'Venison that has been properly dressed, well pre­served, and, correctly cooked is delicious food. Cooking tests made in the School of Home Economics of the Pennsylvania State University indicated that correctly cooked venison which had been properly cared for after killing probably could not be distinguished from beef of a similar grade and I have eaten pan-broiled rib chops that fully substantiated the conclusions reached in the tests.

In a number of States the special archery big game season occurs during the time of year when the temperature may range from below freezing at night to the middle 80s during the daytime hours. To preserve the meat in prime condition when the weather is warm is a major problem, and a kill re­quires prompt attention. Carelessness, delay in dressing out a deer, or other big game animal, or failure to cool the carcass completely and quickly are to be avoided. Too often much of the meat is not fit to eat as the result of careless handling.

Transporting the meat out of the hunting territory promptly and in good condition is your objective. The quicker the car­cass is under refrigeration the better the chances that you will have a goodly supply of meat which your family and friends will enjoy. Much of the deer range in the East is adjacent and close to populated areas, and provided you can reach a refrigera­tion plant within an hour from the time you have killed your deer, it is only necessary to hog-dress the animal at the site of the kill. Transport the deer in the open trunk of your car or on a car-top carrier. Do not lay the deer between the fender and the hot hood of the automobile.

If more than one hour, but not to exceed four hours, is required for the trip on a warm day, the deer should be dressed out completely and the body cavity propped open to permit free circulation of air. However, if you cannot make arrange­ments to get the meat under refrigeration within the time limits stated, it will require special precautions during spells of warm weather to preserve the meat in good condition. The carcass should be skinned and quartered and hung in a coo], shady place which has good ventilation and permits the free circulation of fresh air. A basement or a spring house at your camp makes a suitable place. It should be screened against flies or the carcass wrapped with cheese cloth. The meat can be cooled out very satisfactorily by separating the quarters into wholesale cuts, placing the individual pieces in large lard cans, and immersing the cans in spring water. Lay a large flat stone on the top of the open can which has been covered with cheese cloth. The added weight will help to keep the can submerged about three-quarters of its height. The fewer the pieces of meat in each can, the more effective will be the cooling out process. Meat can be kept at camp in this manner until it is convenient to transport it to a refrigeration plant.

It should be apparent to the reader who has watched suc­cessful deer hunters in large numbers leaving the hunting areas with deer strapped to the hood of the automobile that the neces­sary precautions to assure a supply of edible venison are ignored by a large number of hunters. The same practices used to butcher live stock and prepare the meat for market are applicable to deer. Can you conceive of any one killing a steer, dressing out the animal, and then permitting the carcass to hang in the open during warm weather for any appreciable length of time? Nevertheless this is exactly what happens to hundreds of big game animals and the end result of such treat­ment is that the meat finally winds up in the garbage pail or at the dog house. When you have dropped your deer with a well placed arrow, you have achieved your main objective. The problem now is to translate the carcass into a supply of suc­culent steaks, chops, roasts, and other cuts. Time is of the essence and the work necessary to get the carcass under refrigeration in prime condition should be performed promptly. If this time factor is kept in mind, a novice need not be deterred from attempting the job.

Approach a fallen big game animal carefully from the back. The animal may not be dead and the danger of being struck by sharp hooves, if the animal struggles to rise on your approach, should not be ignored. If a deer is still alive shoot an arrow through the neck just under the ear. This shot will kill the deer cleanly and will help bleed the animal. Blood lowers the quality of the meat and also its ability to keep. Even though the animal has bled internally it does no harm to attempt to increase bleed­ing by sticking the animal with your hunting knife. A small sheath knife with a good thin blade four to five inches in length is preferred for use in dressing out a big game animal. A deer should be stuck at the base of the neck several inches in front of the breast bone. Plunge the knife in to the hilt and cut across the neck with a slicing draw just sufficient to sever the carotid arteries where they join midway between the shoulders. Although authorities differ on the practical results obtained by sticking a deer, it should be remembered that sticking a deer while it is alive is a dangerous operation and should not be attempted by a novice, and sticking is of doubt­ful value when the heart has ceased to beat and the animal is dead. If you do stick the animal, arrange the carcass so that the head is downhill or raise the rear portion of the animal so that blood will drain freely by gravity.

