Who eats the innards of their game?

[R. W. Mackey]

Coyotes

[2 edges]

Heart fried.

[boznarras]

I always bring back the heart and we eat it right away, usually with a sauce and noodles like stroganoff.
I had jelled moose nose once. Someone else prepared it and it had little black spots in it. They said it was the nose hair follicles.
I never have liked liver, it tastes like dirt to me. My hunting partner said it was because I did not have it fresh. Anyway, he carried an onion into mountain goat camp and we cooked liver from a goat I killed, while it was still warm. As usual, it tasted like dirt to me.
I have eaten the brains from a sheep, mixed with onions and veggies. It was OK but I would just as soon not bother again.
Once I was with someone who said the larva of the botflies on the underside of a caribou were edible. He said the kids in the villages ate them raw like candy. I said you go first but he would not do it. We had just killed two caribou, and I figured why eat bugs when I had all this steak, so I passed on that.

[bow'narrow]

You take the outerds and leave the innards, it is a matter of sharing. Coyotes, crows and magpies have to eat too.

[Arrowhead80]

Ya'll are depriving all of the starving buzzards and possums-shame-shame-shame..

[59Alaskan]

Who eats the innards of their game?

Coyotes eat the innards of my game.

[Javi]

Originally posted by Arrowhead80:
Ya'll are depriving all of the starving buzzards and possums-shame-shame-shame..

BBQ the possum if he ain't real careful.. now that's some good eating..

[dnovo]

I grew up on a farm. Some of the best eating is deer heart and liver. We always had beef tongue(mmmmm, good), liver, brains, scrambled with eggs and morels, kidneys.
Some of you guys are missing out on the best eating.
I love hunting with a couple buddies I have cause I always get the hearts, They won't touch 'em.

[traditional beagle]

I ain't that hungry yet.

[buckeye_hunter]

I will eat them all....just after the apocolypse if it is necessary.
 

[Running Buck]

Deer heart is the best part of the animal. Cut it up in 1/2" slices, dust the slices with meat magic. Brown it in a little butter/olive oil mix add chopped garlic and deglaze the pan with cream sherry. Its like eating venison candy.

[wv lungbuster]

Originally posted by smoke1953:
Remember Whip we cooked up Rafaels whitetail heart from North Dakota this year with mushrooms and onions. It's all in the marinade. Just marinade yourself well before you eat it and it's always good!

Just marinade yourself well before you eat it and it's always good!    

[LimBender]

A lot of you guys throw out deer heart?  

Cleaned and ate some coot (water chicken) gizzards before.  A good cook (which I am not) can make just about anythning taste good with good prep and lots of sauces and spices.

[SheltonCreeker]

Deer Heart is all for me. Id try anything if it is cooked right.

[Mojostick]

I always eat the heart. The flavor of the heart may be the best on the deer. What is unusual about heart is the meat doesn't seem to have a grain, thus the chewyness if overcooked.

I don't eat the liver anymore. Liver has it's pro's and con's, with too many con's. Taste, being a big con. Being merely tolerable in taste isn't enough reason for me to eat an organ or anything else for that matter.

Liver is high in protein and vitamins, but also very high in cholesterol and iron. Heart patients are advised to stay away from liver, even from supposedly "lean" animals, like deer and elk.
If I want to blow my cholesterol watch on a splurge meal, I'll do it with a big pizza or bacon cheeseburger instead of a liver, with even much higher cholesterol than most "fatty foods". I can eat 5-6 BK Whoppers for the same cholesterol content as a liver.

Plus the liver is the filter of everything. If there is any concern of any old industrial waste residue, like we have in some fish, then it will be in the liver of land animals too.

In parts of Michigan, due to our industrial past, our DNR even has warnings NOT to eat the liver, for the above reason. My hunch is, there's lots of little area's around where nasty industrial stuff was dumped in the ground or water 50 years ago that ends up the liver of critters we eat.

FROM MICHIGAN DNR...

  http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10363_10856_10905-171817--,00.html  

Dioxin Advisory Information

Health assessors from the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) determined that samples of wild game taken in 2003, 2004 and 2007 from the floodplains of the Tittabawassee River and Saginaw River downstream of Midland contain high levels of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds. Wild game that have been tested include deer, turkey, cottontail rabbit, squirrel, wood duck and Canada goose. As a result, the MDCH advises that hunters and their families follow these recommendations related to deer:

Do not eat the liver from deer harvested in or near the Tittabawassee River floodplain downstream of Midland. Eating liver taken from deer harvested in the floodplain of the Saginaw River is not likely to result in adverse health effects.


Limit consumption of muscle meat from deer harvested in or near the floodplain of the Tittabawassee River downstream of Midland and in or near the floodplain of the Saginaw River. Women of childbearing age and children under the age of 15 should eat only one meal of deer muscle meat harvested in the floodplains per week. Trimming any visible fat will lower the level of dioxins in the cooked meat.


Other wild game that have not been tested in this area may also contain dioxins at levels that are a concern. To reduce general dioxin exposure from other wild game, trim any visible fat from the meat before cooking, do not consume organ meats such as the liver or brains, and do not eat the skin.

[David Mitchell]

Not ME!  

[slivrslingr]

The 'yotes and birds eat pretty well when I actually get one down.  For me it's not where it comes from, it's a matter of taste and texture.  Liver, kidney, intestine, no thanks.  Heart and tongue is pretty good.  Brains, never ate them so no opinion there.  After living in Japan and eating plenty of unusual foods, I'll try anything once!

[lpcjon2]

How some of you guys eat the innards is beyond me. What happens when #2 strikes at camp and you have to unload that kinda meal. No thanks I'll pass.  

[Bowwild]

In the early years I tried liver and heart. I don't eat liver of anything more than once a year and then it's chicken. I feed the possums and vultures.

[beauleyse]

When I was in college a few fraternity brothers and me managed to kill a small doe and 3 50 pound pigs...Lets just say Ramon was getting old so we tried to spice it up with some liver, kidneys, heart, and a small piece of what little lung was left from the small doe...We tried tongue, ears, jaw, from the pigs...


We tried to make pork skins...didn't turn out so well    

All and all I'd eat heart, liver from a deer again...And everything but tongue from a pig...

Lets just say we were happy to have the pigs and deer back from the processor after our struggles...