Every fall, as the hunting season settles in, I have a chance to enjoy some of the wild game that we harvest. We have learned ways of processing and preparing our ducks, geese and pheasants so they are very palatable.

One of the ways we prepare our birds is in a crockpot. By mixing in apples, onions, cream of mushroom soup and spices, the end results are tender and tasty. If goose breasts are part of the equation, I cut them into smaller pieces so they cook more thoroughly.

We also like to take some of the wild game into a meat market to have it processed into a variety of products. Much like people use venison, we have summer sausage, hotdogs, Italian sausage and brats made.

When a meat market processes our birds, they mix in pork or beef or both, depending on the end product. This not only stretches the quantity but also cuts some of the wild game flavor that some people don’t appreciate.

I often give summer sausage to farmers that let us hunt their land as a small way of saying thank you. The summer sausage is very tasty and always appreciated.

The Italian sausage works great in hotdish recipes or in chili. It also adds extra flavor to eggs and omelets.

Now comes the part about preparing wild game for the table or for processing. Because we hunt with shotgun shells, it is the pellets in the shell that bring the birds to the ground. This can be an issue if the pellets are not removed from the meat.

Over the past five years, I have broken two teeth by biting on a steel pellet. Steel is not forgiving like lead shot used to be and can create issues.

For the last couple of years, we have been using a handheld metal detector to help us find pellets that are in the meat. It works extremely well and beeps loudly when passed over a pellet.

Unfortunately, the metal detector will not read small pellets. For this reason, we have switched to bigger shot sizes that are easier to detect.

Biting on a pellet is not a pleasant experience. A metal detector can solve this problem.     

— This is the opinion of outdoors columnist Jerry Carlson. Contact him at jerrycarlson@cloudnet.com.