Tips for processing your own deer

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daniel craig

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‘Ello all,

As prices of processing her higher and the cuts get worse (at least at my local place) I’m starting to think the time I save taking it to a processor isn’t worth the money anymore.
I processed a deer once in 10 years and that was only because it was too small to make paying someone else to process it, worth the money.


With all that out of the way, what are some tips and tricks you’ve learned to make the job easier for you? I probably won’t make sausage or anything and I don’t have a grinder at the moment so it will probably just be steaks and and chunks for grinding later (or for stew) wrapped in butcher paper.


Edit: apparently butcher paper and freezer paper are two different thing. I’ve been talking about freezer paper but calling it butcher paper.

Edit 2: y’all, thanks for your advice! The idea here is to keep the whole process as far under $100 as possible, that means buying as little or as cheaply as possible. If I spend close to $100 I might as well just go to a processor.
 
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daniel craig said:
‘Ello all,

As prices of processing her higher and the cuts get worse (at least at my local place) I’m starting to think the time I save taking it to a processor isn’t worth the money anymore.
I processed a deer once in 10 years and that was only because it was too small to make paying someone else to process it, worth the money.


With all that out of the way, what are some tips and tricks you’ve learned to make the job easier for you? I probably won’t make sausage or anything and I don’t have a grinder at the moment so it will probably just be steaks and and chunks for grinding later (or for stew) wrapped in butcher paper.
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Good deboning knives go a long way! I like a couple buckets, hang em upside down, skin em, steaks in one bucket, roasts in another, jerky meat in the 3rd, take inside, clean, cut steaks, freeze in any applicable marinade), roasts are the same (trimming all sinew and fat away from meat obviously) cut jerky meats into appropriate pieces and freeze if necessary. Plenty of online resources for cuts and walkthroughs if needed. Get it clean and cold as fast as you can and with practice the knife skills will fall into place.
 
There’s no taking them inside lol. The garage is as good as it gets for me. I’ll look into a set of knives, but I’m trying to spend as little as possible. Buckets I have though.
 
daniel craig said:
There’s no taking them inside lol. The garage is as good as it gets for me. I’ll look into a set of knives, but I’m trying to spend as little as possible. Buckets I have though.
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On a budget, one of my BEST purchases was a cold steel roach belly, field dressed, skinned, and processed 1 deer and 2 antelope without having to sharpen it once! Its size and profile just do everything well, got it off Midway at the time as a spare for my bucks and shrades, but now it's with me every time I'm planning on taking game, I think Amazon carries them now, for budget friendly, you could do MUCH worse!
 
horsey300 said:
On a budget, one of my BEST purchases was a cold steel roach belly, field dressed, skinned, and processed 1 deer and 2 antelope without having to sharpen it once! Its size and profile just do everything well, got it off Midway at the time as a spare for my bucks and shrades, but now it's with me every time I'm planning on taking game, I think Amazon carries them now, for budget friendly, you could do MUCH worse!
Click to expand...
I was looking at that and the havalon knives with the exchanable blades.
 
I refuse to give someone $100, wait a couple days for my deer, and then not even be sure that what I'm getting was mine.
I don't like deer sausage (except for summer sausage), and I really don't like ground deer either.
I separate into 3 different kinds, steaks, roasts, and stew meat.

Other than the backstraps and inner loins, if the deer isn't old and tough, you can get good steaks out of the hams as well. And there's the roast (I'm not sure what that muscle is actually called).
But I would suggest separating the muscles in the hams, then either slicing against the grain for steaks or wrapping a whole muscle to use as a roast. Just did a Mississippi pot roast with deer yesterday. Man it was good.

Just go slow. Take your time on the first few and it'll become second nature.

One thing I do is once I've quartered the deer and put it in a cooler, leave it there for 2-3 days. I put a bag of ice as needed to keep it very cold and leave the plug out of the cooler where the water will drain as the ice melts. Gets a lot of the blood out before butchering.
 
Freezer paper
Sharpie
Sawzall
Ziplock bags
Good knives and cleaver or hatchet
Masking tape

The biggest and best cuts are the quickest and easiest to process.
The smaller less desirable peices take the most time and effort to make useable.
Imho, you gotta know when to quit, or you will be spending more time than you should on cuts that wont be very satisfying.

I am lucky here. We have a good deer processor that will grind my trimmings and add fat to make and pkg venison burger. We probably dont get 'our' meat back in the ground venison....but its always good. I just toss my trimmings in a garbage bag and take it to him. Maybe you can locate a processor who's willing to do that. It makes processing your deer pretty easy.
 