There is no argument, however, about the necessity and value of dressing out your deer immediately. If you are hunt­ing alone, the work can best be accomplished if the animal is arranged on sloping ground with the head and back on the up slope. A stout length of Manila line should be carried with you on all big game hunting trips. Use this line to tie one hind leg out of the way while you are working on the animal. If you have a hunting partner the deer can be hung from a stout limb by the head or the head and forequarters raised from the ground. Take your time and work carefully. The operation of viscerating a deer is not difficult, neither does it need to be a messy operation.

Make an incision through the hide and belly muscle at a point about eight inches back of the end of the breast bone, large enough to insert two fingers of the left hand as shown in Figure 52.

Use the back of the left hand to push the paunch and intestines out of the way to prevent cutting them. Continue the opening to a point just short of the tail, taking care not to puncture any organs while you are making the cut. Cut around the genitals on both sides and cut the hide in a complete circle around and close to the anus. Pull out the large intestine. The genitals and anus should come out -with the intestine by reaching into the belly cavity and pulling the anus through. Remove the small intestine and the stomach. The carcass at this point is termed hog-dressed; the kidneys, liver, and the "pluck," which is the term used to describe the heart, lungs, gullet, and windpipe, remain in the carcass. If at this point you feel that you can transport your deer to a refrigeration plant within an hour you need do noth­ing further. There is no objection to flushing blood and dung out of the carcass with pure cold water. Bacterial growth is retarded by this action. Again the authorities differ. Some rec­ommend using a dry cloth or a clean piece of burlap for this purpose and warn against the use of water, although they give no reason why the use of water would be harmful.

Alone, you will probably find it necessary to drag out your deer to the nearest road. It is also safer than packing it out and having some excited hunter take a shot at you during the process. Tie a rope around the antlers or around the neck in case of an antlerless deer, bring the rope forward and throw a half hitch around the upper jaw. Tie a stout cross piece of wood to the other end of the rope to provide a handle. If the country is too rough to drag the deer or you wish to save some wear and tear on the hide, you may choose to carry the deer across your shoulders. If your deer is too large for a one man carry, you can lash it securely to a pole to provide a two man carry. In the latter case, take several turns of the rope around the body of the deer to hold it securely against the pole throughout its length. This will minimize the swaying of the carcass from side to side and make a satisfactory carry to your car. In any case drape a piece of red cloth over the carcass as a safety measure.

Let us now assume that our procedure is to be governed by the knowledge that it will take us at the outside about four hours to reach the refrigerating plant from the time we made the kill. In this case we should dress out the deer com­pletely at the site of the kill. Cut around the perimeter of the diaphragm, sever the gullet and windpipe as far forward as you can reach and draw all the organs from the chest cavity. The liver, heart, and kidneys can be placed in a plastic bag which the hunter should carry for this purpose. They are good eating and should not be discarded. Since the weather is warm you should have an axe handy with which to split the pelvic or "aitch" bone (where the hind legs are jointed) and the breast bone to permit the carcass to cool more rapidly. Considerable round can be wasted if this operation is performed carelessly. Cut two sticks and insert them between the walls of the body cavity to hold the cavity open to permit free circulation of air. Neglect of these precautions, delay in dressing out, or failure to cool completely and rapidly are things that can and should be avoided. Whenever the deer is not being transported the carcass should be hung immediately in a cool shady place, either by the head or the hind legs with the sides propped open to continue the cooling out process.

The third and last assumption that we shall consider is the case where we are faced with the necessity of holding the deer in camp during warm weather for a period of time in excess of four hours. Proceed to skin out your deer and quarter it. If the hide is permitted to remain on the carcass throughout the cooling out process the oil in the hair follicles is drawn inward through the skin and taints the flesh. The reason most deer smell when skinned out is failure to perform this operation soon enough when the temperature is above 40 de­grees. A greenish tinge appearing on the flesh indicates that bac­terial action has started and the flesh will be tainted. After the carcass is thoroughly cooled out it may be cut in quarters and wrapped in clean cheese cloth or the quarters may be placed separately in plastic bags made especially for this purpose. The covering will protect the meat from flies when the weather is warm and dust and foreign material will not be able to reach the meat when you travel. Prop the hood of the luggage com­partment of your automobile in an open position so that fresh air can circulate freely around each individual package.

