When do you process your deer and how do you do it? I would like to hear from the guys who process their own venison and the meat cutters out there.

I skin them as soon as I can. I debone them soon after wards. Cutting and packageing comes later depending on the weather. Early bow season they are packaged right away. If I have room in the freezer and I have several to do I'll throw the quarters in there to process later.

I have processed right away and after "aging" the meat and found no difference. Weather cool enough here to age without a cooler is getting difficult to find for any period of time during season and I do not have a storage device big enough to store and entire deer for the aging process in the proper "cool" temperatures.

I used to cut with a saw and have the extra work involved in all of that sawing, but Fur Fish and Game magazine ran an article on cutting up a deer without a saw some years ago and the savings in time/effort and freezer space is nice. By using this method one can essentally cut the deer up as it hangs, or at least reduce the size of the pieces being worked up into final cuts.

Too bad they dont have reprints or rerun the article every couple of years!

LouisB

[ 11-15-2003, 04:00: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

Voldamort, My family has hunted and processed ALL our game for longer than I have been alive...46 years. Deer and elk mostly, with a couple moose tossed in. Also, hunting friends did/do their own meats. So...I have eaten many meals of game.

Here is what I have always done, and I learned from others. ALL animals were to be field dressed and skinned as quickly as possible...get the meat cooled out and hung up. The temperature will dictate how long the meat can hang. In 40-50 degree weather an animal was usually hung around 3-5 days..sometimes longer if I could. At near freezing, 7-8 days.

We never sawed any meat. All bones were removed. And I have been told that sawing wild game is where some of the gamey taste comes from. It comes from the marrow of the bone being wiped into the meat by the saw.....can't confirm that though. Anyway, we cut the filet into steaks, and the hams of deer. The rest of the deer were boned and ground into summer sausage. Elk, some of the larger muscles of the shoulders were sliced into steaks too, the rest ground. Or one can save some larger muscles back for roasts if wanted.

The "grinder meat" was frozen to be used later when the season was over and all animals put together for large batches of summer sausage.

I have never had strong flavored meat, but have sure eaten others meats that tasted strong. I know they cared for the meat differently. I allow meat to hang as long as weather permits. Most people just shoot, gut, cut and freeze all the same day or two. Aging meat mellows the flavor, unless it sours Dont want that!

I have had trouble convincing people that they were eating wild game....they tell me they have before and don't like it! ha So....I get the wrapper from the trash and show them....they get a funny look, but keep eating

I think that how fast one gets the animal dressed and skinned has the most effect on meat flavor. How fast it dies matters too. Quick clean kills, getting the meat cooled down are the 2 most important things to do. Also,to be clear, I don't bone out the meat until I am ready to cut and package it....let it hang whole. Also, remove any bullet damage, blood-shot etc. Damaged meat can spoil quuickly. and lastly, NEVER cut or tear the bladder!!!!!! Nothing like peeing on your dinner. That'll give it some flavor you won't forget

I also cut my own up, saves money and I know I am getting the meat I killed and not someone elses. I do prefer to let the deer hang head down with the skin on for a week and do so as long as the weather is not hot.

I skin then debone the meat and then cut some mighty thick steaks through the whole deboned haunches. I also cut thick chops out of the back straps. I make burger or roasts out of the shoulder and arm meat depending on the age of the deer. Make stew scraps out of anything not large enough to qualify as a steak.

I throw the rib cage out for the varmints and give my dogs the large leg bones.

Voldamart,

I agree with the above posts, all good. Here is some additional reading on the subject, including a couple butchering links:
http://www.nookhill.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000069

Bon Appetite,

Bill

When you debone the meat, do a good job cleaning the tallow and fatty tissues from it as well. The fat is what carries alot of the game flavor.

I usually keep the loins, backstraps, and a roast or two from the flanks and have the rest processed into smoked sausages, hamburger, and breakfast sausage. Then, if we get an elk, alot of the steaks, etc, saved from deer go straight to the processor, too. Antelope make good breakfast sausage, but I don't like them for much else.

Voldamort.
Difficult to describe exactly all the things that you need to do to get a professional result. So here is what I have done in the past.Get together with a few buddies and save and freeze a few critters.Whole if you can,otherwise quartered is fine.Contract a capable and skilled meatcutter to come to your house(garage) or where ever works for you.Let him give a seminar to you and your friends on all aspects of game care.You can also get him to teach you all some jerky and sausagemaking techniques. It is important that He butchers these animals using the same equipment and resources that are available to you, so that you can duplicate the results the next time.
I have done this before and we have always had a great time.One of your buddies will remember some small detail that you may forget.I usually pay the guy about $150 for 4-6 hours of his time.Divided by 5-6 guys is quite reasonable. Then we do not mind supporting him by buying sausagemaking supplies or pork trim from him.You learn how to do it right.Butchering all of your own critters and have great control over the finished product.

