Revenge on Bambi

By Joseph Parish

Remember the night that Bambi ran in front of your new truck and left you with a three thousand dollar repair bill? Granted the deer may now be dead but you still haven’t reaped your full revenge on him yet have you? Why not grab up this truck hitter and clean him immediately so you can put him into some canning jars. In this manner you can saver your revenge slowly over the following year. An important point here is to get the road kill cleaned and cooled as quickly as possible.

In most states if a deer hits your car you have a right to pick him up and have him for dinner. To be certain you may wish to check with your local game warden or forest department. The question that is foremost of people’s lips is how do we save and can this venison to ensure its safe and proper storage.

First off it should be sliced up into strips, cubed or cut into small one inch chunks of meat. Remove any excess fat from around the actual meat portions and discard it. If you are not especially fond of the wild game taste often found in deer or other animals you should soak the meat in brine water for one hour. Make your brine from 1 tablespoon of salt to a quart of water. After the hour has expired remove the meat from the brine and rinse it well to remove any of the salt. You may wish to remove any bones at this time as well.

You will now want to precook your venison by one of several methods. You can roast it or you can cook it in a small quantity of fat until it is a golden brown in color.

Place about ½ teaspoon of salt and approximately ¾ of an inch of boiling water, broth or meat drippings into the bottom of the jar. Next pack the meat chunks into the jar as tightly as you possibly can, fill with water making certain to leave the usual one inch headspace at the top.

Install and adjust your sterilized lids at this time and pressure cook the jars for 75 minutes if using pints and 90 minutes for quarts. Please note that I said pressure cooking not water bath. You can not water bath meat properly and safely.

You can use these chunks of meat in any recipe where you would normally use the beef chunks. These chunks are great in stew or with a pot of homemade noodles.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish

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