King of the Wilderness-Chapter 50: Processing the Game

Lin Yu’an brought his index and middle fingers of his left hand together and carefully inserted them into the abdominal cavity through the small opening.

The fingertips could clearly feel the warmth of the organs and the elasticity of the abdominal wall.

He gently lifted the abdominal wall upward with these two fingers, creating a safe distance of about a finger’s width between the abdominal wall and the organs.

"This way, my fingers act as a guide and barrier, preventing the intestines and other organs below from being cut during incision."

Lin Yu’an placed the knife tip close to the inside of his two fingers.

Along the midline of the mule deer’s abdomen, he smoothly cut towards the sternum and the pelvis.

As the blade passed, the entire abdominal cavity of the deer was neatly opened.

A mix of fermented grass odor and the warm, fishy smell unique to organs immediately hit the face.

"The abdominal cavity is completely exposed now, and all organs need to be removed quickly and intact."

Lin Yu’an first carefully located and separated the entire intertwined intestinal system in the abdominal cavity.

Including the light brown stomach, and the tangled small and large intestines.

"These must be handled first, as they are the main source of contamination, and the bacteria within them multiply rapidly after the animal’s death."

"However, the deer’s stomach is a good thing; ’baodu’ is a delicacy in China!"

Lin Yu’an continued processing the game, reaching deep into the now more spacious abdominal cavity, beginning to look for valuable organs that could be utilized.

"The liver, this is also a good thing!"

He carefully supported the large dark red, very delicate liver, detaching it from the connecting mesentery, and displayed it to the camera.

"Deer liver is rich in vitamin A, B vitamins, and a large amount of iron, making it a very nutritious food!"

"I must check carefully, a healthy liver should be uniformly dark red in color."

"The surface should be smooth and elastic, without obvious white spots, lumps, or signs of parasites."

"Hmm, it appears this mule deer is free of pests and is safe to consume."

After carefully examining it several times, he confirmed that the liver was very healthy and finally relaxed.

Then, he placed the large deer liver on a piece of pre-prepared birch bark.

"When handling the liver, you must be especially careful with this little thing—the gallbladder."

He held up the dark green gallbladder detached from one side of the liver, reminding the audience.

"It contains bile, which is extremely bitter. It must be carefully removed whole."

Adjacent to the liver’s position was the heart, which he also removed intact.

"The heart is also a top-quality source of protein, whether roasted or stewed in soup, the texture is very elastic, and the taste is great."

He cut off some thick blood vessels connected to the heart and the excess fat wrapped around the pericardium, placing it on the birch bark holding the liver.

Next were two kidneys hidden deep near the lumbar regions on either side of the spine, commonly known as "kidneys."

"Deer kidneys are also edible and highly nutritious."

He pointed with the knife tip at the white part in the middle of the kidney.

"However, this should be the ureter, and it must be thoroughly removed; otherwise, there will be a significant odor."

Using a multi-purpose knife, he cut a large enough incision along the lower edge of the ribs, severing the thick muscular membrane that connects the thoracic and abdominal cavities.

Then he reached into the still warm thoracic cavity, feeling the curvature of the ribs and the texture of the internal organs.

He extracted the pink, sponge-like lungs, along with the trachea and other respiratory system organs connected to it.

"Lungs are usually not recommended for consumption in the wild because it’s difficult to determine if there are any parasite eggs or potential lesions invisible to the naked eye."

"However, they can serve as excellent bait for trap-making later, as their smell is very attractive to many carnivores."

With all the organs removed and categorized into three groups: edible, bait-worthy, and discardable.

After the organs were basically processed, and the prey slowly cooled down, Lin Yu’an began the skinning process.

"Now we can start skinning! I think I’ve got myself a mattress!"

"The key to skinning is precise incisions and clear judgment of the connections between skin and flesh layers."

Lin Yu’an used nylon rope to hang the deer carcass, having already removed the lower legs and hooves, upside down from a tree.

"Since I’ve already removed the lower leg sections, the starting point for skinning will be from this leg stump."

