In touch with our dinner.

Friday we got a call from our friend Tyler- he and his father had gone hunting this week and shot 6 deer (!) He was generously going to share some with us, but wanted to get us in on processing the meat. You know, the part that comes between the deer's death and us eating it through out the rest of the year. Meg was disappointed that the butchering part had happened earlier this week, (Context: Meg enjoys wearing pearls and monogrammed jewelery. I love my housemates. They never cease to surprise me.) But no worries, the hunks of meat still needed to be sliced into meal sized portions and trimmed, so she still got to wield a knife :)



So. Here's how it goes.

1. Take the blood filled pots of meat, and pick out a hunk of meat.

2. Size it up, deciding if its best as a tenderloin, backstrap, roast, or steak.










3. Slice accordingly. Ask Meggers for the details on this part, she was trimming and slicing apprentice.

4. Wrap tightly in seran wrap (this needs to be a different person, as bloody hands and seran wrap are not a functional combination. heh.)




5. Wrap in butcher paper, tightly, not unlike wrapping christmas presents. Tape shut to keep freezer burn out.

6. Date and label the package, so that through out the year, when you go to cook, you'll pick out the cuts of meat you want, and eat the oldest soonest.

7. At a later date, pull out of the freezer, defrost, and saute/grill/stew to your heart's content!

It was so satisfying to be involved in the process of how we get the food we eat. This venison is about as organic and low carbon footprint as you can get. And tasty! We saute-ed up some tenderoin to sink our teeth into as we cooked. I'm enjoying backing into this part of the cycle of life- first eating freshly hunted venison, then helping process it... I hope to help butcher later this winter, and then maybe go hunting... Can you believe I'm saying this? But it just makes so much sense in this context. Everything other than meat and fish, berries and potatoes has to be barged over to the island we live on. It's far more sustainable here than processed tofu, for instance. Alaska is a special place.

Tonight we had venison stew for dinner. With homemade french bread. Fantastic.