I hang the deer for as long as practical, then I skin the animal, remove the backstraps, then debone the meat. we grind everything but the straps and maybe a roast into burger. We use beef fat for the burger, instead of pork.

As far as I am concerned, and have a lot of butchering books to back it up, the main thing is to NOT hang your deer unless you have a controlled environment of NO MORE than 38 degrees!!! This means that if you don't have a meat locker, don't hang it. All you will serve to do is promote spoilage and introduce bad flavors to the meat. Some old hunters taught me to process my deer as soon as possible and get it into the freezer. My venison has always tasted mild with no gamey flavors. The only thing that you don't want to do is to cut it up while it still has Rigor Mortis. If you do, the meat will be tough.

bowhuntr

A buddy of mine (Mike Alexander) clued me into a great way to consistently handle the kill.

The beasties get field dressed and out of the field as quickly as reasonable. the incision made for field dressing is kept as small as possible to that little dirt and detritis gets picked up in the drag out.

The deer is hung and the skin removed pretty much whole. We break down the remains into quarters keeping it as clean and free from hair as possible. Clean is VERY, very important. Each quarter is put in a kitchen sized plastic bag. The backstraps and tenderloins are removed and bagged as well. the neck is saved and put on the stove to boil for soup and BBQ meat as soon as possible.

I usually remove the muscle around the sternum and freeze it for grinding too.

The meat is then put into the refrigerator for aging. The bags are changed the next day and every other day following. During inspection the meat is also dried and any additional blood shot meat removed. In the refrigerator at 36-38 degrees I usually let the meat age 7 to 10 days depending on what is going on. I have had as many as 3 deer in progress at once.

Deboning and butchering is done with a sharp knife. All of the fat is removed. As much of the tendon and muscle sheathing as possible is removed. The large muscle in the front of the rear thigh is cut as B steaks. the large muscle in the back of the thigh as A steaks. Small pieces are chuncked for kabobs. The backstraps are cleaned up and cut into 1 pound lengths. It will be sectioned and 2 pieces put together with toothpicks, wrapped in bacon and grilled as filets ... they're great!

The rest is either cut for jerky, kabob, or grind meat. The grind meat is frozen and collected until the end of the season when we make burger and sausage.

The meat is always as mild as beef. Younger and smaller deer are very, very tender. Big or old deer are usually aged longer and come out fine ... though we have had a tough one from time to time.

I can't see paying to have it done as the results we have gotten on a bunch of deer have been really fine. I haven't bought beef in the three years since I retired.

Usually kill day one, cut up, wrap, etc. day two. Skinning as soon as possible. If I don't have time for the detailed work I throw the quarters into the freezer for later thawing and cutting up. But I don't mind keeping the skinned and quartered meat in a cooler for a few days either if circumstances so dictate.

Frans
Terra Incognita North America
www.terrahunt.com

I have processed all my deer and other game for several years. I have learned a few things, and had some good evidence this past week to back it up.

I shot a doe last Tuesday night, and dressed/skinned her immediately. It's important that you cool the meat to about 45 F as fast as possible to prevent bacterial growth. We were hungry, so I cut one backstrap and part of a hindquarter for immediate usage that night. Although well flavored, it was pretty tough (more on this below). The rest was of the carcass was hung in a meat cooler on the premise (these are worth every penny). Two days later, more backstrap and hindquarter were taken, and were marvelously tender.

Without consulting any biology books, the reason for the difference is that rigormortous takes about 24-36 hours to play it's course. Hanging the meat on the bone allows it do so without "shrinking," or the muscle fibers shortening. Basically, the skeleton acts to keep the fibers long as they go through the process. Cutting the muscles before this has occurred allows them to "tighten up," which is were toughness comes from.

The only concern during this period is to keep bacterial growth from happening. One poster above mentioned 38 F as the temp it must be below. I'm not sure what the exact temperature is...mine was hung at a constant 44 F for several days.

When processing, cut the muscles out whole-not across the grain-if it has not hung for the presribed period. This will minimize the "shortening" effect. Also, remove all membranes from the surface of the meat. This stuff will shrink during cooking and pull the fibers together, so to speak. I usually remove all fat, also.

It's been stated several times, but it is also very important to wash/clean the surface of any debris, especially fecal matter. A vacuum sealer is a terrific tool if you plan to process much meat on your own. It will prevent freezer burn for at least a year in most cases.

Do you guys believe in removing the skin immediately, or leaving it on to prevent a "crust" forming on the meat?
Also, does anyone here eat the ribs? What can they be used for apart from dog food?

