A Hunter's Kitchen: UCLA student hunts own game, runs a blog to share knowledge and self-invented recipes

In her apartment, Jenny Nguyen, a fourth-year American literature and culture student, sliced open a vacuum-sealed bag. Strips of venison lay inside, and Nguyen carefully transferred the meat to her cutting board.

She said she thinks of the deer she shot every time she cooks the meat. She recalls the winter morning in Nebraska when she shot the deer herself on her very first hunting experience.

Nguyen and her boyfriend Rick Wheatley had been sitting in a makeshift deer-bind for half an hour when she saw a doe in the corner of her eye. Before she could even think too much about it, her finger curled around the trigger of her .243 Howa rifle and a shot rang through the air.

The kill was a private and personal moment for her, she said.

“(Eating meat you shot yourself) makes you more humble,” Nguyen said. “People take food for granted, but you realize that it had to come from somewhere and something needed to die.”

Nguyen and Wheatley not only hunt together, they also use the game they bring back and invent recipes to cook the meat. They then post their recipes on their blog, FoodForHunters.

The blog not only showcases the recipes the two invent, but it also seeks to educate others about hunting as a whole.

In her kitchen on Monday, Nguyen pan-seared the meat while making a sauce, reducing balsamic vinegar and boysenberry jam in a pan. Fingers working quickly, she sliced off the silver skin, opaque connective tissue, from the meat. Improper preparation is partly what gives venison a bad reputation, Nguyen said.

The self-invented recipe, Venison Steaks with Boysenberry Sauce, is one of her favorites.

“(Wheatley and I) want to show non-hunters that it isn’t something where you just go out and kill animals,” Nguyen said. “Hunters do everything they can towards conservation because for some, these animals are their livelihoods.”

Wheatley said Nguyen launched the blog in April of last year, after the two had been talking about it for some time. Nguyen said she wanted to start the blog to introduce more creative and healthy ways to prepare game meat, rather than “wrapping it in bacon.”

On the weekends, the two experiment with new recipes. During the week, Nguyen writes down cooking ideas that come to mind, she said.

Wheatley said he and Nguyen draw from their respective heritages as inspiration for new dishes. Nguyen is Vietnamese and Wheatley comes from a Midwestern and Mexican heritage. He said they sometimes take recipes they know and adapt them for wild game.

Every recipe must be thought through carefully. The two have a limited supply of meat ““ venison in stores is expensive, so the two deer they shot in Nebraska must last a full year.

When she and Rick bring home game meat, they make sure to use as much of the meat as they can, she said.

“I don’t believe in hunting for waste or poaching,” she said. “We use every bit of meat we can and put the rest outside so the coyotes can have it.”

Nguyen said hunting is strictly regulated. Hunters must take safety classes and can only hunt during a certain season and can only take down a certain amount of game.

To gain her hunting permit, Nguyen had to take a nine-hour hunter safety class on the laws and regulations.

Wheatley and Connie Fung, Nguyen’s roommate and fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said Nguyen’s transition into hunting was a natural progression, since Nguyen loves being outdoors. Nguyen climbed Mt. Whitney in central California at 16 years old and has also kayaked through Alaska.

Fung, who has known Nguyen since high school, said she was not surprised when Nguyen took up hunting.

Nguyen said she has encountered people who are extremely opposed to her hunting and will not listen to her reasoning that hunters are misunderstood. However, she said most people are receptive to her ideas.

She said that to her, hunting is more humane than buying domesticated meat from the store because the animals are free and not kept on farms or in pens.

Nguyen said it is also healthier to eat wild game because it has less fat than domesticated meat. Ultimately, Nguyen said she likes knowing where her meat came from and how it was handled.

“You know it’s 100 percent organic and there aren’t any hormones in it,” Nguyen said.