Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer Ribs...who bothers?

First let me state that for me this is free meat.
Along with 4 months of deer hearts I get all the ribs I can carry for not a dime.
I trim them pretty good then parboil in applejuice, sweet white wine and water.
I have a rack or so in the Crock-Pot with a jar of mustard, a jar of BBQ sauce and apple juice.
The rest are roasting covered in foil at 225° dry rubber with seasonings and applejuice beneath them. I'll finish them with some Rufus Teauge honeywhisky BBQ at 375 for 15 min.
Anyone else bother or do you just toss them to the dogs?

I'm not very fond of eating ribs, not even BBQ ribs. Too much work and mess for not much meat. But it just doesn't seem like giving the animal proper respect to waste meat. So I roll all the meat off of the ribs and put it in the bag along with the other stuff that I'm going to grind.

KC

Uh....mine rock!
Top two are whitetail bottom is elk

Mostly the ribs on our white tails consist of "cat jello". It provides a treat for the farm cats where we butcher our deer.

I'll stop by the processor Sunday around dark and grab the next batch.
Thinking...beer parboil and the dry rub and Treager.

Grind mine as well, as we use deer burger for everything from chili, to spaghetti, soup, etc.

in the early days, we wrapped and baked every rib that came off the deer. in later days, we started stripping the meat off and putting into the grind bag for hamburger. it works both ways.

Last few seasons my BIL has been putting the ribs from his deer in the smoker, they turn out real good. On deer that I harvest I use my filet knife to remove the strips of meat between the ribs, I marinate overnight in teriyaki and make jerky out of them smoking with alderwood.
They turn out great and seldom last very long.

I hate to waste any part of a deer, but I have to admit they usually get thrown out. I have had them in the past where we left the flank meat on them and grilled/bbq'd them and they came out pretty good.

Not enough meat on them to fool with.

I generally shoot mine in the ribs, but what meat is good gets used, as burger mostly. I like deer burger with nothing else added for taco meat and spaghetti meat. If I am making a burger I want some fat added. I need to get back to making sausage. I used to quite a bit, then quit. Breakfast sausage not stuffed. I would like to take some meat to the local processor and have Him make smoked sausage, but He will not keep meat separate from others, and I am leery of how some people handle theirs before the processor gets it. miles

I'm a big rib guy. I love ribs, especially a good texas style beef rib.

I am not fond of venison ribs. There is too little there to make it worthwhile. This is one of the reasons I generally put my shots in the boiler room. I know I'm not messing up anything important.

My first run-in with ribs was with my first buck. It had been taken in fairly warm weather on Opening Day of bow season. Despite slow cooking, the ribs tasted like freshly mown grass and were instantly dumped in the garbage.

I didn't hazard a try at the ribs until several years later-- a lot of work for little in return. I gave up on them for years. When I got them, they usually got boiled, the bones removed, and the rest served to the dogs mixed with rice.

About a decade ago, I took a buck into the processor and on a whim I asked if he'd fix me a pack or two of ribs out of it. Jake must have been a bit overwhelmed from the record number of deer that had shown up that day. He fired back "If you wouldn't keep using that !#!@#!@ cannon on them, I might be able to!" He was referring to the Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen. I had to admit the Whelenizer did seem to be particularly hard on rib meat. He apologized profusely later. Lord, how I miss Jake!

Reminds me of a story I've told here before. I joined a club in Mississippi back in the '90s. First season friends Charles, Paul and I went over for turkey season. After a successful turkey hunt, Charles dug around in the deep freeze and found a bunch of deer ribs there. He put them in his Cajun Cooker and they were ready by supper. Invited the caretaker/ guide over to eat with us. Those ribs disappeared fast and the guide raved about how good they were. He must have told the deer hunters too cause they never left any ribs in the freezer after that.

I've slow cooked them. They come out ok, not much meat. I almost always strip the meat off and grind it though. No sense wasting it.

-Jake

Same here.

I agree I don't mess with them. Our deer are pretty small compared deer in other parts of the country.

You guys who get to eat elk all the time really suck.

Our deer aren't overly small but what flank meat there is usually gets pulled off and ground with the rest. I usually go for body shots but others I hunt with like to shoot stuff in the head. I might try slipping the meat from in between the ribs this year and making it into jerky....

Normally the ribs are left for the coyotes. I cut the meat off but the bones stay. Packing an elk is hard enough without taking worthless bones out, too.

The black folks at the end of the road "runs" to my truck when they see me coming up out of the woods on Sunday afternoon.