i'll be spending the next couple of weeks butchering our game - i am very particular about it and tend to go overboard, but the final result is very much worth it. i know i've posted this before, but here's a summary; if you have any further or specific questions, just ask:

immediately upon the kill, we field dress and keep the heart and liver for my dad and oldest son. we then wash out the cavity either at the site of the kill, at the hunting vehicle or as soon as we can when we get back. somewhere between this point and after hanging, we also remove the tenderloins.

thanks to our climate here that rarely goes above 40 degrees this time of year, i am able to hang the deer (head down and skin on) for around 10 days to a maximum of two weeks. this promotes tenderness and, in my opinion, a lot of flavor as the connective tissues and enzymes break down (NOT rot!). then i skin the deer and quarter the carcass (including removing the loins) without a saw and bone the quarters.

with careful trimming, i then remove everything that isn't meat from the quarters including any bone, fat, membrane, silverskin etc., leaving nothing but a pristine roast that can be left as-is or carved into steaks of any thickness.

i vacuum-pack everything into 1-pound packages and freeze as quickly as possible. i also usually save the neck and wrap it as a separate roast for my father, who seems to enjoy it along with heart and liver, which i have eaten but generally do not favor. this year, i might also try packaging sections of the ribs in order to barbecue them over slow smoke next year; i think that if i keep them moist during cooking, they should turn out very good.

scraps, trimmings that are meat go into a bowl and then later made into jerky or ground and packaged without any fat and frozen so that they can later be used for burger, sausage, jerky or anything else. there are usually a lot of undesirable trimmings that are packaged in larger packages of paper and labeled as dog food.

we do much the same. those vacuum packers are invaluable for game, even better for fresh fish. also some of the scraps are saved and made into food for the 2 dogs that rule the roost around here

same here, butch - i like to label them simply "dog." makes the neighbors wonder....



in response to a couple of questions from a friend, here are a couple of clarifications:

tenderloins and loins are two different things entirely, but both are the best meat on a deer. very tender and if cooked right will literally melt in your mouth.

the loins run along each side of the backbone on the back side of the deer. on a pig they would be called pork chops and on a cow they are called ribeye steaks. i cut them off the bone so that they are boneless and in my opinion much better. they come off in one long strip from the back of the neck to the hind quarters; you then trim all fat etc. so that all that is left is just the meat.

tenderloins are underneath between the backbone/ribcage and the guts. when the deer is field-dressed, the tenderloins are exposed and will dry out while the deer hangs, so they are removed immediately.



they are the best meat in the animal, with the loins coming in a very close second and anything from the hindquarters coming next.

the front quarters/shoulders provide some steaks but are mostly trimmed and then cut in cubes for stew meat or ground. sometimes people save a whole shoulder and BBQ or roast it, but i prefer to trim everything because deer fat, membrane etc can really give a funky flavor and doesn't have a good shelf-life.

My Foodsaver is still preserving game meat and saltwater fish for almost 20 years...it is one of the professional models made by Tilia in Italy. I even use it to store low-hydrogen arc welding rods which would deteriorate if left out to absorb moisture in the air. I know that some folks look at their infomertials as just so much hype. I haven't yet tried hanging a bowling ball from it, but I know it could!

EDIT: If that's a Case XX knife, I've got its brother!

Onefunzr2...

How long have you used the LEM grinder...

Which model?

Any problems,recommendations?

Dan

Here in Texas, it can be very warm during hunting season, so my procedure varies a bit.

After field dressing, skinning and the general clean-up, I de-bone the meat and place thin layers in an ice chest. I put 3-4 inches of ice in the bottom, add a layer of meat and then more ice. I do this until the chest is a little over half full and then finish it off with ice. I check the ice every few hours and drain the water, adding more ice as necessary and rotating the meat once daily.

I try and keep the temps inside the ice chest between 36-40 degrees. (In a good chest, it will easily remain around 36-37.)

After several days, the water runs clear, and then I know it's time to get to work.

WIth the backstrap, however, I seldom leave it more than a day or two.

And if it's one of those warm days when I bag something, I pack the inside of the body cavity with ice as soon as possible to expedite the cool-down process.

In WV the weather is unpredictable ... so we do it a little differently too.

I get the animal out of the field as quickly and cleanly as possible. Then gets hung, skinned, and quartered. Backstraps and tenderlions are removed. Extra solid meat from the neck and barrel is collected. All work is done with a knife ... no saw ... save for removing the feet during skinning. I am very careful to keep hair off of the meat.

