Oh Deer.

Folks, it does not get much more fresh, local, or sustainable than this. Here’s how to have your own venison adventure and take a share of the title Best Dog Owner Ever:

  1. Find a friend who hunts. (For those of you scratching your heads: no, I don’t eat mammals; no, I don’t like the idea of shooting Bambi; yes, I support hunting for food.)
  2. When said friend offers non-human worthy deer pieces for your dog, happily accept.
  3. Take delivery of scrap meat pieces and assorted organs.
  4. Empty bag one into a baking dish. Put bag two into the refrigerator. Admire pretty color to distract self from reality.

deer livers

  1. Bake long enough to make them seem less gross. Remove from oven, cut into big oozing pieces, get grossed out again, return to oven long enough to make them seem less gross. Let dog lick fork.
  2. Remove from oven once more, hack into small pieces, place into storage container and pour cooking juices over meat. Give dog a sample chunk or five.
  3. Since that actually wasn’t so horrible, two days later, fetch bag 2 from fridge to repeat the process. Notice that bag 2 has a leak. Notice that blood has seeped out of the bag, run along the shelf, dripped into the produce drawers, and pooled on the bottom of the fridge. Mop up blood. Reflect on your love for your dog.
  4. Cook random parts. Try to guess what they are.

deer pieces cooked

One was easy to guess…

deer heart

  1. Chop meat, store pieces, feed dog.

Mr. HP consolidates steps by cutting the raw meat into chunks. That seemed messier to me, and I was avoiding contact with raw substances. He also cooks the pieces in a skillet, but again, the baking seemed more hands-off for this squeamish sissy. I will say, though, cutting up the heart was pretty neat, from a science-experiment point of view.

HPDog gives this recipe 4 paws up.

3 thoughts on “Oh Deer.

  1. Well done, HP! I have the bits from two more if HPDog is still hungry. These might be the last for the season – we’ll see.

  2. Yeah, it hadn’t occurred to me before, but I read something the other day about how hypocritical it is for me to be all pesca-vegetarian, and yet my cats are carnivores and there’s no way the cat food I get them is in any way sustainably procured. So, deer leavings is really the best thing you can do as responsible pet owner.

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