How much meat do you get out of a deer?

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Fat_46

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Processed my buck and doe last night. The buck weighed 171 lbs gutted, the doe 134.

I weighed the meat after I was done - I had 63 lbs from the buck and 40 from the doe (she was missing one ham...poorly placed follow up shot on my part). That's right at 1/3rd of total weight.

I didn't think I threw that much meat away, but I must have... although I only filled up a medium kitchen garbage can with the stuff, including bones, legs, etc. that I threw away.

So - how much meat do you get from your deer?
 
I guess that really depends on how picky you are with the job you do. I try to remove anything that is not pure meat. Meaning I cut away all silverskin, tallow(fat), tendon, conective tissue etc etc. Your amounts sound reasonable to me. Some may say that I go overboard but I have never had any complaints when it was on the table. Every year I host a superbowl party for all my friends and the main event is my venison chilli made with cubes of meat from the ham sections. Newcomers don't get clued in on it being venison until after the party and no one has ever tasted it and thought it was anything but beef. My wife's chicken-fried steaks made from backstrap cuts will make you beg for more. The sausage I make from shoulder cuts and "scraps" from the other cuts is always a big hit. So, if you don't seem to have that much usable meat when your done processing it may just be because you have a higher personal quality standard than others. Thats also the reason I do all my own processing. You never know what someone else's standards are no matter what they tell you.
 
As a general rule of thumb, without eating any guts, 1/3 the dressed weight is about right amount of boned meat for almost any critter. I've boned probably 100 or more and that always is about right.
 
Whatever doesn't fit in the steaks, roast, jerkey meat or stew category gets tossed in the grinder with some beef soot for burger. The only thing left from my deer is bones and hide. As for weight after butchering, I have no idea. Never tossed it on a scale, just in the freezer.
 
Um, Lenny?

Whatever doesn't fit in the steaks, roast, jerkey meat or stew category gets tossed in the grinder with some beef soot for burger.
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With some beef WHAT????? You've lost me (not real difficult to do, I grant you...)

I gotta admit...my kitchen is just not set up for processing meat. It's small, at least to me, I have minimal counter space and no "island" in the middle...there is just no room in the inn for a couple of dead deer bodies in there. So they go to the processor. If I were inclined to unpack my freezer, I could weigh exactly what we just got back on DH's buck; I'm thinking that 1/3 is about right, from eyeballing the one-pound packages and estimating the roasts, etc.

And we do have deer burger in the freezer. Yummmmmmmm.

Springmom
 
1/3 is about right. I usually end up with more finished weight, but like Lennyjoe I add some beef fat to my burger and some pork fat to my sausage.

There are some excellent tapes that when used properly will very accurately estimate live weight, dressed weight and expected meat.
 
Springmom,
No need to have room for whole uncut deer in your kitchen. You should section it out while it's hanging in the back yard and put the parts in a large cooler or two to stay cool while your working. The only bones that actually make it into my house at all are the leg bones and they only stay until the meat comes off. All other meat is removed from the carcase while its still on the gambril hooks.
 
I think Lennyjoe was talking about beef suet Springmom, not "soot". It's fat. Without adding fat of some kind, many people find venison burger way too dry.
My wife and I process our own wild game too, but the way we do our venison burger is to not add anything to it at all when we grind it. Then later, when we get it out of the freezer to use it, we mix it 50/50 with the cheapest darned beef burger we can find - that stuff that comes in 5lb chubs and I think it's about 20% fat. Either that, or we mix it 50/50 with cheap pork sausage and a few herbs, such as sage. We often cook up a couple of dozen venison and pork sausage patties and freeze them. That way, we have some mighty good breakfast patties on hand and they only take a minute or two in the microwave - depending on how many servings.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I am a bit picky out my meat, and don't like to see anything white or shiny on, in, or near the venison.

Now - to find a local place that sells casings!
 
Well I found out about soot today ;)

I too use an old hand use meat grinder. A good way to process smaller peices, even leg meat. Yeah it'll jamm up with snotty-fat now and then but no big deal. Burger meat mixed with little beef or pork, or on it's own works with that hamburger helper jazz.
 
I took a large doe a few weeks ago in Pike County, IL, and ended up with 92 lbs of steaks, chops, and ground (nothing added to the ground meat). Don't know what her dressed weight was, but she was a big girl -- "rrroomy", as Hannibal Lechter would say... :)
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I am a bit picky out my meat, and don't like to see anything white or shiny on, in, or near the venison.

Now - to find a local place that sells casings!
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At last! Someone who knows that "casings" are for sausages, not cartridges.:D
 
"At last! Someone who knows that "casings" are for sausages, not cartridges."

Well yeah, but I distinctly remember Mom and Dad buying cases of sausages to sell at the meat counter in the grocery store they had when I was growing up.:D
 
From the PA Game Commision - I'll pick one from the table .Live Wt 127 lbs, field dressed 104,Hog dressed 99, Hide wt 10.3, Blood wt 6.8, Bone wt 16.4, Edible lean meat 57 lbs .
 
Yea, what they said. Actually, I went to Fry's supermarket and asked the butcher for some suet and he gave me the fat off of the ribeye's he was trimming. Gave me about 10 lbs of it for free.

I mix a bit in with my burger to aid in cooking.

My kitchen isnt big either. I bring the deer in by quarters. Usually have to quarter it up and in a cooler before leaving the field since it's so warm out during our hunt season.
 
You'll get a better texture sausage if the meat stays cold otherwise you tend to melt the fat. If you're starting out with frozen meat ,grind it just before it completely thaws. I use 1/3 to 1/2 pork ,usually pork shoulder.
 
Not to get too far off, but I use almost all of the deer. Whatever I don't use, my dog eats, or chews on, other than the hooves ,organs, and nervous system. I actually only get about 1/3 to 1/4 out, because Meaty bones are so appreciated by my dog.
 
Recipe/method, please. My chicken-fried steak sucks, and I'm generally a very good cook by all accounts
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1kperday,
I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but she don't use a recipe. She tells me she just sesasons some flour with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Pounds the chops with a meat mallet then coats em in the flour and pan fries them till thier done. Then mixes some of the left over flour with the pan dippings and adds milk to make the gravy. Serves em with mashed taters and gravy over all of it. Usually have black eyed peas or a local pea variety called cream fourtys on the side. Sorry I cant give ya an exact recipe, she just does it all from memory and never measures anything.
 
A little OT, but there is such a thing as "suet pudding." Not sure of the measurement amounts of each, but you put suet, flour, and raisins in cheesecloth, boil it, and out comes a cakey ball. It's great with any meat that you are serving with gravy. The suet pudding soaks up the gravy. It's not the least bit healthy, sounds pretty disgusting, but I'm telling you it is yummy.
 
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