The quarters are placed in while plastic garbage bags. The backstraps go in a separate bag and the extra meat goes in another.

The bags are put in an extra refrigerator set to 34F. The next day the bags are changed and the meat is very carefully cleaned and the last few hairs removed. The bags are changed daily and any moisture that develops is wiped off with blue shop towels.

After 5 to 7 or 8 days, the rest of the butchering is done. The portions are wrapped in the heavy saran wrap available in 18" wide rolls at Sam's. Wrapping is over done, that is, there are at least 5 layers of plastic on each surface of the meat.

Burger is made and stored in 1 pound chunks. Is placed in quart freezer bags and 5 of those placed in 1 gallon freezer bags. Some of the grind meat is always made into sausage.

Young deer can go the shorter time. Tend to run the older ones for the full 7-8 days.

So far, the treatment has resulted in very tender meat that has no gamey taste at all. Most folks cannot tell it from beef except that venison is very lean. Wrapped this way the meat has not shown any freezer burn after as long as three years.

bobby -

i can't remember the exact proportions, but i seem to remember reading about mixing crushed ice with rock salt in order to "superchill" meat or fish and keep it quite a bit cooler.

my understanding is also that it last quite a bit longer than ice. not sure if it would be worth the extra time and effort but could be something to look into in your warm climate.

onefun - it's a buck knife - i've also got the same knife but with a very nice wood (cocobola) handle.

Onefunzr2;


Thanks

Dan

Quick processing is a very important step ! Don't hang with the hide on !Freezing is the equivalent to five days aging as far as tenderizing .Remember that commercial aging is done at a temperature [34-36 F] and humidity that is controlled. Meat spoils above 40 F. Aging will change flavor a bit as the enzymes work. I never had the proper cooler so I don't age. While the tenderloin is the most tender , the most flavorful is tough but dealt with by braising - braised venison shanks !!

I completely debone the whole carcass, not just the loins, it does not make sense to freeze bones, it only occupies space in the freezer.

I hang the animal in the hind legs, skin them after aging and then cut the front legs first, debone them, then the neck meat, shoulder and loin. That leaves basically the spine hanging on the rear legs. Last thing to cut and process are the hams.

Do not waste the hears, they are not 'guts' but a very tender and tasty muscle! Google 'anticuchos' for a delicous recipee.

DUK - your working your way up from neck to hams is similar to the same way we do it. i agree about freezing bones - not much point to it, except i confess to leaving it that way when i wrap neck roasts for my dad.

quote:

Do not waste the hears, they are not 'guts' but a very tender and tasty muscle! Google 'anticuchos' for a delicous recipee.

i might give this a try - spanish?

Tasunkawito,
Pretty similar to what I do, except I don't hang my deer, I break them down right away and age in a spare refrigerator stored in heavy cotton game bags.

I age deer for 7 days give or take.

I always save the good ribs, at least the ones that don't have holes in them.

Try this for cooking them.
Throw them on the grill on low heat approx 250-300 degrees. Cook to get the fat dripped off, not to "cook" the meat. The fat can really ruin the edibility. Anyone who has had it coat the inside of their mouth can attest.

Then I throw them in a crockpot or big electric cooker. Cover with barbeque sauce. Whatever brand/flavor you like, or experiment with homemade. I also add whole fresh mushrooms and a package of hot dogs.

Cook on low heat until done. ENJOY! My family fights over all of it. The hot dogs add flavor and are fantaastic in their own right. The mushrooms disappear pretty quick too.

quote:

I always save the good ribs, at least the ones that don't have holes in them.

Try this for cooking them.
Throw them on the grill on low heat approx 250-300 degrees. Cook to get the fat dripped off, not to "cook" the meat. The fat can really ruin the edibility. Anyone who has had it coat the inside of their mouth can attest.

Then I throw them in a crockpot or big electric cooker. Cover with barbeque sauce. Whatever brand/flavor you like, or experiment with homemade. I also add whole fresh mushrooms and a package of hot dogs.

Cook on low heat until done. ENJOY! My family fights over all of it. The hot dogs add flavor and are fantaastic in their own right. The mushrooms disappear pretty quick too.

SD - thanks for the idea - if you don't mind, i copied/pasted it over to my place so that i can give it a try here sometime!

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
i might give this a try - spanish?

Peruvian heart anticuchos, recipe is with beef heart but works with deer and elk hearts, too.

Just don't grill too long, the meat should remain tender.

thanks, DUK!