Deer liver

[BrianBM]

Anyone bother to eat it? Worth saving from your deer?

[FirstFreedom]

I know people who eat it. My guess is I'd like it about as much as I like cow liver, which is to say, I'd much rather eat fecal matter. :barf:

[swampdog]

It's more like calves liver, not as tough as beef liver and definitely better than fecal matter. I'll save some, occasionally. I usually chunk it and deep fry it with mildly hot breader.

It makes pretty good catfish bait, too.

[Dave Haven]

I'm just not into eating used filters.....
On the other hand, I like used pumps.
Last time I harvested an elk, my co-workers were extremely "generous" in offering to help me dispose of the backstrap, etc.
I cooked the heart and the tongue in my Crock Pot and took them to work to share. My co-workers weren't so "generous", then. I had to eat most of the heart and tongue myself. Dammit.

I left the liver for the ravens. I'm sure they enjoyed it.

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

Liver and heart are always the first meal from a freshly downed deer in this house.

[armedandsafe]

We always had the liver and heart first on our deer. I still do that today. Very good eats in my opinion.

Pops

[oldbillthundercheif]

Organ-meats are tastey.

[Fat White Boy]

My dad always carried a couple of onions to fry up with deer liver. I never acquired a taste for it...

[moose fat]

If you haven't tried deer liver or the heart or the tongue you're missing out on some good food.

Just had moose liver night before last, now I have to get a moose. Tis the season.
Fry bacon and then onions in the bacon grease and then the liver in the onionbacon grease.

[Scorch]

I won't. Nope, nope, uh-uh. Out West, there are a lot of deer infected with liver flukes. Won't hurt you to eat it, it's just the thought of eating flatworms.

MMMMMMmmmmmmm . . . just like Mom used to make 'em.

[youp]

Beware of the area that you are eating deer livers from. Dow chemical is supposed to have severely contaminated some land in lower Michigan to the point where it is advised not to eat deer or squirrels from there. I believe that the liver concentrates some polutants in itself.

[NRA4life]

We used to eat them in my dad's camp until we found one with a huge tapeworm in it. Never ate one since.

[Pointer]

If you are liver-lover... absolutely!

The only liver better is Elk liver

You're making me hungry!!!

[Meatco1]

Deer Liver & onions fresh cooked, is nothing, I repeat nothing like store bought cow liver. Very mild in comparison.

Delicious!

Richard

[dale taylor]

Meatco is correct. Liver is mild. Heart is good also. The first thing on ice, cooked in evening. I avoid large hog livers [email protected]

[BrianBM]

Interesting range of reactions, here. Nothing to do but try it myself. Organ meats do concentrate toxins, but one deer liver per season shouldn't be too dreadful. And I already know I like tongue, albeit it's only beef tongue that I've had. Another reason to study a little anatomy, and probably get a lesson or two from a guide in field dressing & butchering a deer.

[moose fat]

There you go.
When you butcher you should be looking critically at what you're cutting up. If it doesn't look "right" or smell right leave it for the bears, ravens, wolf's, eagles etc.

Any game biologists reading this that can describe "bad meat", or butchers? Sort of off the thread.

Thats the thing about catching your own food, you know what you're getting.

[Pointer]

Do not overcook a liver... Cow, deer or elk...

Unless you like it dry... :barf:

Slice it thin (about 3/16")

Saute the onions separately, and when you put them on top of the liver...
add a little butter and salt to taste...

[dfaugh]

Well, let me put it this way:barf: ....I'm getting nauseous just READING about eating it:barf: ....But I feel the same way about beef liver:barf: ---I literally can't even watch someone else eat it! Guess I'm a wuss, at least when it comes to some things.

[Pointer]

dfaugh
I love people like you...

In the field when I see a successful hunter... I can count on him not liking the liver and he will almost always give it to me!

[rem33]

Save the liver for folks that like it, is what I do.
The heart mixed in with the ground meat gives a extra pound or so of hamburger.
I keep a couple of plastic grocery bags in my small backpack to carry them out with.

[FirstFreedom]

Deer Liver & onions fresh cooked, is nothing, I repeat nothing like store bought cow liver.

Interesting. Thank you. Maybe I can work up the nerve to try it. Does it taste just like deer heart? I've had that and can tolerate it, even though it has that "livery" taste and smell a bit.

If it doesn't work out, the catfish bait idea is a good reason to keep it. I like using as much of the animal as possible, and leave very little for the buzzards & coyotes.

Hey, tapeworms & flukes are just extra protein, guys!

[Long Path]

...BEWARE!

http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/repr...deer%20corn%22

Aflatoxin is a common fungus found in corn that has gotten damp and turned mealy. Corn with too-high a level of Aflatoxin is not allowed to be sold for human or cattle consumption, and thus is sold as "wildlife feed" or "deer corn." It's not that harmful to the deer, usually, because the amount of corn that they eat from bait feeders is only a fraction of their regular diet (they are usually not "fed" so much as "baited"-- the corn is a treat that they love to eat, but isn't usually much of an impact on their diet, unless they are eating large amounts from multiple baiting stations.). Still, what toxin is eaten ends up concentrated in the liver. Aflatoxicosis causes damage to the liver, and contributes to cirrosis, hepatititis, and, in chronic or acute cases, death.

Now that I've scared y'all with that mess, let me back up and say that I'm not in the least worried about the rest of the meat from deer that have eaten a little deer corn, and don't think that you're in trouble if you had a fresh deer liver in camp (which is the great joy of deer liver, as I understand it: super fresh from the animal and not over-cooked, the meat is supposed to make liver-haters wonder how they ever could have hated it.). But if you're in an area rife with feeders and little in the way of food, and you volunteer to accept everyone else's livers in camp because they know you love it so much... well, you might wanna reconsider.

[Meatco1]

With Deer liver, I prefer to get it on ice first thing, and when ready to cook later that night, rinse it well with fresh water before cooking. Slice it thin, fry it in hot butter along with sliced onions. A bit of salt & pepper, and you're ready to feast!

Don't over cook!

Serve it with a tossed green salad, and iced beer. After a hard days hunt, you'll think you've died & gone to heaven!

By the way, I absolutely HATE Steer liver!! But, fresh Deer liver is a whole different ball game.

Richard

[Smokey Joe]

Gotta side with the liver lovers here. And I too usu end up a deer season with one deer's worth of meat, one hide, and 4-5 livers and hearts. I LIKE hunting with people with food prejudices!

Have always liked beef liver & pork liver, and deer liver is just the same, mebbe a bit daintier in flavor.

For that matter, the only notably different liver I've ever eaten was from a sheep shot on a game farm--it had just a hint of that distinctive mutton flavor along with the standard liver flavor. But it was still great.

BTW, tapeworms do NOT live in livers!! Liver flukes, yes, tapeworms, no. Tapeworms are intestinal. And the liver processes toxins, it doesn't store 'em long-term. The liver is the body's amazing chemical factory--it has over 400 different functions that it performs, and researchers are constantly finding new ones. Another thought--Polar bear liver is so high in Vitamin A that it is toxic to humans, so avoid that particular liver. It's the only one to avoid AFAIK.

Fry bacon to get the grease. (Thick-sliced, really smoked bacon, not sugar cured, if you can get it!) Set bacon aside to drain. Fry sliced onions in the bacon grease. Set onions aside with bacon. Fry thinly sliced liver in the bacon grease, but ONLY until it is done (not pink) all the way through, not one second longer.

Serve. Eat. And Eat. Heaven on a plate.

Now heart, you fry in butter. Gently. Again, only until done. Most folks that think they hate liver or heart, have never had it except overcooked.