RELOADED EP323 | Thanksgiving Special: Best Thing I Ever Ate at Duck Camp
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, Reloaded. We bring you the best of our past episodes. Whether you're a seasoned waterfowler or curious about conservation, this series is for you. Over the years, we've had incredible guests and discussions about everything from wetland conservation to the latest waterfowl research and hunting strategies. In Reloaded, we're revisiting those conversations to keep the passion alive and the mission strong.
VO:So sit back, relax, and enjoy this reload.
Chris Jennings:Joining me today is my cohost, doctor Mike Brasher. Mike, how are you?
Mike Brasher:I'm doing well. Chris, how are you?
Chris Jennings:Good. And, also, we have a special guest, Jennifer Chandler, a professionally trained chef, author, and local columnist for the commercial appeal. Jennifer, welcome to the Ducks on Look podcast.
Jennifer Chandler:Thanks for having me today.
Chris Jennings:The reason why we're bringing Jennifer in today is we wanted to have a Thanksgiving episode. As a part of this Thanksgiving episode, we're all gonna share some of our memories, some of the things that we like about Thanksgiving, but it's also about duck camp too because people are spending time at duck camp. Mike, do you wanna kinda talk about exactly what we're doing with this show?
Mike Brasher:Sure. Yeah. This is an idea that I don't know exactly if we started with it last year, but finally, we had enough time and had enough guests where we actually were able to pull this together. We, as folks know that listen to the podcast, we interview, talk with people from all across North America, and we thought it would be pretty cool to ask those individuals, like, what is their favorite memory, favorite meal that they have had either at a duck camp or duck blind because there's a lot of eating that occurs in both of those places. And so it's just another one of those areas where, I guess, it it becomes part of what duck hunting is to so many people is the what we eat and the the fellowship that we get from that with the people that we're in the duck blind with.
Mike Brasher:So this was a we kinda as we were interviewing people here over the past, I don't know, three or four months, we we would ask them what their favorite meal was, and so they would kinda share that with us. So we have a series of clips that as we get into this, we'll be playing those, and then we'll give our listeners sort of a glimpse at some of the things that other people might eat.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. The variations of duck camp dinners. But before we get into that, Jennifer, I wanted to give you an opportunity to kinda introduce yourself to our audience, you know, who you are, where you live, what you do, and, you know, how you became a professional chef, and and the professional mentality that you're gonna bring to this show.
Jennifer Chandler:Well, it all boils down to the fact that I love to eat. I mean, that's the whole reason I got in this business in the first place, is because I love to eat. And I quickly realized that, a lot of times if you make your own food, it's gonna be the best meals, and I wanted to learn more about it. So I will have to preface, I'm very excited to be back here because I worked for Ducks Unlimited when I first moved back home, in 1995, so way back in the dark ages working on the Great Outdoors Festival.
Chris Jennings:I was gonna say that. If most of our list maybe not all of our list Well,
Jennifer Chandler:may not know what that is.
Chris Jennings:That's right. But we still get a lot of emails about the Great Festival. So there are people out there who are like, oh, yeah, I remember that.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. It was a great It was a festival that had covered all types of outdoor sports. I mean, there was a different kind of areas that there was like an archery area, there was an ATV area, there was a fly fishing area, there was a shooting range, you name it. If it had to do with an outdoor sport, it was covered at this event that happened for a few years here in Memphis, then it moved up to Minnesota, and sadly it doesn't happen anymore.
Chris Jennings:Well, does technically, but now we call it Ducks Expo and it's
Jennifer Chandler:held Oh, okay.
Chris Jennings:Yes. It's actually in Texas at the Texas Motor Speedway. So last year was our first year, or this year I guess was our first year of doing it.
Mike Brasher:That's right.
Chris Jennings:And then now we're doing it again in April, so we'll fill you in on that
Jennifer Chandler:after That's the great because I had a ton of fun and I learned so much, and of course, the funny thing is when I came to work here, I had just left France, and I'd gone to culinary school and, you know, thought I wanted to do that realm, and then I had done special events before, so I kind of got back into special events, that's how I ended up here. But, yes, I love to eat, so I went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris after college and did a culinary program there in both savory foods and pastries, and then I went to work for a fancy hotel look on the Champs Elysees in the pastry department, so, for a few months before I moved back home. So I loved everything food. Worked here for a little while, and then eventually I had the opportunity to open my own restaurant, was called Chefy's Market and More, that we opened in, 1999. And, I had a great time with that, sold it when I had, my two babies, and back to back, so that baby had to go.
Jennifer Chandler:And then I turned to writing, and since then I've written four cookbooks, I've written for countless magazines kind of in the region and across the country. I've had some fun opportunities. I've gotten to do cooking segments for DUTV in the past. For a while, I worked for French's Mustard doing their kind of culinary demos across the country. So I've had a lot of fun, tasty adventures with my food career, and now, primarily what my main job is, is I work for the Commercial Appeal.
Jennifer Chandler:I'm a food and dining editor for them. So, I have the privilege of learning about Memphis restaurants and Memphis restaurateurs and chefs, and there's so much amazing food here. That's right. But it all boils down to, for me, I love to cook, and I really love to eat good food.
Chris Jennings:That's awesome. And we're gonna go through these kind of duck camp mint or little stories that a bunch of our guests have provided us, and we wanna get your reaction to these, and we wanna hear you know, some of these are are pretty interesting. Some of these are, may sound even a little gamey, but but and some of them may not even really relate to the game at all. Some of them are just a gathering of folks, which is why we wanted to to do this show because it is that time of year. It's a time when we get together with family and friends and eat.
Chris Jennings:And one of the most interesting parts about this time of year for us, for me especially, is nearly every state in The US, duck season is open for the week of Thanksgiving. So there's a lot of stories of people who go duck hunting before Thanksgiving, and and there's a lot going on as far as migration, Mike. I mean, this is a big time of year when, you know, Canada just froze up. You know, birds are traveling south. People are out there really seeing the birds, and it's all a part for me, especially, it's all a part of this, you know, the whole aspect of Thanksgiving is, you know, hunting, birds, migration.
Chris Jennings:It's fall. It's that time of year. And I think it really gets people fired up not only about the hunting aspect but also the cooking aspect. And so yeah. And I think, you know, before we get into some of these mentions, I really want to hear your plan for Thanksgiving.
Jennifer Chandler:My plan for Thanksgiving?
Chris Jennings:It's gotta be extravagant. Right?
Jennifer Chandler:Well, I host every year now. I kind of my grandmother hosted for years and years in New Orleans, and then when she passed away, my dad took it over for a few years, and probably about ten years ago, the torch got passed to me. In fact, it's very funny. I now have everyone's turkey plates, So there was these things my grandmother had. She had given them to all of her children, and and as people have passed, I've inherited.
Jennifer Chandler:So I can feed probably 35 people on a plate with a turkey on it. So that's one of the things. I'll be pulling out the turkey plates this year. That will probably be the big thing, is dusting those off, because they get used once a year. But they have a special family memory, and I'm sure everyone that's listening has something that is, you know, goes back to their childhood that was always on the table, whether it's a plate, like in this case for me, or a dish that we'll be doing.
Jennifer Chandler:So I'll be hosting, and I think I'm gonna have, like it keeps growing. I think I'm gonna have 16 or 18 people, I think, at the end. Everyone keeps just inviting someone or inviting someone else. But one of the things we do is we fry turkey every year. I used to roast turkeys, and years ago, I worked with a client that makes turkey fryers, I started doing the indoor turkey frying, and it's so easy because you can have a turkey on the table in forty five minutes.
Mike Brasher:Now, indoor I I thought the idea was to never fry a
Jennifer Chandler:turkey There in is a contraption electric turkey fryer. Ah. It is foolproof. Now, I generally do it in my garage because if you do it indoors, your house kind of will smell like a turkey. Just think it's like a giant fry daddy.
Jennifer Chandler:Best investment you've ever had. I've had mine for like twelve years now, and, we pull it out every Thanksgiving, and we fry turkeys for lots of people, actually. We'll start frying turkeys on Wednesday, and, for people who want them. But then we'll fry one, and it's on the table in forty five minutes, and it's great. And what I do, this weekend, I'm gonna go ahead at because we like gravy, you don't get gravy with a fried turkey.
Jennifer Chandler:That's a good point. But I buy turkey necks and turkey legs, and I roast them, and I make the weekend before, and I make a gravy with that, with a little advanced plan. Nice. But we're gonna have all the side dishes, you know, cornbread dressing. Okay.
Jennifer Chandler:I have a question for you guys.
Chris Jennings:Oh, you're not gonna wanna hear my answer.
Jennifer Chandler:Do you put sausage in it, or do you not put sausage in it? There seems to be a big I thought everybody put sausage in it.
Chris Jennings:I don't eat cornbread dressing. Really? Yep.
Mike Brasher:I've been heavily You can leave
Jennifer Chandler:the room.
