/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.19187812]

I thawed this piece of deer and dumped it from the bag straight into the cutting board and look at how black it is. I think it it blackened while it was hanging after skinning so that is not really a problem.
It feels sticky-dry even though it's straight from the bag it was freezed in.
It smells allright though and the texture is just amazing, should I try to trim the dry layer off or just slice it into chunks like I was intending to?
TLDR what to do with the dried layer of hung meat

[Anonymous No.19187893]

I chose to trim the blackest and driest parts off and I'm cutting it into pieces of this size anyway just to be sure that the dryness won't affect the texture.

[Anonymous No.19187905]

I put it all into a bowl to marinate for some time.
>olive oil
>red wine vinegar
>some soy sauce
>salt
>msg
>freshly ground black pepper
>garlic
>thyme
>dijon mustard

I think I will then fry the meat, put them aside for a bit, then I will take all my remaining onions and caramelize them and make some sort of sauce with the onions and the deer, then mix it with pasta.
Normally I don't like chunks of meat with pasta as opposed to ground meat, but deer is so soft and tender that I think it will be ok.

[Anonymous No.19187979]

>>19187905
Good luck anon, I hope it's tasty. I love gamey meats and would love to try to make a pasta dish with deer or something similar.

[Anonymous No.19187996]

>>19187979
Sadly I only have spaghetti for now, I know some other pasta would be better for it. I am dirt poor and only have this fine meat because we hunt with my father.
Deer has an interesting taste, it's not quite gamey like a moose or an elk. It actually tastes a bit like liver to me. That is why I cut it into such fine pieces.

[Anonymous No.19188024]

Nice cutting board you got there, partner

[Anonymous No.19188036]

>>19188024
I disagree, I hate it.

[Anonymous No.19188054]

>>19187996
I would love to be able to hunt my own game, but I'm a city dweller in Europe. I hope to pursue the American dream in the future, where I'll be able to hunt for my own meat.
Don't worry about only having spaghetti, it s good to make do with what you've got. You're eating better than 99% of the board tonight. I think a deer ragu-style sauce with spaghetti sounds great.
For me, deer has always tasted like "spicy" beef; richer, warmer and darker. Almost like liver, as you say, but without the metallic aftertaste.

[Anonymous No.19188060]

>>19188036
Well then, it appears that we're at an impasse.

[Anonymous No.19188065]

>>19188054
I live in Europe as well, I'm Finnish. But this country is sparsely populated so hunting in the Northern parts is a very popular pastime and a good way to save money.
I guess the more densely populated areas in any country are just off-limits if you want to hunt though. Our family owns some farms and the deers that trespass the crops are considered pests so we have full rights to shoot each and every one of them. Deer is plentiful.

[Anonymous No.19188077]

>>19188065
Forgot to say, birds as well. Sadly there aren't any good big birds, just common Fieldfare.
It's breasts are allright though. Dark and hearty, although the size is only the tip of the thumb at most. Have to shoot 25 of them to have enough meat for a meal for two, because inevitably some of such small birds will be lost.

[Anonymous No.19188119]

>>19188065
Ah, I'm Polish but live in London. It's hard to get a hunting license in both countries, and frankly I don't have the time or money for it as it's a costly procedure to just get a license, let alone a rifle and ammunition. Sorry for assuming you were American, it's just that many euros don't hunt and post about it compared to Americans.
Do deer have natural predators in Finland? I know in the USA they rely on hunters to control the population and in Poland we almost hunted all of our wolves to extinction, with only a few thousand left at the moment.

[Anonymous No.19188149]

>>19188119
>Do deer have natural predators in Finland?
There are some predators but they are very rare. I think the most common cause of 'unnatural' death for a deer is a car. There are some very very few wolves, some bears, and I think wolverines and sometimes lynx might kill the young deers too.
Some 5 or 10 years ago the deers weren't really a problem in the Northern parts. Since everyone got up in arms about people killing wolves, the deer population has absolutely exploded. (I'm never going to understand why shooting a wolf is a problem, they come into the yards and eat cats and dogs and if you shoot one, 10 more will come from Russia)
Just to be clear, I'm talking about the Capreolus capreolus sort of forest deer. It's Roe Deer in English I think.

[Anonymous No.19188157]

>>19188054
hunt urban foxes

[Anonymous No.19188168]

>>19188157
Aren't foxes diseased as fuck? They were always considered messengers of Satan not only because of their red color, but because they eat children unborn and carry diseases that will disfigure you, make you retarded or straight up kill you.

[Anonymous No.19188250]

Because I am making spaghetti, I will cut the majority of my onions roughly like this. It doesn't matter if there will be long onion strips because I will be rolling a fork with spaghetti there anyway. The long onions will just blend right in there.
Also holy shit these are some fucking nuclear grade onions, they were in a very cold fridge and I oiled my knife but I'm crying like a bitch.

[Anonymous No.19188321]

It will take a loong time to caramelize all this onyoo because I only had small onyo, not a big onyo and not a heavy onyo.
So not a good onyo.

