#MY MALLARD BROTH

[bonefall]

bones im doing the math and a stellers jay cooked properly can feed like four cats. no wonder clan cats have so many rules about prey distribution birds are so full of nutrition you can just coast on it. bones i did the math and if they take down an eagle they could feed like a hundred cats oh god boar meat is so worth it isnt it

EDIT: Boar math update

The average male boar is 440 pounds, which is 200 kilograms, 200,000 g x 5 = 1 million calories.

That will feed an entire Clan for months. All through the three months of winter. Boar meat is sososososo worth it, it's INSANE. ThunderClan should actually be The Fat Clan, these guys are partaking of the sweet fat of the hog and absolutely rolling in extra calories.

(This is actually why I draw a lot of my ThunderClan cats with bellies, like Lionblaze. This man finds himself in the path of food because his Clan has lots to offer lmao)

^ Lionblaze the first day Willowpelt took him on as a secondary apprentice

Ducks are a REALLY good target for Clans, also. Average mallard drake is 3.5 pounds, 1.5 kilos, 9,000 calories. One duck feeds the entire Clan for a day.

I will say though, EXTRA knowledge; remember that calories don't necessarily satiate hunger! A lot of factors do, but you can summarize them with weight in the context of cats. My cat's usually full around 85 grams, but I know some cats who can hoover a big can of food in a single sitting.

(long answer: protein, fiber, thickness, if you had a drink beforehand, eating slowly, etc. But we're talking about prey meat here)

So your stellar's jay example is usually about 100 to 120 grams (though since my guys are in England, they wouldn't encounter those), which would basically be a meal two cats share. If that's breakfast they'll have hit all their calories for the day, but they'll still feel hungry for lunch and dinner.

This is why soups are so cool btw. This was a soup post all along. It's soupaganda time

Not only do you get that boost from cooking the meat here, but the value is more evenly distributed through the whole dish, the weight of the broth languishes in the stomach to make you feel full, AND ALSO IT'S A CLEAN SOURCE OF HYDRATION. You BOILED the water and didn't even think about it. That 120g prey item is now nutrition for 3 cats, a whole meal for 6, plus an easy way to get more water into sick warriors who may not feel like eating.

Get yourself some mushrooms, a couple pieces of prey, whatever leftovers that would otherwise go to waste, and BAM you've got your whole Clan stuffed and happy, even if they didn't manage to hit the caloric minimum of the day.

[chase-the-windandtouch-the-sky]

Hi! I wish you would write a fic in where Miller finds out about Josephine Clarke and there is a confrontation until Clarke finds a way to give him a message *something only they would know (maybe from their Ark days? Or something she said to him (inside joke about camp or something about one of the Blakes)

*raises my hands to the sky* LET MILLARKE RIIIIIIIIIIIISE This took a bit of a turn to get to the place I wanted it to go, but Millarke ft. Bellamy / Miller angst cool?

He thought he had someone.

Miller’s not an idiot. He knows that the original 100 weren’t a thinganymore. They were too shattered. Raven, Bellamy, and Murphy stood on one side.He and Clarke on another. Octavia was god knows where. But he thought he andClarke were on a side.

Miller always liked Clarke. Sure, when he first met her, he thought shewas too serious and that she was a killjoy that she was infuriating. Clarke wasall these things. But all those things kept him alive. He watched her be kind,be gentle, be heartbroken, put everyone before herself. Make terrible choiceafter terrible choice.

He’s reaches the conclusion a real leader doesn’t want to be a leader.They don’t want that power, they don’t want to make those decisions. But theydo it. Because they love their people and someone has to. They take thatburden.

So when he finds Bellamy on the floor of a Sanctum house and Bellamy isnear inconsolable, all Miller can do is swallow. “No,” he finds himself saying.It isn’t a comfort that he should be giving to Bellamy, but it’s all his brain canhandle. “No, it can’t be.”

“C-Clarke is gone.” Bellamy says, sitting up. “She…”

He can’t finish the sentence.