If you are going to skin out and quarter your deer in camp, a light weight hacksaw with a large toothed blade, or a butcher's saw should be available. In an emergency, an ordinary hand saw will serve the purpose. It is a difficult task to split a back­bone with an axe and a considerable amount of good meat can be mangled in the process. To attempt to split the carcass on either side of the backbone results in poorer cuts and more waste than when the backbone is sawed in half.

To skin out your deer, lay the carcass on a clean floor or cloth. Open the skin over the hock and down the inside of the legs to the body cavity. Skin out the hocks and remove the feet at the point where the "cannon" bone joins the enlarged hock. Make up a spreader as shown in Figure 53. Make an opening at the tendon at the rear of the leg and suspend the carcass as shown in the illustration. Remove the forelegs at the break joint which is located at the lower part of the knee enlargement. It is a smooth joint and is easily severed with a knife. Slit the hide along the inside of the front legs from the joint to the body cavity. In event you wish to mount the head make your next cut A around the neck at the shoulder, and open the skin on the neck as shown by the dotted lines in Figure 54. It is better to err on the safe side by taking too much rather than too little skin from the shoulders. Make cut B along the top or back of the neck to a point about three inches from the base of the antlers. Make cut C and D and pry away from the base of the antlers with a screw driver or some other blunt instrument.

The skin should now be removed from the neck forward toward the head. When the ears are reached the ear cartilage is severed just under the skin and close to the skull, leaving the ears attached to the skin. Carefully skin around the eyes and lips and be sure the inner edges of the lips are left on the skin. Skin around the nose using care not to cut through the nostrils and leave plenty of cartilage on the skin at the end of the nose.

The four principal steps employed in skinning out the bal­ance of the carcass are illustrated in Figures $6 to 59 inclusive.

                        Figure 59.

Very little knife work is necessary to remove the skin from the carcass. Figure 57 shows the position of the hands in pull­ing the hide loose from the back and loin. To avoid tearing the thin muscle covering the side, Figure 58 shows how the closed fist and knife handle are used to help separate the hide and prevent tearing. After the sides are free, the skin is easily pulled from the ribs in the manner shown in Figure 59. When the shoulders are reached the skin is best removed by fisting until the forelegs are freed. From this point it is a simple matter to pull the hide free from the carcass at the shoulders. Use plenty of clean water to wash all hair and blood from the carcass, and remove blood stains on the hair by sponging with luke warm water. Rub the skin-side of the pelt with a liberal amount of good, clean, fine salt to avoid mineral stains, and spread the pelt, hair-side down on a clean dry table or floor. When the brine forms, and within 48 hours, the pelt should be folded skin to skin, and sent to the tanner as soon as you reach home. If the head and cape have been prepared for mount­ing and shipment to a taxidermist is delayed, check the salt covering on the flesh side of the cape skin at intervals and resalt any thinly covered sections. If you have done a conscientious job of dressing out, skinning, and quartering your deer as suggested in this chapter, and you comply fully with the recom­mendations for transporting the animal, you should be able to deliver the carcass to your butcher in prime condition.

While we have discussed the method of handling your deer during warm weather, it should be remembered that venison should never be permitted to freeze if an unseasonable cold snap hits your hunting area. Venision like good beef is improved by hanging in the "aging room" at the locker plant for a week or 10 days. If you are going to do your own meat cutting, the carcass can be aged in the storage compartment of your family deep freezer or refrigerator (not in the quick freezing compartment). Meat is aged at a constant temperature of ap­proximately 40 degrees.

