thank God for Late Season Archery...maybe i will get a deer with the bow this year after all.
Anyway, we were lucky in the fact that the husband was able to harvest a deer and we now have some meat in the freezer, but depending on what we get late season, the pickings may be lean this year.
As last year was rather good, and we also received some ground venison from a friend making room in his freezer for a cow, we have some leftover roasts and ground meat that i will be using first, but most definetly NOT before the most tender and delicous tenderloin.
this is the true prize of a hunter for a long day in the woodsof waiting, shooting, gutting dragging and butchering. the tenderloin (unlike the rest of the deer) is best strait away from the kill. this is becuase the tenderloin on any animal is the least used muscle, and there for, as the name implies, tender.
a deer, being a wild animal, uses its muscles much more then your run of the mill farmed meat. for this reason, it is best to 'hang' the animal ( in tempertures between 33 and 40 degrees) for a period of at least 1 day and up to 5 days. this allows the meat to begin to break down and tenderize itself before being butchered and cryovaced for freezing.
fortunetly for the hunter, the tenderloin is so tender that the hanging process does not benifit this particular cut of meat. this means that after the deer is hung, you can remove these two lovely morsels from the side of the animals spine and have a dinner fit for a king.
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