a three-day outdoor camping/hiking excursion with

my " deer " old pa, who's a B. Well, I couldn't be an

insensitive BTDer and make meat muffins that weren't

beneficial for him too, now could I? Even if he's not

following the diet (or any real health-plan) I figure if

he's going to be nice enough to return me to the

original world as my birthday present (late September,

I'm 24 now) I might as well treat him to a healthy red

meat for his blood-type as I tried to introduce to him

the strengths and health benefits of the more original

DIET: the paleoithic diet. Return to nature, return to a

more natural diet. Only lamb, rabbit and venison are HB

red meats for our O friends (they are our closest buds,

given that A are diametrically opposite us, and B's

being in the middle).

I've made a few ground herbed/spiced/seasoned patties

from venison heart (I like to trim and grind the heart

myself). I bought some liver and kidneys from a farmer

from my local farmer's market (I live the good life,

living near the Minneapolis farmer's market and a

popular higher-quality HFS co-op). She had never even

eaten the liver of her deer, and of course had never

eaten the kidneys. She hasn't even eaten the heart of

her dear animals, though she has sold those to other

customers. When I first cut open and trimmed the venison

heart the smell, that distinctive mineral-rich smell

said very clearly to me: sweet italian sausage. And I

obeyed. I think the venison I've bought lends itself

extremely well to the spices used in sweet italian

sausage. For one pound of sweet italian sausage-style

venison meat muffins I used the following herbs:

large pinch of freshly ground/pounded dried thyme

about 1/4 t freshly ground fennel

1/4 t freshly ground four-peppercorn mix (black, white,

green, pink)

two generous pinches of dried basil

one pinch of dried oregano (basil & oregano = pizza in

my mind!)

a gracenote of anise (2-4 ground)

3-4 large cloves freshly mashed garlic

1/2 t homemade garlic sea salt

1/16 t ground cayenne pepper powder

1/2 t ground chili powder (smoked, weaker, full pepper

range)

tiny pinch onion powder

and the most magical special ingredient of all: wakame-

style seaweed ground to near-powder consistency, added

dry as an experiment. About 3 tablespoons.

I think the last ingredient, the dry crushed wakame

seaweed is what really made my experimental venison meat

muffins different and especially nutritious. I wrote a

preachy little response to someone's question regarding

seaweed on the BTD message forum a couple of days back,

I feel strongly that vegetables from the sea should be

incorporated as much as possible into every one's diet,

especially for us land-lubbing urbanites. Argh!! Aye,

tis highly beneficial for O's, B, A, and, argh, even ABs

to eat well of our mother the Sea! Argh! The single

pound of venison turned out to be eight meat muffins, an

easyily calculated distribution of two ounces per

muffin, two muffins being a quarter pound of venison. I

like the seasoned meat in muffin form, it cooks every

muffin evenly, and makes for very convenient serving

sizes. I can choose to have a regular quarter pound, or

six ounces for a large meal. No hassle. About 20 minutes

at 300 or so, from room temperature.

The wakame seaweed integrated just fine in to the meat

muffins, I was concerned that the pieces exposed on the

surface would turn dry and crispy, but the fat content

of the ground venison hydrated it perfectly, as I had

hoped. The sea vegetable contributes a salty taste to

the meat, as salt complements meat and I think is

necessary for bringing out the full flavor. I think the

full-mineral taste of the seaweed gave it that final

umph, a depthness of flavor that made the sweet herbal

taste very satisfying. Does anyone else out there have

experience using sea vegetables in seasoned meat

preparations? I used the sea weed successfully in my 2nd

meat loaf as well, that time I used one circle of the

rough-cut laver (the veggie they make traditional nori

sheets from). I would say the rough-cut laver I use is

equivalent to about three sheets of flat-pressed nori.

The rough laver, as opposed to nori sheets is much

cheaper by weight, and makes sense if I'm using the

laver in a shredded or chopped form. I have really

benefited from the laver in my morning omellettes. I

just take a circle and run under some warm water,

massaging it with my hands, to wash away any ocean

debris and to re-hydrate. It re-hydrates quickly, unlike

some larger cuts of sea vegetables. I saute it and make

sure to cook it before adding the eggs and other

vegetables, it makes for very strengthening breakfast.

This is how I've been compensating for my trace

minerals, which I believe I am still deficient in,

partly because I haven't been getting enough salt in my

diet (thank you watercure!).

Let's have a discussion on ground meat preparations. My

next project will be muffins made out of lamb, as I have

more lamb hearts in my freezer than any others (I have

emu, turkey, venison, and lamb hearts). I'm going to be

mixing in one lamb tongue, which I've never done before.

From my experience the heart muscle is a stronger flavor

than your other muscle meat, and with a strong-tasting

animal like lamb, the heart has a powerful taste that

benefits from being diluted into other meats. So I am

going to grind with my little food processor the lamb

hearts with a lamb tongue and some regular ground beef

or ground emu. So, I'd appreciate any suggestions for

seasoning with lamb in mind. Maybe a Greek-based

seasoning? Like oregano... basil... thyme... some

heat... garlic. What else?

P.S. I am not a subscriber to the cr4yt mailing list

because I think there is WAY too much traffic from the

archives. I don't like being repeatedly bludgeoned with

a deluge of recipes I have no interest in using.