Show Notes
On this episode of Huntavore, Nick calls up Andrew Muntz and Paul Campbell of the Ohio Outdoors Podcast. This duo is a great pairing, Andrew, being a whitetail guy and Paul, a Turkey fanatic. Nick does a fly by on how their 2023 seasons went and their follow up celebration meal, that may surprise you. In addition Nick gets into the details of what each of the guys would bring to the Emperor’s Table, where Paul does a culinary flex on his Turkey dish. All this and a bunch of fun on this episode of Huntavore.
Andrew and Paul are hosts of the Ohio Outdoors Podcast, and Paul being the host of How to Hunt Turkeys, both airing on Sportsmens Empire. Andrew is an accomplished bowhunter who loves nothing better than chasing whitetails. Paul, is a turkey guy through and through, and with the help from Andrew, got back into chasing deer. Both guys were successful this year in the deer woods. Andrew went through many ups and downs, close encounters and near misses that made for an epic tale of getting his Thanksgiving buck. For his celebration meal, Andrew went beyond just utilizing, and donated that buck to Farmers & Hunters feeding the Hungry. Paul was able to harvest 3 deer in 18 minutes giving him a load of venison right now. His go to was backstrap done up in the smoker, paired with a hand chopped chimichurri. Now to the Emperor's Table, Paul goes for the fences with a Citrus Brined Smoked Wild Turkey, and Andrew submits another fried walleye submission, using his wife’s breading mix and Paul’s tartar sauce.
Go and check out the Ohio Outdoor Podcast and How to Hunt Turkeys both on Sportsmen's Empire.
Show Transcript
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Hey folks, be. Afternoon folding into evening here in Michigan. I tell you what, we had a chill down and things were cold, but now they're warming back up. I think we've got rain in the forecast, so whatever snow we had will be gone. Whatever ice that we had developed on those lakes will. Also be gone.
So here we go, another couple weeks of nothing as far as ice fishing in the plans, but that's neither here nor there, folks. I am joined tonight with some fellow Sportsmans Empire [00:04:00] podcasters Here we have the hosts of the Ohio Outdoors Podcast, also known as the oh two Podcast. And Paul being the host of the How to Hunt Turkey Podcast.
Gentle. Thank you so much for coming on. We got Andrew, and we have Paul. Andrew. How are things looking in your neck of the woods? Is there snow in Ohio?
Andrew Muntz: At this moment, I think Paul, what was it today, but almost 60
Paul Campbell: degrees. Almost 60. Yeah.
Andrew Muntz: It's beautiful. It felt real nice. It felt like spring and it's February 8th and it's Don't trust it.
It's that false hope, I think. But Paul and I just live down the road from each other and central Ohio is blah, but at least the sun's been out lately, so that really helps.
Paul Campbell: The mess. It's really weird. I walked by my kitchen window the other day and I stopped.
I'm like, what the hell's going on outside? And I'm looking like out the window. I'm like, The sun's out. That's the that's the issue that caught my eye. The sun is out, so [00:05:00] yeah
Nick Otto: that's the point we're at. What is this giant orb that's like hurting my eyes, but yet I feel good around it.
Yes. That's
Paul Campbell: it, man.
Andrew Muntz: Yep. That's it. We've had a pretty mild winter down here. I think. What we had the arctic blast there right at Christmas that was cold and brought a little bit of snow and maybe one or two other times. But really, we had a lot of rain in the forecast this week and it's mild.
It's real mild,
Nick Otto: Yeah. Yeah, it is. What has that done for either of yours? Winter pursuits? I know like small game has been my only venture, which, shoot. Now with all the kids into sports, like I, it's pretty much like one day of the weekend that I get to go run out in the woods with the dogs and maybe come across something.
But like you said, it's just been. Ugh. Kind of weather. Even the squirrels are like, yeah we ain't going outside.
Paul Campbell: Yeah, I, so we had that just nasty, 20 degrees below zero weather, right? At Christmas it froze. The ponds, the lakes, the rivers. The little creeks, everything. So when I, and this is just an idiot's perspective, Nick forgive [00:06:00] me, this isn't science-based, but the migration, the water fountain migration for central Ohio is not, it's not the best, right?
There's a reason they call. , Ohio. The armpit of the flyways, right? So everything comes across lake Erie and it just takes a hard westerly turn and heads to the Central Flyway or the Mississippi Flyway. And we get to, we have some wood ducks, but it was especially bad this year for duck hunting because I think everything froze up.
They what ducks that do come. The central part of the state here just kept right on going and it, it made it difficult for a duck hunter here in central Ohio. There was some of that, but yeah, small game. I, didn't kill any rabbits this year. I didn't do, I didn't do a ton of that, but the duck hunting I was very upset about.
Andrew Muntz: .
Yeah, Nick, I don't know, what do they say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Like I have this great idea that I'm gonna get out and try new things and do different stuff. Our bow season deer season just ended a couple days ago and a lot of times I'm. To the last second trying to fill that buck [00:07:00] tag.
But to this year I was able to do that before Thanksgiving. So I thought, oh, great, I'm gonna have all this time to, to try other things and go with Paul for some ducks and find some squirrels and this and that. And, it's the nature of the beast. My real job is, it really starts picking up after the first of the year.
I've had some other things pop up. They've kept me from doing whatever. Paul is getting all giddy about Turkey season coming and I have to remind him that there is shed season that is going to be before the Turkey season. So I know we don't eat those, but that's definitely on my radar as soon as I get past a
Nick Otto: couple things here.
