deer processing

[stl]

A friend of mine is going to give me the next deer he gets I just have to pay for the processing. He says all I have to do is go out to the processer and tell them what I want. I basically want ground meat and muscle meat for making my own jerky. ( possible some summer sausage if it not too expensive. I have heard that the shoulders are great for jerky. Are there any other cuts that would make good jerky?

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: deer processing

The entire deer is good for jerky. Thats the problem you run into. You need to seperate the parts that are good for other things. The loin (or backstrap) is great for steaks, its what we are having tonight. The tenderlion is good to cook whole, maybe smoke, but definetely at a low temp with onions and a little bell pepper/jalapeno wrapped in foil. The rear shoulders or rump make good roasts or chunk stew meat. The scrapings from the ribs, neck, and the other bones should go into your sausage pile. Your processor is going to know what is what and "should" do right by you and not grind the tenderloin into sausage. Just let them know what you want. Regarding summer sausage- If they offer it get the SS with cheese and jalapenos.

 

[stl]

Re: deer processing

Cheese and jalapeno summer sausage, oh yeah. Now I am starting to get hungry.

 

[one more cast]

Re: deer processing

Tell your butcher (processor)what you want and he will make the appropriate cuts. I tell my butcher to make as many steaks as he can, save me two roasts for jerky and stew the rest for freezing and grinding at a later date. If you want to try butchering your own to save $25-50 you can buy an excellent book at walmart(in sporting goods) called "cooking and cleaning wild game". It will take you step by step through the process. I take all my frozen stew meat to the local meat market a few days before Easter and have a batch of Crogan bologna made and give it away on Easter.

 

[JRJ]

Re: deer processing

Interesting. I don't care for the ground meat and I like jerky from better cuts of beef. That said, the venison steaks are very good and the various "sausage" sticks can be excellant. Cut-up the deer yourself and enjoy it however you want

 

[roscoe]

Re: deer processing

Ask about the various types of sausage available.<br />Some places will add pork or beef, cured, or cured and smoked, or cured and cooked, various spice/flavor combinations.

 

[stl]

Re: deer processing

Does anybody save the ribs? or do you grind the meat from the ribs for burger?

 

[LubeDude]

Re: deer processing

Ground venison isnt much good for anything without grinding it with beef suit, SP. You can also have a slight amount of sausage mixed in it also and I always used it for such things as spagetti sause and tacos. Under no cercumstance use any of the fat off the deer. If its a young deer, the neck makes a great roast if you season it well and rost it with lots of onions. You do want the backstrap made into butterfly steaks about 3/8 to 1/2" thick, no more as you want to cook them quickly rolled in flour and fried in butter. Ribs are for ground meat. Throw them away if there is a lot of fat on them, Venison fat is awefull.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: deer processing

LD is telling the truth about the fat. Deer fat for some reason is always rank. I have processed 2 deers this year so far. On both of them we saved the loins for steaks. Saved one roast, and about 5 pounds of cubed meat for stew. The rest we ground up and added pork fat. A good ratio is 3 parts deer to 1 part pork fat. Most grocery chains/butchers will either give you the fat or sell it very cheap, maybe 60 cents a pound, and a pound of fat is ALOT. Spice kits are sold in the meat section. The bag I used was about 8 ounces and it was supposed to be good for 50 lbs. I did the first deer and used half the bag as thats about what I had, 25-26 lbs. Way too spicy. I mixed the other deer in with what I had and it made it very mild. I use the ground meat for tacos, chilis, soups, burgers and of course breakfast sausage. My first deer I ever cleaned I saved the ribs and smoked them. I ended up with rib jerky. My advice is to follow everyones else's, cut the meat off and use it in sausage.

 

[one more cast]

Re: deer processing

Ground venison makes pretty good jerkey or pepperoni sticks with one of those jerkey press kits. It has a funny texture but taste good.

