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What do you all eat off your deer?

1K views 30 replies 23 participants last post by  chevota5.0 
#1 ·
To this day, my dad grinds up front shoulders, throws away necks and hearts, and grinds probably 70% of the other meat into burger.

Since getting back into hunting I've really come to enjoy Steve Rinella's Meat Eater show. This past season I cut every salvagable piece of meat into a meal, and have found there are A LOT of amazing cuts on a whitetail. This coming season I want to try heart and osso buco. However, I don't know if I can bring myself to eat tongue or testicles. Anyone here eat those parts? How are they? I watch Steve eat some interesting things.

It's July and only a few more months before small game picks back up in PA. Getting excited for this coming season!
 
#4 ·
I've tried cooking the ribs once. Wasn't really worth the effort, and the way I cooked them left a weird greasy flavor. In retrospect I should have trimmed more fat off, then probably boiled and grilled them.

I normally cut the neck meat to grind for hamburger meat, or sausage. I will cut some of the front shoulders for stew meat, or for grinding. The rear quarters are cut for steaks, roast of grinding also. I keep the back straps and tenderloins the way they are.

The heart is good to eat, but I've never messed with the liver or any other part.


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#5 · (Edited)
Since I've started cooking whole roasts, I get a ton more meat off each deer. The membranes, sinew, tendons, etc, that get trimmed off when your curbing the meat or prepping it to grind are all edible when braised for 4 hours. I got 5 neck roast off the last buck I shot.

This guy's recipes are the bomb, and he has a lot for organ meats as well.

Venison Recipes - Recipes for Venison

I've eaten heart and liver, and I've eaten cow tongue and tripe, but not off a deer. I haven't tried sweetbreads, balls, or kidneys, I like eating different stuff but not necessarily stuff that I'd consider gross like brains.

A lot of the time I forget to save the organs while gutting, or remove the tongue before they've gone lockjawed, just haven't gotten in the habit yet.
 
#6 ·
Yearling liver is much better, and far less strong, than a liver from a several year old deer. Tongue isn't bad. Hearts, sliced, and fried with onions are good too.

I cut almost every scrap of meat off of a deer and use it. Stew meat, sausage, etc. Front shoulders are DELICIOUS braised in a cast iron pan with carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, and thyme. You can add beef broth or red wine if you want something different. Oh yeah, lots of garlic on top too.

For cuts of meat, back straps, loins, roasts, shoulders. Aything and everything else gets ground up. Once we have enough roasts I'll grind them too. We tend to can a bunch of the stew meat too. Put the meat in the jar, tsp of salt, can @ 10 psi 70 minutes for pints, 90 for quarts. Makes it easy for a delicious venison, rice, and beans dinner when you're on a time crunch.
 
#7 ·
I'm no chef, so I do burger with 75% of a deer. A few.steaks and a roast or two. I'M not a fan of heart and liver, but I pack it out because I usually give it away. Last year's heart and liver are still in my freezer, so if anyone in Boise is interested it's all yours.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Turning an entire deer into sausage and jerky is a waste IMO. Learn to cook it properly and you'll see what you've been missing.

I've eaten at really good steakhouses, seafood restaurants in the keys and all along the gulf coast, most of the better places in New Orleans, and this recipe is one of the best 3 meals I've ever had.

http://honest-food.net/venison-recipe-caramelized-onions-mushrooms/

I turned an entire doe into jerky once, it fit in a few gallon ziplock bags. Since breaking them down into roasts and cooking those instead, I get probably 50 dinners for me and my wife out of each deer.
 
#13 ·
I'm glad I asked!

Going to give these recipes a try. Back in the day my mom used to can a lot of deer meat, and that was always a treat. However, moving forward 15 years, I've come to love a nice rare, medium-rare venison steak. The inner tenderloins and back straps cooked to like 130-135 IT are delicious. We butcher our own deer, so I'm very cautious with how the meat is aged and handled.

