Trad Gang

Im a big fan of Andrew Zimmerns Bizarre Foods and Anthony Bourdains No Reservations. In a lot of their shows they wind up eating lungs, kidney, brains and just about anything else that gets pulled out of a critter.
       I guess for us, lungs are often out of the picture but how about the rest of that stuff. Liver and heart are no brainers (pardon the pun) but how bout kidneys, tripe and oysters. Tongue is something my Grandma was fond of along with snout, ears and chicharons (pork rinds) but Id like to hear what some of you folks have cooked up from commonly discarded organs and such.
       It really does bother me to leave such a pile to the yotes and Im starting to think that they can feed themselves anyway.

Liver, heart, and skirt steak here. Mmmmm

When the first nation get a moose up north,there's not much left,nothing's wasted. Ain't that true Ken ?

All I have to say, is that I lived in Korea for 2 years, and partook in every aspect of their culture.

The only innards I eat are the tenderloins.  :)

Have had white-tail heart before and I thought it was pretty good. It was slightly chewy but I would eat it again for sure.

Where I use to hunt in KY.There are a bunch of Menenites(not sure how to spell it).They are similar to the Amish we have near us.Anyway,They were thrilled to have the innards of any deer we killed.Other then the heart and liver they made soup of the lungs.I'm not sure what they did with the intestines,unless it was to make sausage casings.

My gradmother loved brains.She claimed a tongue was the best sandwich meat going.She also made blood pudding.I dont remember eating any of this stuff,but I'm sure I did when I was young.That women could cook!!!
Bill

Heart and liver for sure, never thought of the skirt steak as innards but I sure do eat them... I was brung up in the country and we never let food go to waste..

for all of ya that know me if i get get it on a stick over a fire i'll eat it!!!!

I used to eat heart and liver.  But with the CWD scare here in WI I have kind of given that up.  The claim is that the prions that they were worried about are more concentrated in the organs, so that was my one concession to worrying about eating a deer that has the potential of carrying CWD.  Personally, I don't think it is much of a worry, but I did stop eating organs anyway.

The only organ meat I eat is the liver. If I ever start getting gout like my dad I guess I won't eat that either.

I'll stick with the steaks,chops,tenderloins and the other things that look like meat!!   :dunno:

Ohhh Bill, blood pudding was another of Grams favs, she would make it into sausage , morsilla she used to call it but it would be hard to get from a deer unless you gutted them at home. Im still hurting from my November deer drag and tend to let em drain real good along with leaving the feet, tail and belly hide where they lay.

You suppost to leave the guts in the gut pile people.............................

Guts are guts. But I do love chicken gizards.

heart, liver and sometimes kidneys.....my uncle uses his to make a "liver mush" much like pork liver mush.....(Southeners will know what I am talking about)  :goldtooth:

Moose cheeks: Not bad.
Moose snout:chewy (like chicken's feet)
Moose kidney:good, but be sure to rinse well in cold water.
Moose brains: pretty darn fine mixed with scrambled eggs and habanero sauce.
Moose tongue (cold) on rye with pepper and seed mustard:amazing
Moose heart:stuffed with wild rice, slow roasted:see moose tongue.
Moose liver:better like liver, cuz it's huuuuge!
Moose prairie oysters: same as any others.

I've eaten everything from snakes to bugs, seal meat to fish eyes, and everything in between. But it's hard to find a moose with inedible parts on 'em...

QuoteOriginally posted by Spectre:
Liver, heart, and skirt steak here. Mmmmm

X2 Same Here   :thumbsup:

If I had ever had a chance to enjoy liver, the Army took that out of play with their liver and onions...disgusting. Mountain oysters are pretty tasty, but I'll leave the rest of the gutpile to the coyotes and magpies.

Damn them moose. Wish we could get them here other than road kill, which reminds me,,,,,,,,,  awww never mind.

Heart, liver - yes.  I've eaten beef tongue and liked it but never deer or elk.  Brains and lungs - no thanks unless you are a real good cook.  I'm a pretty good game cook but it would take someone else to cook brains or lungs for me to try them.  Probably the same thing with kidneys, etc.

I leave that for the coyotes and bears. I'll take the prime meat and let them have the waste filters (kidneys, liver, bowels, etc)

Heart and Liver definately, can't beat liver and onions if it is cooked correctly.

   We have a tradition if a Bull Elk is killed fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters for lunch....yum..!

Izzy next time you see me I'll give u a recipe for pickled deer tongue, if you like pickled lambs tongue you'll flip over this takes about a month sliced thin in a sandwich is great with a beer!

I take the prime cuts and leave the rest.   I'm not about to eat the lights in anything and if it stinks when I'm cleaning it I won't eat it.

