Butchering and cooking a deer or goat or rodent

Factual Questions
1

Scenario:

A group of friends are lost in the woods with no food. They have a warm cave to sleep in so that isn’t a concern. There is planty of wildlife.

Feeling peckish they jump on a deer and bash it’s head in with rocks. Standing over it, they grab a sharp bit of flint and prepare to set to work…

What should they do?

I was thinking that they should play it cautious; only take out huge chunks of meat from the more fleshy areas, and cook the meat by cutting it into really thin strips and cooking till burnt.

Liver to be eaten raw obv.

What other steps should they take to make sure that
(1) They get the most safe meat from each carcass, and
(2) That they don’t die of food poisoning.

2

I can’t speak for goat or rodent, but if it’s deer, why would you need to butcher or cook it differently then any other venison? I have plenty of friends who kill deers in the forest and then bring them home, butcher and cook them without any problems.

3

I’m thinking survival scenario, and they have never butchered anything before.

4

I asked about butchering a squirrel once, but I can’t find the thread. But I do remember finding a video on YouTube that showed the process. I imagine there are other butchery videos there for different animals.

5

We skinned elk and deer in the field then butchered them and wrapped the meat in our kitchen. No way in hell would I eat the liver raw (unless I was starving).
The meat is cooked just like any other meat and doesn’t have to be cooked until burnt.
I guess I don’t understand your concern about the meat somehow not being safe.

6

First, make a cut from neck to nethers and pull it open. Scoop out the intestines and throw them as far away from you as you can. This will stop the gut swelling from contaminating your meat and give the local scavengers something to occupy them so they don’t bother trying to steal the deer from you.

Next, peel off the skin. There are some ligaments you’ll have to cut through, but for most of it, you can sort of punch at the underside and it will come off. Bonus: you now have a hide. If you’ve read a lot of prehistorical fiction, you can figure out that if you tie the corners of it to some sticks and put it in the smoke from your fire to dry it out. You can then use it as clothing or carrying sack or something to sleep on. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you stretch it as it dries and work the deer’s brains into it, which will make it softer and more bendable, increasing its usefulness.

All the skeletal muscle is good to eat. Roast some of it for an immediate meal, and cut the rest into strips. Hang 'em over your smoky fire and you have venison jerky, good for later snacking or reconstituting and making into broth.

I’d avoid eating the brains, as I don’t know if deer carry prion diseases or not. Besides, I’d want the brains for the hide, as mentioned above.

I wouldn’t know which internal organs are good to eat, so I’d probably leave them to the scavengers unless we were in danger of starving. If that was the case, I’d choose the kidneys first, then the lungs and the liver.

Stomachs and bladders are good for holding water, so I’d use them to make rough canteens. I might try to figure out how to use a vertebrae to make a stopper for them, but honestly I’ve only read it described, so I’m not sure if I could do it or not. But a strip of sinew can be used to tie the opening instead.

If your deer has antlers, I understand they can be used as shovels or digging tools.

I wouldn’t know what to do with the rest, so I’d drag it over to my discard pile for the scavengers.

7

Butchering a deer or goat or rodent is done easily by tying its legs spread hung from a tree, or bush in the case of a rodent.

you want to clear the organs and digestive system and contents away from the meat. you would want to get as much blood out of the meat that you were keeping, since the rodent would be a meal then this could be skipped.

8

Why is it so obvious that you wouldn’t cook the liver?

9

I know a few people who hunt deer. The still-warm liver eaten straight after it has been cut out of the fresh carcass is aparently amazing. I’ve heard the same about seals.

10

Agreeing with Keeve. Venison liver is Delicious pan-seared or grilled. I’m not getting the eating it right out of the animal vibe, but de gustibus, I suppose.

Good luck jumping on a healthy deer BTW, Conan. Or getting close enough to jump on it. I had to work like the dickens to get within bow-hunting range (30-40 yds.), and I screwed that up more often than not. Part of the fun.

Any deer I could jump on top of, I’d be worried they’d be carrying something nasty, like Chronic Wasting Disease. Are there a lot of other zoonotic diseases that deer carry?

11

You need to avoid stuff like the brain splatter because of the CWD that deer can have.

I would avoid liver on an animal I didn’t know about eating as the liver can be toxic in large enough quantities.

12

One time in on a trail head in Banff (it was one that was accessed by several kilometers of trail through provincial park) I stopped to examine the beautiful orthographic map on the kiosk and was squatting on a knee and still for probably ten minutes. I got that familiar ‘being watched’ feeling and turned around slowly to look directly in the eyes of a white tail deer. Literally nose to nose. We stared at each other for a while and then it slowly turned around while keeping an eye on me and walked out of sight - then ran.

If I would have tried to grab it I am sure I would have landed flat on my face in the dirt. If by some miracle I had actually grabbed it I expect it would have kicked the living crap out of me. A deer is much better naturally armed than any human.

If you actually kill something in a survival situation there is no reason to get analytical, no-ones going to grade your butchering skills. Eat every thing you can, raw if you have to. It will take days to go bad. Aside from large carnivore livers and vitamin A poisoning there really aren’t any animals in Canada anyways that are poisonous. Maybe the Amazon or Australia might have something, but pretty much any mammal is going to be safe. I wouldn’t go eating any brightly coloured toads.

13

In general, carnivores are more likely to have toxic levels of vitamin-D in their livers than herbivores. My concern would be parasites. Look up “liver fluke” any time you don’t mind getting grossed out. In general I would be extremely leery about eating ANY raw or undercooked game.

14

A lot of mammals have musk glands that should be removed before eating. Different species have different numbers of musk glands in different locations. E.g. in the “armpits”, in the belly, near the anus, etc.