Now is the time to start seriously eating your deer, and other wild

Except for the pie and bread, every dish on this table contains deer meat or is seasoned with it.

game, out of the freezer to make room for next year’s animals. The first thing is to look at are the largest packages that you have in the freezer. What are they?

  Maybe this is a deer head or hide that you were wanting to do something with all Winter, but never got around to it. Now is the time. Either tan those hides or have the head mounted or throw them all out. Your choice, but you are going to need the room.

 Perhaps the next largest package are some dog bones. Dogs have been waiting very patiently. I can safely say that they would like them right  now, preferably boiled with a little salt.

 If you have big hunks of meat, like huge roasts or even an entire hind quarter, go ahead and thaw it. Wrap it in aluminum foil with some onions and potatoes and roast it in the oven. Cut what you can eat within a few days and make sausage from the remainder. This will reduce the volume and give you a product that you can safely freeze for later use. I am willing to bet that you are out of sausage anyway. Similarly, ground meat can be turned into spaghetti sauce. What you don’t use can be frozen for later.

   At this time of year groups often have wild game cook-offs, wildlife meetings, trade shows and the like. If your community, or club,  has such an event, or would like to, such an occurrence can empty a freezer in a hurry.

  Maybe you might want to even try some of the recipes that I have in Backyard Deer Hunting or Crossbow Hunting. You have plenty of meat, so now is the time to be inventive. Perhaps you will discover a unique way to make your deer taste better that you ever imagined. Wild-game meat is too good and versatile to allow to get so old that it must be discarded. Even if  old, I bet hound dogs would still enjoy it if you cooked it up for them.