Cooking Bambi: Part 1

Last night I tasted deer for my first time. At first, it seemed almost indistinguishable from beef, but after a moment, i noticed that it's flavor was much more intense than beef's flavor. Still, my first reaction was "it's okay." About ten minutes later, I realized that the taste was still on my mind and I wanted more even though I had eaten a full meal and desert not long ago. Fortunately I was given a huge hunk of frozen deer to take home.

Along with the frozen cut, I was given some advice on how to prepare it. I'm trying not to be squeamish about it - I've cleaned and prepared meat and fish before, but this will be my first time preparing meat that didn't come from a market. Somebody shot the deer, cut it up, froze it, and now it's thawing out in my sink. I was instructed to check the meat for buck and if there are holes from buck, check them for any fur that might have entered the deer along with the buck. Mmmm. Still, I think it is worth it - the meat is fresher than anything I've ever bought and it wasn't raised on funky hormones and chemical concoctions.

I've been trying to figure out how to cook it. After doing some reading online, I think I'm going to cut it into three pieces and cook them in different ways. I'll roast the larger piece, broil another piece, and cook the third in some sort of gravy. Hmmm . . . maybe I'll take pictures of the process and post them. Stay tuned.

Update: I just got home and checked on Bambi. After about 16 hours of being out, Bambi is still frozen solid. I was planning to marinate him for at least 24 hours, so I guess there'll be no Rudolph for Christmas.