in this post i will go into some detail about the butchering and processing of this antelope. it can be either interesting or boring, depending on the individual read. if you prefer, feel free to skip down to the next post.

we were a little late in getting this antelope cut up and in the freezer (a week rather than 3 or 4 days maximum), but the good news is that the weather has been cooperating with nice, cold temperatures at night going well below freezing. during the day, the temperatures had only gone above 40-45 degrees for a couple-three short hours before heading back down. in the meantime, sally the antelope was hanging in a nice, cool indoor environment away from any insects with plenty of air movement and no sunlight - great conditions for hanging and aging meat during a time of year where it is normally just a little too warm for that.

i don't have any pictures because it was a sloppy process and we were a bit unorganized this year, but it is easy enough to tell the tale. the antelope was skinned, the head was popped off at the atlas join at the base of the skull and then the carcass was quartered into sections (two front quarters, two hindquarters and two loins) without using a saw:

a) front quarters - no bones attached - come right off with a quick and careful slice from a knife where the shoulders are attached to the ribcage by muscle. it should be noted that when we hung (hanged?) sally up, we cut off all four legs at the "knees and elbows," mainly because the legs do get in the way while hanging etc. and also because there's no meat on them anyway.

b) hindquarters - careful separation of the meat from the pelvic bone down to the femur, then popping the ball/socket joint and severing the connecting tendon.

c) loins - two large muscles running the legnth of the backbone on each side from base of the neck to hindquarters. cut down parallel to the backbone to the rib cage on each side, then down along the tops of the ribs until the loins naturally separated from the body. resulting long, wide strip of meat can be thought of as a long (or extremely thick?) pork chop without the bone.

next came time to do the main part of this job, the trimming, cutting and packaging of the major cuts. i am extremely picky about the meat that gets in final packaging as roasts, steaks or cubes. everything that is not meat is removed through careful trimming, including bone (without a saw), fat, membrane, silverskin, whatever. this is all trimmed off and as much actual meat as possible from the trimming goes to grinding. the fat/membrane etc. is packaged for my dad's dog to eat and the bones (with bits of meat here and there) are kept so that we can make stock. what is left behind are roasts that are solid chunks of lean, tasty meat. venison has very little marbling - usually none at all - and any existing layers of membrane between muscle groups can be trimmed off so that nothing goes into the freezer except meat. this is very important for the best final product.

first, we trimmed and packaged the loins - very easy! the loins are a big, long strip of solid muscle that can either be a roast or cut into steaks. essentially, there is a long, wide strip of "silverskin" along the "bottom" of the loin (which was actually the top of the muscle running along the back of the animal when she was standing). this is easily removed by working a sharp fillet knife in between that silverskin (below) and the loin muscle (above), then simply skimming the knife in a forward and slightly-downward motion as if "scraping" the silverskin from the loin, much like skinning a fish fillet. from there, it is a simple thing to trim the odd bit of fat or membrane here and there from the loin, leaving behind a long, solid roast of lean meat. we chose to cut the loins into steaks about 1/2 of an inch thick using the "butterfly" technique, where we make one 1/2-inch-wide cut almost (but not quite) through the muscle, then another cut 1/2 of an inch beyond the first that goes all the way through. the resulting slice is opened up like a butterfly and you have a 1/2-inch-thick steak that is twice as big as it would have been had we simply cut it with one cut (note: when i say 1/2 inch, i actually mean something that is somewhere between 3/8 and 1/2 inch - someday i will have a meat slicer and i will be able to be more precise). we did both loins entirely into butterfly steaks, except for a few trimmings from each end of each loin that were cut into cubes for soup, stew, kebabs etc.

normally we would do the hindquarters after the loins, but we were putting the hindquarters off due to the fact that she was hit there - the bullet went through both hindquarters and sorting it all out was going to be a difficult job - the good news is that the bullet went through muscle and bone only, the digestive tract was unharmed. so, for now, we did the front quarters instead. after trimming as much fat and membrane as possible from each front quarter, we decided to wrap one whole shoulder up securely for smoking/barbecue next year, rather like cabrito. the other one, we trimmed up and then separated into the muscle groups. we got to thinking that since this is, essentially, chuck roast, we would keep them as roasts and try an antelope version of carbonade. i have no idea how this is going to trun out, but will report on it! that took care of the front quarters.