This reminds me of a book I read a few years back.  "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose. He chronicles the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Anyway,...somewhere in the northwest, one of the party kills an elk. As he's cleaning it, the native Indians are so hungry (it's winter) they eat the intestines raw...pushing poop out one end and biting chunks off the other end.


I guess I might've starved to death back then  :)

Dang Izzy,I think our grandmothers went to the same cooking school!I think it was called,several mouths to feed,and making due with what is available.Does that sound like the cooking school your grandmother went to?
Bill

QuoteOriginally posted by TxAg:
This reminds me of a book I read a few years back.  "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose. He chronicles the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Anyway,...somewhere in the northwest, one of the party kills an elk. As he's cleaning it, the native Indians are so hungry (it's winter) they eat the intestines raw...pushing poop out one end and biting chunks off the other end.


I guess I might've starved to death back then    :)  

Native American version of menudo.... which is good by the way..   :goldtooth:

BTW I'm married to a Czech, so blood pudding, blood sasuage and other food stuffs are common at family gatherings..

Hey Izzy! I've got a copy of the "Road Kill Cook Book" around here some place... Guess I can fix up somethin' special for ya when we meet next.    :eek:   Like... Squirrel Nut Stew or Fish A$$ Holes With Maggot Rice... MMMmmmmmmm

... mike ...    :D    ...

Oh, I'm sad to say that all I've had is deer heart...you know me, though, Iz. I'll try anything...

Heart all the time. Nothing else for me though. Never liked liver anyway.

It's actually a Greek dish traditional on Easter. We typically use lamb organs. Growing up I used to shy away from it, now I love it.

I tried Liver last season and didnt like it.  I would try it if someone else prepared it if they claim its all in the way you cook it.

I would like to give heart a try and would try most of whats been mentioned just to see if its good but I would have a hard time cooking some of it.

Mikey, them fish holes of yours are probably still floating around somewhere. I think theyve been won and re-won at several shoots over the years. I think they came from an Italian deli in Da Bronx. Bill, that is the cooking school they went to. My Granny grew up in the jungle of PR where everything was on the menu. Cept snakes and shrooms, she despised both. I love em both. Chris, after eating that porcupine you could probably scarf down the fish holes to kill the taste that Im sure still lingers on your palate. I respect you for that though, you stuck em you plucked em.   :thumbsup:

Remember Whip we cooked up Rafaels whitetail heart from North Dakota this year with mushrooms and onions. It's all in the marinade. Just marinade yourself well before you eat it and it's always good!

At my liesure,  I stick to the meat.  I have not yet tried,  but would consider heart.  It is a muscle.   I never have and will not eat liver or kidneys....the filter of any animal,  filtering out toxins that animal is subjected to.  No thanks,  despite how  tasty.  Though I would think a whitetail  roaming alot of land would be the safest bet.
Now a survival situation.....all bets are off!  I WILL SURVIVE!

When growing up on a farm we butchered beef twice a year for the family.  My mom got the tounge first thing and prepared it for sandwiches.  It was the best sandwich meat I've ever had.

Of course in the spring we'd have oysters and morels with scrambled eggs.  Dang that was good too.
Mike

I agree with LookMom. I'll eat heart, but no other organs, unless it's a matter of survival.

Heart, liver, sometimes tounge.

innards are for the fox.

Coyotes

Heart fried.

I always bring back the heart and we eat it right away, usually with a sauce and noodles like stroganoff.
I had jelled moose nose once. Someone else prepared it and it had little black spots in it. They said it was the nose hair follicles.
I never have liked liver, it tastes like dirt to me. My hunting partner said it was because I did not have it fresh. Anyway, he carried an onion into mountain goat camp and we cooked liver from a goat I killed, while it was still warm. As usual, it tasted like dirt to me.
I have eaten the brains from a sheep, mixed with onions and veggies. It was OK but I would just as soon not bother again.
Once I was with someone who said the larva of the botflies on the underside of a caribou were edible. He said the kids in the villages ate them raw like candy. I said you go first but he would not do it. We had just killed two caribou, and I figured why eat bugs when I had all this steak, so I passed on that.

You take the outerds and leave the innards, it is a matter of sharing. Coyotes, crows and magpies have to eat too.

Ya'll are depriving all of the starving buzzards and possums-shame-shame-shame..

Who eats the innards of their game?

Coyotes eat the innards of my game.

QuoteOriginally posted by Arrowhead80:
Ya'll are depriving all of the starving buzzards and possums-shame-shame-shame..

BBQ the possum if he ain't real careful.. now that's some good eating..

I grew up on a farm. Some of the best eating is deer heart and liver. We always had beef tongue(mmmmm, good), liver, brains, scrambled with eggs and morels, kidneys.
Some of you guys are missing out on the best eating.
I love hunting with a couple buddies I have cause I always get the hearts, They won't touch 'em.

