The meat of young animals is tough? Seriously? I shot a deer once that once I got up to it seemed the size of a Brittany. Oh well. I put the whole deer, minus head an forelegs in my pack and kept on hunting. The guys in camp laughed at it on the meat hook.... until they tasted it. It was near as tender as properly roasted armadillo. I've had the same experience with bison, caribou and moose. With moose, if their antlers are longer than their ears, they're too big.

Dean I heard years ago from a vet friend that also liked to deer hunt about deer with dense populations having liver fluke issues. That might of been why that deer's liver was so messed up but it sound just like one I shot. When cleaning deer he took out the liver on about a 4 year old doe and showed me the inside, it looked like what you described. It might not have lived another year if liver was messed up like that. . Supposedly no issue with eating a deer with liver flukes but I don't eat wild game innards knowingly...

BTW the French will eat anything. Hence I think they were the ones that coined the phrase "Hunger makes the best sauce", probably were thinking about Woodcock when they came up with that one. Plus spend anytime with Cajuns and Creoles and that saying is alive and true. Learned a long time ago not to ask to many questions. It took me a while to be able to eat crawfish the right way and not look like a wimp to in-laws.

I'll tell you of an experience that embarrasses me. We have an annual big cookout on the private airstrip (Governor Dewey's property) where I hunt, fly and hang out. A person who I lost respect for decided he wanted to have a deer done whole the way pigs are done. He shot a fawn, illegally since it was summer, and put it on the spit. I refused to eat any of it but those who did said it was inedible because it was so tough. The deer went to waste. I have no idea why some young animals are tender, like yours, and others are tough. I think the veal example is a good one. On the whole, I do believe that the theory of young animals being tender while old animals are tough is not consistently true. What I do know for sure is that all my meat, regardless of age, is tender due in no small part to how I handle it and age it.

I have a friend that owns a dairy farm. When his cows get too old to milk, he butchers them. He has given me some meat from the cows which I aged properly. The meat was always tender and flavorful.

Richard, I think the bottom line, from my perspective, is proper handling and aging of the meat at a constant, consistent temperature for an appropriate period of time, depending on the animal. I like 38 degree's but a person I know who raises and processes Angus and Hereford beef in Mt. Airy, Md, for the fine restaurant market, likes 42 degrees. He likes the higher temperature better because the meat ages more quickly and it cost less to bring his meat to market. He also told me that the older beef is more flavorful, something I can’t confirm or deny through my personal experience. All I know for sure is that the dry cows, from my Pawling dairy farmer friend, were some of the best beef I have ever eaten.

I have never killed a young bull moose. All of mine had antlers that extended well beyond the ears. Nor have I killed a calf, which are legal in Saskatchewan. My bulls have all been fine eating. Granted, they are much smaller than Alaskan moose, but I don’t think that size really matters when it comes to the quality of the meat. I have enjoyed this conversation and others opinions. And, by the way, a Piper Super Cub is my favorite airplane to fly. I much prefer it to a Cessna 182 which is also available to me. I love tail draggers. I'll bet we can both agree on that.

I love crayfish (Northerners spelling - and pronunciation I might also add) cooked the way we do it up here... just like shrimp! Yum!





.

I like the Piper Cherokee best... probably because I learned to fly on one.

I have a picture of a Piper Cherokee sent to me recently, that had carried Elizabeth Warren on a campaign tour.... but I'll stop right there 'cause we can't get political here. :bigbye:





.

I like the Piper Cherokee also, but I have never flown one. It is often used as a training airplane like the Cessna 152. The Cherokee has trycycle landing gear like the Cessnas and I like to fly the tail draggers best. Geez Dean, I have sure taken this thread off topic haven't I? I'll try to be more disiciplined in the future. Let me net it all out....I love woodcock the way you cook them. Thanks for the tip.

Hahaha - Thanks Tom.




.

What!! That is first time I have heard of someone from NE eating mudbugs from their area. I know Edgar is getting indoctrinated from daughter. Do you and Edgar now actually run traps and go out in the bogs and catch em?:)

There is saying that if there is ever a nuclear holocaust the only things left will be Catholics and crawfish. Next thing I'll be hearing is you and Edgar having a Mardi Gras parade and trying to get women to show you something for a string of beads.

I used to catch large crayfish and cook them like a lobster and then dipped them in drawn butter. Not much meat but they are tasty. I used to catch them in a freestone stream near the house. I used a piece of screen bent round and open at the top. I'd lift rocks and when I saw a crawfish I would put the screen in back of its tail and poke in front of it with a stick. They would swim backwards into the screen.

I've eaten Cajun style crawfish in the south, but they were done with too many spices. All you tasted was the spices. Same thing with Maryland crab. We New England boys are not strangers to the delights of eating crayfish. But we don't spice them up and we don't make much of a fuss out of eating them.