Crockpot Shanks

[Caseknife]

Only way to do shanks, too time consuming to make them ready for the grinder. I cut each shank into about 3 pieces with either a bone saw or sawzall with a coarse blade. Also cut the blade in half and make two more roasts. I prefer to slow braise in the oven in a porcelain cast iron crock pot. Sear it good with seasoning and then add liquid of choice and braise for 4 hours or so. Can smoke first to add a different flavor. Connective tissue just disappears and bones just pull out. I've done it with elk ribs also.

 

[Gravel Road]

You guys are making me hungry! When we were younger my wife and I struggled with what to do with shanks. We didn't grind them into burger as we don't like that much sinew and silver skin in the burger. I used to try and separate sections and get the clean meat out, and of course that was super wasteful and time consuming. One time my wife decided to try to slow cook them in liquid for the day and they turned out to be one of our favorite cuts. I don't know what all she does for her stew and different Mexican recipes, but they are all damn good

 

[Somthingoriginal]

We're big fans of the shanks. We have a walk in cooler at our farm and like to shoot deer one weekend and come back and butcher the next. In the past we've always left the hides on. This year I tried hanging with the hide off which made skinning super easy but my shanks was all dried out! After the considerable time it took to cut off the rine there wasn't much left. Is there a better way? Would the rine reconstitute itself in the slow cooker?

 

[Caseknife]

Mine are usually hung for a week or so in game bags. The shanks do dry out on the surface, but I just try to clean them real good of hair and other contaminants and then just cut into 2-3" pieces and then stack back together in order and package to freeze. Everything cooks up real good, can't tell that they were dry on the surface at all.

 

[Dirtscoots]

Thank you for all the ideas. After years of tedious cleaning to try and get ounces of grind meat I finally tried them in the crock pot! Turned out great.

 

[Wolf]

Most of y’all have probably already known this for a long time. Found a very good use for deer shanks. In the past, they always went to the grinder for burger. They make an excellent roast in the crockpot. Put a shank in, add some beef broth and water, and toss in some potato chunks. Season roast liberally with Montreal steak seasoning. Cook on high for approximately 6 hours. It will basically fall off the bone and taste like a beef roast. Absolutely delicious. Also trying mid-roasts and blade roasts. I expect they’ll taste about the same.

I always used the shanks for grind until a buddy of mine mentioned this. Great use of the shanks I’ll try the Montreal steak seasoning. Thanks for posting.