Meat butchering/processing tips

[Lloyd Smale]

one more little hint. If you bone out your deer (which you should be doing) buy yourself one of those retractable razor knives with the long break off blades. theres not a better knife made for boning meat! Cool thing too is you never sharpen. I do a deer and just throw the blade away and put a fresh one in for the next deer.

 

[snakeman]

I always just bone out the meat instead of quartering it. Then I cut out what steaks I want. Then I cut what scraps I can into fajita meat. Then I grind the rest, chill it, and shoot it through my jerky gun onto the dehydrator and season it. Of course I don't make all the ground meat into jerky. You have to save some for chili.

 

[jwrowland77]

+1 on the KitchenAid mixer. There's a meat grinder attachment that works great. I get the leanest beef I can find and then I ground up a half pound of deer and then I run the half pound of deer with a half pound of lean beef and it mixes great. I've been doing this for years now.

As far as aging, like said in a previous comment, I'll keep the deer in an ice chest with ice for several days, and drain the water out and put fresh ice in it every morning. This gets out a majority of blood. You still know you're eating deer, but not a lot of gamey taste to it. I personally like a gamey taste to it, but the wife...not so much.

 

[blindhari]

One last item not mentioned. You got to get the meat small enough to fit in the grinder opening. Start by finding a restraunt supply store that carries Dexter/Russell knives. These will sell for $10-20 dollars. You want the simple production knives with the SANISAFE handels. These are sharp, easy to touch up, last a long long time and easy ro sanitise. You will need two mayby three different knives.
1 a boning knife flexible enougth to get in between joints, sort of like a fish fillet knife
2 a butcher knife, there is a reason for the name
3 a nice knife to have is a heavy scimitar for reducing large chunks to smaller thinner strips
I was raised in a restraunt and reducing primal cuts to usable was a skill mom taught me early. Using the knife set that some one gave you in a wooden block from Chicago Cutlery is neither very much fun or sanitary. Buy a magnetic knife rack. Wooden blocks can hold blood, germs and filth as can wooden handles. This is why most butcher shops, restraunts and production shops use SaniSafe. They also cost a lot less than high end knives made for show.

blindhari

 

[41 Mag]

With what has already been posted I thought I would toss up this link as well. If you need seasoning or knives or pretty much whatever else for working with your own game this place has usually it. We usually run through several different packages of the seasonings for our pan sausage just after hunting season. Like a few others mentioned it grinds great when it is just thawed out enough to work with. We stock it up and then blend it as needed to come out with what we want.

Anyway here is the link, hope someone finds it useful,
Allied Kenco

Also if you want a great set of knives that WILL hold their edge with minimal sharpening the Victorinox line of Forschner knives are hard to beat for the price. I have for the most part gone to them exclusively for my meat processing battery. From field to freezer they are simply one of the best I have used and I have used plenty. Throw in any decent steel and with a couple of quick slaps you back to razor sharp. Just be aware, and keep the ends of your fingers out of the way. I use one of the 5" Lamb Skinners for just about everything. When it comes to hogs my hunting pardner and I have tried everything and these have been THE thing for getting the hides off and the meat cut and in the cooler as quick as possible. We can usually get through 4 or 5 of them before having to hit the steel a few times to touch up the edge. For the price and efficiency we haven't found anything better. The slightly curved tips and rounded noses keep accidental gut punctures down to almost nil and make rolling the hides down a breeze.

Anyway like I mentioned hope it helps someone.

 

[snakeman]

the trick to getting the blood out the way they do on the kill floor in a slaughterhouse is to cut the arteries in the neck while the heart is still beating. Takes about 5 seconds for the heart to pump the blood out this way.

 

[Fat_46]

I've been where the original poster is. Several years ago my wife developed a significant allergy to MSG, and I was unable to find a local processor that didn't use it, so I was forced to start doing it myself.