Chris Jennings:I've been heavily criticized for this, around the office, and I've you know, I'm literally just told, well, you're just a Yankee, and your opinion doesn't matter. But my family grew up making more like, the bread based
Jennifer Chandler:Okay.
Chris Jennings:Stuffing, and that's what I really like. And I I just I literally, we just had this conversation with a girl here in the office, and she was just like, I don't trust anything you say. That's
Mike Brasher:so funny.
Chris Jennings:So so yeah. I mean, when you ask sausage or no sausage, I would rather go with sausage, but we don't my family has never been into cornbread dressing.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. You put French bread in there.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. It's a regional thing for sure.
Mike Brasher:So I'm I'm a southern, grew up in Mississippi, so it's cornbread dressing. It's what I grew up with. It didn't have sausage in it
Jennifer Chandler:Yep.
Mike Brasher:But but I married a Canadian, so that has kinda thrown a twist into the stuffing versus cornbread dressing. So when we have Thanksgiving or Christmas at at Rebecca, my wife's family, with with her, then it's always the stuffing. It's the bread with the sage and the spices, and celery and onions, and inside the the the cavity of the turkey, and it's really, really good. And you're not gonna you're not gonna get me to choose between the two. I'm not gonna fall for that.
Jennifer Chandler:You should have both.
Mike Brasher:Well, that's right. And so we are we are this year. Anytime our families get together, we we typically will do something of that nature, have both.
Jennifer Chandler:So Yeah. Definitely. That's the best of both worlds.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. So is is that your featured item in
Jennifer Chandler:the stuffing? Yeah. It's always there. I would not say it's the featured item. Probably what's the featured item when, again, going back to memories and childhood, and this is cauliflower au gratin.
Jennifer Chandler:I have to tell you, the majority of my life, I would only eat cauliflower this way. Now I like cauliflower, my, you know, taste, know, palate as I've grown up has expanded. But when I was a kid, if somebody put cauliflower in front of me, I would have, like, turned my nose at it, said no way, but I always ate my grandmother's cauliflower au gratin at the holidays, probably because ratio to cheese and cauliflower, there's much more it's made in a bechamel sauce and it has like white cheddar cheese and Parmesan and bread crumbs. They're really not that much cauliflower in
Chris Jennings:it. Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:But it's a dish that it's funny. My kids ask for it every year and they're like, it has to be on the table.
Chris Jennings:Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:And it's nobody else I know serves that on their Thanksgiving table, but it is always on our Thanksgiving table because, you know, I don't want to give away my age, but we'll just say for about five decades I've been eating that.
Chris Jennings:It sounds really good.
Mike Brasher:It does.
Jennifer Chandler:Once a year. So that's the one thing that for sure has to be on that table.
Chris Jennings:That's a good one, for me, my family half of my family is very Italian. Mhmm. And had a pretty large family growing up, had a large Thanksgiving, large, you know, feast, tons of people over there, but there was always we always like even my friends who would come over would be like, what what are you guys doing? I mean, we'd have the turkey and and do that and the the dressing or the stuffing, you know, but then there was always a pan of, like, rigatoni or like a mustacholi dish Yeah. Out there.
Chris Jennings:And, like, it's just like randomly placed at the end and, like, and that was always my favorite thing.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah.
Chris Jennings:You know? And because I I just love any pasta dishes. But one big standout is my uncle would always make green bean or not green bean, broccoli casserole.
Jennifer Chandler:Oh.
Chris Jennings:And it was so it a broccoli and rice casserole, and he always had to make that. And then my dad always made homemade cranberries, so he would buy the cranberries and make that, and you'd have to go in the fridge all night long, and it was a big process. So it was you know, that's the one thing that that really stood out for me. What about you?
Mike Brasher:So my Thanksgiving growing up was was pretty Thanksgiving was always a great day because my my grandparents on my mother's side and grandparents on my on my dad's side lived within a block of one another in
Mike Brasher:small town.
Chris Jennings:That's how that's how I was, sis.
Mike Brasher:Not that
Chris Jennings:we always had these huge gatherings.
Mike Brasher:And so it was always Thanksgiving lunch at my mother's parents, and then it was we would go walk literally right up the sidewalk to my dad's parents, and the traditional meal for lunch was your traditional turkey and ham and stuffing and whatever else that we would have, but then for dinner up at my dad's parents, it would always be chili. It was an interesting That's cool. Not many people have Thanksgiving chili as their tradition, but it was for us, and it could have been, I don't know this to be true, but it could have been because they knew that some of us were already having regular Thanksgiving meal just right down the road, right down the sidewalk for lunch. But yeah, that was always the big day for us. Big families on both sides, and by the end of the day, you just didn't want to do anything but lay in the recliner.
Jennifer Chandler:Oh, a nap is definitely a centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal. And I have to tell you, I like sweets.
Chris Jennings:I was gonna ask you what's the go
Jennifer Chandler:to I have a thing that I'm known for. The joke is, I think one year I made more pies than there were people at
Mike Brasher:the table.
Jennifer Chandler:So this year, I think I'm only gonna make four pies, but I may end up making an extra pie. I haven't decided
Chris Jennings:like pumpkin pie approach or you're getting
Jennifer Chandler:So some traditional and some not. So I make a traditional pecan pie, and I do, when you talk about family, I have a funny story about my pecan pie. So my grandmother, I was born in New Orleans, but I grew up here in Memphis. But we would always go back to New Orleans to visit my grandmother, and she was, like, second generation from France, I mean, genteel southern woman. I mean, and so you would ask her for her pecan pie recipe, and she would handwrite it, I mean, the most beautiful script you've ever seen, and she would mail it to you.
Jennifer Chandler:And I mean, this went on for years. If you needed a recipe, she would do that. And we always loved her pecan pie. And after she passed, I was working on a story for a magazine, and I was like, oh, I have the best pecan pie recipe in the entire world. I want to commemorate my grandmother, and so I'm, like, submitting this recipe and this article, and then my editor calls me back and she goes, you realize this is verbatim the recipe on the back of the k row bottle, don't you?
Jennifer Chandler:And I went, what? And literally, I mean, so we had a big, New Orleans family. I mean, I have, like, probably I I should count them, but we probably have, like, 10 cousins, you know, that are on the same age group. And I had to call everyone and be like, we were none of us knew. Nobody knew that.
Jennifer Chandler:So the best pecan pie recipe for everyone here is on the back of the K Rowe bottle. That's awesome.
Mike Brasher:No need to complicate it
Jennifer Chandler:right there. Yes. Don't complicate it. You don't have to look it up. Just buy the bottle, use the ingredient you need, and do that.
Jennifer Chandler:But I'm gonna make pecan pie. I make a twist on a pumpkin pie, I do like a pumpkin mousse tart with a little brandy and a little chocolate cinnamon crust, and then I'm gonna make like a chocolate chess pie. And this year, of all funny things, I was trying to get a head start shopping, and I had my husband pick up some things on his way home from work the other day, and I said I needed heavy whipping cream. And he came home with this most giant tub of Cool Whip. Well, Cool Whip is great, but it's not the same thing as heavy whipping cream for when you're cooking.
Jennifer Chandler:So, I have to tell you, this morning, I was kind of googling around, and I think I'm going to found a recipe for a Reese's peanut butter chocolate chip pie that is made with Cool Whip. Oh, So I think I'm gonna add that one to the mix since I have I mean, I talk about it's not the normal size. I don't even know if it's in the it's a bucket.
Chris Jennings:Like a five gallon bucket of Costco Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:Is in our chest it wouldn't fit in my freezer in my house. It's in the chest freezer.
Mike Brasher:So where does sweet potato factor into Thanksgiving dinner for you? Is that a side item? Is that a dessert? Or is it a side item that doubles as dessert?
Jennifer Chandler:Well, side item doubling dessert may be it because, yes, we do the mashed potatoes and we put the marshmallows in. Oh. Yeah. Now I used to buy, you know, like, what is it called, like the jet puffed, whatever, the marshmallow whipped cream stick. The whipped stuff.
Jennifer Chandler:I used to put that into it, and then put the marshmallows on top, but then I decided it was a little too sweet. So now I just put a lot of cinnamon and I put a dash of bourbon. Secret ingredients.
Mike Brasher:Yeah, secret ingredient.
Jennifer Chandler:You don't need a lot, just a couple of tablespoons.
Chris Jennings:There was a handful of dashes of bourbon that floated around my family's Thanksgiving Yeah, as
Jennifer Chandler:and so you put that into the mix, then you put the marshmallows on top, it kind of, you know, has that sweet crunchiness on top. And then speaking of bourbon, when you take your pecan pie right out of the oven, take about a tablespoon of bourbon and sprinkle it over the top right when it's right out of the oven, and it kind of like it'll cook the alcohol out so your kids can eat it, but it gives it that just a little umph of flavor.
Chris Jennings:Wow. That's a good idea. We will try that. We will try that.
