What do you do with the flank meat?

[goosifer]

I finally finished butchering the buck I got last week. It had a lot of flank meat that I saved. Trimming it is a real pain. While I made sure to trim it as best I could for any silver skin and fat, the fascia/membrane (the nearly transparent filmy stuff that you can tear with your fingers, unlike the whitish silverskin that must be cut with a knife) is almost impossible to fully trim off. For those of you that butcher your own, to what extent do you trim the fascia/membrane off of the flank meat? How do you use it/cook it? Just grind it? stew meat? Jerky? Myself, I am going to set it aside as stew meat and cook it a long time in an acidic liquid to break down the membrane, like I do with the shanks. I'm thinking venison cacciatore or maybe a stew-style sauerbraten (BTW, I made an awesome osso bucco with venison shanks last year; hope to replicate that soon.)

[Robhuntandfish]

those sound like great ideas to me.  I grind anything that has a lot of silver skin to trim.  

[vizslas]

this is what i do with it.

[Otto]

Goosifer, 

 

If you would share the Osso Bucco recipe I would appreciate it!  My friend and I have 6 shanks saved especially for that dish, but have never made it before.

Thanks, 

Otto

[TACC]

Never thought of the venison caccitore, sounds interesting

I agree with the others,

Drop some recipes on us.

Sent from my SM-G900T3 using Tapatalk

[Jdubs]

I trim as best as I can then the grinder becomes the grand equalizer.  Brats and bacon burgers for me.

Although, my favorite restaurant makes an amazing pork shank osso bucco so maybe I should try this next season.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Too much work to trim that for me. It goes in the bait pile with the rest of the scraps.

[nyantler]

I feel no obligation to take every scrap of meat from my deer... I take only the best cuts... which are the back straps and six roasts then I have the butcher grind the rest into burger and donate it to the locate soup kitchen

 

[Five Seasons]

I feel I do a damn good job around the hips and neck and parts that i know a processer doesn't mess with and probably a lot of other hunters dont either. But there's a line and I don't mess with flank, or ribs. I remember shawnhu stating ribs were his favorite part. Just have to draw the line somewhere or i'm stuck making reusable straws and stirring sticks, not to mention rocky mountain oysters out of those buck parts.

[goosifer]

1 hour ago, Otto said:

Goosifer, 

 

If you would share the Osso Bucco recipe I would appreciate it!  My friend and I have 6 shanks saved especially for that dish, but have never made it before.

Thanks, 

Otto

Will do, Otto. I had planned on doing this and some other recipes. Won't be till after the holidays, though. For the osso bucco, you will need a large non-reactive cooking vessel like enamel on steel (Le Creuset, for example) or stainless steel. I wouldn't trust aluminum or cast iron given the long cooking time in acidic liquid. Another recipe on my hit list is cured pepperoni using UMAi Dry bags.

Edited December 22, 2017 by goosifer
added content

[chas0218]

Grind into burger.

[goosifer]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

I feel I do a damn good job around the hips and neck and parts that i know a processer doesn't mess with and probably a lot of other hunters dont either. But there's a line and I don't mess with flank, or ribs. I remember shawnhu stating ribs were his favorite part. Just have to draw the line somewhere or i'm stuck making reusable straws and stirring sticks, not to mention rocky mountain oysters out of those buck parts.

I always wondered what a commercial processor does as far as what they keep and what they throw away, and to what extent they trim off the silverskin and membrane; just so I can have a reference point for what is usually done. I admit I take a very long time butchering and trimming. I do, however, enjoy the challenge of getting as much usable meat as I can from the carcass.

Edited December 22, 2017 by goosifer

[WNYBuckHunter]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

I feel I do a damn good job around the hips and neck and parts that i know a processer doesn't mess with and probably a lot of other hunters dont either. But there's a line and I don't mess with flank, or ribs. I remember shawnhu stating ribs were his favorite part. Just have to draw the line somewhere or i'm stuck making reusable straws and stirring sticks, not to mention rocky mountain oysters out of those buck parts.

I saved one of the racks of ribs from my buck this year to give them a try. Saw a good sounding recipe on Steve Rinellas site. Ive been told by more than one person that they are worth a try. Honestly I think cutting them off and trimming them out accounted for an extra 5-10 mins of time.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

The shanks actually don't fair too poorly in the canning process. That said, with the amount of deer we take I grab the tenderloins, backstraps, front upper shoulders and the deboned hind quarters. I grab the neck roasts for pulled venison. Hinds go into just roasts, back straps into 6" long sections and front shoulders into stew/grind. The rest goes to the cookie pile. 

[Five Seasons]

21 minutes ago, goosifer said:

I always wondered what a commercial processor does as far as what they keep and what they throw away, and to what extent they trim off the silverskin and membrane; just so I can have a reference point for what is usually done. I admit I take a very long time butchering and trimming. I do, however, enjoy the challenge of getting as much usable meat as I can from the carcass.

i good test is to see what you get back from a processor and what you get on your own from similar size, sex and season harvested deer. I don't have an issue taking a little more time like you said and I know because it's "mine" i'll get more and it'll be trimmed and handled better. But that's also 1/2 the reason I do them myself. 

