Topic: Venison curry

[tempest63]

I’m not sure how venison is interchangeable with other meats when cooking in a curry. Whilst I have a little experience with venison joints I don’t recall ever using it in a curry. So having taken charge of a 60kg fallow buck I am looking for ways to run down the glut currently in my freezer.

The deer arrived with his skin on which, never having jointed such a beast before, took me by surprise.

After relieving the beast of his coat it took me another 4 hours to joint him which means I now have bags of diced and minced venison.

I am going to knock up a venison rara at the weekend using both diced and minced venison as a trial and see how the meat turns out in comparison to beef, mutton or goat. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

[tempest63]

The beast after skinning

[Peripatetic Phil]

I realise that he was dead, I fully appreciate that he could no longer feel pain, I know that he was destined to be eaten, but why did someone find it necessary to cut off his feet ?  I am confident that it wasn't mutilation for mutilation’s sake, but to my mind it does convey a sad lack of respect for a once noble creature ...
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** Phil.

[tempest63]

I realise that he was dead, I fully appreciate that he could no longer feel pain, I know that he was destined to be eaten, but why did someone find it necessary to cut off his feet ?  I am confident that it wasn't mutilation for mutilation’s sake, but to my mind it does convey a sad lack of respect for a once noble creature ...
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** Phil.

I will ask the question of the gamekeeper when I next see him Phil. I watched a number of videos of deer being processed and from memory all of them had the feet/hooves removed.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Thank you, T63 — much appreciated.
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** Phil.

[livo]

   Are you genuinely surprised Phil?  Having been involved in the "preparation" of many brace of rabbit, we always removed the feet. Having bought quite a few whole lambs, none of them had feet.  Hundreds of whole chickens have had no feet. A hindquarter of beef had no foot.  I've never bought a leg of lamb or pork with the foot still attached.  I hope my Christmas Ham is sans Ped this year.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Very surprised, Livo.  The beast, as first pictured by T63, had been gutted (removing the gralloch on the spot is normal practice when hunting deer) but appeared otherwise  unmutilated, although the head may have been removed (it is not possible to tell from the angle of the photograph).  So to see the feet deliberately removed hit me in the stomach — it literally made me feel sick.  Of course when T63 comes to butcher the carcase he will remove the feet, and all the other inedible (to westerners) parts, and that is perfectly normal, but to find that they had been removed before the carcase ever reached T63 came as a shock.  As to your analogies, I have bought whole rabbits (with feet), whole pheasants (with feet), whole hens (with feet) and so on — I have never bought a whole lamb, so cannot comment there.  But if one were buying a whole calf (something I deplore, but let’s not go there), then if the feet are not present how can the purchaser make calfs’/calves’ foot jelly ?

[livo]

I guess the list you give could be considered as game rather than stock.  I suppose I would put venison in the game category.  You are most likely correct to be surprised.

[tempest63]

Thank you, T63 — much appreciated.
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** Phil.

Hi Phil, I spoke with one of the guys who shoots deer and he said he removes them when they field dress them. He does it to reduce the size of the burden, and to minimise the risk of sharp things piercing his rucksack. He said some people retain them as dog treats.

I know that there are hygiene issues when a deer has been gralloched and thought that may be a reason to remove them but he said the removal of the hooves isn’t part of that process but as part of the external hygiene inspection they check between the cleaves of the hoof for the lesions caused by foot and mouth disease.


Regards


T63

[Peripatetic Phil]

Many thanks, T63, much appreciated.  The fact that the hooves are sharp had struck me as one reason, but I did not consider the fact that they add to the weight of the carcase, not did I think about checking for foot-and-mouth disease.
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** Phil.