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Readying Your Deer for the Table
Excerpts from The Ultimate Venison Cookbook
Enjoying venison at its finest begins the moment you squeeze the
trigger and continues through field dressing, cleaning, aging,
processing, packaging and ultimately, cooking. Indeed, in a certain
sense, premium venison and readying the meat for the table begins
even before you take a shot and experience the bittersweet moment
inevitably associated with standing over a noble animal you have
just killed.
Shots as They Relate to Fine Venison
The finest meat will come from a deer that is shot cleanly and
dies quickly. That means paying your marksmanship dues in terms of
spending the necessary time at a shooter’s bench or shooting range
to make sure your gun or bow afford optimal performance. Those same
sessions also provide the hunter intimate familiarity with his
weapon of choice and the element of self-confidence that looms so
large in effective shot placement.
The details of marksmanship belong in technical training manuals,
not a cookbook, but a few general thoughts on shooting a deer as
they relate to venison do seem to be in order. In areas where deer
abound, limits are liberal and the seasons long, the ideal approach
is to take a suitable number of does for the freezer. As a welcome
by-product to such hunting, you make a small but significant
contribution to quality deer management through helping maintain a
sound buck-to-doe ratio. If you feel sufficiently confident in your
shooting ability and the situation permits it, try to take mature
does and shoot them in the head or neck. Such shots do two
meaningful things when it comes to enjoying the products of your
hunt. First, they mean a quick death, something that is infinitely
preferable to a poor shot that leaves the animal wounded and perhaps
involves a long tracking process and stress that negatively affects
the meat. Secondly, you have minimal or no waste of venison.
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Once the Deer is Down
Once your deer is down, no matter your shot placement, the time
to get busy is at hand. At best, you have roughly two hours to
remove the entrails before serious deterioration in the quality of
the venison begins. In warm weather or with gut shot animals, that
time becomes much shorter. Unless some pressing consideration such
as means of disposing of the entrails prevents it, you should field
dress your deer immediately. In truth, you can anticipate this by
carrying some heavy-duty garbage bags in your daypack or small
backpack to handle entrails. Double or triple bag the offal and you
can then transport it to a suitable place for proper disposal.
When field dressing the animal, following a few basic steps makes
the process a simple, straightforward one. Get the deer on its back
where the ground is smooth and fairly level, trying if the terrain
permits to get the head elevated a bit. This lets the entrails
settle into the body cavity and makes the cut to open the deer a bit
easier. Once the deer is in place, it is a good idea to put on a
pair of plastic or rubber gloves (Hunters Specialties makes
disposable ones perfect for the task) for the work that lies before
you. Although many folks open a deer by starting at the rear, a
preferred approach is to begin at the point where the ribs come
together. You can get started here without fear of going too deep
and penetrating the stomach (something to be avoided at all costs).
After making a small slit of two to three inches, the only way to
open a deer is by cutting up (away from the entrails). A knife with
a gut hook has the functional design to do this, but you can perform
the function with any sharp, sturdy knife. Insert your fingers
through the slit and then slip the knife between them. Use your
fingers to hold the skin lifted and taut and ease the knife along,
cutting upward from the body cavity. By doing this you avoid the
chance of getting into the stomach and keep from cutting hair,
something that dulls the knife’s edge and keeps hair from getting on
the meat.
Once the body cavity has been opened from the rib cage to the
genital area, remove the genitals from a buck (in some states, you
must leave these attached until the animal has been checked in or
reported to wildlife authorities). Next, cut the hide in a complete
circle around the deer’s anal area, including the vagina when
dressing a doe. This should extend inward underneath the arch of the
pelvic bone. Work carefully, because you want to avoid cutting into
the bladder or slicing the end of the intestine. Then tie off the
intestine with a piece of string (or have a buddy pinch it if you
have any help). This keeps “deer berries” where they belong as you
ease the material away from the anal area. When everything is clear,
cut the intestine just below where it has been tied off.
Now you are ready to remove the guts. Complete the cut all the
way to the anal opening, then straddle the body of the deer or one
of the hindquarters if it is a large animal. From the back of the
deer reach underneath the entrails, working underneath the bladder,
and pull everything toward the front where you began your original
cut. As everything pulls loose, tip to the side a bit and allow the
stomach to tip over the open flank. Once that is clear you can cut
the stomach and entrails away from the esophagus. Now you have
everything in the deer’s upper body to remove.