I ain't that hungry yet.

I will eat them all....just after the apocolypse if it is necessary.
 :readit:

Deer heart is the best part of the animal. Cut it up in 1/2" slices, dust the slices with meat magic. Brown it in a little butter/olive oil mix add chopped garlic and deglaze the pan with cream sherry. Its like eating venison candy.

QuoteOriginally posted by smoke1953:
Remember Whip we cooked up Rafaels whitetail heart from North Dakota this year with mushrooms and onions. It's all in the marinade. Just marinade yourself well before you eat it and it's always good!

Just marinade yourself well before you eat it and it's always good!    :laughing:

A lot of you guys throw out deer heart?  

Cleaned and ate some coot (water chicken) gizzards before.  A good cook (which I am not) can make just about anythning taste good with good prep and lots of sauces and spices.

Deer Heart is all for me. Id try anything if it is cooked right.

I always eat the heart. The flavor of the heart may be the best on the deer. What is unusual about heart is the meat doesn't seem to have a grain, thus the chewyness if overcooked.

I don't eat the liver anymore. Liver has it's pro's and con's, with too many con's. Taste, being a big con. Being merely tolerable in taste isn't enough reason for me to eat an organ or anything else for that matter.

Liver is high in protein and vitamins, but also very high in cholesterol and iron. Heart patients are advised to stay away from liver, even from supposedly "lean" animals, like deer and elk.
If I want to blow my cholesterol watch on a splurge meal, I'll do it with a big pizza or bacon cheeseburger instead of a liver, with even much higher cholesterol than most "fatty foods". I can eat 5-6 BK Whoppers for the same cholesterol content as a liver.

Plus the liver is the filter of everything. If there is any concern of any old industrial waste residue, like we have in some fish, then it will be in the liver of land animals too.

In parts of Michigan, due to our industrial past, our DNR even has warnings NOT to eat the liver, for the above reason. My hunch is, there's lots of little area's around where nasty industrial stuff was dumped in the ground or water 50 years ago that ends up the liver of critters we eat.

FROM MICHIGAN DNR...

  http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10363_10856_10905-171817--,00.html  

Dioxin Advisory Information

Health assessors from the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) determined that samples of wild game taken in 2003, 2004 and 2007 from the floodplains of the Tittabawassee River and Saginaw River downstream of Midland contain high levels of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds. Wild game that have been tested include deer, turkey, cottontail rabbit, squirrel, wood duck and Canada goose. As a result, the MDCH advises that hunters and their families follow these recommendations related to deer:

Do not eat the liver from deer harvested in or near the Tittabawassee River floodplain downstream of Midland. Eating liver taken from deer harvested in the floodplain of the Saginaw River is not likely to result in adverse health effects.


Limit consumption of muscle meat from deer harvested in or near the floodplain of the Tittabawassee River downstream of Midland and in or near the floodplain of the Saginaw River. Women of childbearing age and children under the age of 15 should eat only one meal of deer muscle meat harvested in the floodplains per week. Trimming any visible fat will lower the level of dioxins in the cooked meat.


Other wild game that have not been tested in this area may also contain dioxins at levels that are a concern. To reduce general dioxin exposure from other wild game, trim any visible fat from the meat before cooking, do not consume organ meats such as the liver or brains, and do not eat the skin.

Not ME!  

The 'yotes and birds eat pretty well when I actually get one down.  For me it's not where it comes from, it's a matter of taste and texture.  Liver, kidney, intestine, no thanks.  Heart and tongue is pretty good.  Brains, never ate them so no opinion there.  After living in Japan and eating plenty of unusual foods, I'll try anything once!

How some of you guys eat the innards is beyond me. What happens when #2 strikes at camp and you have to unload that kinda meal. No thanks I'll pass.   :thumbsup:

In the early years I tried liver and heart. I don't eat liver of anything more than once a year and then it's chicken. I feed the possums and vultures.

When I was in college a few fraternity brothers and me managed to kill a small doe and 3 50 pound pigs...Lets just say Ramon was getting old so we tried to spice it up with some liver, kidneys, heart, and a small piece of what little lung was left from the small doe...We tried tongue, ears, jaw, from the pigs...


We tried to make pork skins...didn't turn out so well  :dunno:  

All and all I'd eat heart, liver from a deer again...And everything but tongue from a pig...

Lets just say we were happy to have the pigs and deer back from the processor after our struggles...

Was that fraternity Eww Yucka Bubba? LOL

Heart and liver for me, too.  Roast heart with stuffing & mashed potatoes w/gravy.  Yummmmm.

Liver I eat 'cause we feel obligated - you don't waste food.  When I go out to eat about the last thing I'd order would be liver.  If food was tight we be cracking out the marrow and stuffing the blood and lungs in the intestines and making boudins.