I have processed many, many animals for both my self and professionally... I have cut probably over 20 elk for myself and probabl twice that many deer along with the occasonal antelope, moose and everthing eles thrown in, and countless hundreds for others. Looks like most people have done it their way and it has worked out fine for them. Also a lot of people have mentioned rigor mortis... and ageing, etc.

It's a deer you can just about cut it any way you want and it will turn out fine as long as you cut the blood shot, tallow and crap out of it. Now if they were cutting beef and using all these different techniques there would deffinately be some horror stories about meat tasting bad!

The most important part of cutting meat is to make sure that the animal rigor mortised... Like the example about the meat being tough that is exactly what happens. If you freeze the meat and then thaw it out before rigor mortis can take place this will also make the meat tough.

Wild game doesn't have to be "aged" like beef. It contains diffirent fats that don't break down like they do in beef with ageing, instead they ROT unless you keep it below 38 degrees (as someone mentioned). Anything above 38 degrees increas the "flavor" and tenderness if you will due to the flesh ROTTING, personally I don't care for that "flavor". All though some people do. Much like how ducks and geese used to be adged, hung by the head untill the body falls off... mmmm yummy...

As far a skining the animal right away I have found there to be no diffirnece in flavor and what not. This has been experimented many times by myself and friends. We would both take a doe at the same time or better yet shoot two fawns of the same linage... one would be skined right away and cooled in a 35-40 degree garage and the other would just be hung and left to cool with the hide on. The result... more wasted meat from the skined animal due to the meat drying out... the both ended up tasting the same. Three diffirent times

Now if its warm out you should deffinitly skin to get the meat cooled as quickly as possible. I would not advise wraping your meat in plastic bags or celephane as this will promote baterial growth due to a moist inviroment being created. The person who mentioned putting bags over his meat to keep it from dring out aslo said that he checked and changed them regularly which is a must if you do this...

I have taken good care of all my meat. Some deer just tased worse than others no matter what the process was. I killed a big muley buck a few years ago, he was fully engaged in the rut. I let him hang for about a three days in a 35 degree garage. I then proceeded to cut and wrap him. The result, well lets just say you couldn't even be in the same room as the hamburger when it was defrosting in the microwave. Consequently he got donated to the sausage pile!

Now this buck was shot once right through the heart, he went straight down for good. It was about 10 degrees outside and he was hung and skined within hours only because he was starting to freeze so we got the hide off so he could thaw on the top layer and cool out/warm up the rest so that rigor mortis could run its course. I have also had a few other deer that were under the same circumstances as this one, and a few of them also tasted aweful. I think the rut had more to do with it than anything!

One of the biggest bucks that I have shot was a 6 year old. He as fully in the rut as well, and he took a couple to get on the ground. He was then hung with the hide on in a 40degree garage and left to hang for about three days. The result, some of the best tasting tender meat to date.

Another example, I shot a spike elk a couple years ago, he was also killed on the spot. We quartered and packed him out. I let him hang for about a week befor processing. The result... Meat was very tasty but tough as hell. It never froze and when he was killed the outside temp was about 25 degrees.

I could go on and on, but it seams like every animal is different, no matter what techneque I have used. I just wanted to show you that no matter what technique you use and how extensive you are there are just some things that you can't fix. Some meat will just taste gamey while others will be tough. It has been from my experience that it doesn't have much to do with how the meat was "cooled" or aged, but just the different taste of different animals.

One other thing... I have tried deer ribs, they were ok untill the fat solidified in my mouth, then you couldn't get the film out. Also I woudn't advise feeding your dog rib bones. You have a high liklyhood of having to take him to the vet to either be put to sleep or surgery to have his intesines sewed back up...then he may die from the infection. Ribs break off in very sharp shards... If they are cooked then go for it but raw, no way!

Good luck with your processing...
Ivan

Let hang only until partly frozen. This makes cutting up much easier. Skin first, then hang. Trim off all fat. Eat the tenderloin and backstrap first. Don't use a saw, marrow and bone chips foul up everything. Be clean and you and you will get a better product than most of the commercial meat cutters I have used. Learn how to can if you like that sort of thing. It comes out better than frozen, IMHO.

Most of my kills are the last few minutes of light unless it is very late in the season and cold during the day.

I field dress in my yard since I hunt within a mile of home, then hang my deer with the skin on to prevent driying until the next morning. As soon as the deer is hung I remove the tenderloins from the cavity or they will dry out. That is the best part and I either cook them immediately or for breakfast the next morning.

Then I skin and debone. The back staps become filet mignon. The neck is for chili. Rib meat is for jerky. Hindquarters are for steaks. Shoulders are for hamburger. Brisket I take to the meatpacker to be made into smoked sausage.