we trimmed through the hindquarter that was on the side that was hit first, and got some steaks and cubes from there. the hindquarter looks a lot like a gigantic turkey drumstick and the muscle groups separate very easily. from there it is a tedious but simple matter of trimming the junk from the roasts, then either packaging the roasts as they are or cutting them into steaks or cubes. one challenge here was cutting away the "blood-shot" meat around the bullet hole, and being sure to get all bone fragments from the femur that was shattered. this resulted in a slight loss of meat that we would normally have. the second hindquarter we will tackle tonight, and i am afraid we won't get much other than a few cubes and trimmings for grinding due to the expansion of the bullet and the large amount of bloodshot meat - we shall see. normally, the hindquarters provide the bulk of the finished product, but due to unfortunate circumstance that we always try hard to avoid, this was not the case this year, and we must play the had we are dealt, which means that we will be missing out on some of the meat we would have enjoyed from an animal that normally doesn't provde a large amount of meat in any case. the good news is that deer season opens this weekend, and there will be at leat four deer for us to fill the freezer with. in general, you can get a LOT more meat from deer than you can from antelope, so i think things will be alright. it is a bit of a disappointment, but the only time shots are ALWAYS perfect in hunting are either on TV or on the internet forums.

other assorted parts, including the neck, ribcage and hocks (which correspond to the forearm and calf of a person) were removed. my dad likes the neck roast, so this was packaged up for him, and my oldest son likes to smoke the hocks, although i find them to be too gristly for my enjoyment due to the thin strips of meat that run between thick strips of tough membrane. normally, i take these and take the time to remove the meat for grinding since it is good meat, there just isn't much of it; but joe (my son) wanted to smoke the hocks this year, so they are currently brining as we speak in some concoction he came up with. the final portion, the ribcage, is a catch-all term for everything from the base of the neck to the pelvis, including the brisket area. there is quite a bit of good meat on the rib cage in the brisket area, as well as over the ribs and at each end of the rib cage, that can be retrieved for grinding. after trimming, we removed each side of ribs from the brisket bone and backbone, creating what were essentially two large (but thin) st. louis cut slabs of ribs. we trimmed as much fat as we could from them and then cut each slab down parallel to the ribs into two racks, then wrapped them tightly in foil and plastic wrap for the freezer. i don't know how these will turn out for various reasons: a) they are pretty thin and a little dried out from hanging; b) they still have a lot of fat on them, and venison fat of any kind is generally not good eats. it could be that we would have been better off trimming the remaining rib meat for grinding, but what the heck, gotta try new things, right? so we have four good-sized racks of ribs in the freezer. i haven't yet decided whether to grill them, braise them, slow-cook them or what - part of the fun is finding out!

the various trimmings from the quarters, the loins, the ribcage etc. were all put through the meat grinder. we did not make them into burger, jerky, or sausage yet, but instead packaged the ground venison a pound at a time. now, we have packages of pure, fat-free-and-mostly-membrane-free, ground, flavourful meat that can be used for many purposes, rather than committing it to one or the other. burger is usually made with beef fat added; sausage is usually made with pork fat added. jerky made from ground meat is really good stuff and has no fat at all. snack sticks and other treats may or may not have fat added depending on the situation. with no fat added to the meat now, it will last longer - fat takes up space in the freezer, goes rancid long before the meat will and also is not necessary for many applications that ground meat can be used for. we can brown the crumbled ground meat into a casserole or use for tacos, or make some fresh, nitrate-free sausage as we desire - or for that matter, we can add nitrates for curing and make all sorts of great things. we can also make burger patties and grill them. i am considering re-trying a bologna that i made a few years ago. it was good, but was missing something - maybe i can improve what i made before. packaging the ground meat now with nothing added to it increases its versatility.