Absolutely. Hey, participation trophies, even though they do sit on your shelf, they are fun to look at. Yeah, there's culinary value is very low in those. But I'm glad that we've got one more, like good intention audio that you're gonna be going for. Those
Andrew Muntz: sheds, , I'll tell you. So Santa Claus brought a bunny to my house this year and talk about they get ornery or whatever when their teeth.
They need an awe [00:08:00] and stuff. I found, pulled out one of my old sheds. Oreo is making culinary value out of that old beat up shed I had.
Nick Otto: Oh good for Oreo. Hey, good for you to be able to share your sheds. I know when my pups get, I have to be very choosy on which sheds my pups chew on. They haven't gone through the one that I donated to them, but it's definitely one of those, they keep eye in the shelf and I'm like no.
Keep a pause off those are my trophies there. Don't be messing. Yeah. So how about you, Paul? You said the ducks were kinda lackluster there. And the ice isn't looking great as far as stepping on it. What's work been like for you? Has it really pulled you away from the outdoors?
Here is sportsman, this is also the, one of those times a year where it's, we do have to invite ourselves back to society, that we do have to go back to our job. How have things looked for
Paul Campbell: you this winter? Yeah, so in terms of what I do for a living next week is the National Wild Turkey Federation's Annual Convention.
So next week is my busiest week of the year. Professionally. This week is the second busiest [00:09:00] week of the year for me professionally. So it has, it ha it definitely takes away and takeaways the wrong word, but it. It impacts the time that that we have available and the bandwidth that, you know, and we all go through that.
I don't mind it because it's, I get to talk about Turkey hunting, which is pretty cool, or, wild Turkey conservation works. So I do enjoy that. But yeah. There, there are a lot of times, especially, at the end of the year, when it's normally good duck hunting here in Ohio that I'm making calls and making visits to members and volunteers, the of the federation.
So yes, it definitely impacts it. But I make up for it during Turkey season. So it's it all works out.
Nick Otto: Good. Good. Hey, speaking of those celebrations that we had early on this year, I know if you've tuned into the oh two podcast or if you'd even joined in during our Sportsman's Empire Deer Camp episodes on how to hunt deer you can know that Andrew went through a rollercoaster of a year.[00:10:00]
just with sightings and with close calls and just near misses. And then no fines. And man, you want something like straight out of homer's ID or Homer's Odyssey. That's what Andrew went through. So Andrew, give us a quick, like bird's eye view of your big celebration, getting your buck there at Thanksgiving and tell.
What was the celebration that you had with that deer? Did you make something from that deer yet? Or what was your big yes, we finally accomplished the, and then how did you celebrate that?
Andrew Muntz: Nick, you're gonna hate me. Let me just , we'll preface it with that. I hunt to fill the freezer. Most of what we eat goes into ground grind ground meat.
But leading up to that buck, I did have a rollercoaster, and I think at that point I had three doughs, which is a good start to fill in the freezer. But I was able to get that buck. And when I hit him, I didn't [00:11:00] tell anybody. I think I told my wife, I'm like, I'm not gonna be in right away because something just happened and I didn't even tell Paul until after I found.
Because I was that nervous that something was gonna go wrong. I knew the arrow went right through, all that kind of stuff. But it just, I had to sink in. So at that point in the year, I had told myself once I got to three deer, the next one was gonna go to farmers and hunters feeding the hungry.
Try to hold my word right. That was, I was like, look, this is I got time to run it up to the butcher and drop it off. And so that's what I did with that buck. And so somebody else is getting a good meal out of it, and I feel good about that. It's a little bittersweet because it was like that was my first buck with a bow, and I think I've been at it for 12 or 13 years now.
But. That's where that ended
Nick Otto: up. Gotcha. Your celebration was donating [00:12:00] that to other families who are in need, who need food, who need just a leg up and are going to a food pantry. That, sir, that is a, that's an applause. That is a wonderful way to handle that. I'm, I didn't realize that that is what you did with that buck.
That's good. Ona Good.
Andrew Muntz: We've got a friend Justin Ross. He's a buddy of ours and he's been on our show a few times, and he runs that for part of the state or just the entire state, Paul the entire state Yep. Here for that organization. And leading up to it was like, if I had the ab ability, that's what we're gonna do with it.
And Thanksgiving one of my other hobbies is fitness and exercise and diet and stuff. Trying to get people good protein source instead of some of the crap that comes off the shelves. I thought it was a decent way to use that
Nick Otto: box that's an epic celebration.
That's a wonderful story, Andrew. So to back up on that too, you did say that your job is to fill the freezer, but that is on your own [00:13:00] accord. You said. That's as far as you normally go. Then the misses then takes back over. In the kitchen there preparing. She even prepares your your wild game.
She's that adventurous. She'll take it on.
Andrew Muntz: Yeah, she's been a great sport with it all. And she eats it. The kids eat it. Everybody eats it. Let me think. We started processing our own deer. I think it was like 2020. It would've been 2020. It was when all the, I was hitting the fan. Picked up a grinder started watching YouTube videos, sharp knives, all that kind of stuff.
We had just bought a house that had a, like a barn detached, so makes it really nice. You got a lot of space, couple tables, all that kind of stuff. And she's in physical therapy world. She loves the anatomy of different things. So she was right there with me, man, the first time. She's oh, I wanna see that and see this different muscle groups and see how they all work together and stuff.