Miller takes a step back from the man. He knows logically he needs tocontinue to help him, but he finds that even he is struggling to keep standinghimself.

He thought he had someone.

“No,” Miller repeats. “No, you have to be wrong.”

He has to be wrong. He can’t do this by himself. He can’t do this withthe way people look at him, if he doesn’t have someone with him. He can’t dothis.

Clarke’s always been there. Even when she wasn’t, she was a presence inthe back of his mind. When they had landed on the Ground, she was the one whoknew he was more afraid of the impending war than he let on. After all, he wasa thief, not a soldier. She found him sitting by the fire, not wanting to makethe trek to his tent. “Afraid of all thestars in the sky?” She’d asked him, nudging him playfully. When he didn’tanswer, she simply said, “As long asthere are stars, there is light. As long as there is light, there is hope.”

She walked him back to his tent that night, the words as long as there is light, there is hopeplaying in his head.

“Dammit, I’m not wrong,Miller!” Bellamy shouts, slamming his hand against the ground. “You didn’t seewhat we saw in the lab, you didn’t see what they do to nightbloods. They killthem. So they can use their bodies to live forever. You didn’t see—” Bellamy cutshimself off. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I can’t believe—”

“I said, no!” Miller shouts,shaking his head as frantically as he feels. “I said no, Clarke is not dead,Clarke survived the death wave. She literally survived something called a Death Wave. She’s not going to be killedby some immortal cult on a moon, which is a sentence I can’t believe that I’msaying!”

Bellamy seems to have regained feeling in his legs, because hestruggles to his feet and stalks over to him. “Stop say that!”

“I can’t believe you’re not!” Miller shouts, getting right up in hisface. He’d been walking on eggshells around Bellamy because he wasn’t sure howlong this forgiveness would last, but right now, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t careat all because he feels an anger he hasn’t felt in a while. “How can you justbelieve that she’s dead? Because you saw a video that someone somewhere died?This is Clarke we’re talking about!”

“I know it’s Clarke!” Bellamy bellows back, right in his face. Hishands reach up and he grips Miller’s collar. Any other instance, Miller mightbe afraid, but he isn’t. He’s furious.“Don’t you think I know? I know it’s Clarke! I know! It’s—” Bellamy swings and slams his hand against the wallnext to his head.

“Then take your head out of your ass and do something about it!” Millershouts. “Because Clarke would not die this way. Clarke is not going to diewithout anyone noticing. Clarke—”

“Is gone.”

The two flinch.

When she walks in, Miller isn’t sure he’d believe it if he wasn’tlooking at her. She is Clarke. Exceptshe’s not. She moving slinkily, eyes raking up and down the two. “You must be,don’t tell me,” The woman with Clarke’s face. “Nathan.”

“Miller.” Miller corrects, eyes wide.

Bellamy lets go of him and takes a precautionary step back, as if he’safraid of her. Miller doesn’t blame him. It’s eerie, the way everything isslightly off.

“What is it with you guys and last names?” The woman sighs. “Seriously,you made my day so much more complicated.”

“I’m sure that sucked for you.” Miller snaps. “Clearly you suck atbeing Clarke, so why don’t you give us her back and you can go on her way.”

The woman peers at him. “Are you all this serious all the time? It’ssuch a buzz kill.”

Listening to her speak like this almost tilts his axis. Her face is softerthan he’s ever seen it, but there’s something malicious brewing underneath.Like a serpent waiting to strike.

“Not all of us have the ability to not give a shit about life, becauseyou’ll just steal the next one.” Miller snaps. He looks at Bellamy, waiting forhim to jump in, but he never does. He simply stands there, frozen, staring atthe woman he’s always loved.

Bellamy never told him. But Miller knows.

The woman laughs, sharp and cold. “Poor guys. Seems like a stressfulway to live.” She takes a step toward her and it takes everything within Miller’swillpower not to recoil from her. “What’s the matter Miller? Afraid of thestars in the sky?”