If you belong to the company of those who enjoy organ meats, and
when you eat them there is at least the knowledge that they come
from an animal that has eaten nothing but a natural diet, this is
the time to set them aside. Both deer liver and heart are delicious,
and you can also utilize the kidneys, which will still be attached
along each side of the back, if desired. In the case of the liver,
which is located tight against the diaphragm that separates the
upper interior from the stomach, be sure not to confuse it with the
much smaller spleen. The spleen looks a bit like a miniature liver
and is somewhat grayish in color as opposed to the bright red of the
liver. Unlike the rest of the edible portions of a whitetail, organ
meats do not need any aging. The ideal approach is to carry a few
large, strong Ziploc bags with you for storing organ meats. An
alternative is to use muslin bags to carry the organs. They soak up
most of the extra blood or moisture that invariably drains off after
you separate the organs. Cut them away and place in these bags. Once
the field dressing process has been completed and you have gotten
your deer to a processor or hanging in a cooler, you can return to
the organ meats. Just wash them clean and freeze or, if you plan to
eat the meat in the next three or four days, put them in a cooler on
ice or in a refrigerator.
Complete the removal of the lungs and esophagus and tilt the
carcass, as necessary, to allow any blood to flow free. If you have
killed the deer with a shot through the lungs or heart, you may also
want to try to wipe away the offal left from the bullet’s passage.
Should yours be the misfortune to have made a gut shot, that needs
to be cleaned up as much as possible in the field dressing process.
One way to do this is with a bunch of paper towels (pieces of these
can do double duty as markers when you have to track a wounded
animal), or an old, clean towel can be carried along for wiping
everything up. You are now ready to get the deer to a cooler or, in
colder climates, to hang it in a suitable place for aging. If the
weather is particularly warm, cut a stick or two and use them to
keep the body cavity open. This lets air circulate and enables the
carcass to cool down more rapidly. One final thought – time is of
the essence, no matter what the weather conditions. Your deer
belongs in a cooler where the aging process can start, not in the
bed of a truck or on a carrier where it is on prominent display. If
you’ve got a bragging buck, there will be time enough for any
buddies to admire it while it is hanging.
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The Aging Process
Once you have completed the field dressing process, it is time to
start aging your deer. There are a number of options when it comes
to just how this is done. Ideally, you want to hang the deer, with
the hide still intact, for a minimum of five days in temperatures in
the 38 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit range. Many commercial processors
want no part of leaving the hide on or of “in cooler” times beyond
two or three days. This is understandable, since theirs is a
seasonal operation where time (and space) means money.
Should you have the luxury to do your own aging though, give it
plenty of time and keep the hide on the animal. Time means
tenderness when it comes to aging, and having the hide in place
means that the flesh won’t dry out and that, when it comes time,
working the meat up will be a bit easier when it comes to removing
silver skin. In cold weather climates, it is often possible to hang
a deer in a garage or storage room where you can keep the
temperature low. However, temperatures below freezing do not help,
for a frozen carcass has no opportunity to age or tenderize.
Yet another approach to aging, and it comes into play for
money-conscious hunters in southern latitudes who want to do their
own processing yet have no access to a cooler, is to age the meat
after cutting up the deer. To do this, just skin the deer the way
any processor will do it, using a gambrel and plenty of elbow grease
or the golf ball method whereby you pull the hide away with help
from a vehicle. Whatever your approach, take care to keep hair away
from the carcass. Once you have the animal skinned, wash any
vestiges of blood away and cut away any damaged or colored meat
where the bullet entered and exited the deer. Then, depending on the
size cooler(s) you have available, you can age the meat in a cooler.
If necessary, bone it out first. Just place the meat above ice,
keeping it from contact with a rack, platform or in some other
fashion. You do not want the meat in direct contact with the ice.
Check once a day or so, turning the meat if necessary to keep it
evenly cooled. In a good cooler the air temperature will be just
about what you want, and one advantage of this system is that it
lets you age the meat for whatever period you deem suitable.
In general terms, the longer you can age a whitetail’s carcass,
up to 10 days or so, the more tender the meat will become. For
yearlings, and younger deer in general, the aging process doesn’t
need to be as lengthy. When it comes to aging, don’t expect
miracles. Old mossy horns will never become as tender as a Holstein
that has been grain fed and finds it a struggle to walk across a
quarter mile of pasture, but meat that is properly aged and suitably
processed need not be so tough that your jaw muscles get an
unwelcome workout every time you eat it.
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Proper Processing
When it comes to processing, you have a world of choices. They
begin with a decision as to whether you will handle the processing
yourself or have it done commercially. Sometimes it is possible to
purchase cooler time and handle the processing in person, but in our
experience at least most prefer to handle both the aging and
processing as part of the whole package. Many will also gut the
animal, but unless you can get the deer from the field to the
abattoir in a period under an hour, field dressing is the way to go.
