Red meat for the year

Every fall I try to get the majority of my red meat for the year. Recently I killed a 1 1/2 year old 130 pound white tail deer. The environment that the animal was from is a crop farming area. The deer was well feed with multiple types of grain, nuts and fruits. Venison is a very lean meat and taken from this part of the state, southwest Wisconsin, isn’t at all gamey tasting or smelling. It was a clean kill, one shot to the chest that hit the vital organs. The animal was dead before it hit the ground but bleed out well. Bleeding out the animal is important to the taste and sometimes texture of meats.

After killing the animal, registering it and getting it home, I skin, cut out the back straps, quarter it and let the meat rest for a couple of days. Skinning and quartering, defacing as I call it, is the hardest part for me because I feel a certain amount of guilt for killing such a beautiful critter and then cutting it into pieces. Without exception I always take a moment to thank the animal for giving itself to me so that my family may live on. Not only does this help clear my conscience but I believe the animal’s spirit is released. I really don’t want to be haunted by some big angry buck that wants to kick my butt every night.

Next is cutting and wrapping the meat. It’s the most gratifying step because when you’re done you have piles and piles of really good meat all ready to be cooked. It takes a lot of patience to cut up, debone, grind and wrap the meat. I recommend the consumption of your favorite libation for this part but remember that it really sucks to cut off your finger. My family has simple requirements for the meat. We want steaks, burger, stew meat and use whatever is left for sausage and ring bologna.  For steaks we only use the back straps cut about ½ inch thick. I used to be afraid to cut up the steaks but realized that if I mess it up the worst case scenario is that we have more burger meat to grind. About 5 pounds of stew meat is set aside while deboning the quarters. We look for 1 or 2 inch chucks that don’t have sinew in it. The sinew isn’t flavorful and makes the meat tough. Sinew is the reason that the burger meat preparation is the most time consuming. All of the meat has to be gone through to make sure that as much of the fibers as possible have been removed. Even though the meat is going to be ground the sinew will add an unpleasant after taste. Most people like to add pork or beef tallow when they grind it. I prefer to make that decision when planning a meal, different recipes call for different mixes. Usually we use about 20 pounds of burger a year. All of the rest of the meat goes to the sausage/ring bologna maker. Living in Wisconsin, we are fortunate to have really excellent sausage makers everywhere. I am a big fan of venison meat and there are tons of ways to cook or have it prepared.