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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And how does a deer go from the lawn to the table? Do you skin them in your garage? Cut them up in the back? Smoke the meat? Take it to a butcher? [/quote]

A lot depends on the ambient temperatures when you make the kill. Early in the season (October) it's still too warm to properly age the meat outside after you've field dressed it (removed entrails and organs). After the kill, you leave the carcass on the ground for a couple hours so the ticks will climb off it (I have a designated spot for this in my backyard, a square of old carpet that is treated with permethrin, which kills the ticks within hours of crawling onto it). Then you hoist the deer up by the rear legs at the tarsals, and cut downwards from just below the anus to the top of the rib cage. You pull all the entrails out (our dogs love them) and hose out the empty body cavity to remove the remaining blood. I also cut the blood vessels in the neck to get the blood out of the neck and head, but many people don't do this because it stains the head. I don't mount deer, so I don't care. The goal is to get the carcass cooled down past the spoilage temperature as quickly as possible. Fresh venison (or beef, for that matter) is too tough to be considered good fare. It needs to age at cold temps for 1-2 weeks to allow the proteins and collagens in the muscle fibers to break down slightly. Also, venison is very lean already, and what little fat there is needs time to soften and disperse into the tissue around it.  In the winter, you can just hang it outside wrapped in burlap and it will age perfectly. But in October it's still too warm for this, and it will spoil before it ages. I'm very, VERY fortunate to have a long time friend a few blocks away who owns a couple gas stations along the Pike up past the college. He's also big into venison, and he allows me to hang deer in the back of the drink cooler wall behind the racks of soda. After late November, it's usually cold enough to age them outside.

After it's aged, it's just a matter of butchering. They have the same cuts of meat that a lamb or goat has. You can take it to a processor (there's two in Poolesville) or do it yourself (we do our own).  The backstraps and tenderloin are the choice parts, the rest is best when ground together with beef fat into burger or venison meatloaf. The beef fat provides fat that the venison is lacking, and gives it a very good mouthfeel. I also make sausage, and lots of venison jerky. Venison makes particularly good jerky because of the low fat content, it dries out beautifully.

Last year, of the eleven deer we killed in our yard, we donated the last 5 to food banks supplied by our church. You just wrap the cuts in freezer paper or vacuum seal it, and the food bank place keeps it frozen until its distributed out to the people who receive it.

Venison isn't a substitute for beef, they are each distinct in their own flavor. Venison is its own thing. We typically only enjoy it in the colder months, so it somewhat replaces steak for our winter "red meat" dinners. We get to appreciate it a couple times a week, and we've usually eaten all of it by April. No more until next fall. Makes you look forward to next fall.

Oh, lastly, yes, we do have licenses and we do tag our deer for DNR, and no, our neighbors have no idea. We have big lots here, and you can't really see from yard to yard anyway.

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