I was enjoying a Pirate victory over the holiday weekend with my cousins from Harrisburg. One is a well-established super lawyer, while his son is plugging along in law school in Michigan.

We all like to eat good food and during the game the discussion came around to hunting and delicious game dishes. It appears that what was once considered a country family food staple is now a sought after gourmet meat delicacy.

Yes, I do mean venison, the meat of the whitetail deer.

They were discussing ways that they had matched wines when cooking or marinating venison and how the dishes fared when shared with guests and family. Many non-hunters purchase commercially raised venison at specialty shops while many of the rest of us depend on our hunting prowess or the generosity of our hunting community. Either way, having a good cut of meat is the start of something beautiful. Venison is generally a lean meat with little or no fat.

If fat is present, it is recommended to be trimmed off as the taste tends to be gamey. Venison can be roasted, broiled, grilled, sautéed, ground and stewed in many different dishes. Each method lends to a different type of meal depending on the added ingredients and seasonings.

My personal favorite is braised venison in an electric deep skillet with Italian style diced tomatoes, onion, celery and garlic.

To this I add salt, black pepper, a dash or two of red wine, and Worcestershire sauce. I pound my venison steak or loin, dredge it in flour and brown it in olive oil on both sides.

Add all of the above ingredients and slow cook it until fork tender…awesome dish!

Every camp or hunting party has the appointed Camp Cook and everyone has their own version of a favorite game dish. With this in mind, the PA Game Commission is coming out with a new cookbook and is calling all cooks for recipes to be considered in the latest edition.

The PA Game Commission Cookbook was last printed in 1979 and is being brought back by popular demand.

To that end, the Game Commission is looking for a heaping of help from all the camp cooks out there.

Whether fired on a spit, browned in a pan or charred on a grill, the Game Commission is interested in any big-game, small-game and migratory-bird recipes you’d like to share as your favorites. The deadline for submissions is June 30th.

Recipes can be sent by email to pgccomments@pa.gov. or mailed to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, 2001 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797.

All submissions should include the recipe title, the ingredients and measurements, preparation instructions, the number of servings, and the name or initials of the person submitting the recipe, as well as his/her hometown. A photo of the finished meal also may be submitted.

All submissions are welcome, said Game Commission communications specialist Brittany Howell.

“In many ways, this cookbook is a celebration of Pennsylvania’s rich hunting and trapping heritage, and every additional recipe we get only will make it better and better,” Howell said. “You might say that, in this case, there’s no such thing as “too many cooks.”

I would like to share a few bear meat recipes with my cousins, but I’d have to get one first and the local boys claim that they may never get to taste that dish with the way I was shooting last fall!

Until we meet again, fire up the grill and sharpen your pencils for that recipe submission!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.