“The truth is there’s only one level of technology that’s sustainable. And that’s the Stone Age. And we’ll be there again some day. And the only question really is, what’s left of the world when we get there?”

-George Draffan

Some friends and I were sitting around eating jello together the other night, made from deerskin, water and flavored w/ blueberry juice. Really good stuff. One friend said: “When things go back to the stone age, we’ll still have Jellow!” This is good news. This is especially good news for me cause I’m not into tanning hides all the time these days, and what better use for them than to chop them up and make one of the best desserts ever?!

How to make it:

One can use de-haired skin, hooves or cartilagenous bones as a base for jello. Skin is a good option cause it doesn’t have a very strong flavor or any oils on its own, which will rise to the top of yr jellow and solidify. If you are using skin, remove the hair and then let it dry hard. This sounds like a lot of work but it is probably only a half hour for a whole deerskin, which will make many batches of jella.  You can find instructions for de-hairing on here or on other sites.

Once dried, cut yr deer (cow, goat, whatever) skin into bite sized chunks, add water and let them soak it up for a few hours. Or not. The ratio of skin to water is pretty lenient, less skin means a longer brewing time before you get full on jellow; I probably use a cup dried skin chunks for a gallon of water.

Now brew it, a woodstove works well for this, you don’t want to boil it furiously, more of a gentle low simmer. If you have the luxury of wood heating, let it sit gently brewing for many hours. Strain, flavor to taste (berries and berry juice come to mind) and let cool overnight. IT’S INSANELY GOOD!

And apparently amazingly good for digestion, building structural tissues in the body (cartilage, skin etc), plus lots more.

TESTICLES FOR FOOD

Another overlooked delicacy (along with skin), testicles are super delicious, and obviously store incredible nutrition in every bite. To harvest, simply save the scrotum/penis when gutting creatures with such organs. Cut the scrotum open and remove the testicles. They have a membrane surrounding them that one can remove to get at the tender morsels beneath. Deer have testicles about the size of humans, sometimes smaller sometimes bigger. Sheep have testicles larger than their hearts!!!! If you put both together they’re bigger than their brains!!!!

Some great ways to prepare testicles are roasted over a fire – the thin membrane splits and juices ooze and sizzle as they cook just like a smokey – they actually taste incredibly similar to hot dogs. Balls broth is another excellent way to prepare them, chop up testicles and brew for several hours, with bones or hooves if you have them, they make a very rich, salty broth.

A fantastic treat.