Exotic/Different meat cooking

[Straight Shooter]

All anyone need do is look at ANY post S13 has done ...his rep rating ...i rest my case......by the way i can,t stand cheeky kids , who know even less.

[Mortblanc]

Killing, gutting and prepping a deer for consumption is not rocket science, I hear that even a cave man can do it.

I personally consider prepping deer easier than processing chickens, an activity I sincerely hate.

My son and I have processed two at a time on the patio picnic table in a couple of hours, well perhaps three hours, right down to boning, wrapping in butcher paper and depositing in the freezer.

Almost all animals go through the same process, more or less, no matter if they are rats, rabbits, squirrels, dogs, cats, deer, cattle, mutton or elephant. You get the insides out and reduce the meat into manageable portions. The first few times it may not be pretty, but as long as you get the meat into the pot that is what matters.

If one has never skinned and processed anything it is time to look in the local newspapers and find a supplier of meat rabbits, go to the provider, have them knock one in the head for you and talk you through the process while they watch and laugh. Then place it in a plastic bag, take it home and cook it on the charcoal fired Barbe.

Keep it high enough off the coals to avoid burning and give it 30-45 minutes sizzle time while turning every 5-10 minutes. When the meat near the bone is not pink it is done. When the meat has reached "done", or a temperature over 160f, most any parasite or other problem will have been eliminated by the cooking process.

Boiling is even better since the entire contents will reach 210f for an extended period of time and just about any problem that was present will have been eliminated. You boil water to purify it and you can do the same to "purify" your food if it is questionable.

Boiling is also the most efficient cooking method since none of the nutrients are wasted. You get the meat, the broth, any fat that was present and you will have the ability to add whatever foraged vegetable matter that is available right down to unprocessed grains.

Lack of knowledge of primitive cooking is a matter of avoiding the chances for training. One has to avoid ever cooking on a barbeque, ever building a campfire and boiling up a stew or cup of tea, ever cooking on the hearth of the home fireplace or experimenting with these things in any way.

You have to NOT do it on purpose if you call yourself "prepared" in any way yet still lack these skills!

It is truly something one can learn in the back yard, on the balcony of one's apartment or at the picnic tables available at most public parks. It is one of the things that can be transferred directly from the recreational sphere to survival use.

[Straight Shooter]

Great post MB !

[T-oddity]

If you can find a decent butchers that also does game meats rather than just pork, beef and chicken they can be persuaded to sell you a carcass of an animal that you can skin and butcher yourself, the last time I asked which is a couple of years ago now a deer would cost about £70 - £80 depending on the size of the beast.
Butchering is something I have a go at whenever I get the chance, usually with road kill, but my skill is pretty poor especially with bigger animals there is a definite skill at getting the best cuts that wastes the least meat.

[Steve]

Mort has hit the nail on the head again, fancy butchery skills aren't needed, simply remove the bits you don't want to eat and cut the rest up into convenient sized portions. Boil it up in a stew with anything edible you can dig up or harvest.

[Mortblanc]

One of the things I have learned in archeological digs is that the butchering systems of the pre-20th Century were more concerned with getting good joint cuts of meat for the soup pots. You can tell that from the way the bones were cut. Open ends to let the marrow flow into the broth and bone sections that show "family sized" chunks of meat. Of course they had pots of various sizes and pot size was also a factor.

It is said that the Mexicans bread their small dog to fit the size of the most common Spanish trade pot.

The ancient stone aged people tended to cut through the joint at the weakest part of the carcass, roast the meat and crush the bones to get at the marrow.

I was watching a food documentary a while back where some yuppie was traveling through Africa taste testing the foods of the native people. When he got to the Sann bushmen in SA he went with them on a tracking expedition, killed an antelope and watched in horror as they simply dumped the whole undressed, unbutchered carcass on the fire, guts, hooves, skin, hair and all.

After a time they proceeded to rip the carcass apart with their bare hands and tear chunks of meat from the mass, consuming everything down to the stomach and intestinal contents. The young chief was truly appalled and after tasting one bite had to leave the set and have a healthy puke.

I have roasted deer over the spit, as well as goat and on a couple of occasions a whole hog. Small game I have roasted on a simple stick many times and even more often have parted them out and cooked them in my tin billy accompanied by a handful of rice and dried vegetables.

As a group, we once removed the entrails from a wild turkey, coated it with mud from the riverside without removing the feathers, and buried it under the fire to bake for 5-6 hours. When we dug it up the clay coating cracked from the carcass, taking feathers and skin with it and leaving clean, well baked meat for the group.

It's not rocket science. It does not take a special school or advanced training from a professional. It does not take specialized tools. It merely takes doing the job two or three times until one finally gets it right.

"Right" being a relative term.