CAMP-COOKING SPRINGBUCK VENISON Eat your springbuck on the spot

by GREGOR WOODS

Camp-Cooking Springbuck Venison

I mm ed iate e at in g o pt io ns

YOU CAN cook your springbuck venison in camp where the carcass has not been hung (except perhaps for a day or two) and your facilities are basic. If you hang the meat in a tree during the night so that it gets really cold right through to the bone, then wrap it in a blanket to insulate it during the day and keep it in the shade, it will last for days without refrigeration in winter.

Springbuck liver is of the very finest, but, like all liver, it is best when at its freshest. When I lived in South West Africa, once we had shot the first one or two springbuck, we’d head straight for the river bed where we built a kameeldoring fire and ate the livers on the spot. The fresher the better, and remember, liver does not freeze well.

Incidentally, if you have never braaied on a kameeldoring (camel-thorn) fire, you don’t know what you’re missing. This wood imparts a subtle but unique flavor to the meat which no other wood can equal – and being very hard, it makes wonderfully long-lasting coals.

Anyhow, remove the liver from the carcass, being very careful not to rupture the gall bladder – a tiny sac of fluid attached to the liver – if the contents of this drips onto the liver (or any other meat) you can throw it all away. The gall bladder must be removed by slicing away a layer of liver beneath it, just thick enough to ensure that the sac is not severed or ruptured.

Liver should not be braaied on the coals as this makes it too dry. You can alleviate dryness by taking a bit of vetderm (colon, which is extremely fatty) with each bite of liver, but not everyone likes to eat vetderm. Slicing the liver thinly and frying it in oil or fat is fine, but still not the best. In my opinion, there is really only one way to cook fresh springbuck liver. Keep the entire liver intact, and impale it on a green stick (or metal fork). Now, build up the fire and hold the liver in the flames. It will swell up like a ball and then form a crust of charred meat. Discard the burnt crust and tuck into the tenderest and tastiest liver that you have ever eaten. It doesn’t take very long to cook – rather take it off too soon, as you can always put it back – but you’ll quickly learn how to get it cooked through, while still remaining juicy and succulent. Believe me – try it, and you’ll never do it any other way again.

Another way of doing the liver, if you like vetderm, is to make a pofadder, which is sort of boere haggis. Dice up the liver into small chucks (also the kidneys if you like – remove the outer skins and cut out any white or yellowish tissue from the insides, then wash them with vinegar). Dice some onions, mix it all together, add salt, pepper and spices, garlic, whatever takes your fancy. Now clean out the vetderm and wash it out with water. Tie one end closed with string, stuff the vetderm with the meat and onion mixture (it stretches to a large diameter) until….well, until it looks like a

fat puff-adder. Tie the other end closed, and braai it slowly over low coals. Slice and eat.

Another way of doing liver as an hors d’oeuvre is in the form of skilpadtjies. For this you need pensvet, which is a very thin membrane of fat found in the abdomen. You cut small, flat slices of liver, just a bit bigger and thicker than a R5 coin, salt and spice them, and wrap these in an envelope of pensvet. Braai very briefly over the coals –don’t overdo it.

Springbuck fillets are always good, and very tender, no matter how fresh. And they are easily accessible through the stomach cavity without having to skin the carcass (they are short, narrow columns of meat located on either side of the spine toward the back legs). Springbuck fillets are pretty small – men usually need two each – so unless you’ve shot at least one springbuck per mouth to be fed, you may get complaints. The quickest way to prepare them is to slice them into ‘medallions’ one centimetre thick and fry them (briefly).

Springbuck makes good stew, but of course, this takes time, so unless someone is willing to remain in camp while you’re out hunting, it’s best to leave this for when you get home. Some hunters tell me they get a stew going in a big pot and keep adding ingredients to it each day. I have never tried this, but if you do, be very careful about the stew going bad during the heat of the day, which can happen very quickly. Nothing will wreck your hunt more spectacularly than a dose of food poisoning.

However, if you are prepared to dig a gatoond, you can make some wonderful stews and even roasts. This is a derivative of an antheap oven, only it doesn’t require the close proximity of a convenient termite mound.

Before you leave home, find two sheets of iron, either square or round, flat or corrugated, one slightly bigger than the other. At camp, dig a hole about 50 to 60cm deep and just big enough to accept the smaller sheet of iron. During the evening, do the necessary preparation of your stew – cutting up, peeling, dicing, etc (leave the peeling of the potatoes until morning, and then immerse them in water or they’ll turn black).

Before you go out in the morning, build up a substantial fire of hardwood like kameeldoring or leadwood, and when you have a good heap of glowing coals, scrape some aside and get your stew going (braise the onions, meat, etc add the tomatoes and other ingredients to the pot, and bring it to the boil for a while). Then shovel a bed of glowing coals into the hole and spread them evenly. Now place the smaller sheet of iron over the coals and stand your driepoot cast-iron pot containing your stew (with plenty of liquid in it – beer, water, whatever, and with its lid on) on the iron. Place the larger sheet of iron over the top of the hole, heap glowing coals onto the upper iron, spread them, then heap a good layer of sand on top of the coals (completely cover them).

Now kill the main fire and go hunting. The coals in the gatoond and under the sand will stay hot enough to slow-cook the stew all day at a temperature high enough to prevent botulism. Ensure that it simmers for another half hour or so before serving. For a really good stew recipe, refer to “The Secret of Venison Stew” (Magnum Sept ’03 edition).

Finally, springbuck can be successfully braaied. My pièce de résistance is a whole springbuck shoulder braaied slowly over low hardwood coals. You have probably heard it said that venison just cannot be braaied, as it is too dry. For the most part that is true, but there are notable exceptions (eland T-bones are one) and springbuck shoulder is the most notable. Don’t salt it; spice it if you wish, or just lay it on the rooster as is –whole, do not cut it up. Do it slowly, but don’t overdo it. It will be just as juicy and succulent – and very tasty – as anything you could wish for.

You can also braai springbuck chops, but you have to be willing to butcher the carcass in camp and cut the spine up into chops (which is very hard work with a hand-saw). Don’t split the spine up the centre – just saw it into ‘butterfly’ chops (each chop has two ‘wings’ with two ribs). Spice these to taste (don’t salt them until cooked) then cover them with a layer of cooking oil and soak for two or three hours. Then briefly braai them (don’t dry them out). It makes for a very smoky braai, but it’s worth the trouble if you are out of other meat.