Shortest season ever?

[morley.tyler]

You, sir, are the next generation of the Jack Wenders coaching tree. IYKYK

 

[44hunter45]

You mixing any thing into the grind? Tallow/bacon etc?

I've never been one to add any fat to the grind. We don't really do anything with patties. I use the grind for chili, spaghetti, and such. It keeps longer in the freezer without the fat, too.

I will thaw out some grind from time to time and make sausage. Then I add about 7% lard to the mix.

When my wife was first learning to cook game meat, we kept the pantry full of "Elkburger Helper". You can never go wrong with it. Nothing fancy in those days with three growing boys.

 

[44hunter45]

You, sir, are the next generation of the Jack Wenders coaching tree. IYKYK

From U of I? My middle son went through Bus & Econ. This was after Jack's death, but his pictures are on the wall.

 

[morley.tyler]

From U of I? My middle son went through Bus & Econ. This was after Jack's death, but his pictures are on the wall.

Yes- that Jack. Multiple Elk racks/mounts in his office on the 2nd floor of the Admin Building. Only taught Spring Semester, as Fall was for Elk. Gave us the opening week of Turkey Season off in the Spring if we needed it. Ran a trap line on Moscow Mountain in the '90s, and left his tenured position at U of Arizona for Elk Hunting in Idaho.

 

[44hunter45]

Hank Shaw venison tacos using flatiron steak.
Buck,Buck, Moose page 218

 

[EastTNHunter]

I had to freeze the last big bowl of trimming due to a business trip. I got home yesterday about 2PM and pulled it out of the freezer to thaw. I got it ground today.
Grand total in the freezer, including heart and liver is 158 pounds of meat.

I have two big bowls of sinew and fat still to render out. I have that rendered fat promised to a soap making friend.

Help me to understand this rendering process? I understand the fat part, but the sinew in my mind seems too tough to render down. I guess I’m wrong and I’m willing to learn.

Also, on the heart, how do you prep the cut before seasoning? I’m used to deer hearts, which are obviously much smaller, but they tend to look like small donuts when I cross-cut the heart after clean out/up

 

[MT_elk]

Congrats!

 

[44hunter45]

Help me to understand this rendering process? I understand the fat part, but the sinew in my mind seems too tough to render down. I guess I’m wrong and I’m willing to learn.

Also, on the heart, how do you prep the cut before seasoning? I’m used to deer hearts, which are obviously much smaller, but they tend to look like small donuts when I cross-cut the heart after clean out/up

Ha! I wrote a whole book on rendering, then realized you said you get the fat part. Lemme start over.

The sinew will be discarded for elk.

For deer:
With deer I have excellent luck making dog food by running all the trimmings through my grinder with the chopper blade after I render out the fat. That gets made into patties with a large canning jar ring. Then I wrap them 7 patties in a roll. One roll per week/ one patty per day on top of dry food. Happy dog. Nothing wasted. The patties have some fat, some meat, and some sinew. Our Springer loved it. If you cut the sinew across the grain about 1/4"-1/2" first, it will chop nicely. You will dull your knives quickly on the sinew. Elk sinew is too much for my machinery, so it gets discarded.

About heart:
You can cut an elk heart the same as deer. I used to do it that way. Now I do the Hank Shaw heart trimming method. (Buck,Buck,Moose page 232.) First I cut of all the blood vessels off the top. After this the order of processing is not important. I trim off all the vessels and fat from the outside, then take a filet knife and cut the heart longways from the inside out. With a little feeling around you can find there are three thinner spots in the chambers. This is where you cut. You end up with three or four heart "cutlets". They are shaped kind of like bell pepper cut longways. You have to trim out some ventricle wall. After that they will lay pretty flat. I grill those and then slice it across the grain.

MRS doesn't like any "rubbery stuff" on her meat. This method makes it easy to trim off any blood vessels.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Ha! I wrote a whole book on rendering, then realized you said you get the fat part. Lemme start over.

The sinew will be discarded for elk.

For deer:
With deer I have excellent luck making dog food by running all the trimmings through my grinder with the chopper blade after I render out the fat. That gets made into patties with a large canning jar ring. Then I wrap them 7 patties in a roll. One roll per week/ one patty per day on top of dry food. Happy dog. Nothing wasted. The patties have some fat, some meat, and some sinew. Our Springer loved it. If you cut the sinew across the grain about 1/4"-1/2" first, it will chop nicely. You will dull your knives quickly on the sinew. Elk sinew is too much for my machinery, so it gets discarded.

About heart:
You can cut an elk heart the same as deer. I used to do it that way. Now I do the Hank Shaw heart trimming method. (Buck,Buck,Moose page 232.) First I cut of all the blood vessels off the top. After this the order of processing is not important. I trim off all the vessels and fat from the outside, then take a filet knife and cut the heart longways from the inside out. With a little feeling around you can find there are three thinner spots in the chambers. This is where you cut. You end up with three or four heart "cutlets". They are shaped kind of like bell pepper cut longways. You have to trim out some ventricle wall. After that they will lay pretty flat. I grill those and then slice it across the grain.

MRS doesn't like any "rubbery stuff" on her meat. This method makes it easy to trim off any blood vessels.

Thank you for the follow up response