Needless to say, instead of making turkey soups the day after Thanksgiving, we spent the day instead processing venison. He skinned it out while I put up some Christmas decorations and made room in the kitchen for our project.
After a light lunch, he brought the sectioned deer into the kitchen and for the next six plus hours, we worked our tails off. I am including pictures of our bounty, and will include turkey soup recipes at the end of the post.
We now have in our freezer several steaks, a huge roast, eight packages of backstrap (tenderloin), twenty-five pounds of ground venison and a few steaks. The rest I canned and we ended up with seven quarts and eight pints of tasty, tender venison to add to our food storage. It is a tedious job to remove as much meat from the bones as possible (we cannot tolerate waste), our backs and feet hurt, but we are satisfied with our accomplishment.
Now for the soup! Remove most of the skin and any stuffing. Include the wing tips (and the wings and part of the thighs if they are not popular at your table). Break the bones apart so that they will fit into a large stockpot. Cover with water, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. Remove the bones and any meat, fat or skin and let them cool enough to handle them comfortably.
Strain the stock to remove any small bones or undesirables. You may now use the stock to make soup or store it in the freezer or can it (I pressure can mine).
Pick the meat from the bones. You will be amazed at what a good amount of meat you will get. Set it aside.
Here are my family's favorite turkey soup recipes:
Turkey & Rice Soup
To the strained turkey broth add:
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 T. chicken bouillon or soup base
1 c. of rice (parboiled such as Uncle Ben's works best)
1 can of mushrooms
Cook until the vegetables are tender and the rice is done.
Add the turkey meat (coarsely chopped) and season with salt
and pepper to taste.
Turkey Noodle Soup
To the strained turkey stock add:
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb. fine egg noodles
Cook until the vegetables are tender and the noodles are done.
Add coarsely chopped turkey meat.
Turkey & Cabbage Soup
To the strained turkey stock add:
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Cook until vegetables are tender.
Add coarsely chopped turkey meat.
Turkey Vegetable Soup
To the strained stock add:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 quart tomatoes, diced
1 can (or pint) green beans
1 can whole kernel corn
Any other vegetables you and your family like including okra, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, asparagus, etc.
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Salt & pepper to taste.
Cook until vegetables are tender.
Add turkey meat and enjoy.
My neighbor broght over a large amount of deer meat today. I cut most of it into strips for jerky but saved a big portion for a roast. Do you have a good roast recipe for deer? I have never cooked a deer roast and would love some advice. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteLisa
The Way Grandmama Does It
You can bake it (or crock pot it) with curry, garlic, ginger, turmeric, salt to taste, pepper to taste, until it is tender. If you bake it in foil, a roaster or a bag, when the meat is tender, open it and brown. Take care that the meat doesn't dry out as it is lean and has very little fat.
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DeleteHedy, that combination of spices sounds scrumptious. I will have to give that a try!
DeleteLisa, since there is no way of knowing the age of the deer, I have to assume that it is mature (old). My favorite way to cook a roast is to rub it with a package of dry onion/mushroom soup mix and place it in a covered roaster. I cook it for about 20 minutes at 500° to help seal in the juices and the flavor, then reduce the heat to 275° and continue to roast for an additional 3 hours. You can also wrap the roast (after the rub) in uncooked bacon before placing it in the pan.
ReplyDeleteYou should have some good pan drippings to make gravy which you can serve over the meat for extra moistness. Venison can be very dry since it is so very lean. Good luck. Mary Lou
This is truly helpful
ReplyDeleteSomething is amiss here . . . All the wrong photos (and even some comments) are showing up on this post. I did an entirely different post on the Venison!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Jessica Bart, new research has proven that 'bone' broth is one of the very best sources of calcium on the planet! Woo Hoo!