And I'm like, let's just cut this thing up, , . Basically when we break a deer down, a lot of times we'll pull the rump roast out and we do the backstraps tenderloins. I'm trying to get that neck thing done. I still [00:14:00] struggle with the neck thing. You and I have talked about that before.
But a lot of it ends up in the grind pile, because that's where we use it, we don't eat a lot of steaks or anything regardless of what they. . But when it comes to grinding, it's, meatloaf and spaghetti sauce and tacos. This is all the stuff that you use. And having young kids, eight and six, like eating is a challenge for them, period.
So anything absolutely that we can make work for that. Is, has been good.
Paul Campbell: Andrew talk, talk about your family's favorite meal for Madeira. That's the celebration for your.
Andrew Muntz: It is. I think it's tacos. I think probably
Paul Campbell: we have to listen to the, it's but what kind of tacos? The heart
Andrew Muntz: tacos. Oh yes.
Yes. My, so my daughter, and she's so proud of this, when they ask your favorite food in class and she tells people, dear heart tacos and they all look at her funny. But they do, man, they eat that up and. Paul, it was after your [00:15:00] big day. Yeah, and it was funny. We were like, oh, I got a bag of hearts.
It was a literal bag of hearts, . It was a bag of hearts. And those kids, man, they eat that up, which is great. Great. On 'em. And it took me a little, a couple years to eat a heart, but they were, they didn't whatever, just
Paul Campbell: go right with it. So when I gave, I told Annie she could have my bag of hearts and she was just like, Mr.
Paul, thank you, . That was like the highlight for
Nick Otto: Yeah, it was cool. I love it. I love it to be that. So you guys do keep heart. That was gonna be a follow up question too yeah. You guys have now gotten to the point where you're butchering your own animals in your garage there and you're doing the hearts like, I'm very impressed Andrew.
That's a long ways to be coming in, just a short amount of time.
Andrew Muntz: Haven't jumped into the liver yet maybe someday, right? I'm not even sure I've eaten normal liver. Fuck the old liver and onions plat platter, but maybe someday, I think this year I'm curious to your idea on this. [00:16:00] Historically, I've always ground my meat with pork fat.
I don't know why. He must have heard it somewhere along the way. I had a guy last year told me, he is he uses beef fat. And he said, why would I mix a white meat with a red. You take red meat fat and you mix it with red meat, so it'll taste better. I haven't tried any of it yet, but definitely looking
Nick Otto: forward to that.
Yeah, I was, that's, it's on the docket for a side by side comparison. I, myself, same with you. I have gone with pork back fat specifically. I don't go with a pork like a pork butt or anything to try and get, I want it just the fat so that I can use lean venison and. The pork. Pork is mild as far as flavor goes in the fat profile.
So when you cook, when you mix up your 80 20 with your pork, you're gonna be tasting the venison. The venison is gonna come out as the stronger note, not the pork. Whereas it's the flip on beef. You are going to taste the beef, [00:17:00] you're gonna taste that beefy flavor, and that's going to, it's gonna.
Challenge that venison flavor, it's gonna taste more like a normal hamburger because you've got those beef notes from that, whereas you're not gonna get that on the pork side. No, both work out good. Some people, they j they can't handle the venison flavor as much and they enjoy a straight beef hamburger.
And so this is one way that they can use their venison. But I'm with you. I go with the. The pork back fat, the back fat is nicer too because it really holds things together a little tighter than what the beef is gonna do. So you're making your meatballs, you're making your meatloaf, it's gonna hold tighter for making sausage, I think it adheres better to the seasoning.
I think you're gonna get a better hold of that seasoning when it comes to a sausage. Yeah, I'm glad to hear your experiment with that too.
Paul Campbell: I'll
Andrew Muntz: tell you, there is definitely a different consistency to the two fats, and I didn't even think that would be a thing. But there was, so we'll
Nick Otto: find out. [00:18:00] Sounds good.
Sounds good. So Paul, give us a, give us an airplane's view of your season and what is a meal that. That you would call your celebration meal from this year?
Paul Campbell: Yeah, so I haven't killed a deer since 2000 and I think 18 or 19. I think 18. And Nick, I killed three deer in 18 minutes this year on a gun hunt.
Three, two. So it was on a wildlife refuge. Is a lottery hunt, a controlled hunt here in Ohio? It didn't count towards my state total. So if it was brown, it was down, it was a population hunt. I killed two. Killed a dough, big dough, shot a fourth, couldn't find her tractor, her all over the wildlife refuge, and then shot at a fifth.
I was feeling a little confident and clean miss. So three deer, Andrew and I had to drag three deer out of the woods that day. He was with me. So that was a ton of fun. You can, if you want, you can listen to that episode where I go into the nitty gritty of that hunt. It was pretty neat.
So for me, I had really [00:19:00] burned myself out on deer hunting and I just didn't, I didn't like it anymore. And, doing this podcast and really becoming friends with Andrew, he ignited that, that passion to, to get out there and try to deer hunt again. And so I didn't I didn't, I don't process my own deer.
I'm gonna have to ease myself into that soap. But I love to cook so I did, I had 'em processed. It was within two days I had that deer back. And I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. That's just how it worked out. Two or three days, three days max. And so the first, Tenderloin, that was, the backstraps rather, that was the first thing that that we did.
And I. . I have a, like a smoker that I use. I've got a gas grill that I use, I love to cook with live fire. So I use my smoker as more of like an Argentinian style, like live fire pit, more than I use it as an actual smoker. Yeah yeah, that's that. So that's what I did.
