Instead of limiting out on deer like the majority of my deer hunting career, this year was only one. I process my own deer and skinning the deer and then cleaning every trace of blood from the carcass within mere hours of its demise substantially improves the quality of the harvested meat. The gamey taste and odor that many people associate with venison is absent if the animal is cool quickly and thoroughly cleaned.
As I process my animal I spend substantially more time than any commercial processor could. If they did their fee would be monumental. I first remove as much fat as possible before starting the boning process. As I remove the various muscle groups I remove the additional pockets of fat found in the tissue, silverskin, and as much connective tissue as possible. As a result the meat that I grind is extremely clean in appearance unlike commercially processed ground venison that is riddle with white flecks of silverskin, sinews, and membrane.
The shoulder provide some excellent stew meat and well as meat for the grinder. The ribs also contain large plates of muscle that can be filleted off, connective tissue removed, and added to the grind. However, as we processed this year's one and only deer, Hope want to retain the ribs for a meal. Since she hadn't been with me when I made the decision to bone out the ribs, she wasn't aware of how difficult to it to make venison ribs palatable.
This morning I removed the silverskin from the inside of the ribs, trimmed off as much fat as possible, placed them on a rack in a roaster, and started them baking low and slow. As the heat started rendering off the fat, I kept pouring off the accumulating grease. The accompanying odor reminded me of one of the reasons I don't like deer ribs. By the time we were ready to eat I had collected over a quart of oil.
While the meat was extremely tender and had a pleasant taste, eating them was a messy process. Even with the meat cooked so the melted fat could drain off, they were still very greasy and a few pockets of fat still remained. That was the second reason I don't like them.
The third l reason I don't like them is that the grease actually congeals on the roof of ones mouth. Granny suggested that parboiling them before baking might do a better job of removing the grease.
The final reason for boning out the ribs is that packaging them is difficult and they take up too much room in the freezer for very little return.