as for packaging, last week i bought a vacuum sealer. i had had one before, but i don't anymore. it's a long story. anyway, this one worked flawlessly. i have had well-packaged venison last a very long time - as long as three years in the freezer and it still thawed, cooked, smelled and tasted as fresh as the day it was packaged. i am a big believer in these things! each vacuum-sealed package of steaks, cubes or ground meat was one pound. for the large cuts like the one whole shouler and the ribs, we carefully wrapped them in plastic and aluminum foil that was scrunched down tightly in a couple of heavy-duty layers and then wrapped in plastic again tightly for freezing. it won't last as long as the vacuum-sealed meat but it will last until next spring, when i plan to try a few things. the key is to remove as much undesireable stuff (mentioend above numerous times) as possible, then removing as much air as possible while packaging in a way that will protect the meat from air and subsequent freezer burn. i am fairly confident that i accomplished this in great form this year.

that pretty much covers it - if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and i will provide answers as best as i can. next, i will go into a few cooking experiments we tried while we were butchering.

first, we took maybe half a pound of cubes and seasoned them with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder - nothing fancy! i got a cast-iron skillet hot with just enough butter to lightly coat the bottom and tossed them in with a chopped onion to sear, stirring them often until they were pretty well browned. then added some minute rice and a little more butter and stirred it around to toast it just a bit, then added an equal amount of water, brought it to boiling and then returned it to the lowest setting to simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or so. this resulted in a warm, filling lunch that tasted pretty good. i wasn't going for any record-breaking creation, so i didn't photograph it, but i should have as it was better than i throught it would be.

next, when the beautiful mrs. tas came home from work, she was starving and not picky as she would normally be about what she ate, so i took about a dozen more little cubes and gently tapped them almost flat with a meat tenderizing mallet, splashed some soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder on them, and quickly browned the breaded "cutlets" in a little canola oil for just a couple of minutes on each side. i would like to have had a can of cream of mushroom soup, but i didn't, so i added some sour cream, stirred it around and let it simmer for a few minutes while i whipped up some instant mashed potatoes and topped them with the antelope/sour cream concoction. i was going for something similar to stroganoff, and came close. it was a little too sour-creamy, but otherwise was pretty good.

for supper that night, my oldest son decided to get in touch with his german heritage and made an antelope version of Jägerpfännle. he followed the recipe pretty much as described and even used the tongue, which we had removed while field dressing along with the heart, liver and kidneys. heart and liver we always keep, but this was the first time with the tongue and kidneys. the tongue was a little....weird....to work with and skinning it was a whole new experience; the kidneys were similarly interesting. as for the final product, he served it on mashed potatoes and seemed to enjoy it. the smell was a little strange in a kitchen environment and was full of the prairie that the antelope came from. i do not normally eat heart or liver, but i did try a little for this occasion. the flavour was actually pretty darn good! the texture of liver is not my favourite thing, and i wasn't ready to try kidney or tongue yet, so i left it at that. we will try this again with deer, just because, and get pix....

since there was no way in the world that my wife was going to try this, i made a simple supper for us using one of the last three packages of last year's deer that we have in the freezer. i simply seasoned the pounded cubes and pan-fried them with onions, then deglazed with just a splash of red wine, then added flour and a little more seasoning for a very smooth pan gravy. except for the wine, the whole process reminded me a lot of aaron's biscuits and gravy, except it was served on mashed potatoes rather than biscuits.

in all, good eats for a day of wild game butchering!

as i try other recipes with the antelope, i will post them with pix etc.

alright, last night we started a big pot of antelope stock, which, if it turns out well, will be used for gravies, sauces etc. when preparing antelope and/or other game dishes.

pretty simple, pretty typical - essentially just like making any other stock. took the backbone, pelvis, upper leg bones, brisket bones (sternum was split when we field-dressed her) and a few other odd bones that we had - all were disjointed etc. so as to fit in the stock pot (it's a pretty big one, i THINK 16 quarts?). also cut up a couple-three onions, a bunch of garlic and and the last of the herbs from this years herb garden (sage, thyme, marjoram and a few others) and added them in with some juniper berries, a little paprika, and a bunch of leek trimmings. would have been nice to have some carrot and celery, but didn't have any on hand and the store was closed for the evening (small town life!) - i think the leeks will make up for a lot of the lost body, though.