[Anonymous No.19188345]

Slowly caramelizing onions is a bore so I'll watch some stuff while doing it

[Anonymous No.19188372]

Had too much heat so I got some browning there, which is not ideal for slow and long caramelization of onion. Will now keep a closer eye on them.

[Anonymous No.19188399]

Slowly getting there but still ways to go. I wonder if I still have too muxh heat.

[Anonymous No.19188401]

I fucked up with mobile, meant to post this picture with the last post.

[Anonymous No.19188447]

wow I did not actually realize how much meat I had. Also don't mind the green colour, it's just the weird fluorescensce in my kitchen lights.
I think this will be a big batch of deer sauce then, instead of meat and onions.

[Anonymous No.19188452]

>>19188447
I forgot the picture of course.

[Anonymous No.19188481]

Made a tiny usual mistake and added too much pasta water to the sauce. Should not matter too much, just have to wait and see how it thickens.

[Anonymous No.19188501]

Now considering that my ingredients were all brown and the dish has no colors as I would like, it looks pretty good.
And it tastes fucking great, there's that gamey flavor and a lot of garlic and thyme. I hoped for a bit more fatty meat but it's deer so no can do, it's very lean.
Cheers!

[Anonymous No.19188579]

Still had enough for leftovers for tomorrow. I feel like a king after eating that. Simple things in life.

[Anonymous No.19188631]

haven't had venison in years

[Anonymous No.19188648]

>>19188501
Looks good anon

[Anonymous No.19188662]

>>19188648
Thank you anon, it was my first cooking thread. Could have documented more steps before the plate, but I feel that the point just before finishing is the most busy.
>>19188631
If I do another thread, I will choose a bigger piece from my freezer and do a roast or something. I love making those.

[Anonymous No.19188666]

>>19188501
Fuck color. Looks good.

[Anonymous No.19188668]

>>19188666
Trips of Satan confirm

[Anonymous No.19188671]

Hard to tell what cut of venison you had but you pulled it off I guess and yeah call it venison not deer

[Anonymous No.19188693]

>>19188671
>call it venison not deer
Why? Is it like beef vs cow, pork vs pig, venison vs deer? I have always figured that venison is one of those bigger elks in Central Europe.
And yeah, I have actually no idea which cut of meat it was. The first one I pulled out of the freezer was clearly a tenderloin and I didn't want to try that with an experimental "what-to-do-with-this" kind of cook.
My father is not organized when bagging the meats. It was so black apparently because it dried a bit while hanging, that's when it turns darker. That's why it was also a bit sticky on the surface, it was just dried.

[Anonymous No.19188701]

>>19188693
Just a term, venison is when you dress the meat , deer is what you shoot . idk stupid shit mostly but those are the terms
Your ole man get a few a year and hang them himself?

[Anonymous No.19188724]

>>19187812
looks like you had yourself a stressed animal prior to slaughter
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjhzoTctbz-AhWGOkQIHfC5DIAQFnoECCAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffyi.extension.wisc.edu%2Fwbic%2Ffiles%2F2011%2F04%2FDark-Firm-and-Dry-Beef.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1ODLVq1AZjA63fmBGRJAH3

Cant make that link any prettier but its whats called DFD meat, essentially there was no glycogen left in the muscle at death so changes occurred, they typically have good water holding capacity compared to regular meat

[Anonymous No.19188729]

>>19188701
Ah I see. Like chicken and turkey are the animals but poulrty is the food, I understand.
We get a lot of snow here in the winter and the strawberry fields are covered with this fine cloth during the snow. The deers with their increasing numbers like to make a patch across the field and their feet make holes in the cloth and the plants freeze to death.
Some winters we get one or two, sometimes even five. There are no limits to it really, since it is a pest animal that endagers the livelihood.
He likes to hang and butcher them himself but sometimes there's just no time and we send them to a butcher in a neighbouring town. They are nowhere near as big as the ones in your pictures though. More like reindeer sized.
I would love to shoot some myself but the gun and hunting laws are strict and I spend most of my time out of town anyway.

[Anonymous No.19188742]

>>19188724
Interesting! Thanks for the comprehensive pdf.
The animal may have very well been stressed as fuck, being shot with a rifle and not dying instantly. I remember tasting some very dark colored wigeons and ducks and they had a slightly liver-ish taste. Most likely the cause was exactly that.

[Anonymous No.19188968]

>>19187812
>freezed

You think the past tense to grind is 'grinded', don't you.

[Anonymous No.19188978]

>>19188968
Well excuuuse me princess. I meant frozen. My bad.

[Anonymous No.19189017]

>>19188729
Sounds like a nice place to live, should find time to go out with your ole man and hunt it's fun and rewarding in ways you didn't see.

[Anonymous No.19189026]

>>19189017
I should. He is an old man and it would be a unique experience.

[Anonymous No.19189038]

One you won't regret and will be glad you did when he is gone, it's the simple things that matter in life. Time alone with dad quite hunting together
sounds stupid but can be very powerful

[Anonymous No.19191086]

>>19188501
Cozy thread + good food, Finnbro. Thanks