Elk Steaks

[user 122190]

Neighbor got the call this morning from the Sheriff. We gathered up some others and processed what looked good. I got a backstrap and a quarter.

The one backstrap yeilded 20 steaks, and the quarter I'll grind into burgers. Lots of work but the meat looks incredible.

The scraps I'll also grind or chop into small bits for the doggie. Lucky good girl she is...

 

[user 122190]

I got the front quarter all carved up. My guesstimate is 20 pounds of meat, maybe even 30. I'll start grinding it into burger in a few hours. O'Boy!!!

 

[Mad Professor]

Roadkill cafe?

If it's fresh and not mush, done that with deer. Some I hit, some I seen hit.......avoid gutting them. Whole different processing with something hit.

To not get your butt in a sling here, you call State DFW to get a salvage tag.

I take off quarters and backstraps. Bruised stuff and carcass goes out back for yotes,foxes, bears, crows.....

 

[user 122190]

Only 14 pounds of burger. But is oh so good. I was offered another quarter -- seemed like to much, now I'm thinking I should have taken it. Damn!

Rough cuts

First grind

First grind with some beef fat tossed in

Second grind, with beef fat fully mixed

Test patty, and oh so goooooood.....

 

[user 122190]

Roadkill cafe?

If it's fresh and not mush, done that with deer. Some I hit, some I seen hit.......avoid gutting them. Whole different processing with something hit.

To not get your butt in a sling here, you call State DFW to get a salvage tag.

I take off quarters and backstraps. Bruised stuff and carcass goes out back for yotes,foxes, bears, crows.....

Neighbor did. This is done thru the Sheriff's office, who was the agency that called the neighbor. We are fully legit.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

My now wife's first drive out to my home town smoked a big doe. She had cruise set on 60 and never touched the brakes before impact. She called me while I was in the middle of skinning/quartering out the deer I had killed with a rifle earlier that day. So I had to leave that one hanging, grab the truck and go get the one she just hit. Car had to be towed....front end was demolished.

Whitetail, so it didn't yield near as much meat as an elk. We got all the meat off that deer no problem. Gutted it on the side of the road, took the whole thing home just like the ones we kill hunting. The only obvious injuries were the broken legs. I didn't see any obvious internal injuries. Maybe she broke it's neck?

I figured the one side it was hit on would be junk...but I didn't find any bloodshot meat in that carcass at all. Cheapest and easiest meat I ever butchered.

 

[user 122190]

More Elk meat. Another Elk was hit on the Highway. A fully trimmed ready to grind, 1 gallon bag was dropped off. 5 to 6 pounds to process later today.

 

[user 122190]

Done. 6.5 pounds. Mixed in some sausage seasoning and did the patty pan fry test. Wow!

In a weeks time, 20lbs of ground Elk Burger, and 20 thick Elk Backstraps. Was a good week.

 

[Sidecarflip]

Me, I prefer Moose over elk. Not as dry when cooked. Bear ain't bad either and whitetail is last on my list. Only deer we eat are does. Gals taste better than guys anyday.

 

[user 122190]

Me, I prefer Moose over elk. Not as dry when cooked. Bear ain't bad either and whitetail is last on my list. Only deer we eat are does. Gals taste better than guys anyday.

I'm not a big fan of venison. Makes great jerky thou.

 

[djg james]

Done. 6.5 pounds. Mixed in some sausage seasoning and did the patty pan fry test. Wow!

In a weeks time, 20lbs of ground Elk Burger, and 20 thick Elk Backstraps. Was a good week.

My Brother really misses Elk. He use to live in Montana. Send me a couple steaks will you? (haha). Dad hit a Whitetail once and we were to busy and leary of road kill mead so we passed. A witness to the accident asked if she could have it. Dad gave it to her. She was so happy and said that was their meat for the year. Husband came by to pick it up.

 

[user 122190]

My Brother really misses Elk. He use to live in Montana. Send me a couple steaks will you? (haha). Dad hit a Whitetail once and we were to busy and leary of road kill mead so we passed. A witness to the accident asked if she could have it. Dad gave it to her. She was so happy and said that was their meat for the year. Husband came by to pick it up.

It is a lot of work getting a deer off the highway. Only real risk is the heat. Get it early and butcher it fast before the meat can spoil. Do it right and it is a great thing. Jerky, steaks, ground meat has never been so easy. I've spent hours and hours, day after day hunting and never see a thing I can shoot, and I'm usually way way far off from my vehicle. Compared to hunting, harvesting highway kills is the best way to go.

 

[djg james]

It is a lot of work getting a deer off the highway. Only real risk is the heat. Get it early and butcher it fast before the meat can spoil. Do it right and it is a great thing. Jerky, steaks, ground meat has never been so easy. I've spent hours and hours, day after day hunting and never see a thing I can shoot, and I'm usually way way far off from my vehicle. Compared to hunting, harvesting highway kills is the best way to go.

Yes I meant to say, all that meat and you didn't have to buy a tag. Kidding of course. Hunting is more that just going for the meat, for me at least. If that's all you eat and need the meat, then that mindset is ok too.

 

[pdqdl]

It is a lot of work getting a deer off the highway. Only real risk is the heat. Get it early and butcher it fast before the meat can spoil. Do it right and it is a great thing. Jerky, steaks, ground meat has never been so easy. I've spent hours and hours, day after day hunting and never see a thing I can shoot, and I'm usually way way far off from my vehicle. Compared to hunting, harvesting highway kills is the best way to go.

I drive past a carcass or two every day. There seems to be a glut of roadkill in Kansas City, and no one seems to be harvesting. There are more dead deer littering the highways than raccoons or squirrels, and I don't think I've seen a dead oppossum this year. I have seen more live deer this month than I have cattle & horses combined. And those critters at least stay inside the fence where they are put.

So far as I know, the police & sheriffs departments make no effort to coordinate the collection of road kill. They get pushed off to the side or pounded into the pavement until the dead animal dept picks them up for disposal.

As far as hunting goes? If I were of a mind to, I could harvest deer from my mother-in-laws back porch, damn near any morning. Last year I spotted a buck, doe, and fawn settling into my mother's back yard, bedding down by the back fence. He was a nice 6-8 pointer, too. That was in solid suburbia, with a 5 lane busy street only 100' away, and hardly an undeveloped property for miles.

If you want deer, Kansas City's got them. Oops! No hunting is permitted within city limits.

Some folks in the rural areas do it anyway.

 

[esshup]

I ate a lot of roadkill deer while in college.