Mike Brasher:So before we and maybe to kind of help us begin to transition to some of these other some of the clips that we're gonna play, wild game at Thanksgiving or or even Christmas, but I guess right now we're talking about Thanksgiving. Now I know you you're not a stranger to wild game. You were talking to us the other day about how you've you've not I don't have you been duck hunting before? I know you said you've been dove hunting and and you've prepared those, but I don't remember if you've if you said you had been duck hunting yet.
Jennifer Chandler:I have not been duck hunting yet. I have over the years I mean, I feel like every year I get invited somewhere and something weird happens, like there's either no ducks and there, you know, somebody's been out there a couple of days before or something is frozen over or and so I have actually never been. However, everyone brings their ducks back home to me. So I get I guess I get the best of both worlds. I don't know.
Jennifer Chandler:I do everyone tells me how beautiful it is out there. I have to tell you, I'm not a morning person, and I don't like the cold.
Mike Brasher:Well, you can hunt in the afternoons.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. Well, yeah. I just need somebody to invite me on an afternoon hunt. Then then that would
Chris Jennings:sound When it's 75 degrees.
Jennifer Chandler:When it's 75. As I said, I'll go on a dove hunt field, you know, in any day because it's like, what, 80 degrees, the sun is shining, you know. But I, you know, I do love to cook them, and it's one of those things that, as I said, I I have the best of both worlds.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. Have you ever incorporated wild game ducks or geese into a Thanksgiving meal? I have I have not. There was not wild game was not really a part of our or Christmas meal, to be honest. We would always kind of have that separate, but I know some people do, but I'm just kind of wondering if
Jennifer Chandler:you It is not for us. We still stay pretty traditional to the American Thanksgiving turkey. But one of the things that we do on the day after Thanksgiving that we do every year is I make a big gumbo that we serve with the leftover turkey carcass. And so I have actually, before, thrown some duck in there, that we've had, and then or I've had a turkey gumbo or a duck gumbo. We usually do our Friendsgiving afterwards, and when you talked about chili Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:We don't serve a traditional meal, but I serve a gumbo, is kind of what we do because one, it's you a can make a huge pot of it or two huge pots of it, stick it on your stove, and you put some rice out there in a slow cooker, and people just serve themselves, and Yeah. It's the easiest way to entertain.
Mike Brasher:Gumbo is a great dish for that. A lot of people have gumbo for their Thanksgiving meals, especially when you get into Cajun country, remember encountering that a few times. The other thing with regard to wild game, Matt Kaminski is a person that we spoke with a couple of years ago, he was talking to us about using a swan as their his Thanksgiving, instead of a turkey, they roasted up a swan, And grilled up a the recipe sounded amazing. Still haven't tried swan.
Jennifer Chandler:I've had a goose for Christmas before.
Mike Brasher:Mhmm.
Jennifer Chandler:And it was good, but it was just not the you know, it's one of those things that goes back to memories. Yeah. Yeah. And that some of the things about holidays that you just you can never change. You know, I think one year I was like, I'm gonna totally do a new holiday dinner and do all this stuff, and I, like, my family revolted.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. The same one really happened. Yeah. I mean, it was like, where's this? Where's that?
Jennifer Chandler:You changed this. You did that. I was like, okay. I'm never changing anything again.
Chris Jennings:Well, you know, interestingly enough, we went a nontraditional Thanksgiving with my family because of COVID last year. Everyone was afraid to travel. My parents are now in Florida. Rest of my family's in Indiana. We live in Memphis.
Chris Jennings:And and so we just loaded up I have an RV, and so we just loaded up the RV, and we stayed at a state park down in Louisiana, like South Louisiana
Jennifer Chandler:Yep.
Chris Jennings:And in Saint Bernard Parish. And it was just my wife and I and my two daughters, and I literally was like I was like, I'm gonna cook like a traditional Thanksgiving in my RV. And how that whole thing transitioned was actually I went to a local market the day before Thanksgiving while we were down there and ended up with buying a bunch of shrimp, you know, got some gumbo because I was gonna make a gumbo, but then I realized I can't make it as good as some of those people down there. Yep. And so we our Thanksgiving dinner last year was, like, boiled shrimp.
Chris Jennings:We had crab stuffed bell peppers. You know? And and my wife of course, my kids nibbled at it and stuff. We also made some noodles and some stuffing that they wanted to eat. I made a small little turkey breast, but we had a really nontraditional.
Chris Jennings:And we, you know, we we incorporated a lot of this, I guess, at wild game because we went red fishing the day before. Sure. And red fish and so that I really like that aspect of it, but you're right. It does kinda take away from that traditional feel of, you know, Thanksgiving that you've always kind of remembered. It's it's difficult.
Chris Jennings:But, I mean, we enjoyed it, and we would go again if the oh, my fishing guide was available. Corey, if you're listening to this.
Jennifer Chandler:I might have to get that number for my husband because my husband is the biggest fisherman in time. We talk about seasons. Like, he is he is leaving me this year on which is our anniversary next week, and, he is leaving me on Saturday morning because it is the, brown trout spawn Oh. In Arkansas. In Arkansas.
Jennifer Chandler:Yep. And he's like, I'm going fishing. And I'm like, oh, my children are gonna be home from college. I don't wanna leave my girls. So it looks like the girls are not gonna stay home, and he's going fishing.
Jennifer Chandler:Weekend. It's perfect.
VO:Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.
Chris Jennings:Alright. So let's get into these, you know, conversations, and and I'll just go ahead and preface this by saying, you know, we talked about how duck seasons are open, you know, currently right now all throughout the country. And but there there's lot of people who are eating Thanksgiving dinner with family and then heading off to camp, or, you know, some people are having Thanksgiving dinner at camp. It's just all all over the place with people. But the first one that I wanna introduce here, and this is Jeff Jones from Shingear.
Chris Jennings:He he came on in in the early parts of season five. He had something that I think will really relate to opening day and Thanksgiving and a gathering of of folks. So, Chris, can you go ahead
Chris Jennings:and play that?
Jeff Jones:The best thing I ever ate at duck camp, my favorite meal at duck camp, and we do it every year. It's a it's a tradition. Every year, it's at my neighbor's camp, and it's nothing fancy. It's really not. It's just pork roast with potatoes and carrots and onions and they cook it all day long, but he cooks it in it's like the thing that he cooks it, it's a it's not a pressure cooker and it's not a crock pot, but it was like the predecessor to all these things. It was like the very first this thing was probably made in the fifties. I I don't know. I I don't know why I'm so obsessed with it, but it'll hold like two giant pork butts. It's five pounds of potatoes. It's three pounds of onions. It's three pounds of carrots. It's water and Worcestershire sauce and love, and you cook it all day. But what makes it cool is everybody knows that that meal is gonna happen like the second weekend of season or it might get delayed till after Thanksgiving to the first split when we come back. And it's just a time for everybody that has camps over there to come because it feeds like 40 people. So the meal's not necessary the the food that you're eating is not necessarily extravagant. It's not some kind of wild creation or anything. It's normal comfort food, but it's everybody being there together, and you know it's gonna be good because you've been eating it for years. So that's like my favorite day and my favorite meal that we have every year.
Jennifer Chandler:I love that story. I mean, it is. It's about, you know, food for me is all about gathering.
Chris Jennings:Mhmm.
Jennifer Chandler:There's something about it just brings people together and to have memories around meals. When you think about it, a lot of family memories and times that and not only family, but memories with your friends has been around a table. Yeah. And over a great meal and the meal doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be complicated, but it just has to be something that brings joy to you. But I really wanna know what this thing that he cooked it in, and I wanna have one of them.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. That sounds so cool.
Mike Brasher:I figured you would know what it was. Yeah. You don't know exactly
Jennifer Chandler:It must be some giant kind pressure cooker.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. Think I've seen those big ones there.
Mike Brasher:Lids that maybe tightened down. Yeah. That's where I was kinda wondering if
Chris Jennings:it an uncle that made Italian beef, and I I promised it would make, like, 200 pounds of Italian beef, and they'd have to pull it out at these big parties and stuff, and and and that's what it sounds like it is.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. So the other thing that I liked about that is and I've not experienced that type of tradition time and again, but I have I have hunted with friends on occasion where in the morning when you head out, or let's say you're heading out for an afternoon hunt or something like that, you get back, you prepare the meal in the morning, and you're gonna go out for the afternoon hunt, and you know the meal is gonna be waiting on you when you get back. There's something about that, knowing that it's cooking while you're out there, and maybe the birds aren't flying as well as you would like for them to, your mind can still be occupied thinking about that meal you're gonna have once you get back.
Jennifer Chandler:And probably if it's in something like that that's cooking, when you walk up to the, you know, the cabin or wherever you're staying, you can and walk into the kitchen
Mike Brasher:Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:You can smell it.
Mike Brasher:Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:Mhmm. So it's like, oh.
Chris Jennings:You can probably smell that thing from a couple miles away.
Jennifer Chandler:You might. Yeah. If it feeds that many people.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. One of those type of meals where if you don't quite have your limit before shooting time is over, you say, let's let's go ahead and call it quits. Let's go back and get to that meal.
