Waste not want not!

[3dogTerry]

Rather than disposing of the deer carcass, roughly cut it into manageable pieces and throw it into a very large cooking pot with sufficient water to cover the bones. Preferably cook it on a portable plate in the garden (as it doesn't smell very pleasant at first) until the meat falls off the bones. Take the bones out, and voila, the base for the most amazing tasty venison soup or stew, with loads of onions, any root vegetables and lentils etc. You end up with a huge pot of goodness for very little effort. It also freezes well.

Whatever soup or stew is left over is mixed with the vegetable peelings, reheated until they are cooked and fed to our dogs, who clear their bowls in record time.

 

[2021]

Do you cook the neck and spine too? I’ve done the legs and lower ribs but wasn’t sure about the risk from the spinal cord?

 

[Magnificent 7]

Do you cook the neck and spine too? I’ve done the legs and lower ribs but wasn’t sure about the risk from the spinal cord?

Don’t think there is a risk from the spinal chord in deer I may be wrong but as far as I know they only remove cattle spinal cords

 

[Phil fox man]

yes ! I do similar when my mate at the farm shop bones out a cow,he rings me up and I collect the leftovers what he doesn't use.sharp knife and about 4kg of beef for mince,then boil the rest and de bone , either soup base or freeze for later use.

 

[3dogTerry]

Lucky Phil fox man - I would do the same if I had the opportunity! Why waste good food........Hugh Fearnley Whittenstall says it pays respect to the animal by using every last bit - he is 100% correct. Our grandparents and great grandparents used every last edible bit of whatever they killed. Why don't we?

 

[Phil fox man]

this is my 3rd year of not buying from the butchers.
I make all my own meat products from game I've shot,I swop venison for beef or pork and get lamb for free for foxing.
it all goes into pies, sausages or burgers.
we have cut our shop spend by 30% but still spend the same as everything else has gone up, life's a bitch.

 

[VSS]

Do you cook the neck and spine too? I’ve done the legs and lower ribs but wasn’t sure about the risk from the spinal cord?

No risk at all. Just eat it. The neck is a great piece to cook up. I sell quite a few whole necks to caterers. They slow cook them until the meat just falls off the bone, and then use it in ragus, raviolis, and things like that. Because it was first cooked down with the bone it has a really rich flavour.

 

[3dogTerry]

Its heartening to know we aren't the only people using every edible part of the deer.

 

[sauer]

I get it as a base for soup or stew etc

But any vets on here advise the bit about using to soak dog food or feed to dogs at all as stated use loads of onions

I’ve always been led to believe onions are toxic to dogs ???

Paul

 

[Len the dog]

I have always done this with everything, whether shot, caught or bought from the butcher. A chicken carcass will get boiled down with carrots, onions, celery and any greens such as cabbage stems to make a stock. It gets reduced down and frozen for later use in things like paella.
Same goes for anything on the bone, fish, pheasant, rabbit, leg of lamb.
If I have a fatty joint like a rib of beef or pork shoulder, it gets rendered down and the fat skimmed off, that goes into ice cube trays and when set they go into the freezer, my wife uses them for the roast potatoes.
All the scrappy bits get separated from the bones and the dog has those in his food.

Every Xmas we have goose (except this year), the carcass goes into a very large pot with a good selection of veg and the resulting stock goes in the freezer as a base for the gravy for next year’s goose. The fat gets clarified and sealed in sterilised jars, most of which are handed out to friends.

As Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall said of his pigs, ‘everything but the oink’.

 

[tozzybum]

Try and eat all the animal no waste