Whether or not you choose to cut up your deer, a knowl­edge of the different cuts of meat is essential to preparing them for the table. Not all cuts of venison are cooked in the same manner. A diagram of the various cuts is shown in Figure 60. These cuts are not arbitrary and they may be varied to suit the individual. In a case where the deer has been quartered and aged in the home freezer we would proceed as follows: Lay a hind quarter on the cutting table inside down and remove the leg by cutting close to and in front of the hip bone at A, Figure 60. Place the outside of the leg down on the table and remove the portion of flank (12a), sever the rump (4) from the round by cutting below and close to the pelvic or aitch bone (line F). The rump makes a good pot roast. About five or six steaks can be cut from the round. These must be Swissed or braised unless they are taken from a young buck or doe, in which case they may be broiled. The heel (2) is suitable for a pot roast, boiling or grinding. The rear shank (1) should be finely ground for meat balls or sausage.

 

                                    Figure 60.

The flank (12) should be cut from the loin (5) along line D and treated in the same manner as the rear shank. The loin can be used as an oven roast or it may be cut into loin chops about three-fourths of an inch thick.

Next lay a front quarter, inside down, on the cutting table and cut between the fourth and fifth or the fifth and sixth ribs, B Figure 60. Separate the breast (11) from the ribs section (6) along the line D. The rib section (6) is cut into rib chops three-fourths of an inch thick, and the breast (11) is palatable when ground for sausage or meat loaf. Remove the neck from the shoulder by cutting as indicated by line C, Figure 60.

The shoulder joint is very prominent and is disjointed by cutting around the top of the enlargement, indicated by the slight curve of line D between cuts (7) and (9). Use a saw if you are unable to locate the joint. The shank (10) is sawed off and the meat ground. The arm (9) is used for ground meat or mince meat and the top of the shoulder or chuck (7) makes a good pot roast and may be boned and rolled easily. The neck (8) may be made into pot roasts, and the neck slices (8a) may be braised or used for stew, mince meat or ground meat.

Cooking Venison

Sausage. The less tender pieces of venison ground with fat pork (pork that is about 50 to 60 percent lean) are used to make sausage. Mix venison and pork in equal parts. In case sausage is to be kept in a deep freeze, it should be packed unseasoned in waxed containers. Unseasoned sausage will keep fresh in the deep freeze five or six months, whereas seasoned sausage will turn flat and rancid in 30 to 45 days when stored under the same conditions. Thaw and season to taste with salt, pepper, and a pinch of ground sage, if desired just before using.

Meat Loaf. Meat loaf can be made by grinding fresh pork fat with the venison in the proportion of one pound of fat to 10 pounds of venison.

Venison can be cooked by the housewife using the same methods that would be employed to cook similar cuts of beef. The fat may be removed from venison before cooking, since it has a tendency to cling to the roof of the mouth while eating. To keep the meat from becoming too dry, suet, pork fat, or bacon may be mixed with ground venison, and strips of bacon or salt pork may be placed on top of the roasts while they are cooking. Tender cuts of meat are cooked by dry heat and the less tender cuts by moist heat. The meat from an aged animal, buck or doe, will be appetiz­ing and tender if proper care is taken in cooking. Tomatoes, onion, garlic, spices, and herbs may be added if venison flavor is objectionable to anyone. The tender cuts, such as rib and loin chops, round steak, and leg roasts, can be pan-broiled, oven-broiled, or roasted. The neck, shanks, chuck, and breast, should be cooked with moist heat when they are not ground to make sausage, mince meat and meat loaf.

Roast Venison. (Loin and round.) An oven roast may be prepared from the loin or round of a doe or young buck.  

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place on a rack in a shallow pan in a preheated slow oven, 3000 to 32 50 F. Do not cover or add water. Lay strips of fat bacon or beef suet across the top of the meat to baste the venison as it roasts. Allow 20 to 25 minutes per pound.

Roast Leg of Venison. If the deer is a small one, a leg can be roasted as is a leg of lamb. The directions for Roast Venison apply.

Broiled Venison Steaks and Chops. (Round, loin, and rib.) Turn the oven regulator to broil and preheat the broiler. Place meat on greased rack in broiler about two inches from the flame. Leave oven door open slightly. Broil until top side is nicely brown (about five to seven minutes) then turn to other side for an equal period of time. Venison should be well browned on the surface but cooked rare. Season with salt and pepper or parsley butter and serve immediately.

