Wild Game & Mead

[Dan McFeeley]

On another subject, Oskaar jonsed, waxed eurphoric and wrote:

But seriously, I JONES in a major way for real game, and that real meat flavor. Store bought beef is fine, but game is where the flavor is. Match that game up to a fine mead or wine and life is good!

Didn't want to hijack your thread so I jumped on over to Mead & Food.

Ok, you got my curiosity up. For the life of me, I can't imagine which meads go well with wild game. How do you match mead up with game? Are there different meads that go with different kinds of game?

 

[Oskaar]

Wow,

Somehow I missed this one until today.

Dan, here's how I do it.

For upland game (quail, chukkar, partridge, pheasant, turkey) and rabbit, squirrel, etc I go with a dry to semi-dry mead with plenty of oak. I have a special mead I make for these guys and I use heavy toast French Oak. For waterfowl I like a good high alcohol, dry citrus metheglin (light to medium on the citrus, and usually nutmeg as the spice) because it cuts the fat buildup in your mouth from the bird, and wipes the palate clean for the next bite.

For four legged game it really depends on the individual animal. Mostly I like a dark dry cherry mel, or a heavy zin or sangiovese pyment. Elk is the one that I like a straight semi-sweet traditional mead (oaked or un-oaked). For some reason, elk just drives me in that direction.

Hope that helps. Actually from the conversations I've had with Ken I think he probably has a better handle on a wider variety of four legged game than I do. He was having a very diverse mixed grill party with some nice pairings last time we were talking about the mead and food pairings as I remember.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[byathread]

Oskaar, you rock! This is a topic of interest to me. I think I'll start planning a menu for next holiday season!

For upland game (quail, chukkar, partridge, pheasant, turkey) and rabbit, squirrel, etc I go with a dry to semi-dry mead with plenty of oak. I have a special mead I make for these guys and I use heavy toast French Oak.

BTW, are these (fume blanc-style) <a href="http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=103&topic=2685.0">batches</a> along the lines of what you'd recommend?

 

[Oskaar]

Yeah, I like them dry and smokey. To me it's a great combination.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Oskaar replied:

[....]

Yikes, me too! I wasn't watching for replies and missed a really great post.

You also wrote:

>I like a good high alcohol, dry citrus metheglin
>(light to medium on the citrus, and usually nutmeg
>as the spice) because it cuts the fat buildup in
>your mouth from the bird, and wipes the palate
>clean for the next bite.

This is especially interesting. Cutting through fatty foods is a major factor in choosing the proper wine to accompany the meal, and along with that is an enological grounding in why that particular wine works. Foodies who know wine, know about the enology about why one wine works and another doesen't.

Here, you're saying a mead does the same thing, so that's also pointing to the equivalent of a mead enology, i.e., "medhology".

Really great stuff!

Thanks -- this one is a keeper.

 

[Oskaar]

Looks like I forgot to mention the citrus in conjunction with the nutmeg work together to cut the fat as opposed to just the nutmeg. Slight revision there.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[yabodie]

Have you all thought about compiling all these thoughts/recommendations into a book or some sort of publication? Along with the recipes for the meads you recommend?

I would be VERY interested in this.

 

[Oskaar]

Well, it has occured to me more than once, and then the typing occured to me so I fire up the barbeque and apply mead strategically until I stop thinking about typing.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Mynx]

/offers her secretarial services

And I'd only really need to be paid in mead

 

[yabodie]

Maybe this could be a collaborative effort for GotMead folks? Maybe even contribute funding for the site?

As a person who really enjoys food paring with wine, beer and wanting to expand to mead, this book would fill a void in the literature, based on what I have seen.

Just a thought and I would be willing to help...

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Maybe this could be a collaborative effort for GotMead folks? Maybe even contribute funding for the site?

As a person who really enjoys food paring with wine, beer and wanting to expand to mead, this book would fill a void in the literature, based on what I have seen.

Just a thought and I would be willing to help...

Well, if we can get people to pitch in with ideas and opinions it'll go. How about this? I'll throw out more questions on food pairing under the Mead & Food section. It's gotta be a collaborative effort or it won't work.

For instance *hint* *hint* Oskaar was the only one who replied to "A Challenge to the Mead/Food Gurus" located at this URL:

http://www.gotmead.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,103/topic,3548.0

We need more opinions, more experiences!

I'll throw out another one on this section which will be titled "Another Challenge to the Mead/Food Gurus." If you guys can all pitch in we'll get something going. It'll be a simple one, I promise! Give it a try. Here's a short cut to the thread:

http://www.gotmead.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,103/topic,3636.0