Lin Yu’an carefully inserted the knife tip under the skin at the leg stump and began making a downward incision.

"Start by cutting from the inside of the leg, where the skin is relatively loose and easier to separate. Cut along the natural texture of the muscle."

For the other three legs, he used the same method, cutting upwards to open the skin connection to the abdomen or chest cavity.

This way, the cuts on the four legs and the body’s torso form a complete "H" shape outline.

"Our goal is to completely separate the white, slightly tough fascia layer between the skin and meat."

"This fascia layer acts like a natural barrier. If you peel along it, you can minimize the fat and meat scraps left on the hide, making the subsequent oil scraping during tanning much easier."

"Skinning is like ’undressing’ the deer; when encountering tightly connected areas, don’t pull hard, just lightly slice through with a knife tip."

He started from the hind leg, gradually expanding to the sides of the body, then to the broad back.

Large pieces of deer hide were slowly "shed" from the fresh red muscle.

The entire skinning process took him nearly an hour and a half.

"Phew... Perfect!" He spread the giant deer hide in front of the camera.

"This hide was skinned very successfully, with almost no damage. After subsequent tanning, it’s definitely a top-grade mat!"

With the internal organ processing and skinning work finished, the next step was the final decomposition to obtain the main edible meat chunks.

Lin Yu’an picked up the logging axe, with a clear plan in his mind for dividing.

"The deer’s hind leg is one of the most muscular areas, with excellent meat quality. Whether roasted or made into jerky, it’s a great choice."

"The key to handling these large joints is finding the joint gap, unless you have a cleaver to directly chop the bone."

After the main ligaments and muscles were cut, he held the hind leg with both hands, forcefully rotating, pulling it outward and downward, until a "snap" sound was heard.

The femur head smoothly detached from the pelvic acetabulum, and with a knife, the entire hind leg was separated from the torso. The other legs were treated the same way.

Then Lin Yu’an turned his attention to the sides of the deer’s spine.

"These two pieces of tenderloin, also called ’loin’, have almost no fat or fascia and are considered the best meat on the deer."

Using a multi-purpose knife, he carefully extracted the two tender loins.

Next came the backstrap meat, the long strip of muscle located on the back sides of the spine, another piece of very high-quality tender meat.

He used the same multi-purpose knife to extract it completely.

For the remaining ribs and neck, Lin Yu’an used the small saw on the multi-purpose knife to roughly segment the ribs with plenty of intercostal meat into several parts.

Due to frequent movement, the neck meat’s muscle fibers might be slightly coarse, but the flavor is robust, and he cut it into rough chunks.

Meanwhile, he carefully trimmed some large, board-like solid fat from the meat chunks and gathered them together.

"This is premium animal fat that can be collected for cooking, enhancing the food’s flavor and calorie content."

"Let’s estimate the harvest! I estimate the live weight of this stag to be around eighty kilograms."

"Excluding the bones, head, hooves, and most of the inedible internal organs, I conservatively estimate the pure meat to weigh at least forty kilograms!"

"This doesn’t include at least two or three kilograms of edible liver, heart, and kidneys."

As he spoke, he picked up a heavy hind leg meat and displayed it in front of the camera, showing the plump muscle fibers and moderate fat layer clearly.

"If handled properly, this meat is sufficient to sustain my energy supply for a long time."

"Folks, the challenge has already begun for forty-six days. Can I start celebrating with champagne in advance?"

"Next, I will consume these two tender loins and organs as soon as possible to replenish the physical energy spent in recent days."

"Most of the remaining meat will be smoked for long-term preservation, which is crucial for surviving the long winter!"

By now, it was getting late, and the western sky began to show orange-red dusk.

Lin Yu’an glanced at the scattered deer meat, deer head, and the large deer hide on the ground, frowning slightly.

"These items are too many and too heavy. Transporting them all to the Pioneer might require multiple trips."

He estimated that if divided into several transport trips, it would be impossible to bring everything back to the shelter tonight.

"No, I must find a way to take them all at once!"

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