 

[neumanns]

Re: deer processing

It is a shame so many have a dim view of venison. Stew, taco's, speghetti sauce, smothered in onion's, summer sausage, ground it is good for very little ...etc.<br /><br />Processed propperly venison is some fine eating that need not be covered up with all that nonsense. Cooked properly according to what cut it is venison will stand up with the finest cuts of beef. <br /><br />Contained under that hide are a lot more than loin's...top round, bottom round, eye of round, sirloin tip, rump, chuck, chuck tender's, you get the idea.<br /><br />Yes the shank's get ground and made into some fine breakfast sausage around here but to take a sirloin tip and turn it into summersausage would be like taking a t-bone and grinding it for hamberger!<br /><br />I process my own venison...not to save money but to get what I want out of it. Plus I take far better care of it then some mass processing plant.(and it saves money plus I enjoy it) I have done 4 this year and with any luck maybe I'll get a chance to do one more....hopefully!<br /><br />Now as a novice I don't expect ya to butcher your own deer, and I don't begrudge anyone in taking there deer to a processor . because it takes time and knowledge to do your own.<br /><br />But talk with your proccessor and let him do what is appropriate with what he has to work with (age condition etc). And when ya pick it up don't be affraid to ask him how to cook the cut's he returns to you. If ya go in there and tell him what ya want, he is gonna do exactly that...but if ya go in there and tell him ya don't really know, he'll help ya and ya may just learn somthing.<br /><br />All them horrer stories ya hear about venison, it is because it was processed or prepared wrong due to lack of knowledge.<br /><br />Ask around...youll find there (Hunter's and Proccesors)are a friendly lot that are most time's more than willing to share there expierence.

 

[KRS]

Re: deer processing

If you ask for beef suet, be sure it's real suet. Body fat is okay, but not the best. Suet is fat attached to the kidney, it's the best, ask the butcher for kidney suet.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: deer processing

Hey Neumanns, here is the original question! You advice is well taken, but some just dont like venison like we do. Prepared right or not. You are right though, many people do not know how to prepare or handle the meat properly.<br /><br />

Originally posted by stl:<br /> A friend of mine is going to give me the next deer he gets I just have to pay for the processing. He says all I have to do is go out to the processer and tell them what I want. I basically want ground meat and muscle meat for making my own jerky. ( possible some summer sausage if it not too expensive. I have heard that the shoulders are great for jerky. Are there any other cuts that would make good jerky?

 

[stl]

Re: deer processing

Neumanns, thats a good point. I thought I would have to go to ther processor with exactly what I wanted. I have a good idea of what to do and they can guide me from there. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what cuts to make jerky out of and what cuts to have them make into steaks ect. Hopefully one day I will be able to process my own but not yet.

 

[neumanns]

Re: deer processing

Stl & LD, That is exactly my point... We don't now if it is a fawn, a doe, a mature doe or heaven forbid some old critter with no teeth left.<br /><br />If ya take a fawn or young doe the chuck and chuck tender (front sholder) are excelant jerky cut's. Heck Iv'e even steaked them off young deer. But if you take some old swamp buck or even an old doe the same cut will make jerky but if ya want decent jerky fact is ya better go with a diffrent cut.<br /><br />What to do with the cut's is best left undecided till we know what there is to work with.<br /><br />So the answer, do you want good jerky or do ya want to use each piece to the best of it's potential. Because depending on age and sex there is jerky somewhere on that critter...A piece just begging for that treatment! But we dont know what cut it is...yet<br /><br />Anything other than the shanks of the hind quarter can be jerkeyed..., but if it is a young deer why would we jerky excelant steaks?<br /><br />But back to the question, What to jerky and what to grind. If that is my only choices....Steak the strap's. jerky the bottom round and top round, and grind the rest. If ya want more jerky use the sirloin next....But I would rather use the hind quarter's for better jerky if the rest is gonna be ground.<br /><br /><br />P.s. I did not intend to come off as "why would you do that to the meat". I just hate to see people turned off venison, it is good meat...if done right.<br /><br />And I also have taken cut's that could have been put to better use and had them made them into polish, jerky, summersausage, etc because that is what I wanted out of them. Nothing wrong with that either......If that is what you want, heck somtimes a guy has just gotta have polish for breakfast...there's more to life than steak!!