For those who process the deer in person, there are both
advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side of matters, you know
that the meat is actually that from the deer you shot. All too often
unethical processors just give you a “guesstimate” of the proper
amount of meat and you don’t know what deer it came from.
Furthermore, when you work the meat up in person, you will be able
to take every care when it comes to removing silver skin, fat,
damaged flesh and the like (such as the little glands found between
the major muscle groups in the hind quarters). That translates to
clean meat, no hair and complete confidence in the sanitary
procedures followed in processing. Of course, if you pay a
competent, conscientious processor, you will get comparable
treatment.
On the negative side of matters, it takes an appreciable
investment to get all of the equipment needed to turn a deer into
the type of cuts and preparations many of us like. At a minimum you
will need a good bone saw, suitable knives, a place to work up the
meat, freezer bags and butcher’s wrapping paper. If you want much
more than roasts, steaks and stew meat, you also need a means of
preparing cubed steaks, burger, sausage and the like. It also helps,
particularly when it comes to freezer shelf life, to have the
capacity to vacuum seal the meat (we have a Tilia Professional II
FoodSaver unit that does this quite nicely, although the storage
bags are a bit pricey).
When it comes to diversity of cuts and specialty items such as
various kinds of sausage, the commercial processor offers more than
the home processor can possibly do. They likely have the ability to
quick freeze the meat, which is quite important since it appreciably
reduces the amount of ice crystallization. Processors will also have
all the equipment needed to do the job properly. That is why, at
least for folks who live where whitetails abound and for whom
venison constitutes a major item in the family diet, a commercial
processor may be the way to go. Some suggestions in that regard
might be helpful.
Mainly, you need to ask questions and check things out in person.
In the case of processed meats such as summer sausage or jerky, ask
to have a tasting sample. By all means ask to see the interior of
the room where the processing is done. If that area is “off limits,”
the processor probably should be too. If the area is too dirty for
you to see, eating meat processed there is obviously an “iffy”
proposition. Make absolutely sure that everything connected with
prices is clear at the outset. Finding out, after the fact, that
skinning costs more or that you pay an unexpected premium for
specialty cuts or packaging can be a real irritant. Find out the
precise nature of the packaging. Anything short of careful wrapping
with freezer paper that is clearly labeled is unacceptable, and
vacuum packaging is distinctly preferable. Ask for a list of
processing options. At the very least the processor should offer
burger, roasts, steaks and cubed steak. Options for sausage and
specialty meats (summer sausage, smoked meat, kielbasa, bratwurst,
bologna, cheese sausage, jerky and the like) are a real plus. Don’t
forget to ask about how long the deer is aged and whether it is
possible to have the aging done with the hide intact. To our way of
thinking, it is worth paying a bit of a premium to have a few extra
days of aging with the hide in place.
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Storage
Unless you intend to host a big neighborhood gathering or feed
the multitudes, it will be necessary to put much of your venison in
a freezer. That may seem a simple enough matter, but as anyone who
owns a freezer knows, things have a way of getting pushed to the
back or overlooked. You can avoid this by keeping a list of what you
store and when you do it, checking it off as individual packages are
used. Alternatively, make a point of clearing the freezer once a
year. The time to do this is late summer or early fall. Hold a
neighborhood barbeque, fix a feast for the members of your hunt
club, give the remaining meat to a local soup kitchen or take some
similar step. If you make a practice of clearing the freezer just
prior to the opening of each season, you should be able to keep
things in good order.
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Final Thoughts
How a deer is handled from the time it is shot until the moment
the cooking process starts can make all the difference when it comes
to taste. When defrosting venison for cooking, do it the proper way.
That doesn’t mean grabbing a packaged from the freezer, throwing it
in the microwave to thaw it, and proceeding with cooking. Instead of
this sort of mishandling, plan a day or two in advance. Take the
venison to be used from the freezer and place it in the
refrigerator. One helpful tip in this regard is to place the frozen
meat in a colander or other container that will allow the melting
ice crystals and other fluids to drain away.
With venison that has been properly handled and processed from
the field to the stove, oven or grill, you have meat that will
produce healthy, hearty and tasty meals. Obviously, that should
become your primary goal once the adrenalin high of a successful
hunt has washed over you and the serious business of dealing with
your deer lies before you. Do it right, and you will savor the
fruits of the hunt for many months and many meals.
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