Miller freezes. “What?”

The woman makes a face. “I would be careful who you tell. Just know we’reholding all the cards.”

As she leaves, Miller can’t feel his hands. He hears Bellamy let out abreath behind him, and then something that sounds like a sob. “She’s not dead.”Miller breathes.

“What?” Bellamy snaps behind him.

“She’s not dead!”

“Miller, I swear, I will hit you—”

Miller turns around, a smile curling on his lips. Shaking his head, hesays, “This isn’t denial, she is alive. As long as there are stars, there is light.As long as there is light, there is hope.”

Bellamy frowns. “What? What does that—”

“We gotta get the others.” Miller says, grabbing his arm and dragginghim forward. “Can’t have Clarke do all the work, can we?”

[chibisquirt]

I actually have learned a fair bit about cooking, but over and over again the most important one for me is the duck reaction.

It’s not really called the duck reaction; the proper name is the “Maillard reaction”.  But I call it the duck reaction, because a) pretending I think that’s pronounced “mallard” is a fun way to drive my francophile father nuts and b) the crispy skin of a roast duck is an excellent example of it.

Products of the duck reaction are fucking delicious.

Duck reaction is what happens when fat and protein and sugar come together in dry heat.  Fat is naturally present in meat, and if not, it’s used to keep things from sticking; protein and sugar are naturally found in meats and vegetables. 

“Dry” is a chemistry term, here; it doesn’t mean “nothing liquidy,” it means specifically “without water.”  A couple of very quick examples:  soup tastes differently based on whether you sautee the vegetables and then add broth, or boil the vegetables until cooked; and pasta sauce with stewed tomatoes is very different from pasta sauce with sauteed tomatoes.

The important thing to know is that anything you can do to make as much of your cooking happen dry, you should do.  Frying is dry--oil is pretty famously not water--and sauteeing usually is, too.  Roasting, grilling, even air-frying:  all dry.  Water obviously is not dry, but also milk, juice, and alcohol all have a fair amount of water in them.  Many vegetables release water when cooked, as well--mushrooms in particular.  

It’s not an exact science thing, and you don’t have to be totally pure of water for the duck reaction to work.  But it’s one of those things where you get a lot more of it, the less water there is.  Once you understand that, you understand, like, at least 60% of why recipes work the way they do.

(Except bread recipes.  No one understands bread recipes, because they are black magic.  Your best bet there is to circle around the kitchen three times counter-clockwise while chanting the word “gluten” under your breath.)

My friend asked how I learned to cook and the answer is I didn't. I know like 5 things about cooking and they are:

Always use more garlic than the recipe calls for

"Ehhh fuck it close enough" is a great measurement tool

Find like 5 recipes that you like, adjust them how you like them, make them until you hate them

Clean as you go

If a recipe is from a mommy blog, you will need more spices

If anyone wants to add, please do

[its-lifestyle]

At 6am one day in mid-January, a trio of hunters sat cloaked in layers of camouflage, waiting for first light when they could begin shooting during what would likely be one of the final duck hunts of the year.

With an hour before the hunt could begin, their decoys already floating in the water, the particle board duck blind disguised by sheafs of reeds and grasses, Brad Brooks, Ian Malepeai and Becca Aceto passed the minutes with fowl-focused conversation.

Aceto, who began hunting only recently, said she’d hunted nearby a few days prior with decent luck. Snowflakes started to flurry, and the hunters, cautiously optimistic, hunkered down with their eyes to the sky.

Brooks, 36, has hunted at the Bruneau-area blind since he was a teenager growing up in Meridian, Idaho, the United States. Malepeai, who grew up in Pocatello, also has spent decades hunting deer, waterfowl and chukar. Both learned the tradition from their fathers, something that’s become less and less common in recent decades.

