Garden & Gun: What to Eat and Drink in the South Right Now
Look, our founder Pat Martin loves nothin’ more than smokin’ a hog. But you know, sometimes, he likes to change things up.
Garden & Gun asked Pat what he was excited about eating right now, and well, the answer might surprise you:
“You’ve gone all these months, you’re wanting to scratch that itch, you’re wanting to get out in the field,” pitmaster Pat Martin says, “and then, almost like that first college football game—dove season.” On September 1, opening day, the owner of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint will perch on a five-gallon bucket somewhere near Centerville, Tennessee, hunting birds. But come supper, you’ll find him at a grill, not a pit. “Barbecuing dove? I would not do it. Like other wild game, it’s tricky and it’s lean, but it’s not complicated.” After cleaning his birds, brining them for up to eight hours, and letting them dry in the fridge and then come to room temperature, Martin gets a Japanese yakitori grill going (he says a trusty Weber could also work—you’re looking for “the hot side of medium” heat). He blends a sauce of cane syrup, white or rice vinegar, and something sweet and in season, pureed—peaches, tomatoes, or blackberries. “The sauce is going to run, but that’s okay,” he says. “Let the bird sit on the heat for one minute, constantly basting that flavor on there, and then flip it, and it won’t take you but two minutes to cook dove.”
Not sure if we’ll be seeing doves on the menu anytime soon, but hey, you never know.