Cooking the kill: From deer and pig to rabbit and ducks, tips on how to clean, store, process and cook your game
With the Thanksgiving holidays behind us, we now turn our attention to the Christmas season. Most hunters have killed enough game for to last them a while.
After preparing the wild game for the freezer – deer, pig rabbit, squirrel, & ducks – four questions need to be addressed. 1. What to do with all the meat I came home with? 2. Who will process the meat? 3. How will it turn out? 4. Am I getting the game I brought to the processor?
To a hunter who has been hunting for a while, most own a game processor to take care of their needs and make wild game into sausage or other specialties.
In 1990, the duck limit had dropped to three ducks a day. I thought I was going to be the last duck hunter on the face of the Earth.
All of my friends had quit duck hunting and were hunting deer. I had turned down numerous opportunities to make deer hunts, but continued to hunt ducks. I got tired of hunting by myself and the family did not eat the ducks I killed.
So, I gave in and made a deer hunt in Mississippi with some friends. I bagged my first deer on that hunt. When I returned home with the meat, I had no clue whom to bring the deer meat to.I had asked myself the same four questions.
I was lucky to find a retired butcher from Thibodaux who made my first deer sausage.
I barbecued a pack one afternoon and the family loved it.
Since that time, I have brought all of my deer and hog meat to Wild Game Processing located at 500 Thoroughbred Dr. in Thibodaux, where Alvin Blanchard oversees as owner. Their phone number is 985-446-2048.
The reasonably-priced processing of wild game includes cutting, vacuum packing and sausage making. The list of flavors available at Wild Game Processing includes Cajun (my family’s personal favorite), green onion, garlic, sage and Italian – all of which can be seasoned regular, mild and spicy.
Advanced notice is needed to schedule a time for processing, so call before you go.
Ken’s Deer Butcher Shop is another wild game processing shop located at 2662 Highway 182 in Raceland. The phone number there is 985-537-6200.
Ken’s offers fresh sausage, smoked sausage, jerky, vacuum packing and seasoned ground meat.
His flavors are garlic, Cajun, jalapeno, jalapeno with cheese, Italian, sage and green onion in regular, mild, and spicy.
Ken’s also sells seasoning packs for 25 pounds of meat for $3 in the same flavors for those who like making their own sausage.
Ken’s makes a lot of deer and hog sausage, 50/50 pork and game, but some of his best sausage has been duck, rabbit, and alligator.
This type of sausage requires more pork, about 60/40 to taste right.” Ken’s Shop has an eleven day back up for taking orders, so call before you go.
Both Ken’s Deer Butcher Shop and Wild Game Processing guarantee the wild game you bring, will be the game you get back.
On the East Bank, Wayne Schexnayder and Pete Giavonca at The Deer Depot, has game processing locally.
Duck reports
Both the east and west sections closed on Nov. 30 and will reopen on Dec. 13.
During Thanksgiving week, hunters who went out found good numbers of ducks ahead of the cold fronts.
Steve Dufrene and Shane Harrison hunted the Salvador Managements. They killed Gray ducks, Redheads, coots, and teals during the rain squalls of the cold fronts.
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