Across the United States, the number of hunters has steadily decreased in the last 50 years, thanks to urbanisation and a shift in tradition. To an extent, Idaho has bucked the trend but it’s becoming clear that something has to change – maybe the hunters themselves.

Marketing the sport

For the first time in its 120-year history, Idaho Fish and Game has a marketing department, created last year. As the department’s director, Malepeai’s task is to help hunting continue to thrive in Idaho.

“In the past, state agencies didn’t have a marketing problem,” Malepeai said. “They didn’t need to market.” That’s because existing hunters were doing the work for them. Mentoring has long been the primary way new hunters pick up the practice, just like Brooks and Malepeai did.

But rather than come to hunting largely through tradition, today’s hunters seem to be spurred by a wider selection of catalysts, according to Brooks, director of the Wilderness Society’s public lands campaign. That can be anything from a desire for adventure and new challenges to a love for the environment or gourmet game-based dishes.

Fish and Game is happy to embrace them all.

“In Idaho, we represent all hunters and all anglers in the state, and motivations vary,” Malepeai said. “We’re looking at newcomers who are moving to Idaho for the outdoors and how we can help them become Idahoan.” He said statistics show the number of people passing the practice on to their children is waning nationwide.

Brad Brooks carves the meat from one of several Mallard ducks harvested from a morning hunt earlier this year. A group of wild game foodies enjoy the smoked duck during a dinner party at his Boise, Idaho, home. Photo: TNS

Baby boomers ageing out

“Idaho has actually been able to maintain a steady level of licence numbers, but as a percentage of the population, it’s not as large as it was in the past,” Malepeai said. “Part of it is just the changing demographics of the state.” The percentage of Idaho hunters in their 50s and 60s has increased over the past 20 years, while the percentage of hunters in their teens, 20s and 30s has slightly decreased.

“We’re hoping for the best,” Malepeai said. “But the fear is the baby boomer generation is just ageing out (of hunting). Our hope is we can keep this as part of what makes Idaho great.”

Fish and Game offers a hunting passport programme as an incentive for novice hunters.

Malepeai plans to introduce a virtual reality experience that allows new hunters to mimic field-dressing a deer. He hopes it will help boost confidence for less experienced hunters.

Malepeai pointed out that if hunting and fishing numbers continue to falter, so does the agency’s ability to manage Idaho’s wildlife. Though the agency is tasked with overseeing all of Idaho’s game and non-game animals, the bulk of its funding comes from licences, tags and permits. Fish and Game gets additional revenue from taxes on hunting and fishing equipment, but the state’s share of those funds is determined by the number of licence holders in the state.

“Hunting’s trying to stay relevant in a society that’s changing,” Aceto said.

And that means welcoming all kinds.

Sustainable food

For a few years after she first moved to Stanley, Aceto had no need to hunt. She’d grown up in Ohio, part of an outdoorsy family that hiked and fished, but she hadn’t forayed into hunting. Her boyfriend at the time offered her extra game meat, as did friends and co-workers on occasion.

After the relationship with her boyfriend ended, so did the bulk of the gifted meat. Aceto’s freezer gradually emptied. She hadn’t bought meat from a grocery store in years and had become accustomed to the idea of sustainable food – the kind that didn’t come from massive farming operations.

“I realised if I wanted to continue that lifestyle, I had to do it myself,” said Aceto, who moved to Boise in 2018 to work for the Idaho Wildlife Federation.

Changing tastes

Between them, Brooks, Malepeai and Aceto took six mallard ducks during their Bruneau hunt. On the drive home, Brooks joked that he grew up thinking he didn’t like duck. His family frequently made pan-fried duck breast, he said, and he’d balked at the gamey flavour.

He’s not the only one. Searches online describe duck meat in pretty dodgy terms – calling it an “acquired taste”, tiptoeing around its “different taste” or “stronger flavour”. But Brooks’ tastes have changed wildly over the years. Now a self-described “foodie”, his hunts take on an added layer as he plans the creative or unusual dishes he’ll make with the meat he harvests. Often, he’ll prepare game feasts for family and friends, like the one he hosted at his Boise home three days after his January duck hunt.

