Some Information on Preparing Venison

Venison is the meat from a deer. Many people do not eat venison because of a number of reasons the two primary ones being  that venison is hard to prepare and people are influenced by the movie Bambi and simply cannot eat venison. You can buy  venison from a butcher but you will need to find a good source for it. If you have not bought venison before then you should  be careful about buying it. If you have a friend that hunts then you can get the venison from them or if you know someone  that buys venison then you can ask them to show you how to buy it.

On an average a deer yields from 70 to 100 pounds of meat. If you go into the specifics of it then you will find that an  average deer will yield the following amounts of meat –
•    14 lbs of roasts
•    20 lbs of ground venison
•    8 lbs of tenderloin
•    18 lbs of steaks

If you have managed to bag yourselves a deer then you are going to have a lot of work on your hands preparing that meat for  storage. Many people that hunt for venison do not process the meat themselves but drop off their kills with meat processors  or butchers to do it for them. This is because the meat has to be hung and dried and refrigerated at the same time. Many  people do not have the equipment needed to do so. Another problem with processing the meat is the parasites that might be  there in it. Tapeworms and other parasites are quite common and the only way to kill them off is too either cook the meat to  160 degrees or to freeze it for 48 hours. This will kill off any of the parasites that may be there in the meat. Only after  you have frozen the meat for 48 hours should you star to cut it up and process it.

If you have bagged yourselves a deer then get it processed and have a barbeque because venison steaks are excellent and are  great for barbequing. If you have not cooked venison before then you should read up on it either in a comprehensive cook book  or on the internet. Roasting or baking the venison is the best because the high temperatures will kill off any parasites. Do  not cook the venison in a microwave because there may be cold spots that might not be cooked properly.