Camp Cooking and Game Processing Trade recipes and other tricks of the trade for cooking wild game.

Using the bones

Old 04-23-2015, 07:12 AM
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Default Using the bones

Hello! This is my first post here.

I only recently decided to start hunting, so I won't be able to actually kill anything for a while. I'm still in college (and therefore living in dorms), don't have a license yet, and I have scrawny arms (I want to bow hunt). But when I eventually do harvest an animal, I want to use the bones in my meals. I have good reason to believe that it will really help my bone health (http://thepaleodiet.com/got-bones-pa...s-soft-supple/), and as a female I need to try to build up my bone mass while I'm still young.

There are bone meal supplements, of course, but since you're supposed to put as much of the animal to good use as you can (right?), I thought some bone recipes would be a good idea. Do you have any good recipes that include animal bones?
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Old 04-23-2015, 07:21 AM
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Don't know if it helps or not but a lot of times I will take all the bones after I remove the meat and cut them into pieces small enough to fit in a crockpot. Cover them with water, add a chopped onion and carrots, salt and pepper and let them go all day. This makes some outstanding stock that I use later for soups and stews. I put the stock in pint jars and freeze it for later use. I've also roasted marrow bones from elk and bison but deer are a little small for that. I'm pretty sure that making the stock this way would give you a lot of the minerals from the bones, but that is just a guess on my part since I'm not a nutritionist.

Don't let being in a dorm prevent you from hunting. You can bone out a deer and it will fit easily in the freezer compartment of a standard refrigerator or you can buy a small deep freeze (5 cu ft or so) for a very little amount of $$$. If you have a crockpot, a toaster over and a hot plate you can cook venison easily. I did this type of thing for a long time when I was a young bachelor living in apartments. If you want to make it really easy on yourself you can have an entire deer ground into burger and use it in anything calling for ground meat.
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Old 04-23-2015, 08:04 AM
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If you want to build bone mass, build up muscle. Go to the gym and hit the free weights, I am sure some of the athletes on Campus could show you which routines to use to build specific muscles. That will also help you more easily draw a heavier bow weight.
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Old 04-23-2015, 08:15 AM
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What convinced you to start hunting? Is it the diet and health you are pursuing that has persuaded you or is it something else? Bow hunting is a great experience, on this though would suggest you get out to a outfitter/range or something and learn to shoot first.

As Flags has said, being in college shouldn't deter you, but it will require some ingenuity to store and cook your harvest.

Originally Posted by Dymphna
Hello! This is my first post here.

I only recently decided to start hunting, so I won't be able to actually kill anything for a while. I'm still in college (and therefore living in dorms), don't have a license yet, and I have scrawny arms (I want to bow hunt). But when I eventually do harvest an animal, I want to use the bones in my meals. I have good reason to believe that it will really help my bone health (http://thepaleodiet.com/got-bones-pa...s-soft-supple/), and as a female I need to try to build up my bone mass while I'm still young.

There are bone meal supplements, of course, but since you're supposed to put as much of the animal to good use as you can (right?), I thought some bone recipes would be a good idea. Do you have any good recipes that include animal bones?
Also is there an issue with your bone health already? There are other foods that provide calcium including kale, spinach, broccoli, etc. My wife had to change her diet due to a lack of calcium when pregnant and also included supplements. Will commend you on using the bones but will also be honest, one animal and being a new huntress you will not be able to supply your year round needs this way.

Wish you luck but also wish you could provide a little more information. Right now I only have a diet, woman, and wanting to eat your harvests bones to go off of; and you want to use a bow with scrawny arms to support your bone structure. Location, types of animals you may be ok with hunting, as some places have other options as well.
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Old 04-24-2015, 06:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Oldtimr
If you want to build bone mass, build up muscle. Go to the gym and hit the free weights, I am sure some of the athletes on Campus could show you which routines to use to build specific muscles. That will also help you more easily draw a heavier bow weight.
Yep! I started weight lifting a few days ago.
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Old 04-24-2015, 10:26 PM
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Originally Posted by olsaltydog
What convinced you to start hunting? Is it the diet and health you are pursuing that has persuaded you or is it something else? Bow hunting is a great experience, on this though would suggest you get out to a outfitter/range or something and learn to shoot first.

[...]

Also is there an issue with your bone health already? There are other foods that provide calcium including kale, spinach, broccoli, etc. My wife had to change her diet due to a lack of calcium when pregnant and also included supplements. Will commend you on using the bones but will also be honest, one animal and being a new huntress you will not be able to supply your year round needs this way.

Wish you luck but also wish you could provide a little more information. Right now I only have a diet, woman, and wanting to eat your harvests bones to go off of; and you want to use a bow with scrawny arms to support your bone structure. Location, types of animals you may be ok with hunting, as some places have other options as well.
There isn't an issue already, I've just been told it's a good idea. I know I won't be able to supply all my needs through hunting; I just saw that article I linked in the OP and I thought I would come here to see if you had any dishes you liked.

I'm okay with hunting any legal animal except crows, although I particularly want deer. I live in Arkansas.

I was into archery when I was younger. I forgot why I quit. I never hunted before or really considered doing it myself until recently. When I heard about how Ricky Gervais is mustering his fans against Rebecca Francis I got angry, and I started thinking about hunting. As I considered it more, I realized that I wanted to do it and that I got some sort of primal pleasure out of contemplating it (if that doesn't sound too weird). Then I got to thinking about that time when I had some delicious venison, and how it's healthier meat than what you get at the store, how the animal has a chance to escape unlike the cattle people usually eat, how it is necessary, and how it funds conservation. I also thought about how it's good exercise, since I probably wouldn't exercise that much if I didn't have some sort of fun thing to do. I almost certainly wouldn't have started weight lifting if it weren't to be able to be a better archer.

So at least one good thing is coming out of the Gervais vs Francis feud.
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Old 04-26-2015, 05:50 AM
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Originally Posted by Dymphna
I know I won't be able to supply all my needs through hunting
You might be amazed. I haven't bought meat in the store since 1986. A couple of deer a year feed me and the wife. Toss in a wild hog every once in awhile, some grouse/pheasants/quail. rabbit, squirrel and waterfowl and you can pretty much eliminate your meat bill on groceries. I also put in a pretty good garden and that helps. All in all my grocery bill is very, very small.
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Old 05-04-2015, 01:29 PM
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That sounds great! I'll just have to get to practicing my archery, then.
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Old 05-05-2015, 03:28 AM
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Another meat that will be healthy, tasty, and all around very good will be fish. I can easily fill the freezer, but I have access to saltwater species, you though can still load up and store pounds of fish caught, while enjoying the day out on the water.
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Old 12-19-2015, 09:15 AM
  #10  
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Default Use deer bones for stock and shanks for osso bucco

Stock is definitely the way to go to get the most use out of the bones. I do it a little different every time, but the basics are to roast them in the oven for a while, and then you boil them (for as long as your patience can last), and strain the results. Google stock recipes, and don't be afraid to use the beef stock recipes - the process is all the same in the end.

I'll do this with all the leg bones - the spine and skull can even be used, but you're best to skip them if you are in a possible CWD area.

The exception is the shanks - Steven Rinella has an awesome Osso Bucco recipe that I have yet been able to improve.
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