Butchering/Eating suggestion

[Hoosierbuck]

If you butcher your own deer, you know that trimming the neck meat to "clean" specifications for burger is a daunting task. (If you are one of those guys that just grinds it twice and says to heck with it-skip this.) I have another suggestion for you. Fajitas from whole neck roasts. That's right, leave the neck as intact as can fit into whatever roasting pan/crockpot/electric roaster you have access to. Then wrap it and freeze it whole.

Thaw if for a day before you want to eat it. Trim up the outside a little fo you like, but basically just drop the whole thing into your pot with water and a cut-up onion, and fajita seasoning. (I make my own mix, pretty easy to do.) Cook it all day. Shred it apart, taking out the non-meat parts. No lie, this takes some time, and perhaps a beverage or two.

Then divide this meat into meal-size portions. Freeze what you aren't using now. Heat some oil (a couple tablespoons is usually enough) in a skillet, then put in the meat, with more fajita seasoning. When it's "done" (remember it is already cooked, you are just heating/frying it up), put it in a covered dish while you sautee some onion and green pepper and whatever else you like. Put the meat back in and heat it all up together for a couple minutes. I serve with salsa (preferably fresh) and cheese on flour tortillas. I can't tell you how big of a hit these are with my family.

PLEASE-don't do a shoddy job of trimming the neck and throw this meat away just because it's too big of a pain.

**Because this method does cook spinal cord, not recommended for CWD areas.**

HB

[redkneck]

Sounds good, may have to try that one. We generally wrap the smaller necks (does) and will make crock pot fixins with them at the camp. Stew or BBQ or whatever. It's the most efficient use of the meat. Made believers out of my buddies who used to practically feed the necks to the dogs, and now value them for sammich material on a cold day. Lots of meat on a big buck though, esp during the rut.

Fwiw, the fat in the neck seems to be the only fat in the deer that cooks similar to beef fat.

[MCH]

Pics or it never happened!

[dbHunterNY]

yea i'm guilty... i've always just trimmed it up a bit into cleaner strips and then ground it up. not much waste. that's a great idea for something different though.

[stevebeilgard]

wyoming has cwd, so that's out for me.

[RangerClay]

Sounds good, may have to try that one. We generally wrap the smaller necks (does) and will make crock pot fixins with them at the camp.

Fwiw, the fat in the neck seems to be the only fat in the deer that cooks similar to beef fat.

Same here. Try this, get a pack of Lypon onion soup mix (powder). Use the soup mix as a dry rub and rub it in good. Throw the neck roast and any leftover soup mix in a crock pot and cook on low all day. Mmm-Mmmm good!!!!

[Ravin R10 man]

guess I'll keep trimming it out..just dont like the idea of keeping the spine or any bone intact while cooking..other than ribs