Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Venison Ribs Anyone

Nope

Around my area, the real hard-core muzzleloader people swear by deer tallow as the best ball lube.

"Ya get yaseff some beeswax and some deer taller and ya melt it on the stove in an ammunimum [sic] pie pan, and then ya set yer balls in it until it gets all hard."

Deer are a little on the lean side in these parts.....you can about see through the ribs. Like you I always trimmed what little I could get off the rib cage and put it in the burger pile.

Anyway, let us know your ribs turned out!

No pickles add mayo is how I eat them.

There are some tricks involved in cooking game ribs, and deer ribs in particular. Many people try to cook them exactly like pork or beef ribs, which from the many posts on this thread is obviously a mistake.

My wife experimented with wild big game ribs considerably when writing SLICE OF THE WILD, her cookbook on big game from field care to table. There's more than one successful deer rib recipe in the book (available from www.riflesandrecipes.com) but the biggie for deer ribs is normally to get rid of as much fat as possible. Parboiling works very well, which also helps tenderize the meat itself.

As a general observation, a lot of big game cooking fails because hunters treat wild game like domestic meat--which is more of a standardized, almost factory-produced product. Big game meat varies considerably not just from species to species, but there's also an obvious difference between a young doe and an old buck, especially across the entire hunting season from early fall through the rut. Field care, butchering and recipes that take that into account tend to be far more successful than treating all meat the same.

Ribs turned out fantastic. Enough liquid in the Dutch Oven I think was the trick. 1/2 can of frozen consentrated apple juice, can of IPA beer, salt, pepper, splash of soy sauce, worstershire, garlic, and some other stuff. After the Traeger they were in the oven at 350 for 2 hours and then lowered to 300 for two more hours. We turned the oven off and did not open it while we went to town and had a beer. Returned to an excellent meal. The rib bones pulled out of the meat with ease. The fat had cooked down quite a bit and was easily separated from the meat. Will do it again. And it wasn't a young buck!

Dad and grandpa used to cut bone in deer chops that were excellent. Can't hardly get anyone to use their bandsaw for it.

I don't eat ribs of any kind. Too much fat, too much bone and not enough meat to make it worth the effort. I don't like beef fat, and venison fat just about makes me puke. So I trim away all the fat that I can.

i have tried deer ribs,just not enough meat on them to really enjoy them .your better off going to Wally world and buying some pork or beef ribs.

Ok guys,here is my rib recipe
Found a really good way to cook deer ribs.I seasoned them,then browned both sides with a little olive oil ,a few pieces at a time.Then I stacked the ribs in my cast iron dutch oven and put them in the oven at 375 degrees with the lid off for about an hour until all the pieces looked nice and brown.Then I sliced some onion and put it on top the meat and continued cooking for another half hour until the onion looked like it was starting to look slightly done.Then I added a cup or so of water and put the lid on and continued cooking.Checked occasionally and add a little water as needed.Cooked them about 4hrs.They were moist and fall off the bone tender.