 

[neumanns]

Re: deer processing

Why I am setting here at my keyboard at eleven pm is beyond me...Must be that we are on a topic I enjoy. Now I'll be the first to admit that I am no expert or know it all but I have cut a few deer and do enjoy eating them. And even my ability continues to grow slowly.<br /><br />Here's somthing for ya to try when ya get the ground venison back.<br /><br />Take four pound's of the ground venison and one pound of ground bacon (most places other than the mega mart's will grind it for ya).<br />1 teaspoon pepper<br />1 Tablespoon salt<br />and if ya like sage add 2 teaspoon's ground sage<br />Mix it together and freeze it in one pound package's.<br /><br />Thaw and make into breakfast sausage size pattie's and fry in just a little butter until crispy on the outside.<br /><br />I'll bet when your done you won't believe how good the sausage you made was! soon you'll realize there is no big mystery behind all this, youll start reading and asking around and in no time youll be figuring out how you can improve it even more. and soon you will be setting at the dinner table with a carcuss in front of you and your own grinder beside you. Telling yourself with some doubt and disbelief that I can do this.<br /><br />But I gotta warn you ...next you'll have a old broken down refrigerator in your garage that you intend to turn into a smoker. Even I cannot tell you where it will end.....And more imoportantly I'm not gonna tell ya how I know about old refgerator's in the garage!<br />

 

[roscoe]

Re: deer processing

There are three ways of dealing with the rib meat.<br />1- ignore it<br />2- Get what you can in 10 minutes or less.<br />3- Spend an entire day picking every millimeter of them clean, like my aunt and grandmother do.<br /><br />I have been involved in processing a couple dozen deer.<br />Prefer #2 above.<br /><br />For all meat that is to be used for sausage, burger, jerky, steak, roast, or stew, ( yes that means all of it); you need to remove the thin silvery connectve tissue that hold the muscles together. A couple of good sharp filet knives work well, even the little 4" ones work great. This stuff must have a name, but we call it simply "the silver stuff". It is the same stuff you see on a pork loin, but tougher. If left on the meat, it will make it tough and chewy. That is why we choose to ignore the 3# of meat on the ribs, takes way too long to get it cleaned properly.<br /><br />Don't expect the processor to clean all the silver stuff off. But you can trim it off before you cook it. The burger or sausage is a different story. The little that we grind is cleaned well, then run thru mom's $79 food processor. ($12 at rummage sale ) It works better than any of the meat grinders we have tried.<br /><br />The other thing that must be remembered is to cook it thru, but don't over cook it. Don't cook it long enough to brown it, just long enough to cook it thru. Venison and most other game is dry and low fat, over cooking it will destroy it. Also, if frozen, plan on eating it up in the next 3-4 months. <br /><br />Alternative is to seer it in a hot skillet, partally cooking it, then pack it in canning jars and can it with your favorite seasonings and onions. My sister did 2 antelope, 2 mule deer, and 1 whitetail deer this way, in the last 2 months. The only meat frozen was what they had made into brats. They give all other ground meat to whoever asks for it first.

 

[one more cast]

Re: deer processing

That correct name of the book I mentioned above is " Dressing and cooking wild game" by the hunting and fishing library and will teach you how to butcher a deer and tells you what to do with each cut of meat. I have also butchered my own deer for years. One cut that most people don't use but makes an excellent plate presentation is venison loin chops.

 

[cpj]

Re: deer processing

I grind the whole deer.(insert gasping sounds follwed by cursing and disbelief )The wife and kid dont really care for steaks and roasts, but will attack a plate of jerky like a pack of lions.I just grind it all into burger and use one of those jerky guns to squirt out the jerky.I do it myself cause I refuse to pay someone 80 dollars to do it for me.It would be one thing if I was having steaks and what not made,but just to grind it that is too much cash. I bought a grinder and "adapted" it to a pulley and motor.(OMC, this will quallify for your redneck inventions thread )<br />Heres a pic:<br /><br />

 

[cpj]

Re: deer processing

Originally posted by One More Cast:<br /> Ground venison makes pretty good jerkey or pepperoni sticks with one of those jerkey press kits. It has a funny texture but taste good.

I have had good luck with the burger jerky,providing that there is NO fat mixed in.When you add fat to burger jerky, it does mess up the texture. Makes it fall apart to easy.But with no fat added, it has a real chewy and firm texture.DANGIT,that reminds me. I forgot to get a package of deer out of the freezer last night. Me and Ms. cpj jr. always make jerky on saturdays. Hope she doesnt remember, I would hate to have the rath of a hungry four year old after me!