Eating what you hunt and catch: wild game, bear meat and contaminated fish
Luke Bryan talks about cooking wild game, Cameron Hanes about bear meat, Steven Rinella about mercury and arsenic in wild fish, and Paul Rosolie contrasts local jungle diets with America's food system. Together they show wild food as both a real alternative and something with its own risks that eaters should understand.
What is the overall verdict on eating wild game and fish? Show answer
It is good food and a real option, but the eater has to know the animal, the water it came from and how to cook it.
Why does wild game need slow cooking? Show answer
It is lean. Rogan's rule is that meat with low body fat must be cooked slowly, and he uses a smoker set at 265 degrees.
What does Luke Bryan say decides how a fish tastes? Show answer
What it ate. Bluegill from a natural creek feeding on live food are the best eating he knows, while pellet-fed bluegill from a managed lake are not worth eating.
How do Cameron Hanes and Joe Rogan prepare black bear? Show answer
With long marinating and slow cooking, such as a hind leg marinated four days and cooked for 20 hours. They say it is excellent meat.
Why do big predatory fish carry the most mercury? Show answer
Contaminants concentrate at each step up the food chain. A marlin that eats tuna carries more than the tuna.
How do Steven Rinella's friends in Hawaii handle mercury? Show answer
They deliberately pace how much big predatory fish they eat, even though they could live off tuna.
What happened when Rogan ate four or five cans of sardines a night? Show answer
His doctor found arsenic in his blood. A few months after he stopped, it was gone.
What is chronic wasting disease? Show answer
A prion disease of deer, elk and related animals that is always fatal to them and keeps turning up in new places.
Why is chronic wasting disease different from an ordinary food risk? Show answer
Prions persist on vegetation and cannot be cooked out. It is handled by testing and by restricting the movement of carcasses.
Has chronic wasting disease been confirmed in humans, according to Rinella? Show answer
No. Many people have eaten infected meat with no confirmed human case, but he still would not knowingly eat an infected animal.
What do Paul Rosolie and Rogan say about supermarket food? Show answer
That it carries costs and contaminants of its own, so store food should be judged by the same standard as wild food.
Who should ask about fish advisories? Show answer
Anyone who eats a lot of wild fish, is pregnant or is feeding young children. A doctor or state health agency can advise.