This past season I shot a yearling doe (she looked bigger from the stand!), and while I was disappointed with the size, it produced some of the most tender meat I've ever eaten. The inner tenderloins were better than any piece of prime cut beef I've had. We can only legally harvest two doe a year, so I cherish every cut.

The difference I saw this year was that I ended up with stacks of dinners, while my dad ended up with maybe 5 bologna rolls, and a $100 bill. Sure, bologna is good, but I hunt deer for cheap, tasty cuts.
 
#15 ·
i make sausage.. I keep a handful of the backstraps but generally just grind the rest of the meat..My dog eats a lot of venison too
 
#16 ·
I eat as much as I can (sans bloodshot stuff). I tend to not eat any exotic meat (heart, nuts, eyeballs, whatever)... Im just not that hungry haha
 
#18 · (Edited)
Steaks, roasts, liver, rest made into burger and sausage.

Cant beat venison saurbraten roasts, venison sausage in spaghetti or venison burger in chili.

Antlers get used either as buttons or for the pups, skin gets tanned. Some of us are buckskinners and frequent rendezvous where the stuff goes on the trading blanket during round robins.
 
#20 ·
Steaks, roasts, tenderloins stay complete, trim gets turned into ground, I keep heart and liver if they're complete.
Making nothing but sausage and jerky is a waste of good meat, do that with a nasty ass cow, not a deer!

Or maybe whitetail is gross. I don't know.
 
#21 ·
I de-bone the hind quarters while it's hanging, those usually get ground up. Pull the inner and outer loins, those usually get cut up into medalions. Front shoulders if they're not shot up get ground up. Neck gets roasted, I also save heart liver and kidneys for my father in law, makes an incredibly tasty Haggis with them.
 
#22 ·
I cut off the front shoulders, backstraps, loins, and rear quarters. The wife will cut the roasts into steaks or jerky. Grind all the little stuff into burger with some pork fat. Varies year to year depending on what we have left from the previous year.

Since I can do 2-4 a year, along with my dad doing 2-4 deer and an elk we are always eating deer or elk. We will pull any leftover roasts out of the freezer in the fall to make jerkey, along with more freezer room for that fall.


I'm not a fan of eating organs. Coyotes, birds, and bugs gotta eat too.
 
#23 ·
I use all the meat and the heart. Not a fan of liver :barf:. Depending on the age, at least the backstrap goes into steak, if it's young then the rear quarters go into steaks. The rest burger and sausage. I trim everything off the bone we can. Shanks always go to sausage and I mix them around with softer cuts so it's not all shank sausage. Two deer a year usually is enough for us, I prefer them about 1.5 years old. Old bucks are nice to look at but make poor table fare except sausage. Same goes for elk, especially in the rut.
 
#24 ·
... Old bucks are nice to look at but make poor table fare except sausage. Same goes for elk, especially in the rut.
Yep...1st and last old buck I had was a muley my dad got. King of the woods with an assymetrical 6x8 rack. No head, legs, skin and dressed it weighed in at over 400# on the processor scale which is big for a CO muley. Only critter I've ever eaten that would leave a rancid tasting fat scum on the roof of your mouth.


We did find out that iffen one made sauerbraten that the fat flavor went away. Mom had an issue with aroma while it was "curing" so instead of 4-5 days it was shoretened to 2... :D
 
#28 ·
Blacktail bucks...

Back straps, tender lions, rear quarters, shoulders, neck, heart.

No Fat!

Never over cooked!

I always age at least 10 days before butchering.

Archery Season opens in the morning! 100+degree temps and full moon!
 
#30 ·
And?

BTW, I gave up on poison oak and heat. Yolla Bolla bound again this year.

Last year I got my first buck. I made mystery steaks and roasts out of pretty much everything except the ribs, which were given to the chickens. The tenderloin and backstrap were cut to single meal length. I ended up with just one package of stew meat. I've had heart and liver before but didn't care for it and didn't bother to pack it out.

The backstrap for dinner last night was grubbin. My son said he wasn't hungry and passed :homer:
 
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