Food From the Wild

Off Topic
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SD - I was a bit cloudy when I posted about Beech wine. It’s Beech Leaf Noyau I’ve made in the past. For the sap wine see later post about Birch.

Recipe…

1 bottle of reasonable quality gin
8oz white sugar
1 large glass of brandy

Collect young, fresh beech leaves and strip them from the twigs. Half fill an empty bottle or large jar with the leaves and pour on the gin.

Seal the container well and leave for 3-4 weeks.

Strain off the gin.

Boil the sugar in 1/2 pint of water and add this to the gin along with the brandy.

This will make almost 2 bottles of noyau for about the price of a bottle of gin.

If you try nothing else, give this one a go. It tastes fantastic. Even if you are not a gin drinker I’m confident you’ll enjoy this.

62

Oak Leaf Wine

4.5 Litres Oak Leaves
4.5 Litres Water
1Kg Sugar
3 Oranges
General wine yeast
Pectinol

Pick the young oak leaves (usually late May, early June in the UK).

Boil the water and pour it onto the leaves in a bucket. Leave it for 18 hours then strain out the leaves and boil the liquid for 20 minutes.

Add the sugar, orange juice, and the grated rind of the oranges.

When cooled to blood heat add the yeast and leave to ferment in an open bucket for 5 days before moving to a fermentation jar and fitting an air lock.

When fermentation has finished, and the sediment has settled, rack the wine off into a clean jar and add pectinol to remove the haze.

Leave to settle for 24 hours then filter into bottles and cork.

There’s no real need to keep this wine to age much (maybe a month at the most) before it’s drinkable.

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Collecting Birch Sap

During the first 2 weeks of March the sap is rising well in Birch so this is the ideal time.

Take a piece of 1/2" plastic tube about 2ft long.

Put one end into a collecting jar (Demijohn is perfect) and seal it in place with some paper wedges.

Bore a hole the width of your tube at about 18" up from the ground - the hole should be slanting upwards about 30 degrees and be at least 1/2" through the bark.

Insert the tube (ensuring a tight fit) and leave overnight.

This method can easily collect 4 pints of sap in just a few hours.

As long as you seal the hole in the tree either with a lump of clay or by hammering in a wooden peg it will suffer no damage.

[edit] You can use the same technique for Sycamore (slightly sweeter sap) and the American Sugar Maple but collection takes longer.

64

Birch Sap Wine (Or other collected saps)

4.5 Litres of Sap
200g Chopped raisins
1Kg Sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
General purpose yeast

Boil the sap as soon as possible after collecting (It goes off quite quickly)

Add the sugar and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the boiling liquid onto the raisins in a bucket and add the lemon juice.

Start the yeast in a glass of water with a couple of tea spoons of sugar and add to the liquid when it is body temperature and leave to ferment (covered) for 3 days.

Syphon it into a fermenting jar, add an air lock and leave in a warm room until fermentation finishes.

Filter it into bottles (or leave until the sediment has settled first). Cork and store in a cool place for 6 months. It’s actually drinkable after 1 month but gets better with age.

65

Nettle Beer

100 Nettle stalks with leaves (collected when the nettles are young and growing well)
12 Litres of water
1.5Kg Sugar
50g cream of tartar
15g yeast

Boil the nettles in the water for 15 minutes, strain and add the sugar and cream of tartar.

Add the yeast when the liquid is body temperature and leave, covered with a cloth, for 4 days. (Skim off scum after 24 hours)

Skim off any further scum and decant into beer bottles. Cork them and tie them down. (Old grolsche bottles are perfect for this)

Leave for at least a couple of weeks before cracking one open to test.

This makes a really light and refreshing beer.

66

[quote]Renton wrote:
Geminspector wrote:
DB is so funny.

I also find bear to be somewhat greasy tasting. My favorites are squirrel and venison (both cooked by grandma). Morel mushrooms are probably the best-ever food in the forest.

Agreed on both counts.

Morels highlight something important about mushrooms though - correct identification is crucial.

Here’s a morel…

[photo]17288[/photo]

Which is delicious and good to eat.

Actually, we Swedes go for the second one. You do need drying them, and then blanching them in several batches of water, but the flavour is unbeatable. DBMIYHSTASS. (Don’t blame me if your heart screeches to a sudden stop.)

Here’s a false morel (Also known as Turban Fungus - Gyromitra esculenta)

[photo]17287[/photo]

Which is deadly poisonous if not cooked properly and has been associated as a carcinogen even when handled well.

Gathering and eating wild mushrooms is not something to be taken lightly! And if you do, the chances are you’ll only do it once.[/quote]

Actually, we Swedes go for the second one. You do need drying them, and then blanching them in several batches of water, but the flavour is unbeatable. DBMIYHSTASS. (Don’t blame me if your heart screeches to a sudden stop.)

On a less lethal basis and as an appropriate countepoint to Renton’s brawn, here is my favourite oxtail recipe:

One tail, jointed, excess fat trimmed off
One Carrot, sliced
One onion, sliced
Around two poinds of grapes, seedless or seeds removed
One teaspoon of thyme
Salt
Pepper.

Salt an pepper meant and brown in a cast iron pot. Take up the meat, brown veggies, add thyme, return meat, add grapes. It takes four hours,either in oven or on top at low heat. Suggest floury potatoes.