Arkansas Paul said:
I refuse to give someone $100, wait a couple days for my deer, and then not even be sure that what I'm getting was mine.
I don't like deer sausage (except for summer sausage), and I really don't like ground deer either.
I separate into 3 different kinds, steaks, roasts, and stew meat.

Other than the backstraps and inner loins, if the deer isn't old and tough, you can get good steaks out of the hams as well. And there's the roast (I'm not sure what that muscle is actually called).
But I would suggest separating the muscles in the hams, then either slicing against the grain for steaks or wrapping a whole muscle to use as a roast. Just did a Mississippi pot roast with deer yesterday. Man it was good.

Just go slow. Take your time on the first few and it'll become second nature.

One thing I do is once I've quartered the deer and put it in a cooler, leave it there for 2-3 days. I put a bag of ice as needed to keep it very cold and leave the plug out of the cooler where the water will drain as the ice melts. Gets a lot of the blood out before butchering.
Click to expand...
There used to be a local butcher who’d do our deer in exchange for some honey and maple syrup. He doesn’t cut meat anymore.
 
Armored farmer said:
Freezer paper
Sharpie
Sawzall
Ziplock bags
Good knives and cleaver or hatchet
Masking tape
Click to expand...
What he said, except I invested in a vacuum sealer. I would also add a good work area and cutting board. I have been meaning to get one of those ginormous cutting boards like you see in a real butcher shop. As far as "tips and tricks", recipes, etc.- youtube has plenty of this. My "work area" is the kitchen. It often end with a "white glove inspection" and some complaining from Mrs. Fl-NC, but I guess that's just life.
 
If a vacuum sealer isn't in the budget, then buy a couple rolls of saran warp and some good quality freezer bags. I wrap the meat tightly in several layers of the cling wrap before putting it into a freezer bag that gets labeled with the contents (DOE, Backstrap, 2019 for example). I have not had any freezer burn or spoilage using this method.
 
redneck said:
If a vacuum sealer isn't in the budget, then buy a couple rolls of saran warp and some good quality freezer bags. I wrap the meat tightly in several layers of the cling wrap before putting it into a freezer bag that gets labeled with the contents (DOE, Backstrap, 2019 for example). I have not had any freezer burn or spoilage using this method.
Click to expand...
Is butcher paper not good enough?
 
daniel craig said:
I don’t have a grinder at the moment so it will probably just be steaks and and chunks for grinding later (or for stew) wrapped in butcher paper.
Click to expand...
When you do get around to grinding it, you're probably going to find that pure ground venison is way too dry. So what we do is run the venison through the grinder once, then we mix it 50/50 with the cheapest beef burger we can find (80/20 stuff), and then run it all back through the grinder a second time. That way, our ground venison goes twice as far, and it has just the right amount of fat content for our tastes.:)
BTW, when you buy a grinder, get a good one. We use a meat grinder attachment for our large Kitchen Aid mixer, and it works great. We've ground a lot of deer and elk meat, and some pronghorn meat with that thing. But before we had it, we tried using one of those cast, hand-crank grinders that you clamp to the kitchen table. That thing clogged faster than we could clear it, and it squirted blood all over the place. The fact is, I think we still have that grinder stored away some place. And one of these days, someone is going to tick me off. So when they least expect it, after they've forgotten about what they did, I'm going to just give that grinder to them.:evil:
 
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.308 Norma said:
When you do get around to grinding it, you're probably going to find that pure ground venison is way too dry. So what we do is run the venison through the grinder once, then we mix it 50/50 with the cheapest beef burger we can find (80/20 stuff), and then run it all back through the grinder a second time. That way, our ground venison goes twice as far, and it has just the right amount of fat content for our tastes.:)
BTW, when you buy a grinder, get a good one. We use a meat grinder attachment for our large Kitchen Aid mixer, and it works great. We've ground a lot of deer and meat, and some pronghorn meat with that thing. But before we had it, we tried using one of those cast, hand-crank grinders that you clamp to the kitchen table. That thing clogged faster than we could clear it, and it squirted blood all over the place. The fact is, I think we still have that grinder stored away some place. And one of these days, someone is going to tick me off. So when they least expect it, after they've forgotten about what they did, I'm going to just give that grinder to them.:evil:
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I’ve been looking at a kitchenaid attachment! We have a great kitchenaid, one of old models from 20-30 years ago.

