deer fat - how much to trim

[upperleftcoaster]

so i just got a real nice fat white-tailed doe. oat fed from a farmers field. over an inch of fat on the breast when i gutted her, and tons of fat layered up all around. plus when it was warm the fat was really gelatinous, not like waxy and stiff.

how much should i trim off? my friend suggested that the fat was fine to eat but that it degrades quickly in the freezer.

i'm looking at the cuts and it feels like a shame to just get rid of all of it. so what are your experiences with a healthy fat deer?


this is the rib section
https://i.imgur.com/sC3akjch.jpg

and the saddle
https://i.imgur.com/JzfXWywh.jpg

[horseman2]

A field fed doe with lots of bark. A range fed dear would not have that much.

A little bit is all you need and is too much if mixed in to your ground.

[brig]

I would certainly trim off all the hard fat, it will add gamey flavour for sure after a short time in the freezer. If there’s a little left on you cuts or in your ground it wont be noticeable but I have found you want to trim the majority of it off.

[jlirot]

https://honest-food.net/cooking-deer-fat/

THere are other articles out there. Apparently venison fat has a very high stearic acid content. This coats your mouth and keeps you from tasting other flavors. So either go easy on the fat - or drink a good cabernet with it.

[warnniklz]

I'm just commenting as I'm curious about white tail fat...

I know mule deer fat is waxy as all hell. Can scrape it from your mouth with a fingernail after eating it.

[180grainer]

Get rid of it all or as much as you can. Wild game fat is not like beef fat.

[whognu]

Get rid of it all or as much as you can. Wild game fat is not like beef fat.

what he said

zero is a good amount

[Livewire322]

Add another one for the ‘trim app of it off’ camp.

If you don’t want it going to waste, you can render the fat out and make something from it - soap, candles, waterproofing… that’d be pretty ‘extra’ though (having done it myself, I can confirm it’s time consuming)

[MichelD]

My wife likes to save the fatty brisket portions for Moroccan-stye couscous where it substutes for the fatty mutton used in the real thing.

I leave a fair bit of fat on the strips of ribs I cut too. it mostly cooks out when oven roasted in a covered clay pot for hours.

I'm talking blacktails and mule deer.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

I trim off 100% of all game fat and all of the silver skin. Game fat is tallowy and doesn’t age well at all.
Trim it well including all outside dried ‘skin’. The better it’s trimmed the less gamey it will taste.


SSS

[Dannybuoy]

I trim off 100% of all game fat and all of the silver skin. Game fat is tallowy and doesn’t age well at all.
Trim it well including all outside dried ‘skin’. The better it’s trimmed the less gamey it will taste.


SSS

What he said ! Although I didn't know the fat added to the gameyness ? Never had any issues with gamey bucks . The only thing I don't trim the fat off is the ribs but rather cook and pour it off .

[hawk-i]

A little tallow on a BBQ deer chop is tasty!

[Quince2]

Trim it and vacpack into balls. Good suet for birds if you like them.

[walks with deer]

I like to mix it with dround just eat your burger while its hot.

[upperleftcoaster]

Thanks for the responses!!

that article by Hank Shaw was very informative. To summarize so far it looks like some folks don’t mind a bit of fat present, with the remainder staunchly in the zero fat camp.

this deer was oat fed, and in great shape. On my mulie buck I took all the fat off, but this whitetail is so healthy I want to be open to eating the fat.

I am butchering tonight so it’s a good opportunity for an experiment:
-> At a minimum I will trim any exposed fat as it will have oxidized and be off putting.
-> next I will render a bit of fat in a pan, per the Hank Shaw article. If it smells good, it is good.
-> I will make a rollade from the belly (the “bacon” area). This will be ultra fatty and a true taste test of leaving the maximum amount on.
-> one of my “racks of venison” I will keep a moderate amount of fat on. I’m going to cook it this weekend. I will trim it up just before cooking to about a 1/4” of fat
-> anything going in the freezer will get cleaned up to lean, no fat
-> having the tenderloins tonight for dinner to get a good taste of the lean and clean deer meat

And I will keep all the fat trim to render for tallow, and then make soap with it. I made bear grease soap, so have all the things already.

I will report back with my findings and taste tests!

[MB_Boy]

I would be interested to hear what the soap turns out like. Knowing the texture of deer fat on the top of my mouth if not cleaned up it would be neat to understand how it smells.

[mpotzold]

what he said

zero is a good amount

Again!-fully agree

Had a little of it a few times & couldn't stand the wild taste.
Last time a few years ago had some on a plate for dinner at a friend's place & had to run to the washroom to spit it out -it was so wild tasting!

[jlirot]

Nice!!!!

Have some good wine on hand just in case.

But, that article gives a good explanation of why deer fat sticks to your mouth.

Thanks for the responses!!

that article by Hank Shaw was very informative. To summarize so far it looks like some folks don’t mind a bit of fat present, with the remainder staunchly in the zero fat camp.

this deer was oat fed, and in great shape. On my mulie buck I took all the fat off, but this whitetail is so healthy I want to be open to eating the fat.

I am butchering tonight so it’s a good opportunity for an experiment:
-> At a minimum I will trim any exposed fat as it will have oxidized and be off putting.
-> next I will render a bit of fat in a pan, per the Hank Shaw article. If it smells good, it is good.
-> I will make a rollade from the belly (the “bacon” area). This will be ultra fatty and a true taste test of leaving the maximum amount on.
-> one of my “racks of venison” I will keep a moderate amount of fat on. I’m going to cook it this weekend. I will trim it up just before cooking to about a 1/4” of fat
-> anything going in the freezer will get cleaned up to lean, no fat
-> having the tenderloins tonight for dinner to get a good taste of the lean and clean deer meat

And I will keep all the fat trim to render for tallow, and then make soap with it. I made bear grease soap, so have all the things already.

