Posted on 12/02/2007 5:26:42 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
The dead deer's innards are exposed by a perfect neck-to-belly incision. It's time for Dave Wolfgang's students to dig in. "Who would like to take the hearts and lungs out?" the Pennsylvania State University veterinary professor asks four volunteers wearing aprons and heavy-duty rubber gloves.
Venison 101 class isn't for the faint of heart.
For $99, a deer hunter, a cook, or the just plain curious can spend a day at Penn State's meat laboratory to learn the ins and outs of what to do with a prized carcass
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Hmm. I would attend that class.
I’d take that class too.
(Some families have deer heart stew for supper the day a deer is killed. Once I went to donate blood and the tech told me I had too much iron in my blood. I told her that’s because I cook a lot of venison in my cast iron dutch oven, so I always get plenty of iron both from the venison and from the cast iron.)
Last time I went to a hunting camp, the teenagers took care of doing the butchering.
We adults set back and watched. It was our turn to watch after our years of doing the grunt work.
I love it myself.;)
Sign me up!
Good for PSU - doing something that you didn’t learn at Dad’s knee - so to speak.
Butchering a 300 lb hog, now man, that’s work.
The part everybody REALLY needs to know how to do is to field dress promptly, thoroughly, and in a sanitary way. The deer process man can't do a thing with venison that wasn't field dressed correctly and right away. Best venison I ever ate was shot, carried back into deer camp on the spare tire of my Land Cruiser, and dressed out within 15 minutes.
Two essential tools: a short-bladed folding knife, around 3 1/2 to 4", and a spool of dental floss. A hoist and a clean water source are nice too. (Our deer camp had a concrete pad with a block and tackle, and a hose with a nozzle nearby.)
And writing about it for the Philadelphia Inquirer isn't for some city boy who thinks meat comes from the cold counter at Safeway!
I learned on the job with bare hands!
Just wash your hands afterwards, for heaven's sake! (I mean, what is all the fuss about? It's just guts. We all have them.)
“and a spool of dental floss.” ?
What do you do with that? Clean their teeth or yours?
Gloves do get in the way, but if you are doing many at a time, it’s that or badly chapped hands. I boned out and packaged 7 deer in six days a couple weeks ago with gloves and a wrist brace. Lot of work but the meat can’t be beat!
***Butchering a 300 lb hog, now man, that’s work.***
Been there. Done that. Hogs, cattle, way too many live chickens..ect.
Way back in the early 1970’s a local “back to the earth” group had to bring in “teacher” to show the hippies how to cut up a store bought chicken.
I never shot that many, we just hunt on a friend’s land. We’re lucky to get one or two, that’s plenty of meat for the freezer anyhow.
Best way to do this is to tie two loops of floss loosely around the esophagus, squeeze it firmly between the two loops, and pull them taut. If you can tie a package bow one-handed you can do this too - otherwise get somebody to pull it tight for you. Then you do the exact same thing at the OTHER end. If you haven't gut-shot your deer, this makes a nice neat package and once you clear away the mesentery membrane the digestive tract should wrap up nicely and you can just drop it into a plastic garbage bag.
We were working with a local Scout troop while stationed at Fairchild AFB. Took the young men out on a 3 day campout. Dinner the first nite was on us adults. No breakfast.
For lunch we gave everyone a chicken. A live chicken.
Once they got their heads (and tummy) around that - out came dinner.
Bunny rabbits. (purchased locally and known to be disease free) We actually cut down trees and BURNED them to cook over.
At the end of the camp, the youngsters were very pleased with themselves.
The phones calls started coming in Tuesday - from *horrified* Mommies. The dads were plenty happy and wanted to know when the next camout would be held.......they wanted to come and participate. The Troop gained in size overall.
Platic garbage bag?! NO. Throw the guts back in the woods for the coyotes to eat. Good grief.
Do you have a commercial wrapper or do you use freezer wrap?
I vaccuum seal the meat with a Foodsaver. Greatest boon to frozen food ever. Meat will keep darn near forever without freezer burn. I have messsed up my rotation and found packages of meat 3 years old in my freezer with were just as good as the current year’s. I can’t say enough good things about the pro Foodsaver! The extended family has three freezers full of Michigan bean fed venison. And none of it will have feezer burn.
Just carry a few electricians zip ties. Those little white plastic strips that are self locking. The cops use large zip ties on criminals...
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