Lebanon Bologna and Sweet Sticks was a discovery I made in PA years ago! I finally got old man Groff to gimmi his recipe for making them outta my deer grind on the promise he would haunt me to my dying day if I EVER told anyone else! Family recipe of his. Was absolutely the best of both of them I had in PA from ANYONE!

And CI, there's been a lot of deer that I've had to do some work with because of the Lactic Acid built up in the muscle tissue because the deer either ran hard after hit (archery) or it was a rutted up buck or a Doe that had been run hard by a buck. Some people don't mind that gamey taste from the Lactic Acid buildup but I sure aint one of them!

I have heard of that but can safely say all the deer I have killed and eaten didn't have that and I am pushing around 100 deer, elk and caribou total between bow, rifle and ML. I normally don't get a monster and most are modest racks with some does thrown in when I get to hunt them. The only bad deer I have eaten was a result of a poor bow shot and having to find it the next day and that was years ago.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articl...deer-hang-time

Around here, the weather seldom is right to hang a deer. Yesterday it was 33 degrees when I went into the woods. By the time I gutted and dragged out two doe, it was almost 70 degrees. I took them to the butcher, and i'm sure they got processed yesterday. Hopefully they were out of rigor but probably not. We do a lot of crock pot cooking so it should be ok...still, if you are able to change a deer it usually makes a huge difference. The few times that I have killed a late december deer and let it hang for a week it has been fantastic.

Super, was that Groff from Elizabethtown?

Only bad deer I have ever had from Southern Michigan corn fields to UPPER Michigan cedar swamps was a Mid Michigan December doe my mom got with her jeep. And the only bad part was in the butchering and the blood shot meat, once thru the grinder and mixed you could not tell it.


:D Al

Yep! When I first moved to PA I lived in between Hershey and E town. Found Groffs right off the bat. One of the best butcher shops I have had the pleasure of doing business with. They know their business well! I think they are on their fourth or fifth generation of ownership by now OT. Maybe even more. I sure do miss the meat from there though. They spoiled heck outta me. In almost 11 years here I have yet to find a decent cut of beef anywhere near the quality and flavor I got from them. And this state USED to be the butcher capitol of the country!

No one but Groffs makes my deer bologna and they have the best smoked sausage anywhere.

You learned how to hunt
 

When did you take time to learn how to cook.
Reminds me of a young hunter. He had gotten a deer; had it processed.
Had a problem. Neither his young wife or him knew how to cook or ever cooked . He began to silently wonder if he'd hunt next year.
At the time I was grilling a smalll steak. I didn't have a problem.

HA! I was a weee lad when my mom started teaching me how to cook. Same with my kids. My kids asked me the exact same question I asked my mom all those years ago. "Don't you think I'm a little young to be learning how to cook" (I was around 8 or 9) Her answer was the same that I gave my kids, "Boy, the way you eat, there aint a woman living on this planet that will stay in the kitchen 24/7 to feed your narrow ass!!" Needless to say, I could, and still do, put away some groceries :D

I just might have to give them a try next time. But I found a processor in Hegins (Bixler's meats) they make good sausage, keilbasa, lebanon bologna etc. Only thing is they don't debone. You have to debone it yourself and tell them what you want.