The backstraps, those were the first celebration meal. Pretty, pretty simple man. Little, kosher salt. Let it sit.[00:20:00] I, so one of the things that I do, if I find a bunch of mushrooms, I'll eat 'em until my belly hurts, in the spring, morel mushrooms, whatever's left, I'll dry 'em out and then I grind them up and I mix 'em with peppercorns.
And so that, I have that kind of, that woodsy, earthy, morl flavor throughout the year. So just dry 'em out. So that's what I do with all of my stakes deer or the like kosher salt, and then the morl. Mushroom pepper, peppercorn grind. So that's what went on those, they were nice. Good. Yeah. Oh man.
They were fantastic. And that, that, that was a victory meal right there. So the big kind of celebration meal for me with every year we host Christmas and so I, I love. How do I say this? The poor people cut of beef, so like London Broil, I love them. If you do that thing right, it is just a great flavor and same thing.
I do it on open fire. And so this year we had about 20 people at our house for Christmas. I did four or five London broils, and then I had this huge backstrap off of this really big [00:21:00] doe that I had shot. And same thing I reversed, seared everything. There was a ton of the London broil leftover people gobbled up the venison.
I same, prepared 'em the same way. Nothing crazy. Had a nice chi cherry, homemade chi, cherry sauce there and, just some really good horseradish sauce. And man, it was a great meal. So that made me feel good, cause you never know, like people that don't hunt like my sister-in-law, I'm not eating that.
I'm like, you're trying that right now. And she and she ate it and was like, this is amazing. I'm like, I told you. It's good stuff. So yeah, that was the overview. But I love to cook with open fire. That's my preferred method for
Nick Otto: meat. Yes. And especially now that the assault stove is now under fire, be it the gas, like we gotta get back outside, use the gas outside, use the charcoal.
If they're gonna break, bust in and try to take our natural gas, we gotta be able to handle it and go with the the charcoal or the Yeah, like you said, the full down break down live fire. Yep. We've talked to Jimmy [00:22:00] Chewy before elsewhere. , are you a blender, chimi, chewy guy? Do you blend yours or
Paul Campbell: do Yout go with a rough chop?
No, I like the rough chop. Now I've had both. I was in Bozeman over the winter, right before Christmas. And everyone says that's like the, when you think of good steaks, Montana. Pops into a lot of people's minds. And I went, yeah I went to a really nice steakhouse and they brought me a blended chi cherry with this beautiful steak.
And I looked at this and I'm like, this is a disservice to the steak. But it was fantastic. It really tasted good. I didn't care for the texture. And a lot of people do. Me personally, I like the chunky chi, cherry chewy with the little chili peppers, diced up, minced up.
I and I like a lot of garlic. And there I'll use red pepper flakes, so I can't, the good coarse kosher salt in there and good olive oil. But yeah I like it. I like it thick. I like it chunky for sure.
Nick Otto: Good deal. Good deal. I didn't realize that there was a big like standoff with that on that [00:23:00] methodology, whether it's gets blended.
Yeah. Cause people are like, no, this should be quick. It's a quick one. And then you have true, I think it's Argentinians that are like, yes. You only hand chop it. It's
Paul Campbell: a pro, it is a process. Because if you've got, if you're serving a large amount of people, it's five or six bunches of parsley and that doesn't sound a lot, but that is an hour of just standing there because I don't like the stems in it, so I gotta pull everything off and chop it.
It's an ordeal. Yes, it really is. But it's totally worth it.
Nick Otto: Gotcha. Know what you guys are talking
Andrew Muntz: about. No. I ate a chi changa once. Is that what you're talking about? ?
Paul Campbell: You've had the chimi cherry at my house before. Haven't you had the green stuff? That chi that you taste it and you just, you're like, what is this?
I want more of this. That's the chi cherry that I make. Maybe you haven't, I don't know. I we'll have to do it. I'll bring you over. We'll fire up some backstraps and we'll get after it. So I
Nick Otto: just eat. There you go. Just go straight, straight meat. Yeah, I did love how you said that you enjoy a harder [00:24:00] worked muscle.
You mentioned specifically the London Broil. That whole methodology too, like I, cuz we were, we went out to dinner with my wife and and friends of ours and one of them got filet and they were just raving on, it was a piece of beef. And they were enjoying the steak and they said, Hey, you should try some of this.
And so I did try one. And it was one of those things, like I haven't had filet in years and to just, to go from, when I do cook a beef steak, it's usually gonna be a ribeye, it's usually gonna be like a piece of the sirloin or chuck. It's gonna be something that's gonna have some work to it. More so than the filet. So when I tasted it, I tasted all the seasonings, but I never tasted any of the beef. and like when you said with that London broil, like you want to talk about real flavor of the animal, the further you get away from the head and the hoof, yeah, you're gonna add tenderization, but you're gonna lose flavor.
And so those harder worked muscles, especially stuff up [00:25:00] upfront in that that shoulder clo yeah, you're gonna find that you're gonna really taste that animal because that's the work that's going into it. So I was glad to hear that you were saying that you enjoyed that
Paul Campbell: London Royal. Oh yeah that's my, that's without a doubt my favorite cut of beef for sure.
And I, and some people that, like you said, might be a crazy statement, but I really enjoy
Nick Otto: that. You ever cut it up into cube steaks? Do like a Salisbury? I have,
Paul Campbell: yeah. So I've done stroganoff with cubed up London Broil. That's probably my favorite. Non-g grilled, fire version for that is, is a good homemade beef stren off.
