Bear Grease - Ep. 217: This Country Life - How to Cook a Coon

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

It's time to eat and there's "masked bandit" on the menu. Brent's gonna tell you how to cook one like they do down in Gillett, Arkansas, home of the world-famous Gillett Coon Supper. He's also sharing a listener-submitted story that anyone can enjoy. It's time to get supper ready on MeatEater's This Country Life podcast. Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season. Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new fieldwear gear at firstlight.com.

Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host Brent Reeves. From Coon Hunting to Trotlining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my stories and country skills that will help you beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast the Airways have to offer. All right, friends, pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I think I've got a thing or two to teach you.

How to cook a coon. You heard me right. We're cooking a coon this week. You know, some folks eat them because they like them. Some folks eat them to support a cause. One we'll talk about a little later. But back in the day, at least down here where I live, some folks ate them out of necessity.

They were making do with what they had, which is a subject I covered a few episodes ago. That inspired this country life. listener Jason Campbell to send in the following story about a time in his life when he was making do. It might be a stretch to

keep it on theme for an episode about cooking coons, but there's some coon hunting in it along with a good lesson. And good lessons with their own theme with everything. In Jason Campbell's words and my voice, here's the story called

Hanging Back. It all started about the time I thought it was all ending for me. Like most high school freshmen, I thought I had the whole world figured out. I just couldn't legally drive far enough to explore much of it. Everything changed in my small town world the day my lifelong bad knee diagnosis got a name. Nell Patella Syndrome. It was barely an inconvenience as a small child, but at 15, it became a daily issue.

and I hit the growth spurt that seems to catch us all about that age, and things kind of got out of whack. Then my faith was strong, but it felt like the beginning of the end. Thankfully, it wasn't. However, there was a slight shift in my mountain taming abilities. After major reconstructive surgery and new parts in both knees, I found myself still hungry for adventure. Even more so, after the struggle of learning to walk again.

I was so thankful and relieved as I slowly regained my mobility, and I give the Lord and the doctors and my great family all the credit. Fast forward 18 years, a few more surgeries, and I'm proud to still be working hard as a machinist, hunting, fishing, and even raising our wonderful three-year-old son with my awesome wife, Rebecca. I've come to understand the value in hanging back. When it comes to making tracks, I ain't the thing. that fast. I can usually be found somewhere in the background, mosing alone, doing the best I can,

and just thankful to be doing so. I don't run like a deer and even dragging one is difficult for me. Okay, I'm going to get to the good part. The coon hunting. This part relates to fond memories, empty wallets, a lot of luck, and as Brent loves to say, make do with what you have. Back during high school, I had two strikes of luck around the same time. Passed my learners permit driver's test, and then shortly thereafter, I met a new friend. A kind older gentleman at the local gas station, it had been the best breakfast for miles around, and old timers hung out there. You know, the kind of place that feels like home to everybody that stops in every day.

We struck up a conversation, and he invited me on my first coomers. hunt that night. I'll withhold his name for privacy's sake, but we'll call him Mr. Dale. At the time, I couldn't tell a good coon dog from any other, but man, I'm telling you, I got a grade A backwards education that night, and then a long list of things learned that stand out to me now, here's three in no particular order. Number one, listen to the old timers with your good ear. Number two, Mr. Dale had some health troubles and he wasn't fast, just like me. Number three, bloodhounds are beautiful and powerful creatures.

Now, hunted with Mr. Dale and his crew every other night that season. Sometimes we treeed one, sometimes we didn't. But I always had fun just easing along talking life with Mr. Dale. Now, a lot of times my knees and his health meant we missed the action at the tree when the faster folks got there first. Sometimes we just plum gave out a breath and couldn't make it to the tree. It never bothered me one bit to miss it.

I was just happy to be invited along. Season ended that year in its usual fashion of going out about the time the cropy started biting in the spring. So I was back to sleeping at night, then school, and fishing in the evenings. Time marched on in a few months from by like short days. Then one day I was out fishing at a local farm pond and I see Mr. Dale walking across the pasture. And I wonder what he's doing here.

Where's his fishing pole? How did he know I was here? Then came the shocker as Mr. Dale told me he had given up coon hunt, mostly for medical reasons. And I could see his despair and telling me about selling each of his beloved hounds one by one. I thought surely that the last one, the only bloodhound of the bunch and secretly my personal favorite, was being saved as his pet just for him. And I have yet to find the words to describe my thoughts as he went on to his next point and his reason for tracking me down at that pond.

He described to me the multiple offers pleas and even downright arguments he had dismissed up to that point regarding the future of his beloved big red dog. He said, son, my whole family and half of my friends are after old Betsy. But I've given a lot of thought. If you'll have her, stop by the house tomorrow. I want you to take her in my dog box too. She's a good dog, and I always appreciated you hanging back with me in the woods, even if we missed a tree or two.

