If You Butcher Your Own Deer.....

[The_Real_TCIII]

4 minutes ago, Moho81 said:

More than one? I see your faith in the group is strong! 

A couple of us will run into something through shear attrition 

[JimC1965]

If I can I will start a fire and cook the heart while field dressing the deer and eat it before leaving the woods. I cook the liver with onions and butter. I boil the tongue and eat it sliced with a horseradish sauce on crackers. Tried the lungs this year in a tomato sauce, good but has the texture of clams so I may try it in a white wine sauce this year. I will try the kidneys this year. Thinking of making some type of sausage from lungs, liver, kidneys and put it in casings from the deers intestines. I feel an obligation to use as much of the deer as possible even cut the ribs off and cook like spare ribs. Enjoy the whole process from hiking in to a remote spot, to the drag out, the aging and butchering.  All of it brings enjoyment and makes me look forward to the next season. Butchered lots of deer over the years and love it.

 

[Bolt action]

Wow. @JimC1965 that's a bit more adventurous than I am..

 

I've heard and read good things about canning, but my understanding is that it requires a pressure cooker. That's probably the next addition to my pile of equipment..

[crappyice]

there's a new product that's an electric silver skin trimmer but i'm not going to be the first to try it, but if it works... it's probably worth every penny.
I encourage everyone to save their hearts. I can't think of how many I've left in the woods but have recently been making heart tacos and they're delicious. The liver on the other hand... well I tried but that's staying from here on out. 

If you really want to never eat liver again, try to grind the liver to make liverwurst…the worst smells, sights and sounds ever!


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[mlammerhirt]

If the temps are perfect I like to let the deer hang for a few days. A year and a half old it probably does not matter but on older deer my honest opinion is it does make the meat more tender. I will pull the inner loins out as soon as its hanging otherwise those dry up. 
Letting it hang for a few days will allow us to organize an evening to do it as well. I actually just got a little excited because I just remembered I was gifted a set of knives and hide puller for Christmas and my birthday so I got some new toys to play with.

I'll make the treck from the Southtowns for this informal extension of the academy gathering........keep me posted.

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[2012_taco]

7 hours ago, Moho81 said:

I'll bring them home if you promise to throw them at his front door like a weird game of ping pong

It's like testing spaghetti,  you throw it at the wall and see if they stick. Although the door in this case is also a good idea.

[wolc123]

9 hours ago, JimC1965 said:

If I can I will start a fire and cook the heart while field dressing the deer and eat it before leaving the woods. I cook the liver with onions and butter. I boil the tongue and eat it sliced with a horseradish sauce on crackers. Tried the lungs this year in a tomato sauce, good but has the texture of clams so I may try it in a white wine sauce this year. I will try the kidneys this year. Thinking of making some type of sausage from lungs, liver, kidneys and put it in casings from the deers intestines. I feel an obligation to use as much of the deer as possible even cut the ribs off and cook like spare ribs. Enjoy the whole process from hiking in to a remote spot, to the drag out, the aging and butchering.  All of it brings enjoyment and makes me look forward to the next season. Butchered lots of deer over the years and love it.

 

If you like shellfish, peppered buck nuts taste similar to sea oysters. 

Opening day surf and turf lunch (oysters and fillet mignon):

Edited August 27, 2021 by wolc123

[rachunter]

14 hours ago, JimC1965 said:

If I can I will start a fire and cook the heart while field dressing the deer and eat it before leaving the woods. I cook the liver with onions and butter. I boil the tongue and eat it sliced with a horseradish sauce on crackers. Tried the lungs this year in a tomato sauce, good but has the texture of clams so I may try it in a white wine sauce this year. I will try the kidneys this year. Thinking of making some type of sausage from lungs, liver, kidneys and put it in casings from the deers intestines. I feel an obligation to use as much of the deer as possible even cut the ribs off and cook like spare ribs. Enjoy the whole process from hiking in to a remote spot, to the drag out, the aging and butchering.  All of it brings enjoyment and makes me look forward to the next season. Butchered lots of deer over the years and love it.

 

My friend Leo eats the lungs he makes a chowder out of it.He also eats the brain the same way.If it's an older deer add a grannysmith apple to the liver and onions it sweetens it up.I'm definitely going to try the tongue on the next harvest.I like trying everything,but draw the line with brain,spine and eyeballs.I think i'd give the nads a try maybe.

[Five Seasons]

21 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

I appreciate the links, I'm ordering totes and the drain panels


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at first i thought the pans were dumb, but it was a nice addition after seeing a lot of the blood drip through. Made cleanup and packaging easier. Get the lids too if you want to stack, but note they're not air tight. I still haven't had an issue with them stored over night in the fridge waiting on being ground or boned out.

[Five Seasons]

19 hours ago, Nomad said:

If you want you can borrow my pressure canner , and assorted tools to try out a batch . I can fit in 7 quarts at a time, about 2# of meat in each . Pints of course hold 1# . There’s a good supply of jars and lids available right now , last year they got hard to find .

This is what I did a “prepper “ friend loaned me his , and sent me a very good instructional video .

can a regular pressure cooker work for canning? Or does it need to be something special? We have the pressure cooker, thinking i would just need the supplies... and to kill more than 1 deer haha.

