Wild game on the holiday table: where to get it cut, how to give it away, and how to cook it safely

Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, and in a lot of Kootenai County homes the best thing on the table will not have come from a store.

That is not a guess about one kind of family. Our research division, accelerated DBM, sorted the county's 71,171 homes into six groups by income and by town or country. In four of the six, about 46,500 homes, interest in hunting, fishing and the outdoors scores between 168 and 201, where 100 is the average American home. Those scores are modeled estimates, not a local survey.

Here is what a hunter, or the neighbor a hunter is about to hand a roast to, needs to know.

WHERE TO GET IT CUT

We could confirm two shops in the county from their own pages. We have not called either one, so call before you load the truck. Prices and openings change in season.

- Tony's Custom Meats, 2708 N. Highway 41, Post Falls. 208-773-2333. The shop says it specializes in wild game processing. It posts no prices.
- Primal Edge Pursuits, Coeur d'Alene. 208-449-7780. Mike Edgehouse butchers deer, elk and moose. Posted prices for pickup: deer $250, elk $450, moose $700. Delivery is $100 more. The animal has to be gutted, skinned and quartered first and hung at North Idaho Archery, and you book a date online. Thursdays are not offered.

GIVING MEAT AWAY: THE NOTE THAT GOES WITH IT

Idaho law says you cannot hand someone wildlife to keep or carry unless you also give them a signed statement. Hunters call it a proxy statement. It applies to the friend who drives your elk home, the shop that cuts it, and the family you give a roast to.

The statement is written and signed by the person who took the animal. It has to show:

- How many animals and what kind.
- The date taken.
- The hunter's name and address.
- The hunter's license number. Fish and Game says to include the tag and permit numbers too.

Fish and Game prints a form in its big game rules booklet. The tag stays with the carcass.

DONATING TO A FOOD BANK

This is harder here than in most of Idaho.

- The Idaho Foodbank does not take wild game at its own buildings. It says game can be accepted only after an inspected plant has processed it.
- Food pantries in Kootenai County are supplied through Second Harvest in Spokane, the Idaho Foodbank says. Some pantries take game directly, so ask yours first.
- Idaho Hunters Feeding the Hungry, the statewide donation group, lists no partner processor in Kootenai County. Its one Panhandle partner is South Hills Meat Locker in Bonners Ferry. The group's phone is 208-324-8099.

IF YOU HUNTED UP NORTH

Part of Unit 1, the piece of Boundary County east of the Selkirk crest, is a chronic wasting disease zone. Fish and Game's rules there:

- A whole deer, elk or moose may not leave the zone.
- Meat that is cut and wrapped may leave. So may quarters or boned meat with no brain or spinal tissue.
- Every deer taken there has to be tested. Heads or lymph nodes go to Fish and Game within 10 days.

The hunting units in Kootenai County are not on Fish and Game's list of disease zones or required-testing units. Questions go to the Panhandle office in Coeur d'Alene, 208-769-1414.

COOKING IT

Wild game is not inspected the way store meat is. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's advice:

- Keep it cold, below 40 degrees, until it is cooked or frozen.
- Cook venison roasts to 160 degrees inside.
- Cook whole game birds, such as wild duck, goose and pheasant, to 165 degrees. Check the thigh, the wing and the thickest part of the breast.
- Game is lean and dries out. Roast tender cuts on a rack at 325 degrees and lay bacon strips or oil-soaked cheesecloth over the top.
- Rough roasting times at 325 degrees: a venison roast takes 20 to 25 minutes a pound.
- To soften a gamey taste, soak the meat overnight in the refrigerator in a quart of cold water with a tablespoon of salt or a cup of vinegar. Throw the liquid away before cooking.

WHAT WE DO NOT HAVE YET

- Other shops in the county may cut game. We list only the two we could confirm in writing.
- We have not talked to either shop, to Fish and Game or to a local cook.
- Fish is not covered here.

If you cut game in Kootenai County and are not on this list, tell us.