Deer organs, and marrow?

Does anyone here eat the organs from white-tail deer? Do hunters generally leave those behind or is it possible to obtain fresh, edible organs? Recipes anyone?

Also, any reason one shouldn't use deer femurs as replacements for beef marrow bones in making broths or roasted marrow?

I always save the heart and liver for my mom. She loves them.
I often make stock from the leg bones, Hank shaw has some great recipes and advice at honestfood.net

My buddies and I save all the deer hearts.
Clean all the silver skin and sinew off and cut them in 1 1/2 inch cubes. I season them with cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes mixed with 1/2 cup red wine vinegar and 1/2 cup of olive oil. Marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours or overnight. Preheat grill or broiler. Thread a few pieces of deer heart on skewers. Grill until seared on all sides, about 3 - 5 minutes. Enjoy. You can also stir-fry them. The trick is to cook them hot and quick so they remain tender.

Tina Paxton wrote:Also, any reason one shouldn't use deer femurs as replacements for beef marrow bones in making broths or roasted marrow?

I use pretty much all the bones I can from the carcass to make a huge pot of stock/broth - beautiful stuff!

Nothing on a deer, goat, chicken, rabbit, raccoon, possum... is poison, with the possible exception of the gall bladder. I've never known anybody to try one, and can't imagine anybody wanting to.
Otherwise, what you can eat from a deer is entirely depend on where you stand on the adventuresome/squeamish scale, and how hungry for organic free range protein you are.

If the animal's large enough, I like to get the liver frying with onions as soon as I get it out, so when the jobs done we get a reward. Brains make a good meal. Tongue is great. There' a lot of good muscle on the jaws. Out of respect, I feel like I should eat the eyes. I boil them in a soup, and try to offer them around. They're not bad, but I'm glad there are only 2 to a deer.
I go through all the organs before I start on the carcass. If you have a place you can hang the carcass, it's all to the good, because the carcass needs a few days to hang to get tender.
I eat heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, testicles. I've eaten tripe, but I haven't made it myself. I tried lungs, once. I didn't like it much, but then, there's so much meat to deal with then if you don't have refrigeration that it didn't seem much of a loss. Especially with dogs and chickens and cats who deserve a share of my good fortune.
I've never tried to use the large intestine.
If I'm out in the woods, I feel good about leaving the guts and the lungs out there, for the scavengers and distribute the nutrients to the trees.

If you've ever eaten a hotdog, you eaten all those body parts and more. And almost certainly by a non-organic, non-freerange animal

Clarence Hagmeier wrote:Nothing on a deer, goat, chicken, rabbit, raccoon, possum... is poison, with the possible exception of the gall bladder. I've never known anybody to try one, and can't imagine anybody wanting to.
Otherwise, what you can eat from a deer is entirely depend on where you stand on the adventuresome/squeamish scale, and how hungry for organic free range protein you are.

If the animal's large enough, I like to get the liver frying with onions as soon as I get it out, so when the jobs done we get a reward. Brains make a good meal. Tongue is great. There' a lot of good muscle on the jaws. Out of respect, I feel like I should eat the eyes. I boil them in a soup, and try to offer them around. They're not bad, but I'm glad there are only 2 to a deer.
I go through all the organs before I start on the carcass. If you have a place you can hang the carcass, it's all to the good, because the carcass needs a few days to hang to get tender.
I eat heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, testicles. I've eaten tripe, but I haven't made it myself. I tried lungs, once. I didn't like it much, but then, there's so much meat to deal with then if you don't have refrigeration that it didn't seem much of a loss. Especially with dogs and chickens and cats who deserve a share of my good fortune.
I've never tried to use the large intestine.
If I'm out in the woods, I feel good about leaving the guts and the lungs out there, for the scavengers and distribute the nutrients to the trees.

If you've ever eaten a hotdog, you eaten all those body parts and more. And almost certainly by a non-organic, non-freerange animal

That's what I thought but folks around here act as if the idea of using the organs and bones is crazy...so I needed to get some reinforcement for my plan. I'm on a version of Paleo for auto-immune disease and am suppose to have frequent meals of ruminant liver BUT I'm allergic to beef. There are some semi-local sources for pastured sheep but it is very expensive. If I can procure the organs of deer, it would help meet that need. Plus, if I can get a whole deer or two, the more I can take from it, the better for my health and my pocketbook.

And, I dispatch the meat rabbits I raise so I've gotten lots of practice removing the gallbladder.

Don't turn yer nose up at roadkill, either. I've pushed some limits, and I'm still here typing this. How hungry I am certainly influences how adventurous I am.

My family always saves the heart, sometimes the liver for my grandfather if it looks good.

I know folks who give gut piles to their chickens, I haven't worked up to that yet. I however will compost anything that doesn't make the cut for food.

since Tina ask this 10 years ago I bet she might have become an expert by now.

My hunters are not interesting in eating organ meat so that goes to the varmints aka as critters.

Here is a thread some recipes if any one is interested:

https://permies.com/t/169217/Organ-Meat-recipes

I have heard of cooking pork belly and here is a thread about venison belly:

https://permies.com/t/18545/Venison-Belly

Why is there always a "but"? You are what you eat, and livers and kidneys tend to collect the stuff your body doesn't want. So if you're eating a deer that's been hanging out at a bait station filled with corn grown in toxic gick, or been harvesting off farmers fields or roadsides that you know have been sprayed with tons of toxic gick, I would be cautious.

The age of an animal matters - an obviously young deer will be much safer than a 5 years or older deer. That said, a link I read about the dangers of roads and deer suggest that many of them only live about 3 years, in which case even the liver should be safe so long as you aren't in a neighborhood that believes toxic gick is the only way to live.

In my area, gick is discouraged and most people have at least heard of the word "permaculture" or "edible landscaping" even if they don't practice it. If I'm lucky enough to be given venison, I will eat the heart and liver, but I haven't had experience with other organs. I absolutely will broth the bones and if I know a hunter has been able to fill his quota, bones are often free for the asking from them.