9 minutes ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

I saved one of the racks of ribs from my buck this year to give them a try. Saw a good sounding recipe on Steve Rinellas site. Ive been told by more than one person that they are worth a try. Honestly I think cutting them off and trimming them out accounted for an extra 5-10 mins of time.

I think the idea was a pressure cooker right? Let us know how it goes, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. Did you cut them up so you could package them?

1 minute ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

The shanks actually don't fair too poorly in the canning process. That said, with the amount of deer we take I grab the tenderloins, backstraps, front upper shoulders and the deboned hind quarters. I grab the neck roasts for pulled venison. Hinds go into just roasts, back straps into 6" long sections and front shoulders into stew/grind. The rest goes to the cookie pile. 

similar, although we eat a lot of ground so usually all but 2 shoulder steaks plus neck go into grind and we skip the roasts. of course rear steaks and chops all cut up and packaged too.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

5 minutes ago, Belo said:

similar, although we eat a lot of ground so usually all but 2 shoulder steaks plus neck go into grind and we skip the roasts. of course rear steaks and chops all cut up and packaged too.

We go the "all roast" route because we can decide what we want to do with it at any time and  even with vacuum sealing there is less chance of freezer burn loss. . Thaw a roast and cut into steaks. partial thaw a roast and slice thin for jerky. Use it as a roast. Grind it if we run short on ground.  Too many times we had steak packages and wanted to do jerky and that is a real pain slicing from steaks. ...lol

Edited December 22, 2017 by Culvercreek hunt club

[WNYBuckHunter]

3 minutes ago, Belo said:

I think the idea was a pressure cooker right? Let us know how it goes, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. Did you cut them up so you could package them?

 

Yep, thats the one. The whole rack actually fit into a vacuum seal bag. Ill cut it into smaller pieces when I get ready to cook them. I dont have a pressure cooker, so Ill just do them in the crock pot for a few hours, then finish them on the grill.

http://www.themeateater.com/2012/a-rinella-recipe-venison-ribs-pressure-cooked-and-grilled/

[Five Seasons]

2 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

We go the "all roast" route because we can decide what we want to do with it at any time and  even with vacuum sealing there is less chance of freezer burn loss. . Thaw a roast and cut into steaks. partial thaw a roast and slice thin for jerky. Use it as a roast. Grind it if we run short on ground.  Too many times we had steak packages and wanted to do jerky and that is a real pain slicing from steaks. ...lol

that's a good point i didn't think about. good advice for next year!

[dbHunterNY]

that slimy membrane you talk of I usually scrape away with an upright edge of a knife blade.  if the shot was angled with entrance further back and catching anything behind the liver I usually toss it and don't trim out between the ribs.  otherwise it gets a good rinse to remove clotted blood/blood shot and it goes into ground venison.  we use a lot of ground in everything from soup, pasta dishes, burgers, tacos, etc. I've used it in other dishes that slow cooks it down but seems like more effort than it's worth by the time your done trimming and what you get.

[Five Seasons]

Just now, WNYBuckHunter said:

Yep, thats the one. The whole rack actually fit into a vacuum seal bag. Ill cut it into smaller pieces when I get ready to cook them. I dont have a pressure cooker, so Ill just do them in the crock pot for a few hours, then finish them on the grill.

http://www.themeateater.com/2012/a-rinella-recipe-venison-ribs-pressure-cooked-and-grilled/

i hear the local islmabad keeps them stocked in surplus 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

1 minute ago, Belo said:

that's a good point i didn't think about. good advice for next year!

and it's quicker...lol

[dbHunterNY]

4 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

We go the "all roast" route because we can decide what we want to do with it at any time and  even with vacuum sealing there is less chance of freezer burn loss. . Thaw a roast and cut into steaks. partial thaw a roast and slice thin for jerky. Use it as a roast. Grind it if we run short on ground.  Too many times we had steak packages and wanted to do jerky and that is a real pain slicing from steaks. ...lol

there's a portion of the hind quarter that's inside it all. produces smaller roasts but it's tender and delicious. if not smoked as a whole it's great cut into cubes, marinated, thrown on a spit, wrapped, and cooked low and slow.  basically a glorified spiedie.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

4 minutes ago, dbHunterNY said:

there's a portion of the hind quarter that's inside it all. produces smaller roasts but it's tender and delicious. if not smoked as a whole it's great cut into cubes, marinated, thrown on a spit, wrapped, and cooked low and slow.  basically a glorified spiedie.

you mean the false backstrap. Texture and tenderness on par with the backstrap. 

[vizslas]

10 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

you mean the false backstrap. Texture and tenderness on par with the backstrap. 

if your talking about the long thin muscle deep in the hind quarter it is actually the eye of round.

 

[Five Seasons]

20 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

you mean the false backstrap. Texture and tenderness on par with the backstrap. 

i call it the "hidden tenderloin"