The holidays are just around the corner. If you’d like to spend more time enjoying and socializing with your family and don’t want to spend time and energy preparing a big meal in the kitchen then have Wenger’s prepare your holiday meal. Give us a call and order a full course turkey or ham meal including a tasty pie for dessert.

Every year in October Wenger’s has their own “Kettle Days”. Generally we set aside 2 days for this event. This year it’s October 2oth and 21st. We invite everyone to come try some “tasty treats” from our big kettle that’s cooking over a wood fire outside. So what are those “tasty treats”? All I can tell you is that they’re FREE! So come to 511 E Louther St between 10 AM and 2 PM on those 2 days and find out. We also have some delicious meats hot off the grill like our own Sausage Grillers, Hot Sausages and Wenger Burgers for $1.50 each. Every year we have a kettle of Chicken Corn soup simmering as well. In the store you’ll find hot pork sandwiches at $3.00 each. As always we have fresh meats available for you to buy. Look for our ad in the Sentinel and Guide this week. You can also register to win a $50.00 Steak package.

Owner of York Ice Company, Ed Newman, and his wife Kathy are staying in an Ice Hotel in Canada  this week.

Controversy has long raged about the relative quality of venison and beef as gourmet foods. Some people say venison is tough with a strong wild taste. Others insist that venison is tender, and that its flavor is delicate. The University of Wisconsin Foods Research Department recently conducted a taste test to determine the truth of these conflicting assertions.

First, a high-choice Holstein steer was led into a swamp a mile and a half from the nearest road, then shot several times. After some of the entrails were removed, the carcass was dragged into a pickup box and transported through rain and snow 100 miles before being hung out in the sun for 10 days. After that, it was lugged to the garage, where it was skinned and rolled around on the floor for a while.

Dogs and cats were held at bay. Strict sanitary precautions were observed throughout this test – within the limitations of the butchering environment. For instance, dogs and cats were allowed to sniff at the steer carcass but were chased out of the garage if they attempted to lick the carcass, bite hunks out of it, or sit on the workbench.

Next, the steer was dragged into the house and down the basement steps. Half a dozen inexperienced but enthusiastic people worked on it with meat saws, cleavers and dull knives. The result was 375 pounds of soup bones, 12 bushels of meat scraps, and a couple steaks that were 1/8 inch thick on one edge and 1 1/2 inches thick on the other.

The steaks were fried in a skillet full of rancid bacon grease, along with 2 pounds of onions. After two hours of frying, the contents of the skillet were served to three blindfolded taste panel volunteers.

Every one of the panel members thought it was venison. One even said that it tasted exactly like the venison he’d eaten at hunting camps for the past 27 years. The results of this trial showed conclusively that there is no difference between the taste of beef and venison.

Many people believe venison tastes best when well seasoned. It is suggested that this report also be taken with a bit of salt.

-By Don Drost, extension agent, Barron, Wisconsin.