what do you do with your harvest

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longbow joe
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by longbow joe »

Probably right exie . Its not the lobster l like its the butter.....maby buttered deer steak is what l would like!
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by xcaliber »

longbow joe wrote:Probably right exie . Its not the lobster l like its the butter.....maby buttered deer steak is what l would like!
That's probably what we need! To eat an unseasoned venison steak, I would need to swish a sip of beer or something, it can be dry! 8)
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longbow joe
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by longbow joe »

Maby even boil the deer meat ....like a lobster with butter and old bay seasoning ugggggggggggggg ! We could probably put that one on the fear factor show!
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newbie
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by newbie »

Deaf jeff wrote:as many steaks as possible, the rest goes into burger and sausage. venison is 90% of my meat consumption
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drkeenan
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by drkeenan »

I like all venison. Butcher prepares loins, steaks and ground (for sausage). We eat the first 3 each year then share with others.
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MTBighorn
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by MTBighorn »

I make a LOT if my game into smoked jerky. Just use brown sugar and salt for an hour(ish) and then Hickory smoked in the Bradley until just about dry.

And this year I got a pressure canner and have been canning most meat that is not jerked.... And I can say WOW!!! The canner is so nice!

Meat is ready to eat as snack with chips or crackers right out of the jar! Or it can added to just about any dish. No thawing or freezer taint...just good meat!.

And it is supposed to taste the same 2 years from now. But there is not a chance of finding out because we have been eating it like candy NO more dry game meat for me :mrgreen:
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WVCBH
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by WVCBH »

Fry up the backstraps ASAP...then cut steaks and make jerky. Share most of it with friends and family. Even my mother in-law! :shock:
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Triton Eric
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by Triton Eric »

We donate the meat to the Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry program.
Phillyarcher
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by Phillyarcher »

I donate a few deer a year to the Hunters Feeding the Hungry. It's goes to the local food bank. Then the ones I do keep I make into chip steaks, ground meat and stew meat. I also make Jerky with some of it too. One of the guys in my group makes all kind of sausage both hot and mild. I would say the best is the chip steaks this is the wild Philly Cheesesteak very delicious.
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ihavethetools
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by ihavethetools »

I cut all that I can into about 1 1/4 inch cubes and grind the rest. Have a wonderful marinade recipe a friend gave me. I vacuum seal the cubes into 2 lb packages. Take a package out, thaw, mix marinade and put on cubes for 8 or so hrs. Put on skewers with peppers and onions and grill to the point they are still a little pink inside. Make some garlic sauce to dip them in along with some Italian or Syrian bread. My whole family loves it this way.
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rayman
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by rayman »

Nearly all just gets ground with 10% beef and/or pork fat, bacon ends if available, and mix in sweet and spicy Italian sausage seasoning.
Big58cal
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by Big58cal »

I always process my own. It usually takes me about a week to do one, working on a quarter a night after I get off work. After skinning, as I cut the quarters off I'll debone them and put them in a cooler of ice water. I'll change the water every evening and add more ice. Doing this soaks a lot of the blood out and gives the meat a really clean taste.

With that being said, I take off all of the fat, membranes, and silver-skin from the pieces. The backstrap gets cut into about 6-8" long chunks and vacuum sealed, the tenderloins are vacuum sealed and frozen whole. The heart gets all of the veins/arteries and fat cut off it, opened up and frozen whole. The liver I cut all of the veins off it and run water through the large holes to flush out as much blood as possible before freezing. Ribs are cleaned up and frozen in cookable pieces. The neck I leave the bone in and freeze it like it is, to be used later in the crock pot. On the back legs, the large muscles that can be separated, I do and then freeze them whole. I can use them as roasts or cut into steaks later when they're thawed. The shoulders vary with what I do with them. Most times I'll clean up all of that meat, throw it in a bag as-is, squeeze all of the air out and freeze it. I'll take that stuff to a local processor to have salami, snack sticks, bratwurst, and bacon made out of. This past year though, I just threw the shoulder meat into the grind pile.

When I'm cleaning up all of the meat, any smaller scrap pieces of meat I'll pitch it into a bowl and it goes into a bag and back in the cooler. When I get everything else processed up, then I'll grind. I don't add any fat to the meat when I grind because I make jerky out of some of the ground meat. I figure that if I need some fat in it later, I can add some regular hamburger to it. You can put the fat in, but you can't take it out. :wink:

After opening weekend of gun season this past fall, both the boy and I had gotten a buck each. I hate having 2 deer to process at the same time! :x When everything was said and done, I ended up with over 120 lbs of straight meat (no fat, membranes, silver-skin, etc), with a hair over 60 lbs of that being ground meat.

I vacuum seal everything. I recently cleaned out the freezer in the house and found a couple of deer roasts from 2006 buried in back. Thawed those suckers out, cut them up and put them in some soup! Right tasty!
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Shotnbeer
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by Shotnbeer »

longbow joe wrote:As much as i hunt l must truthfully admit that i really dont care for deer meat. I know that the others will all chime in and say that i dont know how to prepare it and thats nonsense i am as avid a cook as a hunter and i dont care for deer meat. I have 3 friends that think deer meat is better than lobster so l give all my deer to them and they treasure it. Thats fine with me. I do make many kinds of deer jerkey in my smokers and i do make a lot of deer jerkey during the year l do indeed love jerkey and l also make and smoke little snack sticks of every kind that l love but other than that let bob and joe feed their deer meat lovin families and provide hunting and fun for me all at the same time.
As Joe said I get several tags in PA because I like to hunt but not crazy about deer meat. I grind all I get and make jerky. Better cuts I give away ( Back straps,steaks and a roast or two. Never had one go to waste and have had a lot of good jerky.
taz3
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by taz3 »

You folks only harvest deer? :shock: I've had grouse, rabbit, deer, moose, bear, bison etc.

Bison is by far my favourite, I did get to enjoy moose rib steaks a couple year ago that were absolutely amazing and grouse was pretty good too. I have to agree on getting the animal dropped and dressed efficiently, it can have a big influence on taste. I have used bacon for some fat and flavour, tomatoes are great for breaking down the proteins in meat. One of my best roasts I've cooked was moose with bacon inserted through cuts, a variety of berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries) in a slow cooker with a fruity red wine. The fruit flavours help reduce the agessive flavour of the wild meat.
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rayman
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Re: what do you do with your harvest

Post by rayman »

taz3 wrote:You folks only harvest deer? :shock:

We get a few tree rats, doves, and a hog or turkey here and there. Can't stay up late enough to fool with frogs or gators any more. :)
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