Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Using deer flank and skirt meat

I try to set a good example and use everything I can but...am I nuts for trying to trim this stuff out and grind it? There are lots of different layers with varying amounts of fat between them. All of it is covered with, for lack of a better description, a clear greasy snot. Those of you who DO use this meat, how to you treat it? Just close your eyes (figuratively), cut it up and grind it or do you spend time driving yourself nuts like I have been? Same deal with the neck meat, lots of layers, lots of fat, etc. My friends think I'm crazy to fool with it but when you like jerky and sausage you need all the grinding meat you can reasonably get.

P.S. I am a meat hunter, I'm talking does only here.

Scott

I usually don't save the flank steak but when I do or when I am dealing with other less desireably cuts I try to get the meat as clean as possible. The fat and the silverskin is what gives ground venison a bad name. I try to get at least 70 percent or better of the crap off the meat. The best thing I have found to get the meat off the fat and the silverskin is a grapefruit spoon. I will use a fillet knife to get most of the meat off then scrape the fat and silverskin clean. I am also a meat hunter and save as much as possible. I will even scrape the bones clean with the spoon to use in grinding. The only meat I don't use is anything severly blloodshot or cuts that greater than 75percent fat as the flank usually is.

Got one word for you.
Fahitas that is what skirt meat is for.

take it and put it in a zip lock bag with a jar of good salsa a quarter cup of olive oil, juice of a lemon or lime and a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Let it marinade for at least six hours.

Take it out and put it on the grill for about seven or eight minutes a side.

Take it off and slice it up into thin slices holding the knife almost parallel to the surface of the meat.

Grill some green peppers, onions, maybe some tomatoes if you like.

Take some warm flour tortillas , pile on the sliced fahita, grilled onions, peppers and a dollop of sour cream and shredded cheese on top.

Tell me if that ain't good.

BCR

Okay it's 10 p.m. back here in the East, and now I'm hungry.... thanks a lot Boggy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Good fahitas will make you hungry. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I forgot to say to cut your flank/skirt meat into hand size pieces before marinating and cooking.

Also if you don't happen to like sour cream then a topping of good homemade Guacamole works well.

BCR

I'm giving the ole printer a work out with all these great ideas floating all over the place.

Regards, sse

My query has to do with how you are handling the meat BEFORE you make it into something tasty. Mainly, do you try to trim it out (including that nasty, greasy clear stuff between the layers), or do you just cut to the size/shape you want for your recipe? Maybe I'm just too compulsive by removing every bit of fat and sinue?

Scott

Just cut it and use it. If there is anything on the surface that bothers you then scrape it off.

BCR

You can make rolled roasts out of the flank meat. Season the flank and roll it up and tie it with cotton string and slow cook it. Real fatty cuts need to be cooked and then cooled before you reheat to serve. You can then get rid of the congealed fat that cooked out of the meat real easily. Parboiling can also help get rid of the excess fat.
Crock pot whole chunks of neck on the bone (in non-CWD areas). If it is fatty let it cool and remove the congealed fat. 12 hours in a crock pot will make the meat fall off the bones and the tough connective tissue turns to soft, tasteless gelatin that is easily trimed. Here in the west the critters don't get near as fatty as the corn and soybean fed critters in the mid-west. Trying to grind real tough meat that is full gristle and sinew is a frustrating experience. A crock pot makes it easy.