Moderately
gory pictures ahead! Please go elsewhere
for the day if you're squeamish.
Yes, you guessed it,
deer 4.0 bit the dust back behind the blueberries
Monday morning. This was the smoothest operation yet --- Mark
looked out the window and spotted a button buck, I offered him the
kill, but he let me get the rifle and sneak up through the garden,
kneel down, and take the shot.
Mark thinks I'm a better
marksman than he is, but the truth is that I
missed, as usual. As you can see from the butchering photo, my
bullet didn't go in right above the shoulder where I was aiming.
But the deer only ran for about fifty feet before keeling over, so all
was well.
After dragging the deer
home, we took a deep breath and went back
inside to read over the extremely helpful comments on last year's deer
butchering post.
As a result, I opted to hang the deer head down, as most folks
recommended, which did seem to make skinning and gutting a breeze
(albeit an hour-long one).
Another hour with Mark
and me working together to cut the meat into two
hams, a backstrap, and lots of boned flesh, followed by a final hour of
just me running the latter through the grinder, and we had 18.3 pounds of
pastured meat for the price of two bullets. (No, we hadn't shot
the rifle since killing
two deer last year.
Yes, I did put another shot in the deer's head when I found it since
the animal was still moving slightly.) As a bonus, I stewed up
the bones to create a gallon of quality broth, and ended up with
another quart of meat picked loose after cooking. Assuming our
previous three deer paid for the gun, that's some ultra-cheap pastured
meat.
In the past, I haven't
been impressed by the gestalt of the livers that
came out of our deer, but this little guy was one healthy youngster and
his liver was a deep maroon with no blemishes. I've also never
had a liver dish I liked, but a simple pate (rendered chicken fat,
onions, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and a splash of cooking sherry)
changed my tune. We've also already cooked up half of the
backstrap (using my garlic-thyme
chicken leg recipe...without
the chicken legs, of course), and it was similarly top notch. Our
tastiest deer to date!
Meanwhile, we decided to
split this deer down the middle in terms of
ownership. Previously, I'd killed two deer and Mark one --- yes,
Mark is definitely keeping count. (I'm not --- who needs
a tally when you're obviously ahead?) Since Mark spotted 4.0 and
I slaughtered him, I figure we're now up to 1.5 to 2.5 deer,
respectively. Given the
ease with which this deer went into the freezer and the flavor of the
meat, I suspect Mark may keep his eyes peeled to even the score.
Anna,
Google online for recipes of what you can do with that fresh venison. We make pepperoni, italian sausage, breakfast sausage, chorizo, brats, and hamburger out of our venison. It makes your single deer into more niches of the menu.
Keep it up!
For the best (richest, that is) bone broth, I cook them with some vegies, 1/4 cup of vinegar for 48 hours. It's a committment, but it's worth it.
Alice