Chris Jennings:Alright. So our next one, we'll go ahead and and just kinda run through this list real quick. Mike, do you want to introduce yours?
Mike Brasher:Sure. Some of these, I'm actually not going to remember what they were. We recorded them quite a while ago, so this is just going be a random selection. We're going go with Doctor. Heath Hagey, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Mike Brasher:We had him this is actually going be interesting because part of the conversation that we had during that episode related to buffet, like a buffet meal, and we're drawing some analogies between how humans eat at a buffet line and how ducks and geese forage in a field, so we he he used that analogy. So it'd be interesting to see what he said here. I can't recall what he said, but this is doctor Heath Hagey from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Heath Hagy:Gosh. That that's an impossible question to answer, Mike. So as you can see, I like to eat. And so there have been many great meals enjoyed at at duck camps with professional chefs and and in, you know, blinds at Real Foot Lake with full kitchens in the back of them. And so I've I've been lucky in in that regard. But I I have to tell you that one of my absolute favorite things to eat in a duck blind I guess I have two, if that's not cheating. Right? Okay. Two things. One is the the very simple breakfast burrito on a little Coleman stove that you can do in any pit. Super easy. Just bring some eggs out, some tortillas. Super easy. So so while that's not grand, it's one of my favorite easy things in a duck blind. Maybe a close second is real simple, some duck jerky from the previous year. I love to carry with me duck jerky that that I've made or had processed and have that with me in the blind. It just something about it just feels right, you know, when you're not duck hunting.
Mike Brasher:So, Jennifer, not an extravagant meal, as Heath talked about there, but so what makes that special in your mind?
Jennifer Chandler:Well, you know, one is when he talked about the breakfast burritos, again, tradition and doing something over and over again, and it's just it it becomes part of the experience for him. But I love the idea of the duck jerky. I mean, I I feel like I need to go make sure somebody does that for for us for next year, and I'll send all, you know, I'll send all my friends out, you know, with some duck jerky when they go hunting, because that really kinda brings it all together.
Mike Brasher:It does.
Jennifer Chandler:I mean, it brings the whole concept of why you're out there Yeah. Together.
Mike Brasher:You know? I actually do that with do it with venison, venison jerky, well as duck or or goose jerky, but I have more venison in the freezer than I do duck or goose, so it tends it tends to be the venison. But it's the same concept. Mhmm. It's full circle, experiencing harvest from the previous season, or from earlier in the season, if that be the case, but it yeah.
Mike Brasher:And the experience being part of that atmosphere, that ambiance is I think that's gonna be a common thread through many of these stories.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. I think and that's what it's about. I mean, it's about the kind of the fellowship of gathering and and eating together and the food. And and here's here's another good one. I've got Jay Anglin who joins us quite regularly to provide some migration updates, and and I and Jay just Jay in in and of himself is an experience.
Chris Jennings:So I can guarantee you his his his favorite thing to eat at Duck Camp or his best experience is probably pretty interesting. So can you play that one?
Jay Anglin:Well, you know, I've had quite a few good meals at Duck Camp and it the the tavern down the street right next to Duck Camp. But one stands out, oh, back in the nineties or I guess it was the early two thousands. I was in North Dakota with a crew of guys from town here, and I was kind of the new guy. I just moved here, and, the hotel was just packed with hunters from all over the country. And, you know, there was a lot of blue wing teal around, and everybody was looking for mallards, and I was perfectly content to go gun some blue wings. So I went off on my own one day and, you know, had a good morning on the blue wings. One of them just happened to be wearing a leg band. It was a it was a Drake, and it was from Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Was a nice nice adult Drake, you know. And so I I went back to camp, and every guy there posed with this duck like he had taken it, you know, for a photo, you know, like they posed with it, you know, at the hotel. So we sat around, and we had all these teal, and a bunch of guys had gadwall and a whole mish mishmash of quote unquote soft ducks. So we sat there and we cleaned them up, and one of the guys from Texas had come up and he brought a horse trailer full of beer. And we sat there and we wrapped those things and we soaked them in some jalapeno juice, Texas style. Right? And wrapped them in a little bacon and guys pulled a grill out. We sat in the parking lot around in the circle on buckets and you name it, decoy bags and and grilled those those little little morsels of tender goodness and drink beer, and everybody passed that duck band around and stared at it. And it it just really stands out for me because it's about as good as duck can taste. I'll tell you what, in that setting with a bunch of good guys and a nice cool evening up in the Northern Prairies, it was it was really awesome. I think about it once in a while. It was it was one heck of a one heck of a good day.
Jennifer Chandler:That sounds like a great day.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. It does. And and, again, you know, it's really the the full experience of it, and and it it's it's great to have him even kinda recall, you know, the guy from Texas with the horse trailer, and, you know, and I and I think that's even when you're talking about your own Thanksgiving meal, you know, you're recalling these these real intimate details of of what you're making and what your family reacts to. So so what do you think about just like the jalapeno? It sounds like you just married him the whole day.
Jennifer Chandler:Well, one of the things that sounded great to me is because whereas I've not been duck hunting, I've been dove hunting.
Chris Jennings:Mhmm.
Jennifer Chandler:And I've had a similar experience in a dove field where we've cleaned the dove and we've, you know, done the you know, wrapped them in bacon, and wishbone Italian dressing is what I've always marinated in them. But I'm gonna have to try the jalapeno. Yeah. That's Maybe a combination of the two might be perfect. Jalapeno might be a little too spicy for me.
Jennifer Chandler:It's just the straight jalapeno juice. If you did jalapeno juice and Wishbone Italian dressing, that might be, like, the perfect marinade.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. A little spicy.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. A little spicy, but still gives you those those flavors. But I just there is something about, yeah, traditions and there's something about these experiences that you really only get in the outdoors. And if you're not getting outdoors, you're not having you're not having that indoors in a restaurant. And you're not having those memories that are, again, just being the majesticness of nature and bringing it all together.
Mike Brasher:The community, the fellowship and the sharing in the stories.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. And you probably have a bonfire going. I mean, I've had some some fun that, as I said, it brought back a memory to me when he was explaining that.
Mike Brasher:Chris, I wanna build off of some of the couple of a couple of things that Jay said there, I guess, to select the next person that we'll share. Another one of our frequent guests, a big fan of blue wings. I don't remember, like the one with Heath, I don't remember what this person shared with us. This is doctor Scott Stevens. He comes on about every month.
Mike Brasher:He loves to hunt blue wings, and so I'm kinda actually, I think I might remember part of this story. It might have some humor to it. So play let's go with doctor Scott Stevens.
Scott Stephens:Yeah. So so maybe this fall in the category of most memorable. So when when I was when I was younger and had just started duck hunting, which which I actually took up late, I I was with a friend in a blind with his with his grandfather and and and another old gentleman who who had the blind, and they were cooking eggs. And, I don't know. They must have had, you know, four or five eggs in in the skillet there, and, you know, he was cooking those, and then he kind of flipped around and said, oh, dang. Like, I don't I don't have a spatula or anything. He's like, I'm not sure how how I'm gonna flip those eggs. And, you know, I was thinking, gosh. You know? What what can we use? And pretty soon, then he just sort of flipped the skillet like a like a chef does, and they all landed and none of them broke. And so I'm I'm sure he had that set up, but I will never forget him sort of doing that in the blind, and it was one of those early sort of formative hunts for me. So that's probably my most memorable.
Mike Brasher:The humor aspect of that one that I recalled was the the other guest that we had as part of that show was doctor Tom Mormon. I think he shared with us shared his experience with us as well, but he was envisioning that story ending with the eggs on the on the floor of the duckbill.
Jennifer Chandler:I was actually thinking, would they land on the ceiling and be stuck on the ceiling or something like that?
Mike Brasher:But, yeah, that was one of those memorable experiences and left an impression upon him as a young hunter for sure.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. And what I like about this one is is the experience itself is the cooking aspect. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I inherited that from my mother who is constantly cooking, but it's that is like what I have always liked about Thanksgiving and and even even my duck camp. What I like, guys are going over there, they're like, we're gonna shoot ducks and we're gonna do this, and I'm like, I get to cook for like 12 people for three days.
Chris Jennings:Like, I love it, you know, and and so I like the cooking aspect of that, and I think that's something you know, do you kind of feel that as
Jennifer Chandler:Yes. But I think there's also a note to everyone to take away is have a fun culinary trick that you can do. Yeah. That's right. Because, yeah, I'm sure everyone was thinking, oh, what are gonna happen to those eggs?
Jennifer Chandler:And that guy knew he could flip an egg. Gotta be confident in Yeah.
Chris Jennings:Especially if there's multiple in the pan. Alright. So our next one is from our great conservation partners, Mossy Oak. We've got Daniel and Neil Hayes, and they joined us early or about the middle of season five, and and I really can't even remember which, you know, what meal they
Mike Brasher:were preparing in that regard.
Chris Jennings:Right? Yeah. It is. It's kind of like the reaction
Mike Brasher:Opening a box, opening a Christmas present.
