Well, that's one way of getting meat in the freezer...

[JAB]

Last Saturday night I was sitting at a local, weekly auction when I noticed a guy who I went to school with who often attends the auction - and who is now one of the local cops (he was off duty) get up and go outside while talking on his cell phone. He came back in and spoke to the auctioneer who announced that someone had just hit a deer out on the highway and did anyone want it. My hand went up.

Well, Bobby (the off duty cop) told me that the deer was still alive and that the officers who called would wait until I got there to shoot it. Not wanting it to suffer, I hurried out there. True to their word, they put it out of its misery when I arrived and helped me load it into the back of my truck. I took it home and my brother in law and I - by the light of a drop cord light - cleaned and processed it. The meat was all in good shape. When the deer was hit, it had mostly shattered one of its forelegs and broke one of its antlers off (the remaining antler was a spike with just enough of a prong to make that antler a 'two point' so I guess it is possible that it was a four point buck before the accident. Not a huge deer but very solid. I'm guessing probably about sixty to seventy five pounds of meat - including the heart and liver that I kept.

I am not skilled/equipped enough to do 'steaks' and so on but I can do the basic 'primal cuts'. I now have two racks of venison ribs (I purposefully left a good bit of meat on them), two hind quarter roasts, two front shoulder roasts, two boneless (front) shanks, the majority of the liver, already sliced (I fed some of the liver to my dog, raw, and she loved it) and a decent chunk of backstrap in the freezer. I also have some 'odds and ends' pieces that I plan to grind into 'burger'.

I sliced and fried the heart in butter and had that along with some pan fried backstrap (dredged in seasoned flour and cornmeal) with biscuits and gravy for breakfast Sunday morning. I plan to put one of the hindquarter roasts into a disposable roasting pan with a braising liquid and cook it on my smoker for Thanksgiving. Man, I love venison.

I don't like seeing anything (even a possum) get hit by a car and I hate seeing anything suffer. I am happy to have the meat in the freezer, though. Waste not, want not, right? Edited November 6, 2012 by JAB

[TrickyNicky]

Seems the best way to make the best out of a sad situation.

How's heart? Had plenty of venison steaks but never any organs. Any way to describe/compare it to anything else?

[Murgatroy]

I had to look at your location.

I grew up in Tellico Plains, a little farther back in the hills from you (I have spent a fair bit of time in Loudon/Madisonville/Philadelphia area) and this was a common thing this time of year.

I remember as a young hot blooded lad, spending some quality time in the backseat of a truck with a hot blooded young lady when all of a sudden there was a knock on the window.

As we scrambled to get clothing back in place I rolled the window down to an officer of the law.

Now we were both of age, but we were parked in a rather public place in Madisonville.

The cop looks at me, doesn't miss a beat and says "Hey, hate to bother you, but I couldn't help but notice you had a truck, and someone just hit a deer out here on 411..."

We ate good for a while on that.

[peejman]

[quote name='Murgatroy' timestamp='1352247884' post='840444']
I had to look at your location.

I grew up in Tellico Plains, a little farther back in the hills from you (I have spent a fair bit of time in Loudon/Madisonville/Philadelphia area) and this was a common thing this time of year.

I remember as a young hot blooded lad, spending some quality time in the backseat of a truck with a hot blooded young lady when all of a sudden there was a knock on the window.

As we scrambled to get clothing back in place I rolled the window down to an officer of the law.

Now we were both of age, but we were parked in a rather public place in Madisonville.

The cop looks at me, doesn't miss a beat and says "Hey, hate to bother you, but I couldn't help but notice you had a truck, and someone just hit a deer out here on 411..."

We ate good for a while on that.
[/quote]

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are...

[JAB]

[quote name='Murgatroy' timestamp='1352247884' post='840444']
I had to look at your location.

I grew up in Tellico Plains, a little farther back in the hills from you (I have spent a fair bit of time in Loudon/Madisonville/Philadelphia area) and this was a common thing this time of year.

