Exotic/Different meat cooking

[Mortblanc]

One of the things I have learned in archeological digs is that the butchering systems of the pre-20th Century were more concerned with getting good joint cuts of meat for the soup pots. You can tell that from the way the bones were cut. Open ends to let the marrow flow into the broth and bone sections that show "family sized" chunks of meat. Of course they had pots of various sizes and pot size was also a factor.

It is said that the Mexicans bread their small dog to fit the size of the most common Spanish trade pot.

The ancient stone aged people tended to cut through the joint at the weakest part of the carcass, roast the meat and crush the bones to get at the marrow.

I was watching a food documentary a while back where some yuppie was traveling through Africa taste testing the foods of the native people. When he got to the Sann bushmen in SA he went with them on a tracking expedition, killed an antelope and watched in horror as they simply dumped the whole undressed, unbutchered carcass on the fire, guts, hooves, skin, hair and all.

After a time they proceeded to rip the carcass apart with their bare hands and tear chunks of meat from the mass, consuming everything down to the stomach and intestinal contents. The young chief was truly appalled and after tasting one bite had to leave the set and have a healthy puke.

I have roasted deer over the spit, as well as goat and on a couple of occasions a whole hog. Small game I have roasted on a simple stick many times and even more often have parted them out and cooked them in my tin billy accompanied by a handful of rice and dried vegetables.

As a group, we once removed the entrails from a wild turkey, coated it with mud from the riverside without removing the feathers, and buried it under the fire to bake for 5-6 hours. When we dug it up the clay coating cracked from the carcass, taking feathers and skin with it and leaving clean, well baked meat for the group.

It's not rocket science. It does not take a special school or advanced training from a professional. It does not take specialized tools. It merely takes doing the job two or three times until one finally gets it right.

"Right" being a relative term.