It was such an act of kindness on Mr. Dale's part. It's been almost 20 years since it happened, and I still don't have the words for it. Though Betsy has long since been ringing heaven's hollers, the memories are with me deeper than these scars on my knees. So many nights just found me in old Betsy. I can still hear, especially when the wind blows cold through the Briar Choke Creek Bob. Just singing to my soul, just for my soul. me while I'm hanging back.

Thanks, Mr. Dale. Well, thank you, Jason Campbell, for sharing that wonderful story of compassion, determination, faith, and generosity. And according to Jason Campbell, that's just how it happened. How'd I cook a coon? A short while ago, my old partner, Clay, middle name I Cheated Turkey Calling Contest, Newcomb, told you all about an event that he, his wife, Misty, and me and my wife Alexis went to in Gillette Arkansas, the Gillette Coon Supper. It was the 80th annual gathering of friends, family, and like-minded individuals who may not agree on politics, but can all agree that education,

community, and heritage is important. It was my first attendance of an Arkansas tradition that I not only was aware of, but that I supported most years by buying tickets, but never attended. It wasn't because I didn't like the crowds or I was disgusted with the thought of eating a coon. I've been eating those critters my whole life. It was all about timing. The Coon's Supper takes place in January during the most holy of outdoor pursuits for a lot of Arkansas and those that fancy themselves as honorary residence. Duck season. Duck season had my brother Tim and I working hard,

entertaining clients at our duck camp on the Arkansas River near the small community of Raydale. Now, we were hunting and whining and dining folks and just couldn't fit the event into our schedule, even though it took place less than 30 minutes from our camp. We never knew how many people we would have, and let's face it, not everyone, even hunters, get real excited about it on the ham of a procyon loader. The trash panda, the mass bandito, a river-bottomed coon.

So, we would usually buy tickets from a friend of ours who sold them just to support the scholarship program that they've been funded. We guided professionally for 26 years. We missed 26 coon summers. We retired from guiding a dozen years ago. That's 38 coon suppers that I didn't attend. Then came 2024, and my friend Austin Booth, the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission invited Clay and I and our wives.

The look on my wife Alexis's face when I said, Austin's invited us and Clay and Misty to the Coon's Supper next week in Gillette. It was not astonishment or horror. It was supportive and agreeable with only one caveat. I'm not eating any, but I'll be glad to go with you, she said. and that gal is my best friend, and I can always count on her support. However, eating fur-bearing creatures is about where she draws the line. I've eaten them forever, and usually either like them baked with sweet potatoes or barbecue.

I like them cooked that way, but neither way stood out, really, from any other wild game I've ever had. To be honest, the most significant or intriguing factor of eating a cooked cone was the fact that you were eating a cooked cone. It became a staple of country folks during hard times, but the outside of the coon was historically more valuable than the meat found inside until the fall of the fur market. Now when the fur market crashed in the late 80s, the way coons were valued changed with it. People no longer trapped or hunted and killed them for their fur,

and there were never very many hunting them just for their meat alone. It's too easy to feel your freezer food. full of deer meat, ducks, and fish. And those were always more appealing to folks with less of a conviction for eating wild game than a coon. The older fancies of the meat died out slowly with only regional appeal from specific communities keeping the flame burning for a stew pot full of cooked coon, except Gillette. Folks down at Gillette were keeping on, keeping on.

And while the amount of meat cooked through the years may have gone down and the alternative domestic choice has gone up during that event, the quality of this southern delicacy has remained. Now I'm going to tell you how they cook it. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest.

It's just not going to happen. but when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut.

I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you do. did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Cole counts is in the agribusiness and is a young man compared to a lot of those associated with the coonsuper, but he's also a Gillette alumnist who is helping maintain

the tradition and supporting the legacy by volunteering every year. Cole sees the importance of the mission by bringing the community together in support of education. Now, Cole himself was a recipient of the scholarship and stewards the benevolence he received by working in agriculture and giving back to his community, along with a whole bunch of other folks. He's quick to downplay his role in the preparation and pushes the attention to the men and women who've been there way longer than him. I get it. They should be recognized and have been as recently as Clay's Bear Grease episode number 214. If you had to listen to that one, get your hind in over there now and listen.

He dives deep into the history and the politics and the highlights some of the OGs that have been instrumental in fanning the flames of that event for the last 80 years. You folks have my unwavering gratitude and appreciation for staying in the course. keeping the mission of the event alive and well. Education and family. But someone has to be reaching for the torch when the time is right to pass it on. That's why people like Cole and the others who come in now are so important. Alexis and I sat beside a couple who had been coming for 61 years. He told me he was a graduate of Gillette and had never missed one.

