This is the promised blog resulting from my hunting trip last week. I went with my buddies Dan and Mike. Unfortunately, we were a week late for bucks, which was the majority of what we saw all day. However, we did happen across a couple does right at the end of the day. From about 75-80 yards out, I bagged a 2-2.5 year old doe with the Remington .270 that Summer's parents gave me for Christmas - thanks Larry and Terri!
We loaded the ol girl on the Mule (off-road golf cart, not donkey-horse hybrid) and headed to the cutting room. Dan has a suh-weet set up out at his place. There's a concrete slab with an awning that has a wench hanging from the ceiling. Why? We sawed the legs below the knees and wenched the deer up off the ground. From there, dressing, gutting, and skinning the deer was a breeze. Dan did the lion's share of the work, but I get in there for some of it. There's a HUGE difference in cleaning a deer when you cut the stomach and when you don't. Don't. After getting it all clean, we hung it in the walk-in for 5 days.
HERE ARE THE GRAPHIC IMAGES:
Look how beautifully lean that piece of meat is. You can also see the exit wound there.
Here's a great view of the shot. It went in through rib #4, through the lung, the heart, the other lung, and out rib #5. A really great shot for a first-timer. Also, note how clean our gut job was.
On Friday, we butchered it. Dan quartered it (hips and rear legs first, then front legs individually). Next, we took the backstraps and tenderloins. Most of the rib cage was bloodshot - that's where the bullet explodes, sending fragments of bullet and bone through out, blasting the meat. All this needs to be removed and discarded. Some of the rib meat was salvageable for sausage. Next, I watched Dan break down one of the back legs, and I repeated. We reserved the two bottom rounds and one top round for the dinner party from 5Courses+5Beers+5Wines. The rest became either cutlets - which made some of the best chicken fried steaks ever - or trim for sausage. The front legs were also a bit bloodshot, which became sausage material as well. Overall, it was a blast breaking down the deer. There's something greatly satisfying about eating something that you took from start to finish.
CHIPOTLE VENISON SAUSAGE
So I took 2.5 pounds of the trim (non-backstrap, tenderloin, or leg roasts), .5 pound of bacon (for fat, smoke, and texture), 2 pounds of pork butt, garlic, chipotles, cayenne, and salt, ground it, mixed it, and stuffed it. The colors on this thing are great. The dark is the venison, the light is the bacon, the in-between is glorious pork. The tester was tasty, and I'm going to roast a couple off tonight with dinner.
Not sure what my next culinary quest is, but it should be a good one. Stay tuned!
that little lady was delicious
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