How do sacrifices get used?
So, we seem pretty aware of who may be dedicated to in the sacrifice (Freyr, land spirits) and the times in which it is done (funerals, Yule).
My question outlines what happens to animal sacrifices especially for harvest or celebration sacrifices.
Do they get eaten by the family who sacrifices the animal, or do they just blood them and leave them out in the open? Does the family take their part, and leave valuable or sacred organs (heart) for supernatural forces?
I'm aware of a tale (that I cannot source) of where dogs eating a sacrifice was a sign that the gods were pleased.
I understand funeral sacrifices better as they're being killed to speedrun to the afterlife with the person who died so they can take the animals with them.
But the festival based sacrifices boggle me a bit as I would expect life to be quite hard, so leaving a perfectly good goat to rot (even if appeasing supernatural forces) cannot be the consistent truth, surely? They also must also be discarded or moved at some point.
Brownie points for archeological evidence and source text pointers.