(Expletive) For Brains

Remember that deer my BIL shot and showed me last week?

As I mentioned in the comments of that post, he decided to hang the skull in my back yard to dry out so he could make a so-called European Mount. (After drying out, one has to boil the flesh off.)

But I went back there today expecting to see the deer head skewered on a stick - like something straight out of Braveheart or The Gangs Of New York.

It wasn't. The head is rotting in plastic bag hanging on the fence that's no doubt filled with water and *not helping* the drying out process.

Quickly I googled the proper procedure:

1. The first step is to clean all major flesh from the skull. Cut off all meat and hide. Do not worry about damaging anything. Make sure to get as much flesh off as possible. Be sure that there is no vertebra still attached to the skull. This step is generally a lot easier if the head is fresh and has not been dead for over two or three days.


2. Now detach the jaw and Scrape out the brains. If you wish to keep the jaw bone (bear, fox, etc...) then carefully detach it and cut out the tongue. There is a hole at the back of the skull about the size of a quarter; this is your best access to the brains. Use your butter knife of a stick to get up in there and work the brains out. You can even use a piece of wire. Just be sure to get the brains out of there, it will save you a lot of work in the long run. If the brains dry in the head they are really hard to get out and they smell terrible!

Aha!

My lazy BIL skipped the first step - the brain scoop-out!