Holiday season

[landtracdeerhunter]

19 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I see there nothing in there about not shooting button bucks (something by the way that I did not do thru all of 2024).  I’m just a little disappointed, that I didn’t get to enjoy any of that “milk fed” liver lately, especially after my buddy told me that he got one for me on New Year’s Day with his ML.
 

 That turned out to be a 1.5 yr old 1.5” “dmp mini-spike”.  The liver was still pretty good though and twice as big as the usual bb liver.  Just not quite as tender.  I did age it in the fridge for (9) days prior to frying though, and that helped with the tenderness. 

I had the first serving for dinner last night, and I will probably have the rest for lunch tomorrow. Certainly it put a very fine capstone on that last Holiday ML season for me, even if I wasn’t able to harvest a deer myself during it.  

My buddy also now has plenty of grind to make the sausage that he had been craving, something that wouldn’t have happened, without that awesome new season. 

 

Looks really appetizing.  We tend to always get bigger tougher liver, on the older deer. Slice it thin, still good . 

We had to freeze some, use it up in the next few months. Never did before.

Edited 5 hours ago by landtracdeerhunter

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Looks really appetizing.  We tend to always get bigger tougher liver, on the older deer. Slice it thin, still good . 

We had to freeze some, use it up in the next few months. Never did before.

That mini-spike’s liver is very tasty and it’s all I can do to not go get the rest microwaved and have an early lunch right now.  
 

I’m not sure how my older buck’s from 12/17/24 will be.  I cut that one in half and each half filled a quart sized freezer bag to capacity.  That’s probably close to (6) meals worth.  
 

I hadn’t been saving them from older deer due to toughness, but that one died quick, and I aged it for a week prior to freezing.  I’m hoping it will be tender.  He also had an extra big heart.  
 

Good thing there, because I’ve only got two deer hearts in the freezer from last year for my wife to pickle for me this Valentine’s Day (that’s been our tradition for many years), so I’m going to have to get her to do a beef tongue or two along with them.  My September doe’s heart was about average sized.  I really love that stuff pickled.  
 

The September doe’s liver was reasonably tender, after a week in the fridge, but not quite as tasty as that from the December mini-spike buck.  I think I still have half of her liver in the freezer.  I’m guessing that she was also about 3-1/2 years old.  Just about (4) meals worth from her liver as the half’s didn’t fill the quart bags to capacity.