Parsley Butter

1/2 cup of butter or margarine worked until creamy, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, dash of pepper, 1/4teaspoon finely chopped parsley and finally work in very slowly 3/4table­spoon of lemon juice.

Pan-Broiled Venison Steaks or Chops. (Round, loin, and rib.) Rub a heavy iron or aluminum frying pan with a little fat, and preheat. Steaks and chops should be about three-quarters inch thick. Do not cover pan and do not add water. Turn meat occasionally. Cook from 15 to 20 minutes. Do not overcook. Season with parsley butter and serve at once.

Braised Venison. (Shoulder, neck, breast, shank, and chuck.) Season with salt and pepper. Rub well with flour. Brown both sides slowly in hot fat in a heavy skillet. Add about one cup of water and cover, cook very slowly until tender. Requires two to three hours. Turn meat occasionally.  

Pot Roast. (Rump, Shoulder, neck with tendons removed.) Brown meat slowly on all sides in a Dutch oven, pressure cooker, or other heavy utensil. Roll meat in flour and season with salt, pepper, and herbs to taste. Add 1/4to 1/2cup of water and cover tightly. Cook at low temperature, below the boiling point, until meat is tender (about 2l/2 to 3 hours). If a pressure cooker is employed, follow the directions given in the manual for beef. Vegetables, such as carrots, onions, potatoes, and celery may be added when the meat is about three-quarters done.

Gravy. The liquid from the pot roast is used to make gravy. Bring the liquid to a boil. Make a smooth paste of flour and water. Add a small amount of the liquid to the paste and stir well to prevent lumps. Add this mixture to the liquid in the vessel, a little at a time, and stir constantly to prevent the formation of lumps. Boil about three minutes. The amount of flour paste added to the liquid will govern the consistency of the gravy. Season to taste.

Swiss Steak. (Round.) Take two pounds of round steak sliced one to two inches thick. Roll meat in flour and pound in. Season with salt and pepper and brown both sides slowly in a heavy skillet which has been lightly greased and preheated. Add one and one-half cups of water or canned tomatoes, and three large sliced onions. Cover tightly and cook slowly on top of the stove or in a slow oven 3250 F., for 1l/2 to 2 hours or until tender. Remove meat and make gravy from the liquid. If a pressure cooker is used, the time should be reduced accord­ingly.

Stew. (Neck, heel, and arm, also breast or shoulder.) Take two pounds of meat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Roll in flour and brown in a heavy skillet which has been lightly greased and preheated. Remove meat to a kettle and add 3 cups boiling water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/4teaspoon of pepper. Pour one cup of boiling water into skillet and stir to obtain the meat flavor. Add to the liquid in the kettle. Cover and simmer (cook slowly at low temperature) until the meat is tender. This will take about two hours unless a pressure cooker is used. Dice 4 medium-sized potatoes, 4 carrots, 4 medium sized onions, and add these vegetables to the kettle and cook an additional 20 minutes or until tender. If necessary add more water as the meat cooks. The stew may be thickened by adding 2 tablespoons of flour, which has been mixed with water to make a thin paste, stirring as the stew boils
Meat Loaf. (Neck, flank, shank, and breast.) Grind 2l/2 pounds of meat and 1/4 pound of beef suet or salt pork. Mix thoroughly. Add 2 teaspoons salt and dash of pepper, 3/4 cup of dry bread crumbs, 2 eggs beaten lightly, 3/4 cup of milk, and 1/2small onion chopped fine. Mix thoroughly, shape into a loaf, place in a greased baking pan, and bake 2l/2 hours in a moderate oven, 3500 F.

Liver and Onions. Pour boiling water over the liver twice. Drain. Dip liver in flour and brown in heavy iron skillet in bacon fat. Season with salt, add 2 cups of water cover and allow to simmer slowly for 1 hour. Remove liver from skillet and brown 2 cups of sliced onions. Replace liver, add 1 cup of water, cover, and simmer slowly l/2 hour.