Using the whole deer

[k15n1]

Recently got a lesson in butchering a deer. Seemed like a lot of stuff went un-used, but it wasn't my deer, so I didn't say anything. In the future, what parts can I use? I'd like to avoid brains and spinal cord.

1. Hide can be tanned
2. lower legs and feed can be rendered for neatsfoot oil
3. Bones (not skull or spine) can be frozen for dog food or boiled for stock or hide glue
4. Antlers for tool handles

What am I missing? Can you eat any of the organs? Modern hunters leave all of that in the woods, I guess. But you should be able to eat the liver, kidneys, and heart, right?

 

[Beekissed]

Yes, the organs are great for eating. Heart, liver, kidneys are all regularly eaten...just as they would be if from a sheep or cow. You can save the intestines for sausage casings, if desired. The fascia can be used for binding things like snowshoes, sewing, etc. The brains can be used to tan the hide. The hair of the tail can be used for certain fishing lures.

The meat between the ribs and the covering the abdomen can be used for jerkey(any of the scrap meats can be used for jerky and sausage, if cut right) and the fat layers can be used for suet, sausage, waterproofing shoes, etc.

Anything you can use from domestic livestock, can be utilized from deer also.

Antlers have many, many uses, as do some of the harder bones.

 

[Hinotori]

Sinew can be used for sewing or for backing bows. You can make cord out of the intestines if you don't use them for sausage. Bones can be used for many things as well. Handles, beads, buttons.

Brains can be used to tan that hide you kept. You make a slurry with water and the brain and soak the cleaned, dehaired hide in it a few days. It smells bad. Do that someplace where it doesn't drift near you and keep it lidded. There should be instructions online. I have books with it. I only tried a small hide.

Skulls can be used for decoration. I let them sit out and rot off, then I clean it up and paint and decorate with horsehair, feathers, tails, and beads. Teeth can also be turned into beads for decor.

First meal from deer or elk when I was growing up was the liver, second was the heart. We didn't eat kidneys in my family. I don't know why.

 

[opiemaster]

I process my all my deer, learned from my mother, I have never used the intestins to make sausage, I buy hog cassings (cleaned intestins) for that. I keep the liver and the heart. I have never used or eaten the kidneys. The deer fat is not recomended to add to meat for "fat" as it has a strong taste to it and can alter what you are making.
The Native Americans used the stomacs as water storage. ALso on a mature buck, if you look in the stomach, pull all the "food" out, sometimes you will find a clay/ chaulky disk. This can be used for medicinal porposes as it has a natural drawing affect when applied to an infected cut and wrapped with a bandage. Antlers make greta knife and tool handles as already described, but they also make good powder measures for black powder. Just drill it out to hold the desired powder amount. People buy deer antlers for making things, you wont get rich, but they can be sold.
The chinese use antlers ground and powdered for medicinal reasons, but I am unfamiliar with these uses.
The neck meat on smaller deer is hard to work with as it has alot of leeders in it. I try to clean the ribs out as best as possible but do not spend to much time on it as here in Missouri you can get all the deer we want so I usually put 4 to 6 deer a year away. Steaks, sausages, jerky meat, roasts, etc.
Over the years I have collected several different cook books on cooking wild game and making different sausages. It has become something I look forward to every year trying the new recipies I have found. Nothing beats the taste of fresh venison sausages and such.
If you have any questions, will help as best I can

 

[baymule]

When I have made sausage from deer meat, I grind a whole beef brisket with it. The fat from the brisket makes it "just enough" so I don't have to add fat to the skillet to cook it. I have found that beef fat added to the sausage keeps longer that if I add pork fat.

As far as utilizing everything from the deer, I must confess. I don't try to keep everything.

 

[Emerald]

We always kept the heart and liver for dinner that night.. Or liver and scrambled eggs for breakfast.. I am not a kidney fan.. just don't care for the flavor. Have tried deer fries tho.. different texture but good flavor haha!
I also take the small roasts(we tend to go for the smaller deer in our area.. tons of yearlings around and they are so tender and yummy) and brine them and smoke them with pastrami seasonings and then steam them like a good pastrami and make sandwich meat. Or just brine and smoke and make "Vam" haha.. my version of Canadian bacon
I am not a big fan of any ground meats but now that I have a grinder I want to make some ground venison/turkey/lamb and make some meatballs for the freezer.. sounds like it would mix well.

I have family that make leather purses and would love to learn to make/tan my own deer hide but have a super sensitive nose and worry that it would make the ol' gag factor kick in! but I still wanna know how to do it! Can't smell worse than plucking chickens... right? Right?

 

[~gd]

Might I suggest you check with the fish and game people in your area. Parasites and disease can be a local problem and they are usually aware of them. Mad deer disease has been reported in some areas, I wouldn't want to mess with that. Nobody mentioned my favorite the tounge and jowels. Takes some extra effort but when boiled and pickled is great.

 

[D1]

People buy deer antlers for making things, you wont get rich, but they can be sold.

You may want to check your state law on this, in some states it is illegal buy sell or trade any part of wildlife native to that state.

I am learning a lot from this thread. I have never eaten the toung or kidneys how do you cook it? and the jowles? do you cure them like prok jowels?

 

[Hinotori]

I forgot about tongue. Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandma always boiled it in salted water until you could peel it easy, then it was sliced and cooked with cabbage. Or sliced and fried some then she'd make a brown gravy with it. It was then dished over cheese spaetzle. Sometimes she just put it back in the pot and cooked it as a pot roast. Very, very yummy pot roast.

 

[sdwolfden]

most of the things that have been suggested I have thought of and done. Here a few other things that I have done. Some of the other entrails , such as lungs, stomach and instetines can be cleaned and used to feed omnivore livestock like chickens and pigs. We have done this for our chickens and they love it. Depending on how much work you want to put in, there are small bones in the fore legs of deer that can be used as sewing needles. The fat can be rendered down and used as base for soap or used for tallow candles. The hoofs can be cooked down and used as gelatin. The intestines CAN be cleaned and used as suasage casings but certain precautions need to be taken to make sure it is done right (I haven't tried that but have seen it done). The hair from the tail can be used to tie flys for fishing. Bones can be cut and make into buttons as can the antlers.

With all of the suggestion in this thread, we have only scratch the surface of the possilities of the use of a deer. Remember, the natives of the Great Lakes and Eastern U.S. used literal every part of the deer for their basic existance for centuries.