filled the pot with cold water almost to the brim (it was very full of stuff and the water probably amounted to half a pot full) and set it on the stove to boil. it took a bit of time to reach this point, at whcih i covered the pot and reduced the heat down to maybe the second setting above absolute low and let it simmer. since it was pretty late at night, i simply let it slowly simmer like this all night.
this morning, i removed the bones and ran the stock through a colander to get all the bits of meat, vegetables etc. out of the broth. there was still a pretty good amount of scrappy meat on the backbone, between little bones etc. and quite a bit more fat than i expected, probably from the marrow etc. the actual broth had a slick/slippery feel and i was reminded of the head cheese i made earlier this year - perhaps this is how head cheese originated?

i returned the stock to the pot and but it back on to simmer, uncovered, as i went to work (i've already been told by one colleague that i smell like antelope today, which is not quite a compliment). when it gets reduced down to a manageable size, say enough to fit in a 5-quart kettle, one of the kids will strain it through a couple of layers of cheesecloth and let it sit on the counter for half an hour or so before refrigerating it to solidify the fat so that it can be removed tonight when i get home from work. after this, we will further reduce the stock down some more, maybe two or four pints. when i put it on to simmer again, i will probably add a can of tomato paste, just for the sake of experimentation. after reduction, we'll pour it into half-pint jars; once this is done and the stock has cooled completely, i'll either freeze or pressure-cook the jars for storage.

if anyone has any advice to keep the little bacterial critters away, let me know. total boiling/simmering time ont his broth is going to be at least 12 hours, and i think freezing or pressure-cooking will take care of any other problems. i haven't yet used the pressure-cooker, so i may need some advice with that.

here's some basic stuff about antelope:

one of north america's finest hunters and authors, jack o'connor, writes in the art of hunting big game in north america that pronghorns are interesting mammals indigenous to the contenent that share many characteristics of other animals, but are related to none other, making them a truly unique north american species. they are a holdover from the ice age and very beautiful animals. this may sound like a contradictory statement considering the subject of this post, but they are truly amazing creatures. slightly smaller than deer in this area, they are a source of some very good-tasting, tender and surprisingly delicate meat.

pronghorns (commonly referred to as pronghorn antelope, antelope, prairie goats or speed goats) are the fastest land animal in north america. they can reach speeds of 60 miles per hour and there have been many times on back country roads that i have had personally witnessed pronghorns racing along beside the road, keeping pace with whatever i was driving at the time. they seem to enjoy it and will keep up the "race" for quite a while before losing interest or, more likely, having to veer off or stop due to a fence or change in terrain.

here are some facts about pronghorns:



anyone who is interested in reading about hunting pronghorns in montana can click here:

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/fo...um_posts.asp?TID=141

and here is an interesting discussion partially based on o'connor's writings relating to field judging pronghorns:

