Butchering & Processing

My first in-person experience with dead deer was when I was a kid and saw a few does hung up on a meat pole with their throats slit. I asked why their throats were cut, and I was told: “to bleed them.” I didn’t start hunting until much later in life, so I just tucked the whole experience away in my...

Adam Crockett lay death-still and unblinking as a doctor pushed a needle into his right eyeball and withdrew built-up fluid. With that task complete, the doctor at the Cole Eye Institute in Cleveland pushed a second needle deep into the back of Crockett’s eye, all the way to the retina. Stopping...

Like so many Americans during the pandemic, I’ve found myself eager to try new things in the kitchen. Recently I wanted to make venison chorizo and andouille sausage, but I had one problem—no pork fatback. So I wondered, can you make sausage without animal fat? A sausage without fat isn’t a sausage...

Whitetail fat isn't something that you'd typically keep during the butchering process. It’s often trimmed off, tossed into the waste pile, or “left for the birds.” However, it's worth knowing that the waxy fat melts nicely and hardens up as it cools, making it perfect for a few out-of-the-ordinary...

Rooster ring-necked pheasants are the most beautiful upland game bird. You can’t change my mind. I’m likely biased because I’m a native South Dakotan who’s been lucky enough to chase these birds for over three decades. But even after all these years, I’m still in awe every time I pick one up. The...

Bear grease has many uses, and making beard oil is one more fantastic way to utilize the multipurpose fat. Beard oil has become very trendy in recent years and is often for sale in hardware stores, gas stations, and grocery stores. But why purchase it when you can make your own? This recipe is...

The American cowboy is a dying breed. Customary grazing rights have been lost or rescinded. Homesteads have been sold to the wealthiest bidder. All the while, beef production has increasingly been shipped overseas. Yet, some traditions of the West refuse to die off. Annually, ranchers across the U.S...

You can make bear grease by heating the lard off a bear until it liquifies into a usable oil. It’s highly valued because of its stable shelf life at room temperature and numerous applications. I’ve personally cooked, conditioned leather, lubricated metal, and made lye soap with it. Other folks use...

Making bear grease lye soap is a practice as old as the hills. It's a time-tested and valued cleaning product to this day. As a matter of fact, you can use any type of animal tallow to make soap, as people commonly did before modern commercial soaps. In this video I'll show you how to use four...

The gizzards of game birds like pheasants, ducks, and turkey are under-appreciated little nuggets of meat. Perhaps it’s because they look strange and are difficult to trim without proper instruction. Well, we’re taking the mystery out of preparing them by showing you how to clean a gizzard and how...

The first thing I learned about processing deer was to trim all the silverskin away from the meat. For a long time I held the common belief that all that sinew was worthless and inedible. After many years of cooking with wild game, I’ve found that was a huge mistake. Part of the reason I wanted...