Daniel and Neil Hayes:Just a couple years ago, you know, I'd always heard and never mustered up the courage to eat it, but, know, I've always heard, you know, how good duck hearts can be. A few years ago, we had a great hunt and shot a lot of mallards. We popped 20 or 30 mallard hearts out of the ducks we were cleaning and just put a little seasoning on them and threw them on the flat top and cooked them just briefly, you know, for, like, maybe thirty seconds a side and popped them off. And I've got to say that's one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. I mean, it was mouthwatering good.
Daniel and Neil Hayes:So that's probably the best thing I've had at DUC Camp.
Daniel and Neil Hayes:And I'll I'll I'll add to that that I think a lot of people are intentionally dramatic about how good a Deer Heart is because you see a lot of people that they know that people leave them in the gut bucket, they go, oh, man. It's better than a better than a tenderloin. And they're being a little I think they're exaggerating a little bit, but Duck Heart really is The first time you try it, you think that maybe people are being a little facetious, and then you eat it, you're like, damn, that tastes just as good as the duck breast does.
Jennifer Chandler:So I've eaten a lot of organ meats over my lifespan, especially having gone to culinary school in France. Yeah. We were we're, you know, I've eaten a lot of different things that I may not have eaten before. But you know what? I have not had a duck heart, so I will always try something once.
Jennifer Chandler:But I could imagine that it might be I mean, it's gonna be lean. I mean, I think any if it's a it's a muscle, I would think that any heart of anything would be lean. I just may not need to think about what it is. Like, when I've eaten tongue before, I just it's too close and personal. I can't put it on Still my think about Yeah.
Mike Brasher:Well, the good thing about duck heart is it's It's it's a bite. Really small. Yeah.
Chris Jennings:It's like the size of a quarter.
Mike Brasher:Yes. Maybe even you know, so it's about half the size of a wine cork, you know, something about like that.
Jennifer Chandler:Heart poppers.
Mike Brasher:There you go.
Jennifer Chandler:Heart poppers. Got a new thing we're gonna start.
Mike Brasher:Heart poppers. A lot of recipes out there
Chris Jennings:that we're
Mike Brasher:just not aware of. So I will want to go with the next one here. This is from a young lady from Texas, from down around San Antonio, miss Brenna Malley. This was a really story with regard to how we came to do this particular episode. She's 17 years old.
Mike Brasher:She sent us an email asking if she could come on the DU podcast to tell a story about some wetland conservation sort of outreach education program that she's involved in, and I thought that was just so cool to have someone of her age and as thoughtful as she was reach out to us wanting to be part of this, because we're only what, three years into this right now, and so she came on, a fantastic guest, along with the volunteer associated with the program that she's involved there, the the Texas Brigades. And so we're gonna play miss Brenna Malley at this time.
Brenna Malley:It was when one of my mom came duck hunting with me for the first time, And she I told her we were gonna be in the blind for a while. She brought all that. She brought these little ham and cheese sandwiches, and she brought like this whole picnic meal. And like the entire blind ate this wonderful meal, and, like, now everyone wants me to bring my mom hunting because she'll she'll pack food for an army. And that was definitely one of the most memorable because those sandwiches, are my favorite.
Brenna Malley:She's made them since I was a little girl. So it was really nice to sit in the blind and talk with everyone while eating my favorite food, and I love that my mom was there with me to enjoy it.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. Obviously, makes that one special is that it's a bond between a daughter and a mother, and her being able to share with her mom something that she really enjoys, so that was really cool.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. Mean, I'm a mom. I love that story. I mean, you you cherish those opportunities to do, I mean, I have a joke, my children are in college now, and I have one that's a freshman, I have not gotten to go cook for her yet because she doesn't have an apartment, but my one that's senior in college is I'll go and I'll cook for all of her friends and do the mean, when I go up there, there's usually a big meal involved that they get a home cooked meal, and it's just such a special time for me as a parent to get to be able to have that with my kids. And so I'm so glad to hear her appreciating, which I know her mom was, you know, so excited to be able to be there and to be able to do that and experience something with her.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. That's that's a great story. My next one here is a guest that we bring on pretty regularly, Tony Vandermore. And Tony, if you're familiar with Tony, he's a co owner of Habitat Flats up in Northern Missouri, and I know for a fact that they serve a lot of meals up there in that camp. So go ahead and play Tony's.
Tony Vandermore:Holy. That's gonna be tough for me. I mean, duck camp's kinda like it's like shore lunch. You know? When you're fishing up in Canada, you're cooking walleye on the shore on a beautiful day after fishing and cooking it outside. I mean, you can't get that in a restaurant. Restaurant. Kinda same to be said for duck canned food. I mean, whatever you cook, whether it's something easy that you're cooking in a blind. I mean, a a bratwurst tasting incredible in a duck blind. But the best thing I've ever had I don't if it's the best, but we have a pizza night. Our buddy cooks incredible pizza, and we do it on Sunday nights. We're watching football. Takes four or five hours at the lodge. He's just cooking pizzas. There's wings. Everybody's telling stories from the day. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. That that's the best for me.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. I think that that kinda goes back to the full experience and the camaraderie and everything. And and that sounds awesome, and and he's right. I mean, it's, you know, that's definitely a consistent message. Even some of the more basic meals can be just fantastic at duck
Jeff Jones:camp.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. It depends on who you're with
Daniel and Neil Hayes:Mhmm.
Jennifer Chandler:And what the experience is, and then that just makes the experience.
Chris Jennings:Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:So and by the way, leftover roasted duck, you shred it up and put it on top of a pizza with, like, caramelized onions.
Chris Jennings:Oh, yeah.
Mike Brasher:I've never had it on a pizza. It's really good
Jennifer Chandler:on a pizza.
Mike Brasher:I love it on a sandwich or something of that nature a day
Jennifer Chandler:after. Throw it on a throw it on a pizza. It's really good. Do that.
Mike Brasher:The next one we'll play here is from Doctor. Mark Glutney. One of the things that I'll say, this is an interesting one, I do remember this one. This is interesting. A lot of the others, or at least several of the others that we've had sort of illustrate that these types of most memorable meals are as much about the people you're with, the experience, the ambiance at the particular situation or some tradition, and that's really cool in itself, but this one was memorable for me listening to it because it's something I'd never heard of before.
Mike Brasher:Doctor Mark Glutney with DU Canada.
Mark Glutney:So I I remember having a meal down in the Long Point on the Long Point area around Ontario, one of the camps there, and it was a duplication of of meals that they used that they've served historically, where where they roast a duck, and then they they breast they take the breast meat off, and then they put the carcass of the duck and the legs, and they put it in a press. And they press this thing, and then all the juices of the duck come out, and and they make this amazing gravy with that juice and and and pour it over over the over the duck, and and you you have it with the with potatoes and and some vegetables. But, you know, the the history of the way it was prepared and then and then just the the the ability to extract all of that good essence of the duck was was quite an experience.
Mike Brasher:So that was I remember the question I asked afterwards was kinda inquiring about the press itself, and he said it was resembles like a sausage stuffer. So that kind of gave me another reason to purchase a sausage stuffer. Haven't done that yet, but it's on the list. Your reaction, Jennifer?
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. I mean, I think that there's something about, you know, using every bit of the animal and and also, you know, the flavor. Like, when I cook anything, like, if you can cook something bone in, whether it is, duck or it is chicken or it is, even beef, you know, If you cook it bone in, there is going to be flavor because there's that all that awesome flavor comes from the marrow and the bones, and the fact that and then the fat and things like that, they're just in the dark meat that maybe kind of like is not what you would serve on a plate, but there's flavor in it. And if you can get all that goodness, especially to make a gravy Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:I mean, that's a really smart idea. Now I'm wondering if I need one of those things Well,
Mike Brasher:know that would fit well with a Thanksgiving dinner. Right?
Jennifer Chandler:Oh, it would. Because then I would get my gravy. My gravy would be even better. Instead of me roasting my gravy on the side, if I was able to press everything out of those chicken leg I mean, the turkey legs and the turkey necks and get all the goodness out of there, that'd even be more flavor.
Mike Brasher:There you go.
Jennifer Chandler:That's awesome. Add to my Christmas wish list.
Mike Brasher:There you go.
Chris Jennings:My next one is Bill Buckley, a professional photographer and freelancer for us, for Ducks Unlimited magazine and and countless others. Let's go ahead and play Bill's.
Bill Buckley:This before the days when I discovered vacuceiling and what a difference that made. And so if you put a duck in a freezer and even if you suck the air out, within a month, the blood would turn brown, and it would have this horrible freezer taste. It just tastes terrible. So I always wondered why down south I would go down there and have this wonderful these wonderful duck meals. I come back so excited.
Bill Buckley:I thawed some birds, tried, it just tastes terrible. And like I say, it had to do with what the freezer does to a bird. But anyway, I remember being back with my buddies Chuck Myers and Bill Benton when they were involved with Green Tree Hunting Club. And we came down after, it was in the late afternoon, it was starting to be cocktail hour, and got down there and they had these wonderful little hors d'oeuvres with toothpicks and these chunked up pieces of meat and has eaten quite a few of those and this other guy comes in and he sits down and tries a few, says, God, that duck is incredible. I looked at him like he was an idiot.