Real Fatty. Fatty, you've stroganoff. Oh yeah, .
Nick Otto: Absolutely. Absolutely. We've been going on some tangents here, and so what I wanna do is stay on that thing and we were talking earlier with Andrew about the the road paved with good intentions. Here's some more that I want to add to our pave pavement here.
What are some things that you've seen? and heard and witnessed that you're like, [00:26:00] that is something I want to try this year with a piece of my venison, with a Turkey that I got earlier. What is something that you're looking forward to trying out and being like, you know what? That's something I want to do.
Paul Campbell: Mine's easy for me. I want to do a crown roast off of a deer or an elk, something. I love the presentation. I love the idea of, wrapping those bones. And foil so that you've got just that sizzling, crispy piece of meat and you pull that foil off and you got this white bone and the contrast between the two.
Yeah, I wanna live fire, just the biggest crown roast that I can get my hands on.
Nick Otto: Excellent. And it, you took it to the butcher though, and you got back boneless meat. I
Paul Campbell: did. Yes, I know. I need to, I'll kill three more dear Nick. And and then you'll have to FaceTime me and we'll walk me through how to how to cut up
Andrew Muntz: a ground road next year, Paul?
Next year. Next year. .
Paul Campbell: Yes.
Nick Otto: Hey, that's thing. Anything you wanted to try that was new and this is it. So yeah. Now [00:27:00] yeah, that's the beautiful thing about a hunting. There's always next year. That's it.
Andrew Muntz: Yep. I had to throw that in there, Nick. Yeah. On our show, was it this week he made some comment about shooting deer at night and it.
Not that he's gonna do it, but we had to like time out. Okay. Just to clarify, there's no shooting deer at night. So just to clarify, Paul is not gonna shoot any deer, more deer in Ohio this year, right? Until we get to
Paul Campbell: next season, right? Yeah. Deer season is done here for 20 for this for the winter. So yes.
No more killing deer until at least September.
Nick Otto: Gotcha. Gotcha. You do, if we get another cold snap. Yo, you could always look alongside the road. I just had my first pickup of a road deer here. And yeah. Yeah, Pennsylvania. Oh what's our Pennsylvania guy's name? I forget his name.
Mitch. Mitch. Mitch. Mitch gave me such a hard time and I didn't have my phone with me. I wanted to call up Mitch and be like, Mitch, I'm alongside the road right now picking up a dough. What part do you want to keep? What part do I send to you, man? Yeah, he was giving me [00:28:00] such a hard time about that.
Paul Campbell: That's funny. How was gut in that thing? Was she banged up pretty bad or was it okay?
Nick Otto: Normally I go with a gutless method. If I don't have a lot of intel I approach it with my very very acute redneck csi. Mindset. You have to establish okay, where did she get hit?
Where did it get hit? What does the gut feel like? How long has this been here? And if you can start checking off some boxes that things are going in the right direction, like that makes it liable for okay let's gut her up. It looks like she broke her neck. And we're gonna go with a gut job on this.
I have a kitty. That is just for this this surprise cuz if I do open it up and it's just a mess. I don't want that all over my concrete in my my garage. So I opened it up and it was real clean. Nothing had burst. But as I was pulling, I noticed that there was a larger section. There was like a, an enhanced[00:29:00] That I did, wasn't sure what was going on.
So I, I continued to pull and I found like there's this like sac and this sac had fluid all in it. I'm like, do not pop this. I don't know if it's the, I don't know if it's like full of urine or what we're dealing with. So don't mess with this. And as I pulled a little further, a tiny little face went to the side of that.
Organ there, and it was a it was a baby deer. It was. A fetus that was inside this thing. And I tell you what, you want to take some, like a little bit of shock value and a little bit of stand back and reestablish yourself as a person. Granted, I didn't shoot this animal, I picked it off side of the road.
But to find a pregnant dough and have it be that far along, like I know I threw. Into the composter, just on the top. But I took the little guy and I actually went off and buried him. Cuz I did, I was, I felt just, like I, I don't know how I felt about it. Just shook me there.
Took life. [00:30:00] Fragile man.
Paul Campbell: It
Nick Otto: is, that was one of the things I, I came across. Life is so fragile and how that little guy didn't even have a chance, but at the same. how far along that little fetus was, and to know that there's possibly hundreds more in the area and to just get to know Like it's developing.
Great. I bet you we've got a, I've got a healthy drop of fawns this year, just judging by what I saw there. So that was the takeaway, if I were to look at it from a purely analytical, scientific aspect hey, this was a good window into the development of where our rut has gone how things are developing along and when to expect fawns.
But yeah, man, , it takes a lot to, to pull up my heartstrings. Especially when I'm like, Hey, food is on the table here. We're talking meat. That was a real diverter there. Looking at that. It's, that was my surprise.
Andrew Muntz: I'll tell you, I had a dough that I took this year and when I was gotten there and everything, [00:31:00] I noticed the front kind of brisket area.
Little watery. At Paul, we went through our little talk, like the booby area, but , I was hoping that the blood was rushing that, that direction. And when I got her home and I started, skinning her and everything, I realized that something really wasn't right there.
