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Hearts and Livers

7K views 58 replies 40 participants last post by  Trouthunter 
#1 ·
Do any of ya'll keep the innards of big game to eat? I've read articles where they would wrap the heart and liver to save it, but I never have. I have given them a long look or two, but always blew it off.
Now, I do frequently keep the gizzard, heart and liver of turkeys for giblet gravy. Even pheasants have good giblets.
I was just wondering what big game giblets would be like.
 
#3 ·
we have always kept them, but for a different reason. we boil them, and then chop it up with a cleaver and mix it in with the dogs food. They love it! My grandad would always carry a plastic bread bag with his gear, just for this reason. Our labs would be waiting for their special dinner anytime we had killed a deer. There is bound to be some good recipies for them though.
 
#4 ·
Hearts of dove, quail, ducks, geese, cranes, deer etc along with the gizzards out of every critter thats got one go to the house with me! My kids like em too, so they make sure and remind me so that I have plenty of em to snack on while the main course is cookin up.
 
#6 ·
triple f said:
Hearts of dove, quail, ducks, geese, cranes, deer etc along with the gizzards out of every critter thats got one go to the house with me! My kids like em too, so they make sure and remind me so that I have plenty of em to snack on while the main course is cookin up.
Really, duck gizzards, that's another one I have eyeballed. I just never heard of it so...How do they taste, and how do you cook the deer heart?
 
#8 ·
If I am breasting birds, I will usually pull atleast the heart since that is my favorite part. The gizzards are pretty good too if it's a big enough to mess with. I don't care for duck or goose livers though.

If it's convenient, I save the hearts and livers out of wild hogs for trotline bait in the spring.
 
#10 ·
The hearts and gizzards are great floured up and chicken fried or wrapped in foil with bbq sauce, onions and jalepenos and put on the grill. After a bit open up the foil and let some smoke get on em.

Ya gotta be sure and rinse the hearts out good.....kinda squish em a few times in water to get all the blood out. The gizzards are kind of a pain to clean, just be sure and get that lining out of em after you split em open. The smaller hearts I do whole, but the bigger ones (along with the gizzards) I slice em up.
 
#12 ·
Deer heart makes a bad arse stew/roast also. My grandma makes it with a regular ol stew or roast recipe and cooks it real slow..."real slow" key words here. I had a hard time eating it the first time, just because of the thought of eating a heart, but now I'm sold and save every one that's not busted up. Still not sold on liver tho. Heart = muscle, Liver = filter. Somehow I think of licking a dirty sock when I think of people eating liver.
 
#17 ·
We used too. But we no longer gut our Deer so they go to the yote pile.

On hogs...we keep a few livers in the freezer to make Boudain and Dirty Rice...

niether are the real stuff without Pork liver.
 
#20 ·
activescrape said:
Do any of ya'll keep the innards of big game to eat? I've read articles where they would wrap the heart and liver to save it, but I never have. I have given them a long look or two, but always blew it off.
Now, I do frequently keep the gizzard, heart and liver of turkeys for giblet gravy. Even pheasants have good giblets.
I was just wondering what big game giblets would be like.
I've got a friend who comes from a hispanic background. They are all hardcore hunters. Going to their house for dinner, you never knew what might hit the table, and honestly you were probably better off not asking. Anyhow, a few years ago we were deer hunting and his dad was with us. We were out back gutting deer and his dad decides he's going to cook up some heart. I thought to my self, NO WAY IN HE77 am I going to eat that. Well, he sliced it pretty thin across the whole heart (where you could basically see all 4 chambers of the heart) and put the slices into a zip lock with some tenderizer and marinade and stuch it in the fridge for about a day. The next night when we fired up the grill, he put those slices on first and cooked them fast to a Medium Rare doneness. Now, I don't know if it was the whiskey that did it or not, but honestly it wasn't too bad. I would say if you like fried chicken livers or gizzards, you'll like heart. I don't think I could make a meal out of something like that, but for a couple of bites as an appetizer and a conversation piece before dinner, I wouldn't be afraid to give it a try.
 
#21 ·
The main thing that you've got to remember with hearts and gizzards is DO NOT OVERCOOK IT! Alot of folks will overcook them and they get really chewy and not nearly as tasty.

Now on the other hand, kidney has got to be cooked really well. As a matter of fact, ya gotta cook the PISZ out of it!:rotfl:
 
#26 ·
Every year 'Deer Camp Stew' is made opening weekend. All the things mentioned are included from last years kill. I have been eating it for 25 years now and look foward to the flavor. I even ate he heck out of it when I was a kid, but probably did not know what it was.
 
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