The Instant Pot was invented for cooking venison. Well, maybe that wasn’t the first thing it was intended to cook, but damn does it do a good job turning tough cuts of meat into melt in your mouth morsels. When cooking with the Instant Pot, you can pretty much follow all the same traditional cooking … Continue reading “Easy Instant Pot Venison Chili”
Category: Tools of the Trade
Information and reviews of tools and items that will make butchering, processing, and cooking your deer easier or tastier.
DIY Trail Cam Battery Pack
If you live far enough north, as the various deer seasons progress, it tends to get colder. And batteries don’t like the cold. How often have you gone to check a trail cam and – it’s dead. And how many batteries does it take? 4? 8? More? The good news is that trail cam manufacturer’s … Continue reading “DIY Trail Cam Battery Pack”
How to Cut Deer Shanks
Venison shanks are delicious to eat, but tough to cut, unless you know a trick or two.
Make a European Mount for under $5
I’ve seen a lot of taxidermy mounts over the year, and some of them have been pretty impressive. I’m not against them, but they just aren’t for me, for a few reasons: They take up a lot of space for display. They just seem unnatural to me – taking the skin and stretching it over … Continue reading “Make a European Mount for under $5”
A Meat Grinder For Hunters
Over the years, there has been a gradual shift in the way I process my deer as I get it in the freezer. In the beginning, we made sausage out of everything except the loins and tenderloins. And we did it all in one session. With a manual meat grinder. Never. Again. Lessons learned: Grinding … Continue reading “A Meat Grinder For Hunters”
Let a Hitch Hoist do the heavy lifting on your deer
The first deer I ever killed was an incredible learning experience. I was hunting with my father-in-law, who hadn’t hunted since he was a kid. Neither of us had any real experience gutting a deer. I read everything I could find on how to field dress a deer. I managed well enough, but where I … Continue reading “Let a Hitch Hoist do the heavy lifting on your deer”
Cooking with Cast Iron Pans
Cooking on cast iron brings to mind nostalgic images of cowboys cooking over an open fire, stars shining, someone strumming a few guitar chords as the day winds to an end… Ok, hold on. I never ONCE saw anyone try to clean one of those pans in those old westerns I saw as a kid! … Continue reading “Cooking with Cast Iron Pans”
Use a food slicer to expand your venison options
A meat/food slicer is one of those tools that can be hard to justify purchasing. If you are just starting out hunting, there are way more important things you should be spending your money on, namely the gear you will be using in the field. But after a few years, your gear needs tend to … Continue reading “Use a food slicer to expand your venison options”
Using Nitrites in Curing Meat
Nitrites and nitrates in curing meat have gotten a bad rap over the years. For everything you read out there telling you to avoid it, you can find just as many articles telling you it’s safe. I’m not going to go on here about what is right or what is wrong. What I will tell … Continue reading “Using Nitrites in Curing Meat”
Brining Venison – Add flavor and tenderize in one step.
When working with wild game, a common technique to “enhance” or “adjust” the flavor is to brine it. This is actually true with a lot of commercial meat as well, it just happens before you see it. For the most part, brining is soaking meat in a salt water/seasoning mixture for some time period. For … Continue reading “Brining Venison – Add flavor and tenderize in one step.”