Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation PSA: Deer Shoulder

Rummaging around in the chest freezer I found two deer shoulders that my wife's friend gave to us to make Osso Bucco. Keep in mind, this is mostly just the scapula with about two inches of the leg bone in place from where they sawed off and discarded each limb. Bless her heart, but my wife's friend isn't the brightest bulb.

Historically, I have alway fallen into the mindset that shoulders were meant to be deboned and ground. That is until a few months when I saw one of Steven Rinella's videos on slow cooking a deer shoulder in a crock pot. Remembering that video, we decided to give it a shot.

We seasoned the shoulder with salt, pepper and some other simple spices then browned it on all sides in a skillet. From there, we added it to the crockpot with enough simmering stock to almost cover the shoulder.

Once fall apart tender, we served with rice and brussel sprouts. I had NO idea any cut of whitetail could be so tender and succulent! It completely blew my mind. We have done so many hind roasts in the crockpot over the years that we have grown bored with them. They regularly came out tender but would often dry out. That was absolutely not the case with this shoulder. This experience completely changed how I look at venison shoulders now.

No pics but had to share with the group.

One of our favorites. I season them up and brown them over coals for an hour, then add a little lard or pork fat then wrap the you know what out of them with foil. Low and slow in the back of the pit flipping every 2 hours. After about 3 flips I forget about it and go to bed. Get up in the morning and open up the foil and the bones are just sitting loosely in a pile of meat. Corn tortillas, guacamole, pico and salsa...

For low and slow cooking like you guys describe, I vastly prefer the shoulder or neck to any part of the hind quarter.

I like to brown them then braise in a roasting pan with tomatoes, onions, red wine and root vegetables. put the whole mess over rice.

Good eatin.

That bone marrow adds a lot of flavor and fat.

I Like to put shoulders in the crock pot. Cook all day.

Then pull and add bbq sauce to make sammiches

Blade roast is one of my favorites just behind backstrap. I don’t do ousso Bucco with deer but elk shanks are plenty meaty for it. I also like to cook the whole neck in a similar fashion bones and all.

I don’t grind front shoulders anymore unless they’re too shot up.

i usually tenderize them with a corelokt so they end up jerky in my house.

I've been slow cooking shoulders the last few years.

After the meat, the best part is just cutting the shoulder off instead of breaking it all down to be ground

-Jake

YES !!!

I am going to try deer shanks tomorrow for the first time. Everyone says you will never cut them up for burger again.

Word Brother !!





You won't regret it !

i put them in a deep cookie sheet with a bit of seasoning on it cover tin foil and put in the over on 180/ 200 d temp when i go to bed in the morning turn it off and leave it in the oven all day .make rice when you get home pull the bone out spoon meat over rice and eat. add any veggs you like

And eat the marrow, it is very good!

Do you have a recipe that you prefer?

Wow that looks good

Any low n slow braise works !

Usually use a tall boy can of Guinness Stout in the braising liquid.

I will post a pic once I learn how but the deer shank came out great. Cooked about 3.5 hours and was falling off the bone. I will never throw them in the grind or scrap bucket again.

[img]https://imgur.com/gallery/xN79lUZ[/img]

How do I get it to show up in the post?

How’s this?

Looks great Mate !!!

Those shanks are great.All that tendon melts and turns into a sticky fat like substance that it full of flavor.The meat that is left is very tasty and tender.Deer ribs are like that too.A lot of people throw them away,but learning how to cook things right can be a real treat.This is how I cook them.

Ssshhhhh, don't tell everybody how good secondary cuts are !

My late uncle told me how to cook shoulders 30 years ago. His method was a roaster pan and white beans with the right amount of liquid. I have done quite a few variations through the years. Slow cooking makes the meat perfect and never dry..

I cooked a whole shoulder off a small deer tonight. Marinated for 2 days and cooked on a roasting pan in the oven at 400 till it was 140. Medium rare. Was tender and delicious. Marinade was creole seasoning and greek seasoning, olive oil, garlic minced. Parsley flakes, worchestershire, hot sauce, and red wine.