[Five Seasons]

17 hours ago, JimC1965 said:

If I can I will start a fire and cook the heart while field dressing the deer and eat it before leaving the woods. I cook the liver with onions and butter. I boil the tongue and eat it sliced with a horseradish sauce on crackers. Tried the lungs this year in a tomato sauce, good but has the texture of clams so I may try it in a white wine sauce this year. I will try the kidneys this year. Thinking of making some type of sausage from lungs, liver, kidneys and put it in casings from the deers intestines. I feel an obligation to use as much of the deer as possible even cut the ribs off and cook like spare ribs. Enjoy the whole process from hiking in to a remote spot, to the drag out, the aging and butchering.  All of it brings enjoyment and makes me look forward to the next season. Butchered lots of deer over the years and love it.

 

I've heard the whitetail tongue was really too small after all the trimming to make it worth it. And the kidneys also weren't great.

thoughts? 

[Five Seasons]

3 hours ago, rachunter said:

My friend Leo eats the lungs he makes a chowder out of it.He also eats the brain the same way.If it's an older deer add a grannysmith apple to the liver and onions it sweetens it up.I'm definitely going to try the tongue on the next harvest.I like trying everything,but draw the line with brain,spine and eyeballs.I think i'd give the nads a try maybe.

careful with brains and certain diseases. 

[Splitear]

We always butchered our own when I started hunting, and I learned from my grandpa and my uncle. I really enjoy the process. I'm working on getting our garage set-up to do it again. Last year I took my doe to a local guy, and it felt weird having someone else do it. 

Some of my favorite childhood memories are holding squirrels for my dad while we skinned and cleaned them. My dad and I would go out and get limit in the morning, and about the time we were done with ours, my Uncle Tom would stop by with his limit. We'd end up with a big mess of them every Sunday morning, which made for a nice Sunday lunch. Sorry, I know, off topic from deer, but still a great memory. My Uncle Tom has passed, but I still remember those mornings like they were last week. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Splitear

[Nomad]

10 minutes ago, Belo said:

can a regular pressure cooker work for canning? Or does it need to be something special? We have the pressure cooker, thinking i would just need the supplies... and to kill more than 1 deer haha.

Regular old pressure cooker . This guys does a very good video .

 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

25 minutes ago, Nomad said:

Regular old pressure cooker . This guys does a very good video .

 

Just make sure the jars are NOT sitting directly on the bottom. a simple cookie cooling rack cut to size works well. 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

I've heard the whitetail tongue was really too small after all the trimming to make it worth it. And the kidneys also weren't great.

thoughts? 

I think so, but I have access to as many free beef tongues as I want.  I always save my deer hearts, and my wife pickles them for me for on Valentines day.  She will usually toss a beef tongue or two in with the batch.

I did cut the tongue out of a 3.5 year old buck one time and cooked it medium rare in a frying pan.  It was maybe 1/4 the size of a beef tongue and kind of tough.  That could be because rigor mortis was an issue, about 8 hours after the kill.   

Any pickled beef tongue that I had was almost melt in your mouth tender, but it has always been aged around 10 days before freezing.

Edited August 27, 2021 by wolc123

[rachunter]

careful with brains and certain diseases. 

I would never the brains of any animal. I have a friend down south that cans squirrel brains 100 per jar. The thought of it makes my skin crawl. I think squirrels have CWD in there brains.


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[Five Seasons]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:58 AM, rachunter said:

I would never the brains of any animal. I have a friend down south that cans squirrel brains 100 per jar. The thought of it makes my skin crawl. I think squirrels have CWD in there brains.


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there is a good theory out there for those that are denying CWD and other whitetail diseases. Ask the denier if they'd feed the brains of a cwd positive deer to their loved ones. You'll find out pretty quickly that they're full of sh!t. And yes I know it hasn't jumped from deer to humans, brains or no. 

PS I wouldn't eat a cwd deer meat either. Just wouldn't, don't know about yall. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Im a hard no on eating organs for the most part

[Bolt action]

For anyone getting into butchering deer, these guys put out a great Youtube channel. They're career butchers and are good about breaking down the process in a clean, easy to understand way. Worth a look for anyone who's unsure but curious..

https://www.youtube.com/c/BeardedButchers

[Culvercreek hunt club]

1 hour ago, Bolt action said:

For anyone getting into butchering deer, these guys put out a great Youtube channel. They're career butchers and are good about breaking down the process in a clean, easy to understand way. Worth a look for anyone who's unsure but curious..

https://www.youtube.com/c/BeardedButchers

in their video I am surprised the deer isn't steaming...lol. They only skin that easily when very warm. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

33 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

in their video I am surprised the deer isn't steaming...lol. They only skin that easily when very warm. 

I know how much easier it would be to skin right away but I like to leave the hide on while theyre hanging so I can admire them every time I open the garage door lol

[Bolt action]

32 minutes ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

in their video I am surprised the deer isn't steaming...lol. They only skin that easily when very warm. 

no kidding.. it's the best time to get the skin off. I'll rewatch some of these prior to the season to remind myself of good practices so i don't repeat bad habits that i've made before.

[Bolt action]

A few years back and before I knew better, I let one hang in the garage with the hide on when the temps dropped to frigid. When I got around to skinning it, it took me way longer than it should have and the carcass was all hacked up. Lesson learned.

[crappyice]

I know how much easier it would be to skin right away but I like to leave the hide on while theyre hanging so I can admire them every time I open the garage door lol

But then the only meat you can see is inner loins…yuck!

I skin ‘EM day of kill so I can stare at and drool over the backstraps. Since my outdoor hanging area is under a pine tree that loves to dump needles whenever a squirrel farts, I cover it with a game bag. I also have backside and next door neighbors who are fine with me doing what I do, but I also don’t need to push a carcass in their living room or dining room windows


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