Community Meat Center
By Cecil Cherry
Community Meat Center was a butcher shop, old country store, wild game processing business, and place for locals to hang out and tell tales. It was located in Jacksonville, North Carolina on Piney Green Road and was in business from the 1950’s until June 2013. The proprietor, Wayne, sold the best steaks, pork chops, chicken, bacon and roasts you’ve ever cooked. He also processed tons of wild game from around the country during the course of his career. Once, after a farmer was gored by a bison he was raising, Wayne processed the beast into succulent cuts of meat for the rancher.
I began patronizing Community Meat Center when I was stationed in Onslow County as a Special Agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. I would have my deer processed into burger, roasts, cube steak, and sausage. I did not buy ground beef for years afterwards. Years after I began having Wayne turn my wild game into delectable cuts of meat, I discovered that Wayne cooked nearly every Friday and hosted a number of retirees form the North Carolina Education System, civilian employees from Camp Lejeune, and retired Marines. Naturally, he welcomed a wayward SBI Agent into the fold.
The first time I was invited to eat was a Friday around 1:00 p.m. in 2005, when I went to buy steak, thick cut pork chops, and bacon. Two gentlemen, Jim and Leroy, were telling hunting stories about African safaris and hunting plains game. As I stood there listening intently to the stories, the horns grew bigger, the animals gained weight, and the shots grew farther and farther away. I was invited to eat a fish stew that was phenomenal. The fish stew was a tomato-based stew with fish, onions, potatoes, bacon, tomato juice, and several dozen eggs broken into the boiling cauldron of deliciousness. I learned these men met every Friday for lunch and cooked whatever was in season, including fish, deer, quail, turkey, duck, pheasant, antelope, and elk.
I was like a stray dog. You feed me once, you cannot get rid of me! The food was beyond fabulous. It rivaled anything that has ever been served in a four-star Michelin rated restaurant anywhere in the world. At some point the nickname of Community Meat Center became “The Piney Green Community Meat Center of Higher Education and Learning, and Gentlemen’s Social Club.”
The common bond everyone shared was the outdoor life of hunting and fishing. Leroy and Jim hunted from Eastern North Carolina to Africa, James was a turkey hunting fanatic, I was a jack of all trade hunter, and Wayne had the mounts of deer from hunts of long ago hanging in the store. Stories were told and lies were swapped and it was a special time. It was as if real life Ernest Hemingways and Robert Ruarks had come together in the present time.
We were served fresh catfish nuggets, soaked in buttermilk overnight and breaded with spicy Cajun breader and deep fried. It tasted like cotton candy! We had a bear roast that could have passed for a Sunday after church pot roast that grandmama fixed. We had pheasant from Nebraska pot pie that was scrumptious. Once, Wayne cooked a tuna loin marinated in teriyaki sauce on his grill and it was the best fish I ever ate.
I loved every minute of these lunches until Wayne decided to retire in June 2013. I got promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge that year and my office was being moved to Greenville, North Carolina. What a bittersweet moment. I savored every single time with these mentors, friends, chefs, and outdoorsmen. I miss it every Friday, even ten years later. I still use their recipes whether it is pecan bark, Wayne Stew (pork, potatoes, onions, sausage seasoning, and a touch of corn meal and stewed all day), or large dry limas and hot and spicy sausage on a cold winter day, or turkey soaked in butter mild and deep fried to perfection. I miss those days. They were some of my favorite good old days.
As I write this, cheers to the members, past, present and gone on to the happy hunting grounds, of the “The Piney Green Community Meat Center of Higher Education and Learning, and Gentlemen’s Social Club.” Cheers, gentlemen, and thank you.
Some of the recipes we had are as follows:
Bear Pot Roast
1 bear roast, approximately 2-3 pounds
12 ounces of beer
Potatoes and onions/quartered
Lipton French Onion Soup Mix
Marinate the roast in 12 ounces of beer overnight. Put bear and beer in a slow cooker, with soup mix, onions and potatoes. Cook for several hours until fork tender. Serve with your choice of side. I prefer greens of some sort.
Wayne Stew (aka Pork Stew) (the old timers would use livers and lites, or everything but the squeal)
Feral Hog Rib meat/neck and back bone /left over cuts of any feral hog hunt
Potatoes
Onions
Sausage Seasoning
A little corn meal
Bring water and sausage seasoning to a boil, simmer feral hog meat until fork tender, add potatoes and onions and corn meal to thicken. Eat.
Country Style Deer Steak
1-2 pounds of deer cube steak
Flour for homemade gravy
Choice of side (salad, green beans, stewed potatoes and onions, string beans, butter beans, or corn)
Fry deer meat in cast iron skillet. Remove deer meat and make gravy with the flour, grease, and water. When gravy is done, add meat back in the pan. Simmer for a few more minutes. Serve with veggies and sweet tea.
Yum.
Cecil Cherry
is a retired law enforcement officer and is originally from Eastern North Carolina. Cecil grew up on a tobacco and hog farm and still loves the rural life. He enjoys waterfowl, upland, and big game hunting. He loves the idea of field to plate and enjoys cooking and eating all of his harvests and cannot wait until the next hunt.
One Comment
D.A. White
Great read!