Also, as for pure ground venison, that’s what I have right now and use just fine. It’s great for taco meat and actually not bad for burgers if you refrigerate them for an hour before grilling them, no beef/pork/chicken needed.
 
daniel craig said:
Is butcher paper not good enough?
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Butcher paper and clear plastic wrap is usually good enough for us. However, we go through our deer meat pretty fast because we turn a lot of it into frozen sausage patties, many of which we share with our two daughters and their families. We're out of deer meat right now, even though both my wife and I got a deer last fall.
 
daniel craig said:
I’ve been looking at a kitchenaid attachment! We have a great kitchenaid, one of old models from 20-30 years ago.
Click to expand...
Our Kitchen Aid mixer is at least that old, and it still works great. We have a sausage-stuffer attachment too. But we tried that once and didn't like it. We might try it again if we get an elk this year.
 
daniel craig said:
Is butcher paper not good enough?
Click to expand...
I have had stuff get freezer burn with butcher paper alone.

To give the whole run down, I don't age my venison, or do a lot of heavy processing, and I do all the work outside. I hang it up, hose it down, skin it, hose it again, and start boning it out as fast as possible. As the large cuts come off, they go to a plastic table where they get cut into manageable sizes (backstraps usually get cut in half lengthwise, hind quarter gets cut in 2 large roasts per hip etc. ) I don't do any steaks or anything like that. Given the process and the conditions I work in I usually have wet hands, the table is damp, and the meat may not be completely dry. Wrapping it with the plastic, then bagging it, and putting it directly in the deep freezer has served me very well. I think butcher paper would falling apart and just make a mess.
Using this method I usually have the deer in the freezer within 5 or 6 hours of shooting it tops. When I am ready to use it, I thaw it out early enough to trim the piece how I want it before I cook it, or grind it if necessary. I like the flexibility of being able to decide if I want to make chops, or cubes, or to just smoke the whole cut when I'm actually ready to use it. Your mileage may vary, but I find the plastic wrap and zip lock bags to be pretty cheap insurance.

A large plastic cutting board is a nice thing to have, as are a couple different sized knives. I can do the whole thing with the same knife I field dress with, but a something a long the lines of a boning knife or filet knife is helpful.
 
redneck said:
An easy thing for making venison burgers in small batches is to just grind a pound of bacon in with it. It gives enough fat to help them stick together and has a good flavor.
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My only issue with that is for me, the mix meat (bacon, beef etc) sort of weakens or waters down the flavor of the venison
 
daniel craig said:
Is butcher paper not good enough?
Click to expand...

Like .308 Norma alluded to, it depends on how long it will be stored in the freezer.
If you're going to eat it within a month or two, just butcher paper will probably be fine.
If you anticipate it will be stored for several months, the extra layer of plastic wrap will help prevent freezer burn.

Usually, the first deer I kill doesn't get anything special. Zip freezer bags is it, because I know its going to go so fast it won't have time to freezer burn.
Deer 2 and on, gets double wrapped, first in plastic, then in freezer paper.
 
A vacuum sealer is worth the money if you have a freezer full and can't eat it all within the year. I have had some frozen for over 2 years that was still tasty. One place that I hunted was next door to a custom butcher. If he didn't have anything to butcher during season he would let us use his shop and walk-in cooler. I want a walk-in cooler. At one time we had 13 deer hanging. Aging them a couple of weeks at 38 degrees does wonders for the meat.
 
here is a good tip i learned from a old butcher, i dont see a lot of people using it but it works.

when you get your deer skinned,go over it and burn off all the hair left on the meat with a small propane torch.

yu see a hair hit it with the torch and it will pop and disappear.

the old butcher explained that any hair left on the meat will stink when yu cook it and even worse if it gets into the burger.
 
ridgerunner1965 said:
here is a good tip i learned from a old butcher, i dont see a lot of people using it but it works.

when you get your deer skinned,go over it and burn off all the hair left on the meat with a small propane torch.

yu see a hair hit it with the torch and it will pop and disappear.

the old butcher explained that any hair left on the meat will stink when yu cook it and even worse if it gets into the burger.
Click to expand...
I like that, but prefer cold rinses, I use similar methods on cacti and peppers, I'm storing this for future uses thank you!
 
another good tip is that i use a large pruning shears to cut off the legs and open the rib cage. very fast.

other than that we dont cut any bones period. everything is boned out. the muscle groups in the hind quarters are seperated and frozen in chunks about enough for a meal for 2. when thawed they are sliced into boneless steaks and grilled.
 
I only take the loin and back strap. Give the rest away. Folks I give to are always grateful. I have donated many deer over the years to charities. Never been fond of any venison except when in Europe and eaten farm raised.
 
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