Game Processing?

[buttonbuck]

most of the hair goes with the outer membrane of the deer you have to pick random pieces of hair. This year we did lousy on hunted deer have 2, and 2 roadkills from friends. A note on Roadkill, dont gut them, just skin them back first instead of belly first, pull the legs and backstraps and neck meat. I use a torch on poultry much better than picking pinfeathers. We are raising a couple of lambs and have a goat to butcher as well. We will probably have to raise 50 chickens this year since we did not harvest a lot of deer. I prefer the Illinois whitetail deer but I consider home raised meat close to game.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Would it not be simpler to buy ice bags in town, and take them out to your home, or camp? Then, build a simple tent, using a garbage bag, or visqueen ( or an old shower curtain) to keep the cold air close and around the deer carcass, tying the bag if ice above the carcass, and suspending anther inside the chest cavity? If you have air conditioning- I know that is hard in camp, but often the shaded areas during the Fall are substantially cooler, and stay cooler-- you should be able to keep the meat in good condition while you process the quarters, one at a time, and move the meat into ice chests and coolers. I watched a couple of guys set up a table inside an outbuilding at a farm where I was hunting, and they processed both their deer while the rest of us were out hunting. The only thing they did that I would not do was fail to wash the meat off, and dry it before wrapping it. But, as they finished the packages, the packages went into an ice chest, and that is how the meat was transported home. Bones and the rest were left in the garbage pile at the farm. There was water available either in the building, or just outside- I don't remember the inside sink now that I am trying.

Bacteria do exist in the air, and elsewhere. But, sawing bones just makes for very tiny niches where they can stay, and breed and multiply, feeding on the rich bone marrow that is in the bone. Its the multiplying that creases the spoilage in meat. Bacteria need food, water and temperature. By cleaning the blood off and drying the meat before storing, you deprive the bacteria of a quick, and convenient source of water. The missing blood also would have provided a rich source of food for bacteria.

There is no point to arguing something that can be easily proven in a lab, or even doing a simple test at your own home. Take two similar size and shapes of meat, one that has been washed of blood and dried, and place it wherever you desire next to the second piece that has not been washed and dried. See which begins to spoil first.

 

[KyHeadhunter]

Have been butchering my own for ~5 years now.

The last two years I've carried old, clean pillowsacks in my pack, and boned them out on the spot***. I hunt pretty far from any roads, don't own a 4-wheeler (& don't want to). Sometimes bring the hide as well, for rawhide or braintanning. And antlers, if'n it has any, for the kids (I no longer give a hoot about them). Much easier to negotiate 1/2 mile or better of thick woods with this than with the whole deer.

*** Legal in Kentucky, once the deer has been checked in by phone.

 

[laufer]

me and my son do it all, butcher knifes and a little hawk, nothing else used. mostly stakes and stew cuts. the rest goes to the family's best friend, no bone is wasted. :thumbsup:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I used to slice my own but I've gotten lazy and generally take them to a "pro" deer cutter. Three years back we had just moved into our home and a neighbor asked me if I could use some venison. I said "sure" and later that night he brought me the hind half of a doe! Had to cut and wrap that one myself as he had the half with the tag. (Now that's a neighbor - one that will give you the hind half).

We do our own rabbits, chickens and turkeys, plus the wild bunnies and birdies. I process those in the 60,000 year old traditional manner of klonk, slice, bleed out and skin or pluck. The spine of a rifleman's knife is an ideal "klonker" and then the edge for the draw-stroke.

No good recipies for kielbasa, but Worchestershire sauce & Soy sauce mixed 50:50 and a crushed clove of garlic and goodly sprinkle of black pepper makes a great jerkey dip before drying the strips.

 

Like most of the rest of the guys here, I do my own and it ain't rocket science. It doesn't take a lot of equipment. My consists of a couple knives, a big cutting board, a cheapo hand crank grinder, and wrapping materials. Just quarter it out and bone the rest. The tenderloins come out as they are unless they are really big and then they get cut in half. The steaks come from the backstrap and hind quarters. The trimmings from the hind quarters and the rest of the deer become stew meat, fajita meat, burger, and sausage. I have quit adding pork fat to my ground game meat. I find that adding a little olive oil does just as well, is healthier and tastes better.

