Maine has a longstanding heritage of hunting. The first day of deer season was much anticipated and greeted with a family gathering. In the predawn lantern light, a large hearty breakfast was enjoyed with enough food to sustain an all day outing in search of game.
This was one morning when the camping spirit took over, and the males worked over a woodstove to offer up mounds of home fries, fried and scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, sausage and homemade toast with homemade jelly and jam. A crock of baked beans was often warming in the oven.
The actual hunting strategy, who hunts from what stand and who walks the ridges to drive deer to the shooters, was settled in a few minutes. The conversation throughout most of the early morning meal
concerned great past hunts and great hunters who had passed on, young hunter’s first deer, the big bucks of seasons’ past and, of course, the deer with record-breaking racks that got away for one hilarious reason or another. The conversation filled the hearts and souls with memories as the hearty food filled the bellies and fueled the bodies for a special day in the woods.
As we work our way into the new millennium the need to hunt still burns strong in the heart and mind of regional sportsmen. Wild game as table fare is enjoyed rather than needed and the pre-hunt breakfast tradition remains strongly intact, yet slightly altered to fit the era. Full tables of outdoorsmen, past and present, as well as stories about bragging-size bucks with new yarns and anecdotes thrown in to keep things fresh.
Over the last thirty years or so hunters breakfasts have changed from family meals to community get-togethers. A half dozen hunting buddies around a homemade camp has turned into a hundred townspeople lining rows of tables with a dozen different food choices. No longer just a sportsmen’s fraternity, the hunter’s breakfast is comprised of men, women and children from a wide range of lifestyles and businesses enjoying an array of freshly cooked food. Who’s who is easily discernible by attire, there are those dressed for work and wishing they could go hunting and then there’s the lucky orange clad group, smiling yet a bit fidgety for fear of missing first light in the deer woods.
Most hunters consider the food perfect, regardless of what’s served, and the reason is simple and straightforward—they didn’t have to get up and cook it. The eggs are any way you like them. Most cooks choose bacon as the morning meat. In the land of potatoes home fries are a must. A few chefs go all out with pancakes or French toast. Up in “The Valley” ployes are often on the menu. Now that’s the way to put on the feed bag for a day of tramping the tree lines.
Milk for the youngsters, coffee and lots of orange juice to fight off early winter colds are the common beverages. The “piece de resistance” of any authentic hunter’s breakfast is the baked beans. Not canned but soaked all night, baked all day, sweet and pungent, salt pork packed New England baked beans.
Fish and game clubs or rod and gun clubs are the most common hosts for such early morning events, and I do mean early. Most start around 5 a.m. but a few start as early as 4 a.m. and serve until 9 or 10 a.m. Club members serve as cooks, and spend many hours procuring and preparing. Success requires a group effort.
Pay, eat, share a few stories, thank the sponsors and head for the deer stand. Hunting clubs putting on breakfast events have been joined by VFWs, American Legions, Granges, ATV Clubs, snowmobile clubs, volunteer fire departments and many more civic and service organization so each town has multiple events throughout November.
Finding a breakfast near your hometown is a snap, just look in the local paper, listen to announcements on the radio, check the bulletin board at church or in the supermarket or talk with other sportsmen. It’s likely there may be three or four predawn dining opportunities at various sites in your town or village, often spread out over two or three weekends. I’m betting there’s a hunter’s breakfast near you this Saturday morning.
Contributed photo/Bill Graves
A cook working hard to keep the eggs and homefries coming at a local hunter’s breakfast gathering.