I remember as a young hot blooded lad, spending some quality time in the backseat of a truck with a hot blooded young lady when all of a sudden there was a knock on the window.

As we scrambled to get clothing back in place I rolled the window down to an officer of the law.

Now we were both of age, but we were parked in a rather public place in Madisonville.

The cop looks at me, doesn't miss a beat and says "Hey, hate to bother you, but I couldn't help but notice you had a truck, and someone just hit a deer out here on 411..."

We ate good for a while on that.
[/quote]

Hah!

I like Tellico Plains and enjoy camping/trout fishing up along the Tellico River and at Citico and Indian Boundary.

Since you are familiar with the area, this one was hit on Hwy 11, close to where it crosses Hwy 72, right in front of the Farmer's CoOp. It ended up lying in a recently harvested field across from the CoOp. IIRC, that field was planted in soybeans so this deer probably ate well. It was certainly a solid, healthy deer.

[Guest Grubbah]

[quote name='TrickyNicky' timestamp='1352247563' post='840439']
Seems the best way to make the best out of a sad situation.

How's heart? Had plenty of venison steaks but never any organs. Any way to describe/compare it to anything else?
[/quote]

The heart is just another muscle and is just about the same flavor as any other part of the deer. Maybe a bit tougher but thats to be expected of any heart in my experience. There's more cleaning and preparing to do because it does have a lot of tougher connective type tissue and arteries. But those can be trimmed off. I generally sliced it into strips, trimmed off any undesirable pieces dredged in seasoned flour (Drakes mix generally) and pan fried in butter. mmm mmmm

Its an often tossed part which is perfectly good meat in my opinion.

[UncleJak]

I got some venison Saturday too. My friend down the street won't let any part go to waste. Thats the way it was intended to be...

[JAB]

[quote name='TrickyNicky' timestamp='1352247563' post='840439']
Seems the best way to make the best out of a sad situation.

How's heart? Had plenty of venison steaks but never any organs. Any way to describe/compare it to anything else?
[/quote]

The heart was pretty good. I sliced it fairly thin, going from side to side and discarded everything but the good, solid, red meat. I sliced it by laying it on its side on the cutting board then making the slices with the knife parallel to the cutting board. This is the first time I have tried venison heart (have eaten chicken heart, before - just cooked them whole) so I didn't dredge it in flour, etc. - just pan seared/fried the slices in a little butter and cooking oil so I could really get the true flavor.

I'd describe the flavor as being a lot like beef round steak with just a barely detectable hint of the kind of 'mineral' flavor that beef liver often has and maybe just a slight, barely perceptable 'gaminess'. All in all, it was pretty good and I would definitely eat it, again. I do think that slicing it thin is key, though, as the heart is a pretty tough muscle but sliced thin it wasn't hard to chew, at all. By the time I sliced it up and got rid of the parts I didn't want to eat, there wasn't a whole lot of meat left from the heart. The heart meat would be really good in a stir fry or something, I think, or maybe seared with some Mexican seasoning, onions and green peppers then chopped and used to make a soft taco, etc

I haven't tried the liver, yet. I also sliced it fairly thin and have it in the freezer. In general, liver - whether chicken, beef or whatever - isn't something I could just eat all the time. I have to be in the mood for it so I am waiting until I am 'in the mood' for liver before I try it. When slicing it up, etc. it smelled a lot like beef liver. We'll just have to see about that.

I wish I had thought to take the tongue, too. I love beef tongue (when cooked properly), would have liked to try my hand at cooking tongue and would have liked to have tried venison tongue. Unfortunately, I didn't think of it until Sunday afternoon so I missed the opportunity. Edited November 7, 2012 by JAB

[TrickyNicky]

Hmm that's sounding pretty good, time to broaden my culinary horizons I think.

Thanks for the flavor review.