Brooks brined several of the ducks overnight, glazed them in high-quality maple syrup and smoked them for hours, letting the thick layer of winter fat melt into the skin until the birds developed a sweet, smokey flavour akin to candied bacon. Aceto arrived with a pan of nachos piled high with ground elk. Malepeai brought whitetail deer stroganoff. Brooks’ brother Brian made elk meatballs in a hoisin-based sauce.

“I’m more adventurous with the food I put in my freezer than the food I get at the store,” Aceto said.

Much has been made of the “foodie revolution” in recent years, and it’s clear the culture has stepped into the hunting world.

After the potluck, Malepeai’s wife, Hailey, used the duck carcasses to make broth for Vietnamese pho topped with deer backstrap. From the antelope she butchered with Internet guidance, Aceto has made ramen and bahn mi sandwiches. One of Brooks’ favourite recipes is osso buco, a dish made with braised deer or elk shanks, the cross-cut bone full of marrow.

It’s a far cry from the burgers and pan-fried cuts of meat he grew up on.

For average folks, it has long been enough to make steaks, sausage and burgers. The Statesman’s archives show our most adventurous game recipe recommendation may have been venison stroganoff.

It may also be an entry point to the culture. A well-prepared meal can be a way to bring new people to the conversation, a phenomenon Brooks said is sometimes called “venison diplomacy”. “You don’t talk about the hunting part, but the food part of it,” Brooks said. “Wild game can serve a function of bringing people together in a way that’s apolitical.” – Tribune News Service/The Idaho Statesman/Nicole Blanchard

from Food – Star2.com http://bit.ly/2V1ePak

[arcisfoodblog]

I ended my 3-day venture in high-end Nordic cuisine at the communal table of Oaxen Krog** in the Djurgården district of Stockholm.

About the Restaurant Oaxen Krog has an interesting history. Since 1994 the owners Magnus Ek and Agneta Green ran a seasonal fine-dining restaurant on Oaxen, one of the southern islands in the Stockholm archipelago. The concept for Oaxen came as a response to the imported and exotic food that seemed the standard back then. Instead, head-chef Magnus Ek wanted to focus on local food and flavours inspired by the incredible produce he was seeing from farmers and producers in the area.

The Skärgårdskrogen Oaxen restaurant was just open May to September and around Christmas time, yet managed to end up in the The World’s Top 50 Best Restaurants: it debuted in 2006 at #48 and worked its way up to #32 in 2010.

After 15 years in their remote location, Magnus and Agneta decided to ‘move to town’ to a newly erected building in Djurgården, next to the wooden bridge that connects to the Backholmen island. Its new start and 1,5-year-long closure, caused the loss of it place in the World’s Top 50 Best Restaurant, but the level of cooking wasn’t any less still unparalleled. After reopening in 2013, Oaxen Krog got two Michelin stars within 16 months: its first Michelin star in 2014 and the second in 2015. Their närhet principle still holds true: the cooking of Oaxen Krog is very nature-orientated with a lot of produce form their own farm and sourcing best local and regional produce in line with their own values – selected based on origin, sustainability and a humane animal keeping.

The restaurant, designed by architects Mats Fahlander and Agneta Pettersson, was modelled like the old boathouses that are scattered along Stockholm. It is divided in 2 sections: Oaxen Krog for fine dining and Oaxen Slip, the Nordic bistro for a more casual dining experience. The restaurant has a wonderful view on Kvarnholmen and comes with a beautiful interior design: modern, minimalist, abundant use of wood, very light in Oaxen Slip and more dark tones in Oaxen Krog, but both have a really nice relaxed vibe.