I will report back with my findings and taste tests!

[35rem]

I rendered a bunch of fat of a whitetail last year and a member here gave me his Grandma's recipe for baking cookies with it. Substitute butter with 3/4 deer fat/1/4 water. I tried it, made gingerbread cookies and can confirm they were delicious.

[upperleftcoaster]

ok so i have some updates from the past week of experimenting with the whitetail deer fat and cooking.

my overall goal was to try the fat in different ways and see how it would taste.

to start I made some roulades with belly trim from the saddle section. they were a bit small. only seasoned with salt. After browning I slow cooked them covered at 300 degrees for a couple hours. I saved the broth and rendered fat from the pan as well. then you wrap them and cool them to get the shape set and keep some of the fat in.

To cook the roulade, i sliced pin wheels and then seared them in the cast iron pan. You can clearly see there is fat still on the pin wheels even though a ton had rendered out.

https://i.imgur.com/X8zGYzLh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CJVUOWDh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Vb5g0Jxh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/T2Lxme1h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XQmtgFeh.jpg


the results of this? a delicious, rich taste. the fat tasted great on its own, like a nice gristle on a fatty steak, though obviously in the venison flavour realm. there was no "coating of the mouth" or waxy texture to be had. It is even mother-in-law approved, no complaints from four people. I have done the same recipe with lamb, and this one is a clear winner.

[upperleftcoaster]

So now I know the fat tastes great, let's go all in. I made a homemade ramen broth and used ALL of the rendered fat from the roulades in it.

https://i.imgur.com/8HhqKhEh.jpg


you can see here all of that fat floating on top:
https://i.imgur.com/wmzxINnh.jpg



I added morels, you know, smoke 'em if you got 'em.
https://i.imgur.com/vaMcy9ih.jpg


and the final result
https://i.imgur.com/xGxkuF9h.jpg

so there was probably about half a cup of that rendered fat added in to the pure venison stock. what did it taste like? well this soup entered the "coat your mouth" kind of territory for sure. but it worked so well, it coated your mouth with great taste and the broth. it made the soup have a rich silky quality. quite the surprise. no off flavours, no waxy textures, and the coating your mouth quality of the stearic acid clearly added to the experience.

[upperleftcoaster]

this was a healthy whitetail doe eating off oat and hay fields, keep that in mind. conclusions so far? eat the deer fat.

even the fatty belly strips of meat taste great as is.

https://i.imgur.com/yRZgB9Ah.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cwIGflVh.jpg


Now everything i put into the freezer i did trim to lean, as I know the fat will sour over time.

but i have one more experiment to do this week, and that is cookies



I rendered a bunch of fat of a whitetail last year and a member here gave me his Grandma's recipe for baking cookies with it. Substitute butter with 3/4 deer fat/1/4 water. I tried it, made gingerbread cookies and can confirm they were delicious.

I will be rendering the fat trimmings I've saved into lard, then try making some cookies.

[HarryToolips]

Add another one for the ‘trim app of it off’ camp.

If you don’t want it going to waste, you can render the fat out and make something from it - soap, candles, waterproofing… that’d be pretty ‘extra’ though (having done it myself, I can confirm it’s time consuming)

This is what I would look into doing with the fat...as mentioned previously, deer fat is gross and sticks to the roof of your mouth..

[HarryToolips]

ok so i have some updates from the past week of experimenting with the whitetail deer fat and cooking.

my overall goal was to try the fat in different ways and see how it would taste.

to start I made some roulades with belly trim from the saddle section. they were a bit small. only seasoned with salt. After browning I slow cooked them covered at 300 degrees for a couple hours. I saved the broth and rendered fat from the pan as well. then you wrap them and cool them to get the shape set and keep some of the fat in.

To cook the roulade, i sliced pin wheels and then seared them in the cast iron pan. You can clearly see there is fat still on the pin wheels even though a ton had rendered out.

https://i.imgur.com/X8zGYzLh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CJVUOWDh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Vb5g0Jxh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/T2Lxme1h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XQmtgFeh.jpg


the results of this? a delicious, rich taste. the fat tasted great on its own, like a nice gristle on a fatty steak, though obviously in the venison flavour realm. there was no "coating of the mouth" or waxy texture to be had. It is even mother-in-law approved, no complaints from four people. I have done the same recipe with lamb, and this one is a clear winner.

Wow that's awesome, good to know thanks..

[high horse Hal]

Nice follow up thnaks
The feed must be the difference
Curious though if the hay field had alfalfa , heard that is a flavour killer in wt deer

[HarryToolips]

So now I know the fat tastes great, let's go all in. I made a homemade ramen broth and used ALL of the rendered fat from the roulades in it.

https://i.imgur.com/8HhqKhEh.jpg


you can see here all of that fat floating on top:
https://i.imgur.com/wmzxINnh.jpg



I added morels, you know, smoke 'em if you got 'em.
https://i.imgur.com/vaMcy9ih.jpg


and the final result
https://i.imgur.com/xGxkuF9h.jpg

so there was probably about half a cup of that rendered fat added in to the pure venison stock. what did it taste like? well this soup entered the "coat your mouth" kind of territory for sure. but it worked so well, it coated your mouth with great taste and the broth. it made the soup have a rich silky quality. quite the surprise. no off flavours, no waxy textures, and the coating your mouth quality of the stearic acid clearly added to the experience.

If it tastes as good as it looks should be great..