I started VERY small. 2 meat hooks from Ebay that I mounted in the garage, and a grinder attachment for the KitchenAid mixer we received as a wedding present, plus a Nesco "jerky machine" - a $35 dollar dehydrator that came with a "free" jerky gun. I made sausage and jerky for 3 years with that setup. Over the years I've added equipment when I could. A sasusage stuffer from LEM that Sportsman's Warehouse discounted when they closed the location near my house. A better grinder from Ebay. Another dehydrator to double my capacity. A home-built Ugly Drum Smoker made from a 55 gallon barrel.

Start small. Its more work for sure, but immensely satisfying to share the Good Lord's bounty with others - especially when you know you took it from start to finish by yourself.

And congrats on the baby. My one and only is a beautiful daughter. I admit I had hoped for a boy that could follow and assist me in my hunting and fishing adventures.

I was SO wrong. I have a daughter that can fish like a pro, is about to carry a rifle in her first deer season, has helped me process our own venison since she was 3, and comes home from a day in the field and starts playing with her Barbies. I have the best of both worlds. Also - she's a better shot than her mom, who grew up hunting!

 

[Texaszach]

Yessir fat-46

I had the same attitude but am apparently meant to be in a house full of women. I already have a 3 year old daughter and another should be here sometime in February.

Luckily their Mom loves hunting, fishing, and shooting guns in general... Though she still doesn't get why I keep having the desire to invest in more guns... But this will be the first year I take my daughter with me to do some hunting.
She has fished with us a lot and is more interested in the actual fish than the fishing.

I cant wait for the days that they are actually hunting for themselves!

 

[ridgerunner1965]

lots of good info here in these posts. the first deer or two yu process will be a learning process.check out youtube for lots of videos on the subject.

the best grinder ive ever seen is the hand crank grinder my gpa fixed up with a pulley and a motor years ago.you want a large pulley, 10 inches or better pulley on the grinder and a small as you can get pulley on your motor.that will slow it down.ive had guys with commercial grinders be very impressed with it.

one thing ive not seen mentioned is cutting up a hot deer. often ive cut up a deer within a hr of killing it.it is better if you can let it cool out, makes it much easier to cut. but if you kill one on a warm day as ive done. i jus cut them up and drop in the freezer.ive not noticed any gamy taste and in fact cant tell them from deer that have been cooled over night on a cold nite.

 

[StrutStopper]

I must be the exception. I have a friend with a large walk in fridge in his yard just for hanging deer. When I kill a deer I'll hang it in the fridge for a week and then process it. I hang it in the garage and use my fillet knife to take the meat right off the bone. I have an ancient electric grinder that used to belong to my grandmother. It takes forever, but it does the job. I also have a food saver that works pretty well.

 

[MCgunner]

So anyway do you have a dedicated cooler for this? I'd rather my ice chest not smell like bloody deer everytime I open it if it is one of my "regular" coolers.

I have a 120 quart and mostly just use it for game, too big for fishing. I don't do much off shore anymore since the snapper limit is like, TWO. Another subject.

Anyway, i do clean the ol' gal up before using and after using by scrubbing with a cleanser and washing out. I bought this one new last year. My old 108 quart I had was lookin' pretty rough, LOL.




Yeah, I have one daughter and one grand-daughter...so far.

 

[brainwake]

I will add a tip....Get one of those claws for skinning....so much nicer to use. You can grab the skin on the slippery side right up next to the edge and give it a good pull. You will still have to use a sharp knife from time to time, but they sure save time.

 

[25cschaefer]

Or just use the air compressor method, it works great. Even used the air bags on a truck one time.

 

[tnelson31]

RE: Draining blood to remove gamy taste.

I have never considered this, I will give the artery trick a try if I get a DRT deer.

Our process:

Hang for a day or so outside, then, in the garage, skin deer and butcher into 3 cuts: loins, roast & hamburger. Do not grind, vacuum seal as butchering occurs. Grind hamburger at time of use.

 

[rugerman]

Afar as "bleeding" a game animal, its not necessary. By the time you recover the animal the heart has stopped beating and the bullet or arrow as done the bleeding for you, sure if you cut the animal's throat it will bleed some but the majority was done before you got there.

 

[Pacsd]

send me a PM and I'll send you a video I made on how I, emphasis on the "I", process a carcass and the equipment I have.