On the pro game cutter operations, years ago I worked for one as a part time job. I'd never take a deer to one again. There was some sketchy things going on there. Besides, if I butcher it myself there's no band saw used on anything, no bones in my meat, and no fat. In my experience, fat and bone in game meat are not good ideas. As a biologist, prions (the things that cause CWD) scare me, so the other plus side is that I don't cut into the spinal column with the band saw during butchering.

Sean

 

[buttonbuck]

One hunter I know showed me how he butchers deer he does not gut them instead he skins them from the back down the spine removes the 4 legs neck meat and backstraps and leaves the flank ribs, and tenderloins says he does not eat things that touch the internal organs. I have used this on roadkilled deer to avoid any ruptured digestive organs but I do not believe this "phobia" of internal organs is valid, now I have boned out my deer longer than I knew about cwd because it is quicker for me and I do have conderns about prions on the lymph nodes contained in large groups of fat in the front shoulder and back legs. I remove membranes, sineu and fat but really is what this guy says about meat around the guts valid, I mean I check the liver on deer I shoot but this just seems wierd.

 

[rabjr]

Thats just his preference. Man like any other predator has eaten the internal organs of deer and other game for thousands of years. Hell, I've had people ask me for the lungs of all things.

 

[shootemup]

Yep,

I do all my own. Only one year did I ever use a professional, and while they did a good job, I didn't think it was so much better as to justify the expense.

My smart-alecky boy shot two deer on the same day this year. Kept me processing deer for three days. :grin: I usually quarter them and leave them in the fridge for a couple of days before I process them, but in this case I just did a little bit at a time until I got it all done.

One hunter I know of doesn't eat the venison or any wild game, because he is squeamish about using meat that hasn't been "inspected."

I respect the guy (he is incredibly knowledgeable about our sport), but I happen to work in a poultry processing plant and know that those USDA inspectors are simply hourly employees watching the meat go by faster than they can keep up with. They do a pretty good job for what they're actually doing, but "inspected" doesn't really mean pored over. I would guess that the wild game we process at home receives a much more thorough inspection than any store-boughten meat.

:hatsoff:
Spot

 

[KyHeadhunter]

That's basically what I do, but after everything else is cleaned off (legs, neck, backstraps, etc.) I make a small incision along the spine, right in front of the hindquarters, then reach in & pull out the tenderloin. Usually tears right off on younger deer, but older deer might have to be cut. Then I'll trim up the flank. If the heart wasn't shot, I'll make a small cut & get it too.

This way you can get to the internals, but that comes last... if ya accidentally puncture something bad, less worries about contaminating other cuts of meat. I don't mind the blood & stuff, but must admit it's a lot less messy this way, too.

 

[buttonbuck]

then do you hang the legs to stretch and cool the meat?

 

[longcruise]

One hunter I know showed me how he butchers deer he does not gut them instead he skins them from the back down the spine removes the 4 legs neck meat and backstraps and leaves the flank ribs, and te....

We handle elk similarly but not because of any phobia. Skinning down the back is not important to our method either. We skin it laying on the ground so that when we are done it is laying on it's back feet up on it's skin. Then we start boning out. We employ this method only because we bone out the animals anyway and an elk is enough to pack out without carrying the bones with it.

My grandson decided that leaving the tenderloins behind was unacceptable and so he rolled the boned out carcass on it's stomach, plunged his knife throught the back of the elk and cut out that part of the back bone that has the tenderlons on it.

 

[KyFlintlock]

Heck yes, doing it yourself can save quite-a-bit of $. I started when I was 15 and have been doing it for a little over 25 years. Pretty much just debone everything, save the backstraps and choice cuts, then grind what is left.

:hatsoff:
Good luck
Wess

 

[buttonbuck]

I was asking when you use this skin from the back method you can you still hang the front and hind legs to hang and stretch the meat. and get the same effect. Last year my 16 year old and I took 7 deer and used an old refrigerator to hang the legs, backstraps were just aged in tupperware tubs to bleed out, This year we got 1 deer we hung him in the barn as it was very cold. The meat seems more tender from a deer hung whole. Maybe it was the freezing and thawing that occured in this years buck? I can see how you get the tenderloins out but I sure hate wasting the Flank and rib meat it amounts to 8 or 10 lb in a deer. For Elk I do not blame you at all that is one big critter.

