Well, officially it ended last week for regular rifle here in Upstate NY. If you bow hunt or use a muzzle loader, the season is longer. . . . Thank goodness Yankee Bill doesn’t do either of those 🙂 I only have to be a hunting widow for about 3 1/2-4 weeks. . .
Hunting can be an expensive hobby, especially if you are just starting out–or if you are the type of person who needs every new gizmo that comes along (beware the Cabela’s catalog. . .) But after that expensive initial outlay, it can actually be fairly reasonable. I wouldn’t say that hunting is “cheap meat”-after all there is that outlay. But if you are going to be doing it ANYWAY since it is your hobby, then as Yankee Bill pointed out to me, it is a great bonus!!! How many other hobbies put a winter’s worth of meat in the freezer.
Honestly, the idea of sitting in the woods, in the cold, for hours waiting for a deer to walk by so I can shoot it sounds like torture. I had to do things like that while I was in the Army (minus the real bullets-blanks only in training thank you), but they had to PAY me to do it. But hey, to each their own. My husband LOVES it, and I love that he has a hobby he enjoys that stocks up the freezer. An added bonus is that venison is wild food, so therefore about as minimally tainted by anything as possible. I guess you could consider it organic 🙂
This year, after a couple of year dry spell, Yankee Bill got TWO deer, a small tender buck, and a doe.
We paid a gentleman who does butchering, just for the hunting season, $40 per deer to skin, clean and butcher it into the basic cuts-full tenderloins, stew meat, ground beef, steaks, roasts etc. Then we did the final work. Yankee Bill sliced and butterflied the loins, I made sausage from half the ground beef.
Then we vacuum sealed the final product and labeled it for the freezer with a sharpie.
We never did get a final weight on the processed meat, but it was a lot. (Yeah, I know that is soooo helpful) I shouldn’t have to buy beef until next fall 🙂 I have even been thinking that I may be able to trade some venison with my girlfriend who raises pork. . . that would be a win win situation. . .
So for those of you out there who are unfamiliar with venison meat, it is slightly gamier than regular beef, but can basically be used in the same ways. You do have to be careful, because it is so lean. You almost always need to add fat to it when cooking-for example for both the sausage and the ground beef we added about 1/4 to 1/3 ground pork. When pan cooking steaks etc you really do need to add butter or oil and cook very quickly so it remains tender.
Would anyone be interested in an article on how to cook with venison?
I would.
A friend gave us all 4 legs of a 10 point buck he got. I know that it is going to be super tough, and I have NEVER cooked with venison before. I am a bit apprehensive.
we were sold lots of vension, elk and bison one year by an avid hunter friend of my DH. Anything that might be tough was tossed in the crock pot for soup or stew (I make clean out the refrigerator woup about every 2 weeks). Everything else was just yummy, marinated or not. I figured out very quickly that adding fat for cooking was the way to go, especially for the bison. It was a great 2 years!
I would like to see an article too. this is our second year working with venison. I could always use more ideas. Do you have a meat grinder? Recommendation? We are thinking of getting one.
Mostly it has all been good. I prefer the tenderloins to beef! The biggest problem I’ve had is over cooking. It needs to cook less than beef, and dries out quickly. I’m learning.
For the legs, we take off the roasts, but then boil what is left, and can the bits of meat and broth. Makes excellent venison and noodles!
I just can’t believe how short your deer season is. I am a deer huntin’ widow down here in the South from September 1 to January 1!
It is a great hobby and there are so many things you can do with the entire body (just ask a taxidermist). The meat is good too.
Hmm, I looked it up to be sure-our season for regular deer hunting (ie not bow or muzzle loader etc) is from Nov 17-Dec 9
Most deer seasons are organized to help “manage” the deer population. It may be that because the winters are harder up here that more deer die of natural causes, or maybe the herds are naturally of a smaller size, and therefore they don’t want as many of them hunted each year. I don’t know that for a fact, but am speculating based on what I remember from the “conservation Camp” I went to when I was 13 up in Maine. . . as well as knowing that on certain military bases-where the entire land area is fenced in and the deer cannot go in and out-they have separate rules and actually have to hunt the deer just to keep the herds where deer are healthy and not all dying of disease.