Moose hunting season provides much-needed meat and fat to our daily diet. After a catch, we hang the meat, cut into sections that fit Ziploc bags for the freezer. We dry the meat for jerky, but a favorite recipe for our family is moose tongue soup.
Throughout the year moose show themselves: mothers with their calves, bull moose alone or in groups foraging in winter. During the Fish and Game openers in September, hunters abound in sloughs, along the main river, up and down the river. Some follow rivers up into the mountains, some hunters and their families camp for weeks. Most hunt with rifles, a few take the bow and arrow. Those who are prohibited from using a firearm prefer the bow.
In the old way, a hunter does not talk about hunting the animal because the earth has ears, and the animal will be offended. If the moose has awareness to give himself to the hunter, the hunter will bring meat home to share with family, widows, and the elderly.
Moose Tongue Soup
Ingredients
- 1 moose tongue
- ½ cup dry rice
- ½ cup homestyle vegetable hearty soup mix
- 2 potatoes, diced
- ½ onion
- ¼ cup noodles.
Instructions
- In a two-quart cooking pot filled with water, add one tongue, cut up into bite-size pieces, the rice, soup mix, and potatoes; bring to a boil for 20 minutes. Add onion and noodles, bring back to a boil, and cook for 10 more minutes, until the noodles are done.
