We are on the doorstep of the fall hunting seasons and OTT will celebrate that with a review of a couple of outdoor eats. There are two cuts of meat that used to be staples back in the day but seldom find their way to our table now. I know some noses may wrinkle a little but I’m pretty comfortable cooking and eating them. Without further ado, today’s topics are a couple of my favs: deer heart and beaver backstraps.

I’ll start with deer heart. When I was old enough to tag along on hunts it was wasn’t unusual to see Grandpa Wally dig through a deer gut pile to pull out the heart and liver. He went prepared by always carrying a couple of used bread bags. I doubt that either organ ever saw the freezer because Grandma Violet liked them just as much.  

Over the last half dozen years or so I got back into the routine of saving the heart. It’s the same reason that I save wild turkey legs and thighs. It’s important to honor the animals that are harvested by using as much as we can. As for the liver, I have nothing to report because I don’t like it and never have. Then again, I don’t like liver of any kind, but I will save it for you, if you want it. Just let me know.

Cleaning the heart to prepare it for cooking is worth the effort in that the more silver skin and fat trimmed off of it the better the end result. I also take the time to clean out the inside of the heart, basically removing all of the internal plumbing so that I’m left with clean cuts of meat.

Preparing a deer heart is exactly like preparing any kind of red meat. Full disclosure, I’m not big on doing a lot of prep work ahead of time which means I’m not big on marinades and those types of things. What I do like are rubs because they are simple and effective. After dabbing the cuts of meat with some olive oil to help bind the rub to the meat, you’re good to go. FYI, my favorite rub is Old #7 Jack Daniels Rub. I pick it up at Fleet Farm.

So how does it taste? Well, in my opinion, pretty good and worth the time it takes to retrieve it when field dressing a deer.

I know that most people don’t have access to beaver meat but when prepared correctly, the meat is excellent. I save and quarter up almost every beaver I catch because a lot of that meat goes towards other trapping pursuits such as fisher and bobcat. There’s one cut that I never use for trapping and that’s backstraps. I save that cut for me.  

Cleaning up a beaver backstrap is just like cleaning up the same cut on a white-tailed deer. Remove all the white skin and connective tissue. Again, the better you clean this up, the better the end result.  

Preparing beaver backstraps is pretty simple and like all red meats, there are really just two things you can do to ruin it and that is to overcook or undercook it.  

So how does it taste? Well, I wouldn’t go through all the trouble just to tell you it’s awful because it’s actually the opposite. It’s terrific. The backstraps are not huge so I usually cook them to eat with something else, meaning that they are hors d’oeuvres for the cook. I’ve heard other people claim that beaver is similar to beef in flavor and texture when prepared correctly and I would agree with that.  

One last thing: if you have a way to prepare liver so that it doesn’t taste like liver, I’d like to know how to do that.

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