He lives in Little Rock now and he and his wife traveled every. every year to support the community and the student scholarships. The good Lord willing, I won't miss anymore. Now let's cook this thing. A coon has four sets of glands that need to be removed before cooking. Failing to do so will give the meat a very undesirable flavor. It's simple and with a little practice, you can have that rascal ready for the boiling pot in less than a minute

after you snatched his hat off. The glands resemble a bean in shape and size and vary in color with subtle shades of gray. They're found in between muscles on each side of the neck, the joints between the thigh and the lower hind legs, both sides of the rear part of the back strap, and the joint between the body and front legs between the muscles. Once that's done, the meat is cut and quartered into serving pieces, front legs, hind legs, and a backbone. Pieces are placed in salt water bath to brine overnight. The brine can simply be water and salt, and that works great. You can also use pre-made flavor-infused brines that have sugar and other spices added to create some unique flavor of yon.

Turkey brines have been used by friends of mine, and they say it's a great way to enjoy it. Now, I haven't tried it yet, but I will. The function of the brine is to infuse flavor and to tenderize and moisture, the meat. Brian a turkey, brine a coon. It's all the same thing. Now in a big pot of water, I use a 30 quart. The same pot I brine him in, I just rinsed the pot out and the coon off before following cold's directions. I added four carrots, four onions, four bell peppers, six or eight stalks of celery, and I cut up a couple of lemons. Then I went out on my own and I added a couple of bay leaves and a cap full of liquid crawfish boil to mix, and I let it slow boil for about

two hours. Once that's done, the coon is cooked, but there's one more step we need to amp up the taste even more. It's time to fire up the smoker. Any residual fat that's left should be removed before placing it in the smoker. I removed the coon from the pot, took off any fat that was left, and put the five pieces the bone-in backstrap, both shoulder and both hams, into an aluminum pan. Now I have a camp chef pellet grill and set the tip at 225 in high smoke, and I let it sit

in for about two hours. An hour into the cook, I turned to meat once. Now, once that was done, I took the pan off the smoker and immediately covered it with aluminum foil, and I let it rest for 30 minutes on a stove. If you're going to add any barbecue sauce or anything else like that, that, now's the time to do it. I didn't, but that's up to you. Now allow me to do you another solid while I'm at it. Everybody knows that biscuits go with gravy. Cornbread goes with beans, but for the uninitiated, sweet taters go with coon. Now whipped up a batch of cream, sweet potatoes

while the coon was in the last stage of smoking, and they were ready to go when it was time to Uncover the pan. Hot dogs taste better at a ballgame. All my kids, from the oldest of my youngest, Amy Hunter and Bailey, will testify to that. There's a legitimate link between place and taste. Fish tastes better on the river, so it only stands to reason that Coon would taste better in the environment of where it celebrated most, the Gillette Coon supper. However, there was no loss of flavor or enjoyment of eating at when I prepared my plate

and set at our family table with Alexis and Bailey. Alexis and Bailey both had some, if a bite can be counted as some. Bailey, she didn't care for it. This is the girl that would rather eat bear chili than ice cream, remember? That's probably a slight exaggeration on my part, I'll admit, but she loves wild game. Coon, it wasn't for her.

Alexis, the poster child for city girls who voluntarily jumped into this country life of mine with an open mind and a sparkly pair of ugs many, many years ago, tried a bite. And she said, I couldn't tell you that that wasn't beef I just ate. It has the same consistency as roast. It's just the thought of it being a coon that has me not wanting another bite. I love you, Brent, but I ain't eating any more of that.

I like the way she always says she loves me right before she adds she ain't about something I am. Everybody needs a cheerleader, a companion, a godly spouse who supports them in whatever they do that's good even though they may not wish to participate. Alexis is mine. Now, I'm sure there are just as many ways to cook coon as there is to cook anything else. This is just one way. The way I chose to do it was this one with some help from my buddy Cole. I thought it was fantastic and will absolutely do it again.

this fall. Now, someone like my friend Jason Ellsworth, who is a show-enough wild game chef, a man who could make a feast out of butterflies and haystring, there's no telling what that rascal could conjure up with a skint coon. Check him out over at Ellsworth.cocks on Instagram, if you don't believe me. I've been talking about frying catfish in the past, and now how I like to cook a coon. And if you like these episodes, let us know, and maybe we'll do some more in the future. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about in this country life, and we'll take suggestions from everyone.

Even the guy that left a one-star review saying, I don't listen to the ex-cop turned country boy who is talking about only God knows what every week. Well, Mr. I was a country boy before I was a police officer. Maybe you were listening to it backwards. I don't know. Maybe you should try the meat eater podcast. Cut in the Distance, Foundations, Wired to Hunt, Bear Greas, Cows We Can Review, God's Country, or The Element. They're all Meat Eater podcast, and surely you'll find something one of them that won't make you so angry, Jay Cody, Jay.

I'm finishing this up in Manitoba, Canada. I've been up here getting ready to chase black bears with old friends and new friends, and we'll visit about that later. Something else we'll be talking about very soon is some this country life of peril. Y'all hang on just a little longer. I think you're going to like it. Time to get ready to hit the woods.

Until next week, this is Brent Reeves. Signing off. Y'all be careful. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms It's called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use.

I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that goblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're

They're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did. And you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action.