Page 64 - Flathead Beacon // 5.21.14

64 | MAY 21, 2014
OUTDOORS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

OUT OF BOUNDS Rob Breeding

Meat in Tube Form

I
T’S SAID THAT AN 18TH grind ish and stuf it into a tube, but
century English lord, the Earl of that’s a rubicon I’m hesitant to cross.

Sandwich, stuck some meat be- Wild game lacks one component es-
tween two slices of bread so he could eat sential to sausage: fat. Good sausage can
while continuing to play cards. Hence, be as much as 50 percent fat (which is
the sandwich was born. I stumbled on a why you should eat oatmeal for break-
photo of maybe the most epic sandwich fast). You’ll never get that ratio out of
ever recently: the Old School Fried Bolo- game meat, but you can add beef or pork
gna sandwich made at a joint called the fat to ill the deicit. This can mask the

B Spot in Cleveland. This sandwich was wild lavor of the meat, but in the case of
transgressive, featuring an artery-clog- a rank old bull I once killed in Arizona,
ging slab of bologna nearly an inch thick.
that turned out to be a good thing.
A friend said just looking at the photo Pig is my preferred sausage protein.
made him feel a heart attack was emi- There are no wild boar in Montana, but
nent.
some time ago wild pigs became the You can’t spend all summer on a boat,
You may dismiss fried bologna as un- most hunted big game animal in Califor-
worthy Honey Boo Boo haute cuisine. nia. I’m not talking barnyard pigs here. you also have to exercise.

If so, I’m sorry for your lack of culinary These are the feral progeny of escaped
sophistication. Done right, fried bologna domestic pigs and introduced wild boar. Westshore Medical Fitness Center is open!
may be the most fun a dude can have be- A Central California coastal pig hunt
tween two slices of bread.
may not match the challenge of trophy Memberships from $39/month.
Mom made my brothers and I fried elk in the Rockies, but it’s not enclosure
bologna sandwiches on camping trips. shooting either.
This was old school fried bologna, on More importantly, kill a pig that has

soft, Wonder-like “bread,” with a thick fattened up on acorn mast and you’ve got
smear of mayo. The bologna was slit the foundation for some ine sausage.
around the edges so it wouldn’t curl up Bologna is a type of emulsiied sau-
in the skillet. Some argue classic fried sage. Professionals make it with some-
bologna requires Miracle Whip, but we thing called a bufalo chopper. Imagine
weren’t that kind of family.
an industrial appliance with a spinning 306 Stoner Loop Road Lakeside, MT 59922
Bologna gets a bad rap, probably be- blade something like a boat propeller, • 406.844.2496
cause there’s so much lousy product rendering chunks of meat, fat and sea-

crowding the deli sections of American sonings into a ine paste. This isn’t the
grocery stores. But made well, it’s a ine sort of tool most folks have in their kitch-
sausage with its roots in Germany and en. You could make your own emulsiied
Austria, that Bavarian Mecca of tube sausage in a food processor, but you may
meat. I’m also partial to Mortadella, the smoke the motor.
Italian variety made with olives and pis- So do as I do: Buy your bologna from
tachios.
the deli counter and have the clerk cut
Sausage is the perfect vehicle for
it nice and thick. And by thick I mean
dealing with scraps and hard-to-cook about an eighth of an inch. While its fry-
parts of wild game. In my elk hunting ing up, put a thin skim of mayo on some Insist on the Sky.
days my daughters used to race through hardy wheat bread. Top the crisped bo-
the 10 or so pounds of breakfast sausage logna with sautéed onions, dijon mus-
I’d have the processor grind up, usually tard and pickles. If you really want to
by Christmas.
go uptown, pile on some arugula lightly
I’ve used elk, deer and pheasant to dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

make sausage, with mixed results. My Add cold beer and a good sporting
processor did a better job, except for event on the television and you’ve found
the time he added chili lakes to the Nirvana. Repeat only occasionally be-
breakfast sausage. The kids weren’t too cause my friend is right, fried bologna is
pleased about that.
basically a heart attack in a convenient,
I’m told the adventurous sometimes
easy to hold package.

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