The restaurant has wonderful views of Kvarnholmen

We started off in the lounge at the back of the restaurant with a drink and with some slices of paper-thin pork belly just melting on your tongue. When everybody for the communal table had arrived, we were moved to our table and had a round of introductions: a German couple in town for an art fair, a MBA student from near Boston on a one week exchange program, and 2 brothers from San Francisco who own a restaurant and – as chef and sommelier – were looking for first-hand exploration of the Nordic cuisine.

About the menu There is little to choose from. Oaxen Krog has a 6-course or 10-course tasting menu (SEK 1.800-2.100 / € 187-220) and the wine pairing is SEK 1.200-1.400/ € 125-147. Juices are quite a thing in the Nordics and at Oaxen such a juice pairing will set you back SEK 500-600 / € 52-62.

I chose the 10-course tasting menu with excellent wine pairings, but started with a glass of exceptional Initial Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne by Jacques Selosse (SEK 390 / EUR 41; very expensive, but so worth it…) as an accompaniment for the 8 appetizers that were served in rapid-fire succession.

Then it was time to start our 10 courses:

#1: 3-year-old Oaxen ham & Sanda Egg with Broth of Black Skilleby Garlic, Fermented Cep Mushrooms and Hazelnuts

#2: Fermented and Pickled Vegetables from the Oaxen Farm, Verdance Roe from Kalix in Smoked Ox Marrow Sauce (paired with a very good German Rheingau riesling: a 2008 Georg Breuer Berg Roseneck)

#3: Raw Shrimp and Beef, Cap of Aged Entrecôte and Sorrel

The entrecôte was first seared/smoked on one side using a sizzling hot stone placed on aromatic herbs and twigs

#4: Kohlrabi and Browned Smen, Ramsons and Pickled Green Peas

#5: Smoked Scallop and Oyster Emulsion, Unripe Currants, Mushrooms and Wild Leaves (paired with a 2006 Domaine de Bellivière Calligramme, a dry and powerful 100% Chenin based white wine from the Jasnières appellation in the Loire region in France)

In the meantime, we also were served some delicious breads with freshly churned butter. Especially this sweet, dark and sticky rye bread that was baked in a cast iron pan and covered with sea salt flaked was heavenly. Photo credit goes out to Escape Eat Explore as our bread was gone before I had the chance to a pic…

#6: Skrei Baked in Kelp with Cream of Grilled Parsley and Unripe Plums with Seaweed from the West Coast

#7: Mallard with Forest Capers and Fennel Seeds, Oak Moss and Calf Cheese seasoned with Green Juniper

The mallard was accompanied by this excellent 16-year-old “red table wine”…

#8: Garlic Glazed Linderöd Pork, Crispy Black Cabbage from the Oaxen Farm and Roasted Almonds

A pre-dessert which was a play on the actual first dessert course that would follow shortly after. I recall it being a bread bon-bon covered with a wild cherry glaze and covered with sweet cicely

#9: Wild Cherries with Bread Miso, Toasted Spelt and Sweet Cicely

#10: Roasted Carrot Sorbet with Brown Butter and Hay Infused Cream…

…served with Carrot Cake bites

I concluded with an espresso (SEK 50 / € 5,20) which came with a box of 9 homemade chocolates to eat/take home. I was quite stuffed, so Chantal also had the chance to also have a tasting of the incredible favour combinations that Oaxen Krog come up with. The truth is that I really had to make up to Chantal for having these fine dining experiences by myself… ;-)

Magnus Ek, through modern cooking techniques, refines local and regional products into innovative dishes. In short: expect unique ingredients, wild herbs, pure and intense flavours.

There were plenty of moments that the table fell silent, surprised, taking in and savouring new flavours, just nodding in agreement to the others. I liked this communal table concept much more than I anticipated. Accompanied with great food and wines, there were lots of laughs, stories and memories shared between these strangers collectively undergoing the Oaxen Krog experience and having a doubtlessly memorable night.

Around the World – Oaxen Krog**- Stockholm, Sweden I ended my 3-day venture in high-end Nordic cuisine at the communal table of Oaxen Krog** in the Djurgården district of Stockholm.