Like on your, what is this organ that's in here type of thing that can really throw you a curve ball when you're trying to gut the deer or, break the deer down. And I think what she ended up having was like, what they call it, hydrosis or something. It basically was like a lot of fluid in there.
it was pretty clear. It wasn't, pussing yellow or black or anything like that. So I don't know if she got caught on a, either shot in, in, in the past or whatever. But that definitely threw a screw ball in the, in that deer. And I remember I was thinking, I was texting you about it.
Cause I'm like, do I eat this? Or what do I do with this? And you're like, You need error on the side of caution, just let it
Nick Otto: be Right Your nose and yeah. Cut away what you can on something like that. No, that is, yeah, cuz these critters go through so much and you put a shot on [00:32:00] one and if it hits it up there Yeah they gets this like a water cyst like you said, probably didn't really affect too much, but yeah.
Airing on the side of caution, especially on the eating side of it. Good, good on you for there. But yeah. Andrew, what are you gonna try new this year? Ah,
Andrew Muntz: For me at this point, I'm past stuff that this ground is ground. The roasts, the roast, the back straps are all there. I haven't really thought of anything crazy.
Paul, I Your crown roast, is that with the ribs? Yes. Okay. Someday, Nick, I want to figure out how to cook the ribs. I've tried it before with a smoker. It. It tastes right, so I did something wrong. So I need to next year, this upcoming season, figure out a way to figure how to cook those. Whether I don't know.
I've talked to people. At first you put it in the oven first you put it in the crock pott and then you put it in the smoker and then the grill, whatever. I just gotta get that figured out. Because I think once I can figure that out, it would be another [00:33:00] Cause that's the one thing when I'm breaking 'em down, I always feel so wasteful on those ribs.
And I know there's something you can do with. . But a lot of times I, when I try to take these doughs early in the year it just, time is of the essence and it's like, how much freezer space is in there? I need to cut this stuff out. What am I gonna do with it? I, it's 70 degrees outside and I end up throwing it away or feeding it to the dog or whatever.
But that would be something to do with the ribs at some point, would be
Nick Otto: ideal. Good. Yes. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that was a cut that. I did. I took as a personal I don't wanna say vendetta, but like personal, like motivated? Yeah. Very motivated. I'm going to figure this one out and Yeah.
Where it, whether it goes into sausage and burger. The way I've, what, the way I approach the bones is differently than just keeping 'em in. There's a lot of times where I'll do is I'll sheet out the whole rack and just leave the meat in one sheet and then I end up rolling [00:34:00] that, tying that up, and then cooking it more or less like a , basically a rollup like you, would you butterfly out a backstrap and then roll it back up with filling?
I do the same thing with a rib, but at this point you add more of a moist heat to it, render out a lot of the fat that you don't want to have in there and then come back with a high heat. But yeah, at the same time, to do like a slow braze on the meat with them, with the bones. and then to go over to a grill like it is totally possible, but it's gonna take some playing.
So being able to get your ribs and then to get them into a spot where you can say, okay, they do have room here in the freezer. Give it a shot. Hey, if you mess up, Fido ain't gonna care. He's gonna be all over those next time as well. So he'll let you try it as long as he gets to taste, the mishaps on the end.
Andrew Muntz: Absolutely.
Nick Otto: Good deal. Let me see if I can't cue up our intro here. But we have come to the crescendo of our show. We have come to this [00:35:00] emperor's table where we are gonna be doing a potluck with the Sportsman's Empire. Okay, this is it. Steaks cooked, medium rare. Can I get my steak cooked?
Just so I want no question. You hungry? Hey Ma, can we get some meat? You heard?
So the scenario is that was cause we were getting together. I
Paul Campbell: didn't hear any of it, so I didn't hear it. I couldn't hear any of it. Oh no, I couldn't hear any of. I was just watching your faces and living vicariously through you two.
Nick Otto: Oh, good. Good. You'll see it on when it launches. Oh, I can't wait.
You'll be superf. Perfect. So what we've got, the scenario is that we are having a sportsman's empire potluck. We are getting together. And this is all like in a. The hot, like the the [00:36:00] ideal state. We don't, actually don't have a date yet set for this, but I am putting together the menu vicariously through you guys.
And so the idea is when you come to this potluck, you'll be bringing a dish that you will want to give the other hosts of that. That potluck, just the utmost respect for you ly and also as a hunter. So I want you to be able to display your work there, but at the same time, make it very much about you and who you are.
And so what I'm gonna do is offer it up to you and you're gonna tell me about a dish that you're going to make or that you're going to bring that's gonna represent you at this. And so Andrew the coin flip has gone to you. You've won the coin toss, so you can either start now or you can defer to Paul.
I'm
Paul Campbell: gonna go ahead and defer. All right, this is in the second half. This is easy. This is easy for me. I am going to bring [00:37:00] a citrus brine, smoked wild Turkey. That's what I'm gonna bring. I'm gonna spatchcock that sucker. I'm gonna smoke it with a real mellow wood. Nothing crazy, not over. Smoke it. No seasoning.
No seasoning other than salt and pepper. And then I'm gonna base that sucker with honey and butter. For about three hours. That's what I'm gonna do. Nice little crisp on the skin. Oh yeah. That's what I'm, that's what I'm gonna bring. Starts to crisp up a little bit. That's it. That's what I'm bringing.
Mun what are you bringing? Don't say Whoa. No, don't say we're jumping yet.
Nick Otto: We've got questions here. . All right. Bird. It's, is this pluck or skinned?
Paul Campbell: I pluck every Turkey that I do, that I. I take the, you do. I do. Yeah. I take the time. It's a pain. I like the skin. I like the added benefit of it.
