Cut Out The Confusion When Choosing Your Game Meat

Nothing satisfies customers like their favourite game meat dish. No matter their meat preference, knowing your cuts will let you help them choose the right piece of meat for every meal every time. 

• Shank: Easily a favourite among many as you can make braise or stew and serve it with bread, dumplings or mashed potatoes. Shanks are an eater’s cut, either as a whole leg, with or without the bone in a tasty roast meal or the above-mentioned braise and stew. 

• Neck: Not the easiest cut to debone, so a lot of people often prefer making a bone-in roast with the neck. However, we suggest you try deboning the neck with every kudu catch as that helps you hone the skill, plus it’ll make a mouthwatering roast. 

• Blade/Shoulder: On really big deer, you can get some nice blade steaks off the front shoulders. With this, you can choose to grind it all and make sausages or make patties. This is a pretty easy and meaty cut. 

• Loin: These are the muscle bands that set along either side of the spine, extending from the bottommost vertebra up to the scapula. To harvest each one, cut along the spine, starting at the scapula and working down to the last vertebra. Then, simply pull on the band of muscles with one hand and cut it free from the backbones with a sharp knife. You can make fried “steak” with this cut and play around with different cooking preferences just like you would with a steak. 

• Flank: A quick fast-food underdog as this cut is usually an afterthought to most hunters and butchers. However, if you are looking to fry, grill or roast a quick snack, the flank cut is perfect. 

• Rib: You can choose to keep this cut pretty standard and slow-cook them the way you would pork and beef ribs, or you can cut them up and substitute them for your shank or add them to your stew. This cut is a variety cut. 

• Leg: The largest quantity of meat on a deer comes on the back legs. These cuts of deer meat are very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. Cut into chunks for soups or stews, or grind for burgers and meatloaf. Each muscle group can actually be made into roasts. 

• Front Shank: These cuts are best suited to ground or stew meat. They also lend themselves best to slow cooking if they are left in chunks. 

Extra Cut: Bones 

The last cut to discuss is the bones. These make absolutely delicious broth and stock. Bone marrow broth is a semi-new rage that has been deemed a superfood. 

Take a look at our seasoning and spices online to give your game meat the flavour it deserves. 

Cut out the confusion and get a real taste for beef, lamb, pork and kudu cuts with our comprehensive guides.