Bill Buckley:I said, That's not duck. That's beef. And it turned out it was duck. And and it kind of got me to realize that duck can be phenomenal if you treat it properly. So and I'm one of I I'm a huge proponent of learning new ways to cook ducks and geese, and I love love introducing people to how good they can be.
Bill Buckley:So yeah. So that was kind of kind of probably one of the best things I ever ate in duck camp only, well, because it was really good, but also because it introduced me to the whole idea about the detriments of freezing ducks by a standard method other than vacucealing.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. And I think that's a good good example for everyone is preparation. But, you know, is is that something that you that you're a big proponent of as far as freezing and
Jennifer Chandler:and preparing beforehand? Everything is better is if it's right right when you've, you know, right when you've either shot it or when you've gone fishing, right when it's right out of the water. I mean, everything is going to be better then, but yes, the freezer can be your, like, worst enemy in the entire world. But thank goodness there are things like vacuum sealers that you can do that. If you don't own one, that is one thing I do own and I use the heck out of it.
Jennifer Chandler:For vegetables, for game, for fish, you name it. I'm probably pulling that thing out at least once a week to take care of food, now with like sous vide cooking, I bet cooking, you know, vacuum sealing something and cooking a duck breast in sous vide and then put it, throwing it on the grill or throwing it in a cast iron skillet afterwards would be a great way to cook it. And I've always, I mean, I know with fish and things, like I've not done this as much with duck, but if you put water in there, it protects it. Like, if you put if you put the meat and you put it in water and you freeze it in a block of ice, at least with fish, it's kind of Yeah. Protected.
Chris Jennings:So I'm
Jennifer Chandler:assuming it would do that with duck breast too.
Chris Jennings:I think it would. I think I think the the issue with duck itself is is just that longevity, how long it's in the freezer too.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. People put I mean, I'm guilty. I know that there are things in my chest freezer in my garage that have been there for years. And every once in a while, I feel like I have to dig them out and throw them away and be like, there's no way that this is good. So people do remember that, you know, I mean, yeah, I mean, on average, three to six months depending on what the product is.
Jennifer Chandler:I mean, sometimes you can get a year out of it, but really, you need to try to everything that you put in your freezer this season, you need to have it try to make the goal of having it gone by next season.
Chris Jennings:And that and that really leads us back to the duck jerky.
Jennifer Chandler:Yes.
Mike Brasher:That's right.
Chris Jennings:I mean, if if you have
Mark Glutney:to get
Chris Jennings:rid of it
Jennifer Chandler:There you go.
Mike Brasher:There you go.
Jennifer Chandler:I mean, that's There you go.
Mike Brasher:What about his comment on the the duck tasted so good, he he thought it couldn't be duck. You know, he was not used to duck tasting that good. Have you how often have you encountered that? You said a lot of people bring their ducks to you for you to cook for them. How often have you encountered that where you surprise them based on the way you cook it, and they think it they always thought of duck as being dry and
Jennifer Chandler:Without a duck. I mean, for years, I wouldn't eat duck, and it wild duck, because I thought it was dry and it was really gamey tasting until, you know, I learned some tricks around cooking it, and, you know, so I think we all probably have people that we know when they invite us over to a meal that's serving game, we know we're going eat off of their table, and then their friends were like, okay, we know we need to eat something beforehand, we're not gonna eat that much of it. But, yeah, it's just kind of, you know, paying attention and experimenting and learning, what techniques work for you and what doesn't. So and and definitely listen to your and ask questions for your friends that you think do a good job cooking, because I've learned so much from my friends who probably learned it from another friend, about ways to make things taste good.
Mike Brasher:For this next one, it's gonna be a little bit of a take us down a little different path here. And, Jennifer, I know you did listen to this one beforehand, and it left an impression on you. It's Austin Booth, the director of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. It's a little unconventional, a little unusual. You might not shouldn't say unusual, but it's different and and and very and I can relate to it.
Mike Brasher:Austin Booth.
Austin Booth:It's an unoriginal name called a duck bond sandwich, but it's white bread, gotta be white bread. Cheap ham, ideally, the cheapest ham that you can possibly find, a fried egg, American cheese, and secret ingredient is two things. Miracle Whip, no mayonnaise, has to be Miracle Whip, and Cavender's. It's a seasoning from Harrison, Arkansas, and it makes a sandwich. Maybe what really makes it is just that white river bottom air.
Mike Brasher:Jennifer cringed. Your reaction.
Jennifer Chandler:Well, I'll tell you what I cringed about, but the first thing is I didn't realize Cavender's was from Arkansas. I learned something new. Yeah. Because I've used it before a lot, but, yeah, I'm not a Miracle Whip fan. I mean, I love mayonnaise.
Jennifer Chandler:I love Those are tangy. Some mayonnaise. But Miracle Whip and me just do not go together. But, yeah. I mean, there's something about simple foods like that that just are part of the traditions that you need.
Jennifer Chandler:Now, do want to tell him that if he's having his sandwich on the weekend of Thanksgiving, he needs one of those Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches with, you know, cold stuffing and and, you know, cranberries and all the goodness that goes on that. He should switch to that at least for that weekend.
Chris Jennings:That one weekend.
Jennifer Chandler:That one weekend. But otherwise, my family is originally from New Orleans, so I grew up a lot with, like, one of my favorite sandwiches to this day is on a French baguette. It's thinly sliced ham and butter and a little bit of salt. I use kosher salt now, but my grandmother probably used, you know, iodized, you know, whatever the salt was back in the seventies. But it's such a simple sandwich, but to me, it is so good, it's the best sandwich in the world.
Jennifer Chandler:Mhmm.
Mike Brasher:And Austin did emphasize it has to be the white bread, and I clarified the white bread that, like, sticks to the roof of your mouth. Right?
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah. He said, I'm sure it's the Wonder Bread or the Blue Bunny Bread or whatever brand that
Chris Jennings:is. The one you got at the gas station.
Jennifer Chandler:Yes. Which, you know, he could go to a pond afterwards and maybe feed some ducks with his leftovers, know, that's what we used to knows better than I used to buy that not to eat, but to feed ducks at the at the park with the kids.
Chris Jennings:And and just you bringing up the the the Thanksgiving sandwiches Yeah. Which we kinda talked about a little bit offline. I just want to emphasize that that is probably my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving sandwich after the full meal. And my my sister and I go back and forth about, like, what's the best part of the sandwich? You know?
Chris Jennings:And is it the green bean casserole that's stuffed in or, you know, maybe the broccoli casserole or, you know, you have to have, you know, mayo on it or you have to have cranberries on it, you know, either way. But it sounds like you guys are big into the Thanksgiving sandwiches as well.
Jennifer Chandler:Yes. Well, you gotta do the leftovers. I always take the, as I mentioned, I always make gumbo, but I take any of the leftover white meat, and I save that for the sandwiches. Because, to be honest with you, the sandwiches are less about the meat than all the other stuff that you're throwing in there. And you definitely have to have the cranberry.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. That
Jennifer Chandler:I mean, the cranberry
Chris Jennings:That has always been my fun.
Jennifer Chandler:And sometimes I make take my leftover cranberry sauce, and I make a cranberry Dijon mustard. So you take the leftover cranberry sauce, and you put it mix it up with a little bit of Dijon mustard to your taste of your liking, and it's the best bread that you can use for another week or two.
Chris Jennings:That's awesome. Alright. So moving on, we've got a retired DU chief scientist, doctor Tom Mormon. I
Tom Mormon:don't personally ever cook in a duck blind. In fact, I rarely I rarely eat when I'm hunting or fishing just because I'm pretty focused on the job at hand. But when I first started duck hunting years ago back in Ohio, we would take a kerosene heater out to the blind on this big lake, Grand Lake St. Marys, if anybody's from Ohio, and we'd light that heater October, November when it used to get cold, and we would take hamburgers wrapped in foil, and you could chuck them on there, and while you're sitting there hunting, you'd be cooking yourself a cheeseburger. It smelled really great and I have pretty good memories of that being really cold and that's really the only cooking that I've actually ever done in a duck pond.
Tom Mormon:Most of the time I do layout hunts, and as you well know, when you're laying on your back covered up and trying to hide, it's pretty hard to do anything, so not really a good place for fires, anything like that, so yeah. And, of course, you know, the the hunting hunting lodges and everywhere I've ever been, man, all kinds of great meals usually revolving around ducks.
Mike Brasher:That one kinda surprised me a little bit because I always I mean, Tom, as much as he hunts, I just assumed that he had some memory that that he carries with him kinda to this day, but that one was actually one that he that came from his childhood there. So, again, pretty neat in that it kinda takes him back to a memory.