If, and you can skin a Turkey, you can skin a wild Turkey and still have a moist bird. The one thing that I want to, to your listeners, , [00:38:00] do yourself a favor and use the whole Turkey. Don't just breast it out like people do. There is so much good meat. Don't listen to that old adage that the legs are tough.
They're, they're not. No, they're delicious. That's what legs are. And you don't have to throw 'em in a crockpot for 15 hours, which is like the popular thing on social media now. You don't have to do it. Stop it, Brian. That sucker. Cook it on a smoker, roast it. Take the time. Don't put it into one of those bags, Nick.
I don't wanna see that crap either. Just take the time, get your nice good roasting pan, base it. Every once in a while, you're gonna have, you're gonna, you're gonna have a treat. You're gonna have a treat. Yes, I pluck every bird and I use every ounce of it as I can. Not for some, pseudo religious reason, but because it's good, right?
It's TAs. Don't short, don't shortchange yourself.
Nick Otto: Oh, Paul, I'm just, I'm on cloud nine over here. I feel let's just wrap it up folks. Sorry Andrew, the show's over. We'll talk to you later. No, I'm joking. We won't , but, oh, I'd just love to hear that you, you said that Hey, we want to use as much of this bird as [00:39:00] possible.
Yeah. I'm gonna go to the extent of plucking it. And that is that it is a, it's a tedious job, but at the same time, shoot, how many hours did you just spend? hunting that Turkey down. Yeah. What's one more hour that you're spending with this beautiful animal that you are now turning into food?
Yep. With my farmed raised turkeys, what I've also find too is I'll go, when I put it in the roaster, I'll go, actually go breast side down, so I flipped the bird. So I do everything that you would be doing as well. , but yeah. As someone who's looking to push themselves colon, have you tried flipping your bird, putting your breast side down?
It does ruin your presentation. Might I add you the
Paul Campbell: Skin kind of curls up. It's not as crispy.
Nick Otto: Correct? Correct. Okay. But the added benefit of that is that you do give yourself a little more window room at keeping the. [00:40:00] The white meat to keep the breast moist. Okay. But at the same time, it puts those thighs that need that little extra heat and little extra time.
It puts them up facing your cooker a little bit closer. So then they finish a little closer together. Yeah. Do I see you feel that maybe taking that bird and treating white meat, dark meat separately is a good thing? It. , but like where if you're bringing this to the potluck, you wanna do the whole presentation thing.
So yeah, one of the, that would
Paul Campbell: just be something, one of the things that I've started doing and I don't know if this is cheating, I like that idea. I'm definitely gonna try that this year. Is I've started spatchcocking turkeys for the one, the presentation. If it's, it, I think it's stunning.
I really do a spatchcock Turkey looks really good and I like that, like you said, the dark. Cooks almost on a more even tent because that's the battle, especially if you're using, if you're using fire,
Andrew Muntz: Can you clarify for the idiot on the call what spatchcocking
Paul Campbell: means? [00:41:00] Yeah. So you cut the spine of a bird out, either a Turkey or a chicken.
Cut the spine right out you go to, so go to Lowe's months. Yeah. You get a $10 pair of cobalt scissors. The real big ones are like size of football. Cut right through it. Yep. Cut the spine down and you just just lay it flat. Don't throw the spine away. Make a gravy out of that boil.
Amen. Amen. Yeah. . Yeah. Has nothing, I thought there was something wrong when you did the timeout. .
Nick Otto: Yeah. He's wait a minute, what are we talking about here? Yeah.
Paul Campbell: Yeah. All
Andrew Muntz: I know is right now I'm really regretting my. Play. Cause when my time comes, this is not anywhere gonna be close
Paul Campbell: to what you guys are talking about.
Oh, it's all good. Just say say polar bearer. Meatballs. That's what you're gonna bring. Oh yeah. You're gonna legally harvest polar bear there some deer at night
Andrew Muntz: and whatever else we were talking about. Yes.
Nick Otto: He's gonna tip polar bear at night. . No, this is what I wanted to do with this is, yeah you know what?
Paul's coming. He's coming from left field. He's coming from [00:42:00] already loving the food world. And what the emperor's table is all about is we're coming together. We're presenting not only what we've harvested, but a little bit of who we are. And so Andrew, like your chance to highlight a meal that can not only be served to adults, but can be served to kids who love and adore venison.
Like what's a dish? Like we've already mentioned the heart tacos. So not to say that's off the table. If you need to throw that on, that is your that is part of your deferment. You could throw those out and we can talk about those. But the same time, they were
Paul Campbell: delicious. They were fantastic. They really were.
Nick Otto: But if you're gonna bring a dish that's Hey, this represents our household, what's that dish gonna be?
Andrew Muntz: I think you're overestimating my culinary skills. On our show. Paul's kind of the Turkey man. My thing is more on, on the deer, so I, it would be right for me to bring a deer, venison based meal to the table.
. However, I'm going to [00:43:00] throw you a curve ball. Ooh. I like this. Something that we've figured out how to do at our house over the last year or two. And Paul's part of this. Oh, I
Paul Campbell: know what he's gonna say. Oh yeah,
Andrew Muntz: we went on a couple walleye charters last year, so we brought that back and did a couple nice big fish fries and man, it's hard to beat and everybody eats it and it's good and with good batter.
And don't ask me what the batter is and when Paul makes the tartar sauce. Oh, buddy.
