Cooked up the Rutting buck neck.

[Firstblood]

Last November I took a very healthy buck that had a neck as thick as its body, it was all swelled up and chunky. In the process of skinning I took a serious piece of meat off its neck that sits in front of its trachea almost up to its chin, its a piece of meat I've never seen other than on really rutted up bucks. The piece ended up being about the size of two nice pork tenderloins and slightly lighter in colour than the rest of the venison taken off the buck. Ive been waiting to cook it up to see what it tasted like as its a pure rutted buck piece of meat so I seasoned it with my game rub, seared it in the cast iron and added a bit of chicken stock for a few minutes. Ill be damned if it was not the most juicy, tender, light piece of venison Ive ever had. Ive honestly never understood people who say you cant eat a rutted up stanky buck as they are some of the best Ive ever had, take care of the meat and it will be good as gold.

[albravo2]

take care of the meat and it will be good as gold.

I think you nailed it right there.

Happy to hear you enjoyed that.

[RICKADY]

Same here.
Taste's so good.
My wife who's never been a game eater can't wait till we cook more.
Dam fine.

[MZac]

Thanks for sharing. Definitely looking forward to some neck roasts in my future.

For a guy that's new to this and has never taken a big game animal (I'm anal about how I take care of my fish and ducks, and want to do the same for any big game).

Is it as simple (or difficult depending on circumstance) as:

1. gutting it asap.
2. Hide off as soon as possible.
3. Keep it as clean as possible/hang it/game bag it.
4. Get it into a cooler.

More nuance that I've come accross is try to hang it with air flow and let it crust a bit. Rinse out the gut area if possible. Open the cooler drain. Don't put the ice directly on the meat. Don't let the meat sit in water.

Am I missing anything important (genuine question)?

It seems like caring for the meat is brought up frequently enough to lead me to believe that a large enough portion of hunters screw it up.

[Keta1969]

In over 40 years of hunting this has worked for me and we have eaten some bucks that were rutting hard.

1 Quick clean kill ( doesn't always happen but sure helps)
2 Guts out ASAP. ( I know lots of guys like gutless method but I like to dump them) Keep your knives and saws if used clean.
3 Keep it CLEAN, if you take the hide off in the bush game bag it and when back at camp go over the meat again removing hair. If in camp hang in the shade. We always take the hide off ASAP
4 Cut out bloodshot meat.
5 Keep it cool, I love air flow. If it's hot get it to a cooler. I'm not a fan of keeping meat in an enclosed cooler in camp. A fan in an enclosed garage helps a lot but still if you are worried about temps cut it and freeze it.
6 If you are on a trip and it starts to warm up travel home at night or early morning.
7 Keep the meat off the bed of a pickup. Use a pallet.
8 Know your butcher and his reputation. We do our own but have a good butcher we can use if we end up with say more than 1 moose and it is to hot for hanging. Would love my own stand up cooler.
9 Have a plan for your meat before you pull the trigger(almost forgot this one but is the most important)

I'm sure others will chime in.

[Fella]

Avoid touching the tarsals with the knife you’re skinning and gutting with

[backcountry98]

My grandpa and dad always quit hunting October 30th due to the rut and they said "they taste awful". Well I've had some poor venison, but its yet to taste bad from any of my harvested deer. I found some extra simple steps to make sure I get the best bang for my back in terms of meat quality.

Now I have been doing my own huntin' for sometime now. And love pursuing critters in full rut but once a buck is down no matter the time of fall these are my steps:

-latex gloves on and spare knife out, completely skin tarsals off back legs, take them far away and put knife and gloves in a ziplock
-return to the carcass, take out better clean knife, depending on how far to the truck, i will gut it and drag or go gutless method and hanging quarters to cool while breaking down the animal before packout.
-once home or if is long drive get it on ice or if cold enough hang it in a tree when home and clean the meat. If possible hang for a few days.
-when butchering, I enjoy bone in cuts but I always remove all tallow/fat before wrapping.

I cooked for many first time venison or bear eating folks and have yet to have a complaint they all really enjoy it as do I.

I figure, if we are all going to put the time and effort into hunting these animals its well worth to take extra time to care for the meat properly, with no short cuts, even if its gonna be all night.

[Rieber]

Keta1969 - thank you for the tip on the Pallet.

If it's warm outside, I'll stop and pick up a couple bags of ice and will push those into the shoulder and hind quarters cavities. I also open up my canopy windows to help get some air flow while driving. Once home I put the quarters in the rest in the game fridge. I've got a big double door commercial fridge in the garage for this now so this will be a lot more easier for me now.

[Treed]

I agree with all of the above. It’s also about recognizing meat. What’s a slow cook, reversed seared, burger, rare cuts etc. My favourite cuts are the ribs, shoulders, shanks, and neck, all slow cooked. Oh and the rare roasts, reverse seared. You gotta try the reverse sear for rare meats! Pumps them up to another level.

[warnniklz]

They drew first blood.




This story makes me happy.

[srupp]

Hmm Keta.1969..
Pallets not only keep the meat off the truck box floor with hot exhaust pipes running constantly underneath. .it also keeps meat up off floor in case of rain pooling.
Great sensible tips..usually have buck for meat prior to rut but not always..never personally harvested a bad deer..stinKY body swollen neck but meathe was fine.
Great tips obviously from experience Keta1969.
Thank you for taking time for sharing with new hunters.
Cheers
Srupp