 

[KyHeadhunter]

I don't hang the meat, but I have found that it's best to leave it in a cooler of ice for 2-3 days before trimming, cutting, & freezing. The first couple deer done this way, I cut the meat up & froze it the same day it was killed, and it was a bit tougher than I was used to. Have done 7 deer with the ice-aging (no pun intended) since then, all of them turning out better (more tender) than the first two. Would eventually like to get an old working fridge in the basement to serve the same function, so I don't have to hoard ice for a month prior to deer season.

It's rarely cold enough to hang deer outside here, even in the December muzzleloading season, so a fellow needs some sort of meat cooling equipment to do any aging.

 

[tecum-tha]

I only do my own.
No sawing through bones :shake: ,it is simply not needed and gives a gamy flavor a lot of people dislike. :barf:
A lot of people dislike wild game meat because of the improper handling :cursing: . Most deer processors do the same, they ruin the meat and even charge you for it :youcrazy:.
Everyone likes to eat our deer steaks and venison stew, even people who usually don`t like venison, because there is no gamy flavour.
Talk to professional chefs, they would not accept sawed through venison here in Germany, because they have to feed it to their customers!!

 

[buttonbuck]

having processed a doe over the last couple of evenings, just mixed the course ground burger with beef suet to bind it better for making hamburgers on the grill. I will do the second grind with the fine plate and package it in plastic wrap and paper tomorrow. I got to thinking while processing the rib meat has a lot of fat and silver skin membrane in it. Now this doe was really fat, I got a stockpot full of fat to use for bullet lube, soap and maybe suet cakes for feeding the winter birds I may not bone out the ribs on the really fat deer as the fat gives the meat a waxy texture, One really has to consider weather conditions and the physical make up of the animal when processing. I still only use a fish fillet knife and bone them out with the fear of CWD I think illinois processors will not cut bone anymore as well. THe DNR advises against it.

 

[catman]

One hunter I know showed me how he butchers deer he does not gut them instead he skins them from the back down the spine removes the 4 legs neck meat and backstraps and leaves the flank ribs, and tenderloins says he does not eat things that touch the internal organs. I have used this on roadkilled deer to avoid any ruptured digestive organs but I do not believe this "phobia" of internal organs is valid, now I have boned out my deer longer than I knew about cwd because it is quicker for me and I do have conderns about prions on the lymph nodes contained in large groups of fat in the front shoulder and back legs. I remove membranes, sineu and fat but really is what this guy says about meat around the guts valid, I mean I check the liver on deer I shoot but this just seems wierd.

I also don't eat things that touch the internal organs with my deer only anymore. I guess I'm wierd, here with bow, mz & modernG 5 deer total I can do without the loins. I want to hunt and eat deer, not be a butcher in the woods. Internal organs in todays times are bad medicine in my book.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Some of the best meat in any freshly killed deer is the liver. Eaten as soon as possible, the liver is both tender, and as sweet as Prime Rib.

Cut it into large steaks, flour and season the sides, and saute it in hot oil or lard.

Then stick the liver slabs in a roasting pan, cover with sweet onions( Vidalia, Georgia, or White onions)and strips of bacon, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and chunks or slices of bell pepper, put water in the bottom of the roasting pan, with wine, or apple juice, and cover the pan with foil.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 225 degrees( Low heat) to sweat the onions and bacon, and cook the liver through. The liver is tender enough to cut with the side of your fork, and with the garnish of onions, bacon, pepper, and seasonings, its a meal fit for kings.

CWD is apparently carried in the bone marrow of the deer. If you avoid breaking the bones, and cook the meat thoroughly, you should have no worries about contracting CWD. I like my venison medium rare, but that does permit a high enough cooking temperature to kill off the bacteria if it exists in the meat. Since I bone out the meat of my deer myself, and age it for a week before packaging it for the freezer, I am not particularly worried about CWD at this time. To my own knowledge it has not been reported this far South in Illinois, and only a few cases in the very northern counties of the state, along the Wisconsin border have been reported.

 

[longshot47]

I harvest in winter, skin and butcher at home, after approx. two days vented hanging. The meat works best when cold. I often saw down between the ribs to get chops on the bone [primo]. The rest is just deboning by muscle group. Nothing fancy; cubes, roasts, occasionally a steak or two. Cut-offs, neck meat, etc. is cubed, packaged, and frozen in one lb. units for the dogs. They've never complained, but seem to get a little ornery during rut!