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/fo..._posts.asp?TID=11453

as table fare, pronghorns have an undeserved bad reputation due in part to their habitat, their diet, how they are treated after a kill and, most of all, to the obsession many hunters have with shooting "bucks," whether or not they are fully mature, trophy males. let's go over a few of those factors as well as discuss ways to mitigate or eliminate those problems in an effort to truly enjoy the tender, flavourful meat that pronghorns can provide.
pronghorn habitat is often home to sage brush flats and other vegetation that can affect the taste of the meat, possibly (along with other factors) giving it a "wild" or "gamey" taste. where we live and hunt, both deer and antelope are usually very close to alfalfa hay and grain fields and have a diet that is just as good as any "organically-fed" beef. this goes a long way toward providing some very good eats.
many hunters shoot anything with horns just to have something to drive around town with in the the back of their pickup (or, worse yet, on the engine-warmed hood or fender of their car, although that seems to be a thing of the past) for curious onlookers to oogle at. further, hunting season for antelope and deer generally coincides with the rut, which is the time for mating; during this time, antelope bucks are full of raging hormones and are secreting scents from glands under their cheeks and on their legs that might attract does, but are pretty wild-smelling for humans. the obvious solution to this is to shoot a big doe, such as mike's above, but even if you shoot a buck, you can take care not to touch the glands; many hunters even take a moment to cut them off the carcass. another way to deal with this is to shoot fully-mature, older bucks, if you want a buck. one of the best-eating antelope i have ever was a very good-sized buck (horns measuring just a bit over 14 inches long) who was an old campaigner and probably past his breeding prime. his meat was fork-tender due to his advanced age and the fact that he was a pretty fat boy.
shooting any game animal when it is calm and hasn't been running around, harried or excited will help the flavour of the meat as there will not be any adrenalin running through it, a hormone which will affect the taste of the meat.
care in the kill is also very important. because antelope have very good eyesight, many less-consciencous hunters will shoot beyond their ability, taking risky shots at distances beyond their ability (or that of their rifle), or perhaps at angles or other situations that do not present a clean, fast, one-shot kill though the heart and lungs. these impatient, bad shooting practices often result in animals being hit in the guts, in large muscle groups (MEAT) or in other areas that are not compatiable with a quick, clean and humane kill. one thing i have learned over nearly three decades of hutning is that if the hunter is calm and rational and above all patient, he will be presented with a good, clean shot on a calm animal at a distance that is within his abilities and that of his rifle.
another factor affecting the taste of the meat is how it is treated after the kill. immediate field dressing, quick cleaning and cooling of the carcass and letting the animal hang and age a few days will greatly improve the taste of the meat. for antelope, at this time of year in this latitude, two or, at most, three days is sufficient. for deer, 10 days up to two weeks is just about right, due to temperatures well below 40 degrees at that time of year and the fact that deer meat is not nearly as delicate as antelope. this aging of the meat allows the muscle fibres to relax and allows enzymes to begin to break down (NOT rot) the meat. this process is extremely similar to aging beef for prime rib roasts, etc.
finally, care in butchering, processing and packaging is paramount. keep the meat clean, keep the meat cool, bone out the quarters, loins etc. without using a saw, trim the roasts very, very well, package it in tight, well-trimmed sealed packages (preferably vacuum sealed or with the air removed by other means) and freeze it quickly before ice crystals can ravage the meat. if it thaws for any reason, eat it immediately without re-freezing.
put it this way: if you chase any animal, even a prime angus beef, around while it is hyped up on hormones, run it ragged over a mile or two to get it riled up, shoot it from half a mile away in the guts, blowing gastric juices (and worse) onto the meat, drag it through the dirt under a hot sun, throw it on the hood of your car and race back into town and drive around with it on your hood then chop it up before the meat can relax and age, and then process and package it badly, you are going to have bad meat, no matter what. you can read more about good care of wild game at the field and in processing here:

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/fo...um_posts.asp?TID=130

as for cooking, there are so many options it is hard to discuss. above all, pronghorn meat is tender, delicate and extremely lean with a light and almost sweet flavour that is reminiscent of, but not the same as deer. i am sure there is fat in there somewhere, but when i butcher wild game all visible fat is trimmed away from the muscle groups (roasts) and they have no fat that i can see. this means that quick preparation in cooking is generally a good thing, but it is not always necessary. antelope can be sliced into steaks and pan-fried, grilled over fire or under a broiler, cut into cubes for kabobs, soups and stews, trimmed as large roasts and slow-cooked in the oven or smoker with a lot of moisture such as broth, juice etc. and brushed well with an oil-based baste (or wrapped in bacon!), round into burger (after adding beef or pork fat) for all sorts of uses (including chili!), cut thin and dehydrated for jerky and ground and mixed with pork and pork fat for sausages. in short, anything you can do with "regular" meat, you can do with antelope - you may have to add a little fat or liquid to keep it moist while cooking, but that's about it. aother rule of thumb is that antelope as well as deer should generally be cooked to medium or just at the cusp of being done, to prevent drying out of the meat.