Y'all are missing out, I actually like liver and occasionally order calf liver for dinner in the local diner.. I eat sweetbreads a couple of times a year too..

As stated earlier, I believe, every toxin in the body gets filtered through the liver--I don't eat filters.

Yes I am a gut eater! I like liver and I like heart. I love a good rolled flank roast and of course the tenderlions. Willing to try more if I new the proper way to handle them. In my family growing up if you left the liver and heart behind you would get your a@# beat.

I eat the heart, liver and tongue of the deer I kill.  My father-in-law ate the brain (some sort of pudding) and his mother ate the eye's also.  The tongue is "excellent" pickled.

For me, coyotes, buzzards, and whatever other animal wants to feast, eats the innards of my game.

Bill

OH YEah Bruce ,i forgot you cooked up that heart! we must have been pretty marinaded up, cuz i Completly forgot about it, it must have been that peach moonshine whip brought along!! LOL  That was the second heart i had, we cooked up the one from my Wis buck also, i liked it. I'll do it again.

Heart is delicious, especially in a balsamic-vinegar reduction coupled with southern german dumplings as a side dish.
Liver is good, if you get rid of the "hide" and all other piping in it and don't overcook it.
I prefer to cut it in smaller pieces, my buddy prefers bigger chunks(floured). All together with caramelized onions. Great!
Or mince the liver and mix it with the german dumpling (spaetzle) dough. Prepare normally, fry liver spaeztles in pan with onions and scramble eggs over it.
I usually fry up the kidneys as well. Great tenderness!
Heart, liver etc. contain essential vitamins. Without those, your body will starve to death. Oh yeah, right, you take vitamin pills...

I hope none of you less adventurous folks arent stuffing big macs and whoppers in your face. They are some nasty vittles. Ill definately be trying some kidney and tongue this fall. But as in the past brains scare me and I dont enjoy liver too much.

My mother inlaw!...........lol

the heart's the best part!never tried lungs or kidneys

I'll eat the heart and give the liver to my friend which he loves. My dog will get the kidneys.
Years ago i had a pitbull that would go crazy when she saw the deer hanging. She knew she was going to get some of the kidneys and some of the liver. It was so funny to watch since once i let her in the house she would go sit by her dish waiting for me to cook it up. Still miss that dog.

I never have in the past; like some other I would let the critters have it. But this year will be a first to try the heart, tongue, kidneys, testicles and maybe the liver (not really sold on that yet). I am looking forward to try these other cut of meat.

Heart and liver, fine dining. Both those meals are big occasions in my family.

I heard the Kidneys were good but you have to "boil the piss" out of them.  :laughing:

Venison heart is excellent, ate deer livers when I was a kid never did care for them. Connecticut dnr has a warning on deer liver consumption, if memory serves its because of the mercury in it. They suggest one serving a year from a young deer!

As long as the guts are left on the forest floor, nothing ever goes to waste.

Good eatin folks, Bill

No organ meat for this hunter!! lol

you bet! best part

For wild animals as long they are healthy every part is good to eat.for domestic you must be more picky at least for the lungs.Thats what we do around here.

Toxins in liver? The liver's not really a filter, it does more to separate and redirect, and the toxins actually lodge in fatty tissue in the nervous system. So, eat the liver, leave the brain and spine behind. Cook liver less and at lower heat to avoid a rubbery texture and preserve more of the digestive enzymes and nutrients. Gram for gram, liver contains more nutrients than ANY other food. It's the highest in Vitamin A, high on B's, highly absorbable form of iron and lots more. Heart is huge on nutrients too... from selenium to phosphorus, from CoQ10 to collagens and elastins, a very dense source of protein, and on and on.

Why have we been taught to be squeamish about the stuff that's best for us?

The organs of wild game are some of the healthiest foods you can put in your body, and hunter/gatherers go for the organs, bone marrow, etc of game first for a dang good reason. Ever hear of rabbit starvation? There are essential 'good' fats, vitamins and minerals in organs and such that aren't in the lean muscle meat. The few that are present in lean muscle aren't of the quality or quantities, or good ratios, like in organs. Same thing goes for fish. Fat, organs, eyes too. You can starve to death eating nothing but lean muscle protein.

I've eaten some organs and such, but I admit, there's lots of stuff I haven't tried yet, but I've been on a health kick lately and more open to healthy foods I've never tried, so I'm anxious to revisit more 'obscure' parts of my game this year.

It does appear that organs have been a first choice for many people and animals forever. Im definitely looking to try some more this fall.

ok now how about porcupine innards????? my bro Bowspirit killed one on a hunt with me and he ATE it all, well except the innards!!! he was a brave soul as when gutting in there was a TON of worms/parasites in it!!!!!!
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Ummm, innards.

Protein, get hungry and that porky will start looking mighty good to ya'