Open stomach to an Open Mind

[JW_Halverson]

Couple years ago I decided to take the chance on aging wild gamebirds.  I put a couple shot pheasants in the fridge guts 'n all.  Two days of chewing my nails and I couldn't wait.  I gutted them.  Guts smelled the same as always, nothing extra.  Then I picked the birds.  This was a surprise!  I've never been able to pluck a pheasant without the skin tearing to ribbons. 

Roasted the bird and it was delish!


Tried going 5 days, same story.  The bird was sweeter and a bit more tender, but no off flavors, no rottensmells.  Just make sure your birds are DRY.  A wet bird will begin to rot in the fridge immediately and will go off overnite!  Don't ask how I know.

[Bevan R.]

I've eaten lots of carp, a trash fish by some people's standards, but I thought is was quite good.  Better than catfish IMO.

I could not agree more. That is why I get pumped at spring for the bowfishing run.

Bevan R

[Pat B]

I will usually try anything...although I'm better if I don't know what some things are until I've swallowed them! 
  Most folks wouldn't eat a mullet but fresh fried or smoked mullet is to kill for.   Also if you ever cleaned a softshell turtle you might not want to eat it but it is excellent eating as are other turtles.  My Dad(born in 1900) used to talk about going to the old Savannah City Market to buy a half or quarter of beef. If it didn't have magots on it they wouldn't buy it. Magots eat only rotted meat so they would slice off the rotted meat to expose the tinder, well aged beef under neith.
  JW, I think pheseant were hung by their necks until they rotted off then they knew the meat was tender and well seasoned.

[JW_Halverson]

Pheasant hung by the neck in shade until the body parts company....that's just a little too high for me!

Mind you, the deer I shot the last week of January aged until earlier this week, I just now got around to cutting her up!  Seven or so weeks of aging, I guess?  I will confess she was frozen solid until I stood her in the shower on Monday.  She was finally thawed enough to cut on Wednesday!!!

[recurve shooter]

if it stinks, i cant force my self to eat it lol but other than that im game.
love gator, turtle, heart, liver,coon, ect.
id love to try some other things. 

[Bevan R.]

JW,
A professional meat cutter friend of mine said that deer do not have the enzymes like beef that tenderizes the meat with ageing. He told me hanging deer did no good as far as tenderizing it.

Bevan R

[JW_Halverson]

Bevan, I've heard that time and time again.  I've even been told the fat marbling within the muscle is lacking and that is why deer doesn't age.  Fact remains, my backstraps are always fork tender.  The meat is consistently darker and richer in flavor after hanging.  My father cut meat from 1951 until he retired in 2008 and claimed the same thing until I fed him some of my aged venison. 

The one deer I butchered the day it was shot was turned entirely into hamburger and it was like eating buckshot!  Eventually I learned to brown that burger, cover it with red wine and beef broth, and simmer in the over overnite at 200 degrees just to make it chewable. 

Next year I am going to use a saw and split a nice fat doe right down the middle.  One side to be given overnite to cool and the other side gets my usual 14 days below 40 degrees.  That way I can do a real test that eliminates the variables of what the deer ate, it's age, it's conditions, etc.  I don't think I'll have a problem putting together a panel of judges!  Maybe several of us should try that and pool the research for an article in P.A.?

[Bevan R.]

Sounds good to me JW. When I was growing up and we butcherd, we let it cool overnight then processed it and froze it.

Bevan R

[JustinNC]

Not to derail the thread, but what I can't eat fresh (backstraps and tenders....heart and liver on next deer), is going to be canned. I did my first canned deer last year and it is by far the best way I have had it!

[Bevan R.]

That is my preferred way of preserving any deer/antilope or fish I get.

Bevan R

[JW_Halverson]

My first antelope trip netted me a buck and a doe.  When I packaged it all up I listed it as "buck-alope, doe-alope, and canned-alope".  The recipe was easy, half teaspoon salt, quarter teaspoon each of pepper and garlic powder, half cup of wine, two cups of diced goat, and add water to within an inch of the rim.  Wonderful stuff.  Have duplicated that with mule deer, whitetail, and cottontail rabbit.  Yummers.

[Postman]

sounds great  - need to get me a pressure canner. Make a few cases of hot mixed pickle every year, would love to put some deer up. Very interested in the aging experiment. I usually get one when it's too warm to hang though.

[Grunt]

Radish Kimche is good.
The best thing I ever ate was a spoonful of canned ham and eggs. After four or five days without food I found a small can of C-Rat ham and eggs in the bottom of my pack. All six men in my squad gathered around and we got a spoon full each. Usually everyone hated that stuff but let me tell you that was the best thing I ever ate.