Jennifer Chandler:And I love that idea though. That's a really smart idea, to wrap them in foil and just throw them on the heater. I mean, that's kind of brilliant. Yeah. I bet they were really tasty.
Mike Brasher:No. I'm sure they were. Everything tastes better in a duck blind.
Chris Jennings:That's right. Absolutely.
Mike Brasher:For the next one here, I do remember this one. Doctor Mike Schumer, he shared this is sort of an experiential story almost, and so this one was yeah, this one is memorable. Doctor. Mike Schumer.
Jennifer Chandler:Yeah, that's a great question. My mind goes back to a time when I was in graduate school doing my doctoral degree in Ontario, and my mentor Dave Ankney, who is, I'd go with the word infamous, ecologist but foods researcher, was at one of these gatherings at Shannon Batsinski's house. Shannon is a waterfall biologist with the Canadian Wireless Service now, but he and I were both working together in grad school at that time. But he had a gathering in his cottage of, you know, fellow duckheads and and and Dave was there as as well. And they did roach.
Jennifer Chandler:They did roach ducks, whole fully flocked roach ducks at like the peak of migration. So these are heavy, you know, birds coming off of Lake Erie flying out the cornfields. And this is this is yellow fat, right, on on big mallards and black ducks. And so you put them on a Weber grill. There's a very specific recipe that you do.
Jennifer Chandler:And it's a pretty carnivore moment when they come off that grill perfectly crispy. But at the end of the night, all these duck carcasses were, you know, on the counter on the table. And there's really specific meat on the back that people miss that's really, really good. And so I went in there to use the restroom and it was occupied. So I looked at that tray of carcasses and it started tearing into them.
Jennifer Chandler:And lo and behold, who comes out of that bathroom but Dave Ankney. And he looks at me and he goes, Darn it, Schumer. I knew I liked you for a reason. And he literally snuggled up to me and just buried his face into that carcass. That pile of carcass was a duck.
Jennifer Chandler:And We sat there for about a half hour picking away, pulling the leftover meat off those carcasses. That's just one of those, I think, of real memorable moments from somebody who is very much my senior but had that connection through, know, not just the research of ducks or the hunting of ducks, but to me something that's a big part of my passion about the whole culture of waterfowling is the food the food part of it and the the small nuances that we all find, you know, similar among in in our diet and interest in in cooking and eating.
Mike Brasher:And I can tell you that one of the reasons why that experience was so memorable to Mike, and it would have been to any of us in the waterfowl research world to have shared that table of duck carcasses with doctor Dave Ankney is because he passed away a few years ago. He's no longer with us, and he is he was a giant in the field, his memory lives on in major ways, but that was pretty cool, and Mike was one of his students, Dave was one of Mike's mentors, but that experience there Again, the food, that experience can help you develop bonds with family members, friends, and that's certainly one of those cases.
Jennifer Chandler:Oh, yeah. I mean, without a doubt. I have to admit, so I'm kind of, like, picky about what I like the breast meat. I'll shred the other stuff and put it in things. I probably would not be the person that would be up digging in the car, because however my husband and my two girls would.
Jennifer Chandler:They like gnaw at bones and things like that. But I like I love crawfish, and to me, I've had that experience of, you know, especially living up here in Memphis, you know, a lot of people like crawfish, but not everyone does, but the diehard ones of us that, like, eat all of it, eat a ton of it, suck the heads, like, do do the whole thing, you find yourself, like, with these really cool people bonding over that you guys are the ones that are eating it right, and we're in the know, and they're missing out. So all those other people at that dinner party were obviously missing out.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. And and crawfish is certainly I'm glad you brought that up. That's certainly something that, we do a lot of crawfish. My wife's from Louisiana as well, which gives me a little bit of legitimacy in the South. So, but we do she eats a lot of crawfish.
Chris Jennings:I do too. But it's more it's not like, hey, let's have crawfish for dinner. It's like, hey, let's stand around with 20 people and eat crawfish and drink a couple beers, and that's it's all part of the camaraderie of the whole situation. My next one here is Tom Docken with SportDOG, and he's a veteran dog trainer out of Minneapolis.
Tom Docken:I gotta say it's went over to a friend's house here in South Dakota, and he had a guest at his house, and we were doing mallard duck breasts. They were they were breasted, but they had the the skin was on one side. And the way it was everybody takes duck, to be honest with you, and cooks duck way too way too done. And and he he took he had he had duck fat in a pan, and he seared these duck breasts, skin down, and then and then flipped them over. And most people would look at that and go, you did not cook that long enough for me to eat.
Tom Docken:Put the thermometer in at one thirty five. And there were several guests over there that they weren't hunters. And they, you know, they're going, oh, boy. It's duck. And they were like chomping at the bit, you know, to have more.
Tom Docken:So I I I think that that was it. Then my wife made duck the other night with an apricot sauce. I gotta give I gotta give her kudos on that because it was it was really good too. So, yeah, I guess there's a lot of those stories, but those are the two that come to mind right now.
Chris Jennings:I think those were good ones. And and, Jennifer, I kinda wanted you to speak to the use of the duck fat and then also
Jennifer Chandler:The cooking overcooking. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, you need to look at when you're cooking a breast like that, look at it as like you're cooking a steak. Mhmm. So what the joke is, if you want a well done steak, eat chicken.
Jennifer Chandler:So if you the beauty of a duck breast is it's similar, and, you know, it's it's it's a darker meat, and it has just all that flavor. And if you cook it like a steak, like a medium rare steak, it is going to have better texture, it's going to have more flavor, otherwise it's going to get more, you know, to me it gets more gamey and it gets chewier if you cook a breast like that all the way. You either want to, like, braise. If you're going to cook something all the way, like for me, if you're going to cook a duck all the way, you're braising it, and you're almost doing it like you do like a roast that you kind of like are going to either like shred it or serve it over something. But if you have a beautiful duck breast, you definitely want to, you know, either sear it in a skillet or throw it on the grill, but cook it like a steak, and, you know, and it's gonna be so much more flavor.
Jennifer Chandler:And, yeah, duck fat? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Because, you know, especially I'm assuming his duck fat came from not a duck that he a wild duck, but came from probably a farm raised duck because there's more there's more fat.
Mike Brasher:I don't know.
Chris Jennings:I mean, people do render duck fat. It's just you gotta have a lot of ducks.
Jennifer Chandler:You would have a lot of ducks to have to render that. I know when you buy it commercially, most of the time it's gonna be a farm raised duck. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, there's nothing better than to do that, and then also to cook, like, potatoes on the side of the duck fat. I mean, talk about a meal, that would be a delicious meal.
Mike Brasher:I found it interesting that he mentioned the way of of cleaning the bird, you know, getting the meat off of the off of the carcass there, where he plucked it, left the skin on, and retained that fat, you know, beneath the the skin. And I think he probably I've seen I don't know if this is it feels like this is becoming more common for people to pluck the bird, breast it out, but leave the skin on, and I've even seen it becoming increasingly common that people will will cut off the the leg leg meat with that. So you can have two halves is essentially what you have, and you have that you've retained the skin and that subcutaneous fat with that. And if you especially if it's a bird that has accumulated a lot of fat, it's a fantastic way of of preparing that if you're gonna grill it. And and there's so much fat on some of those birds you have to watch out if you're grilling it on open flame because and but I kinda I kinda love that to happen anyway because they will Crisp it up in a big way.
Mike Brasher:But, yeah, there's a there's a there's a lot of good fat there underneath the skin for some of these birds sometime a year. Mike was even referencing that. But the meat itself is very, very lean, and so you kinda have to have that source of fat of of some type.
Jennifer Chandler:Well, I wanted to go back to, you know, the the gentleman that, had the talked about the duck press. Mhmm. And talk about you know, when we talked about that all the flavor comes from, you know, as I said, the fat, the skin, the bones, all of that adds flavor when you cook it. It kind of goes you know, you may you may not be eating the bones. You may not eat the skin, but all flavor that comes from that goes into the meat.
Jennifer Chandler:So you wanna when you're cooking, you wanna use that as much as possible. I mean, it goes down to a boneless, skinless chicken breast is really not flavorful. Yeah. But if you have one with it's a bone in with the skin on and you roast that, it's like a whole different animal. Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:That you're cooking. For sure.
Chris Jennings:Okay. So as as we get close to wrapping this show up, Jennifer, I I kinda wanted to give you, you know, another opportunity to just, you know, just overall, you know, hearing about all these different, you know, hunting camp meals or maybe it's just a memory or maybe it's the specific species, kinda give give you an opportunity to kinda just reflect on all that. Like, how what did you think, you know, about all of these kinda together as a package?
Jennifer Chandler:Well, I number one, I feel like I've been missing out on something in my whole life that I have not gone duck hunting yet. I'm gonna have to change that. We will. Because I just love hearing all of these stories, and I've heard all these stories from people beforehand. I mean, mean, over the years about and especially with my husband coming home from hunts and things like that, he's gone with his friends, and and it sounds like such a great experience, and it's more than just going out and doing something, a sport by yourself, it it really has to do with your friends and the people that you're out there doing it with, or your family members passing along.
