HankR
Member
Hi All,
Longtime shooter, relatively new to the hunting thing, and finally learning to process our own deer. I've had two separate acquaintances show me how they butcher their deer, and it both cases it seems to me like a lot of meat gets thrown away. A lot of the smaller muscles, low on the leg, maybe 1-1 1/2 inch diameter, maybe 4-5 inches long which I would think would make decent burger or stew. Both gentlemen threw these in the trash as "not being worth messing with". When asked, both thought that a better grinder might work OK with those, but that they couldn't get enough of the membrane stuff off to make it worth their time. One had a hand grinder, and I'm not sure about the other. One (a buck) had what looked like a lot of neck meat to me, but the gentleman said the veins made it unsatisfactory. After cutting out the loins/backstrap, tenderloins, and big roasts from the rear quarter the pile of left-overs for the grinder was about half to two-thirds the size as the trash pile (with no roasts from the front quarter, all to grind). Does this seem right? I'm hoping for a late season doe, and would like to process it ourselves but don't want to be wasteful. (My dogs on the other hand wouldn't mind a bit if they ended up with more.)
On a related question, which would you buy first. A grinder or a vacuum sealer?
Thanks,
Hank
Longtime shooter, relatively new to the hunting thing, and finally learning to process our own deer. I've had two separate acquaintances show me how they butcher their deer, and it both cases it seems to me like a lot of meat gets thrown away. A lot of the smaller muscles, low on the leg, maybe 1-1 1/2 inch diameter, maybe 4-5 inches long which I would think would make decent burger or stew. Both gentlemen threw these in the trash as "not being worth messing with". When asked, both thought that a better grinder might work OK with those, but that they couldn't get enough of the membrane stuff off to make it worth their time. One had a hand grinder, and I'm not sure about the other. One (a buck) had what looked like a lot of neck meat to me, but the gentleman said the veins made it unsatisfactory. After cutting out the loins/backstrap, tenderloins, and big roasts from the rear quarter the pile of left-overs for the grinder was about half to two-thirds the size as the trash pile (with no roasts from the front quarter, all to grind). Does this seem right? I'm hoping for a late season doe, and would like to process it ourselves but don't want to be wasteful. (My dogs on the other hand wouldn't mind a bit if they ended up with more.)
On a related question, which would you buy first. A grinder or a vacuum sealer?
Thanks,
Hank
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