The Art of Self-Reliance - Deer Bone Soup

I remember when I was a kid growing up on the farm.

We raised practically everything that we ate. Money was always in short supply where our small hardscrabble farming family was concerned. Spending money was scarce. Food wasn’t. Though we were some of the poorest of the poor in our community, I never once missed a meal. Meat was always on the table. When it started running low in the freezer we loaded something up and took it to the slaughterhouse.

One of the things that stands out in my memory is that even the bones came home with us when the processing had been done. Those packages were labeled “Soup Bones” and soup, with biscuits, corn bread, or, if my mom had time, yeast bread on the side made for many a winter meal for us.

One of my objectives, where subsistence hunting as a part of self-reliance is concerned, is to utilize as much as possible from the animals that I kill. I feel like I owe it to the animals. In fact, I was telling Shirli the other day that if we didn’t need the meat I wouldn’t kill another deer. I would still sit in the woods and watch them. But, for the two of us, these deer feed us in the same way those domestic animals fed our family when I was a kid growing up. Similar self-reliant way of life. Different animals. Different feedlots.

This is the first year to cook deer bones.

I’m pretty good with a sharp blade. There’s honestly not a lot left on those bones when I’m finished with the blade work. Regardless of my efficiency with a blade, there is always some meat left on those bones. Until this year I would simply haul them to the farm and contribute them to the diet of the possums, coons, buzzards, and coyotes. I have, for years, felt bad about that. Not feeding the critters. Deep inside of me I knew I wasn’t getting all I could from those bones in the nutrition department.

Down through the ages folks used those bones in their diets. Why am I not doing the same today?

So, rather than tossing them into a bucket to go to the farm, once the major meat was off them and in the sink, the bones went into the big pot. Once all the bones were in the pot I set it on the stove to simmer while I finished all the steak slicing, burger grinding, vacuum bagging, and moving finished products to the freezer. Then I let them simmer some more. I suppose they spent around three hours on the stove doing the simmering thing.

Those bones? I picked a pound or better of nice lean meat from them and added the meat to the 3 quarts of nutrition rich stock that resulted from those hours of simmering.

Diced an onion, 3 large carrots, and about 2 cups of celery for the pot.

Seasonings of salt, coarse black pepper, a little garlic powder, and about a dozen drops of liquid smoke. Once the vegetables were cooked I stirred in a cup of rice and set the timer for 14 minutes.

Deer bones? As the primary animal matter in a soup or stew?

I’ll tell you this.

I can’t think of a good reason why I should ever haul a bucket of deer bones to the farm to feed the critters again.

Oh. I figured some bread would go good with the deer bone soup so I made a pan of molasses muffins to go along with it.

Molasses muffins?

My own recipe.

But that’s a recipe for another day.