Jennifer Chandler:I have many friends that, you know, their dad took them and then they used to then they took their own sons and now they may be on another generation of taking people out. And I just think there is something so special about the experience of that that just is is really cool. And the fact that I do, and it's again, is I've lived to eat, you know, is a big part of my life, and I love that sports like this wrap themselves around food, you know, and meals, and it's all tied in together. So I think it's just a really special
Chris Jennings:Yeah. And, you know, there's one last thing I I do wanted to talk about, and Mike, this is completely for you. What's the best thing you've ever eaten at duck camp? Because I because we've got them from all these other people, we haven't gotten one from you. Well, let me
Mike Brasher:first just say my impression about the collection of stories that we heard, it matches probably what I would have expected, being a duck hunter and being able to visualize pretty much every one of those experiences that people shared with us. I'm aware of, or I've been involved in some version of almost every one of those, not everyone, but almost everyone, and one of the things I found so meaningful, and Jennifer, this kind of gets to what you saying you feel like you've been missing out, the meals don't have to be extravagant, and oftentimes the meals are not extravagant, and it's not a very sophisticated preparation, even the squeezing out of all the juices and the fat. I mean, that didn't take a whole lot of time, right? You just put it in some kind of press and out comes the juices, or the one that was prepared all day in the big pressure cooker. It wasn't a sophisticated set of ingredients.
Mike Brasher:And so that's what is so meaningful to me is that it's as much about the experience, the memories, the people you're with, as it is actually what you're eating. And so my memory, whenever someone asks me that question, I kind of go back to something that would be similar to one of these, it was not a very sophisticated meal, was actually just grilled redhead duck. We were on an island off the Texas Coast, one of the little barrier islands there, we were there for a meeting, and it was a group of colleagues, and we had gathered up some mesquite wood from some of the nearby shrubs and trees, and we had this big grill on like a trailer and I mean, way bigger than what we needed. Right? Because they used that place for some of their staff meetings and so forth, and so they needed big grilling capacity, but it's way way too big for us.
Mike Brasher:But nevertheless, we we loaded it up with with mesquite, we didn't use charcoal, just mesquite wood that we gathered right there and and fresh redhead ducks, and we grilled them that night. We had maybe a couple of glasses of bourbon, I think there might have even been some cigars, but it was just under the under the Texas sky at night, away from all of the worries of the world. Now we were we were there as as sort of a group that were were doing some having some discussions there around some of the work that we do, but we also took the opportunity to do that kind of fellowship and get to know one another, and it's I don't know who said it, it's one of these food shows, it's like, if you want to get to know someone, eat with them, and that couldn't be any more true than the type of things that we experienced there. I mean, it was the the redhead was cooked medium rare. I don't even know if we had any side items.
Mike Brasher:It was similar to what Mike Schumer was talking about, one of these Carnivores. Carnivore moments, and interestingly enough, I believe doctor Dave Ankney was there with us, but it was just a a most memorable event for a whole host of reasons, and the duck was fantastic too, I will say, with that mesquite flavor to it.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. That's awesome.
Mike Brasher:Well, I wanted to ask you what yours was. You we can't can't Yeah. Get away from this without asking
Chris Jennings:for close it out. Was I was gonna send it over to Jennifer. You know, I I we we eat a lot at our camp, and we eat, all the time. Like I said, I focus on that. And, you know, one of the big things for for us now just for the last few years, and it kind of became a running joke for me, is because I would bring and this is before I was even a part of this club, they would invite me over, and I would bring a charcuterie board in the morning.
Chris Jennings:And so they're like, what in the hell are you doing? I have, you know, pickles and cheese and raisins and, you know, any kind of just adding whatever I could, and now it's become this extravagant every weekend when we're all there, and that's pretty rare, but, you know, I I plan. You know, I've got you know, I order in, like, you know, canned octopus and, like, just weird things, and, you know, and we're doing all this, and I actually have, and I'll throw a shout out to a place called the Smoking Goose in Downtown Indianapolis. My sister lives, like, two blocks away from it, and they do a duck prosciutto. Oh.
Chris Jennings:And it is fabulous. And, yeah, of course, it's not wild bird, but but that kind of wraps up for me, you know, everything that that I like about the experience and the hunting, and and so it's not necessarily a meal itself or it's just all of, like, just people getting fired up about food and hunting, and you're at camp, and, you know, my family makes homemade salami and has for fifty years. And so I'll bring those over and and slice those up, and and people from all over the country are like, man, this is, you know, great salami. You know? Where'd you buy this?
Chris Jennings:I'm like, I didn't. My family made it. So it's it's all part of the, you know, kind of the attachment to the food and the resource and the experience, and and so I think that that really wraps it up for me.
Jennifer Chandler:I love that story.
Chris Jennings:Yeah. I have one. Well, have the worst thing I've ever eaten at duck camp. How about they may be able save
Mike Brasher:that for a different We do have more more clips from some of our other guests. Now, that wouldn't be fair to them though to share your worst thing you've ever eaten along with That's right.
Chris Jennings:We'll do that
Mike Brasher:another Well, before we get
Austin Booth:out of
Mike Brasher:here sometime in
Chris Jennings:the future. Want Jennifer to go ahead and just provide us with, you know, the overall Thanksgiving experience. You know, this is our Thanksgiving show. What do you rec like if someone calls you or contacts you through your column and says, hey. What should I do for Thanksgiving?
Chris Jennings:You know?
Jennifer Chandler:Oh, I get those calls all
Chris Jennings:the time. I bet you do.
Jennifer Chandler:I have a joke on social media. I do these things every year before the holidays. It's like the twelve day I'm doing the twelve days of Christmas, I'm doing the twelve days of Thanksgiving, and literally I'm posting about a particular topic, whether it's green bean casserole or sweet potatoes or or you name it. You know, I I think everyone needs to realize though that the holiday is about any holiday and any gathering that you have in your home is about people. And always make that the priority, whether you're in a home or whether you're in a duck camp or wherever you are, it is all about people are there to see you and you've invited them because you want them in your home and you want to see them.
Jennifer Chandler:So try to make sure that when you're doing your planning, that you're not spending all your time in the kitchen. Do things in advance, you know, at Thanksgiving time, it is okay to order one or two dishes from somebody else. If it will ease up your load, that's okay. I have to tell you, last year, I got my macaroni and cheese from a restaurant because I was just like, okay, couldn't figure out the oven space, and, but I put my own topping on top of it, so nobody at the table
Chris Jennings:Well, you made it your own.
Jennifer Chandler:I put it in my own casserole dish. Mean, of course, anybody who was at my table, which wasn't anybody last year because of COVID, it was my media family, but, well, but they didn't know any different. So just make it easy on yourself. Don't be afraid to do shortcuts. Don't be afraid to ask people to bring dishes.
Jennifer Chandler:Remember what the reason for having people over are. It's about the people.
Mike Brasher:That is great. Hey, before we get out of here, I don't remember if you said this at the beginning, but how if people now that people have listened to you share and share your thoughts and some of your experiences, if people wanted to follow you to find out more of this great information that you have to share, how would
Jennifer Chandler:they do that? Most of my stuff is on social medias these days, so my Twitter handle and my Instagram handle and Facebook, it's all Cook with Jennifer, so Cook W Jennifer is the easy way to find me. I do have a website, cookwithjennifer.com, and I also am always posting stories on I have a little small radio show on wknofm.org every week, and it's on a food topic. And if you're interested in Memphis restaurant news, commercialappeal.com/food. It's pretty much all my stories there.
Chris Jennings:Awesome. That's great. Jennifer, this has been fantastic. I'm glad that you got came in, were able to come into the studio, be a part of this. We greatly appreciate it, and and just, you know, thank you very much for joining us.
Jennifer Chandler:Well, thank you for having me. Now I'm gonna have to ask for an invitation to, go hunting with somebody.
Chris Jennings:We we can take care
Mike Brasher:of that.
Chris Jennings:I think I think we can take care of that.
Mike Brasher:Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you.
Chris Jennings:I'd like to thank our guest, Jennifer Chandler, for joining us today on this Thanksgiving episode and and really bringing to light the the true meaning of some of these holidays is about the people, but also the food's always fantastic. I'd like to thank our producer, Chris Isaac, for putting the show together and getting it out to you, and I'd to thank you, the listener, for joining us on DU podcast and supporting wetlands conservation. Happy Thanksgiving.
VO:You for listening to the DU podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.
VO:Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, stay tuned to the Ducks.
Mike Brasher:You wanna count us down? Do this one, two. How are
Chris Jennings:we gonna do it? Just go, Mike.
Jennifer Chandler:One, two. Happy Thanksgiving.
Mike Brasher:That was perfect. I was waiting on the three.
Chris Jennings:Do you want you want all three of us to do it? Yeah.
Jennifer Chandler:Oh, okay. Okay. We'll do one, two, three, and then we'll say it.
Mike Brasher:Yeah. One