Paul Campbell: It's a good combo. Yeah. That the breading that, that your wife made is fantastic and you did a really nice job cooking it several times. That's yeah. That's a good, that's a good one.
That's a good dish right there. And the dog always tries to lick the grease off. on the side of the pot every time. Just take it off the, I just started laughing and she's oh. Just every time we know he'll be back to do it again. Every time he's gonna be back. ,
Andrew Muntz: [00:44:00] he got really sick. He, Dr. Ended up getting into that pot after I'd let it cool afterwards and he got into, I'm like, no.
And just ended up all over the living room floor. It was gross, but
Nick Otto: oh no.
Paul Campbell: But the walleye, that's, that is a and I don't know where whereabouts you are in Michigan, but that is a delicacy of Midwest proportions, great Lakes region. Specifically the ones
Andrew Muntz: that don't, aren't full of weights
Paul Campbell: and stuff in their bellies.
Yeah, lead free. Lead free
Nick Otto: walleye. Lead free walleye. Absolute. Keep the, yeah, two filets, not the extras that are shoved down its throat as well.
Andrew Muntz: So if I had to bring a venison dish though and you have to remember, I've been known to cook steak in a skillet because I'm usually just hungry and I just wanna eat something.
But when I, we take the time to do it my wife will make I think it's like olive oil, I wanna say lemon juice. Usually there's some bay leaves in there. Garlic it's this kind of whatever that you put on top. Mushrooms. Mushrooms. The mushrooms [00:45:00] that go on top. We do the venison out on the grill, kick it, cook it up to about 1 29, 1 30, let it rest for a minute.
It's perfect. Comes in. She does these little potatoes and she takes a ah, cupcake sheet and then does these sliced potatoes in there with Parmesan cheese and stuff on top of it. It's very good. It is true. So that would probably. My dish, if I had to pick one of from the venison.
Nick Otto: I love it.
I love it. He brought both a fish and aveni to the thing, Hey, he's going for the quantity, and just hoping that the quality is there. I like it. Andrew
Paul Campbell: Bravo.
Andrew Muntz: And Air man. You got lancey and air out of the two of us.
Paul Campbell: There
Nick Otto: you go. I love it. I love it. Gentlemen here, I'm gonna, I'll pass it to let's go with Andrew here.
Andrew, where can we hear more about you guys? I know we're on Sportsman's Nation excuse me, Sportsman's Empire on the oh two Podcast, but where can we find you to follow along on the social medias?
Andrew Muntz: So our platform of choice is probably go wild. [00:46:00] And we'll be oh two podcast on there. We do the Instagram stuff.
So it's the dot oh two dot podcast on that. And then what else, Paul? We got the website is the oh two podcast.com. There's some stuff on there, but between those two things, you can find us. We are on the Sportsman's Empire, and so I'm sure if you find Nick's show, you can find us one way or the other, but.
Nick Otto: Yeah. What day do you guys launch Wednesdays? You guys are the Wednesdays
Andrew Muntz: right? In the middle of the week.
Paul Campbell: Yeah.
Nick Otto: Get you through the hump day. There you go. And then Paul, your extracurricular is, you're also the host of the How to Hunt Turkey podcast that's also on Sportsman's Empire, correct? It is, yeah.
Paul Campbell: So the Hale Hunt Turkey podcast that goes live every Tuesday you can. The social pages are go wild. It's just H two ht, how to hunt Turkeys podcast and then Instagram, same thing. H two HT podcast. Is where you can find that on [00:47:00] Instagram as well. Yeah. Cool cool show.
I love doing it. I love talking about wild turkeys. We're gonna talk a lot about it's obviously, it's geared towards people that are just getting into the pursuit or people that have done it, want to become better. So we're gonna talk about, what to do with the wild Turkey after you kill it, how to dress it, how to gut it, clean it, all those things.
How to prepare it for the, for, the best way possible. Yeah, a lot of options for Wild Turkey. So the other thing. Is I wanna get you on that show. I wanna see what culinary tricks you have up your sleeve for the feathered birds here.
Nick Otto: Good. I've only grown up with them things even on the farm side of it hey, I figure it's a, it's like translating from French to Spanish. There's gonna be some hiccups, but as long as you understand the what is it, the tenses, you should be golden. So if I got my tenses out, go ahead and put that.
Paul Campbell: Just
Andrew Muntz: sweet on Po. Moose.
Nick Otto: Justwe on Po Moose. Oh, there you go. Now you're actually dropping. Yeah. Living La
Paul Campbell: Grandma . [00:48:00]
Andrew Muntz: No idea. Those are the stupid things that I remember from high school. It was like I am a grapefruit. And raise your head up, grandma. So there you go. .
Paul Campbell: That's your up. Grandma. Raise your hair.
Teacher
Andrew Muntz: look at us like, I hate you guys so much. And here
Nick Otto: we. Hold on just a second, gentlemen. I'm gonna send our listeners on out. Folks, I hope you enjoyed our second segment here of the Emperor's Table, where we got a chance to highlight the guys that I hang out with from Sportsman's Empire. We just get a glimpse of.
Who they are as guys and gals and who they are able, like what they chase, what they're, what makes the them passionate about the outdoors and how they're able to present that at the table. So folks, you've enjoyed this episode and you wanna join along with us creating new and adventurous things. Make sure that you got some of that venison or some of that Turkey in your freezer and whatever you're gonna use to cut that.
Make sure that knife [00:49:00] is sharp.
