# Processing venison (or other large game/animal), how do you do it?



## QOS (Dec 8, 2008)

OMG FlyGap...what is the dropping it in a bucket for? LOL you can tell I am not a hunter!!!:shock: Sounds like a lot of work!


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

well since I didn't let it hang and settle for a few days it was kind of... Stringy! There is this film all over each section and it takes FOREVER to clean off (don't want that stringy stuff in a burger). The weather got cold, upper 20's at night, 40/50 during the day so I put the parts in a bucket (well washed) covered with tinfoil and tight with a rubberband and let it sit and break down a bit. It's good for it! At least that's what I've been taught!

Oh my back and arm are KILLING ME!! A couple times I got dizzy because I was standing still for too long! You know how you see those people pass out at weddings! Lol, would have been dangerous with me holding a filet and butcher knife!!
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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Its been a long time since I have done it but we used to let it hang for quite a while. Of course cut out the back straps..yum  the rest was made into stew meat and canned, cut into jerky meat or ground up for burger or summer sausage. I used to get so bored cut meat for jerky...LOL.. I don't mind wrapping meat I just get bored cutting it up.


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## QOS (Dec 8, 2008)

I don't think passing out with knives in your hand is a good idea!!! 

This processing sounds like a messy business!


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

I accidently hit "post" before I was finished.....

I don't like the fatty hamburger I trim as much fat off as possible and add oil when I cook it. And I can't remember the brand of grinder we had, I can picture it but that's about it, I think once I used a Kitchen Aid attachment- not as good as a true grinder. As far as wrapping or bagging, used to wrap with butcher paper but I am in love with my Food Saver vacuum sealer! Worth the investment in my opinion. For recipes I don't have anything mind blowing. I fry back strap in a hot pan and taters and gravy..LOL. the hamburger gets used like beef burger, same with the stew meat. The jerky I cheat on, I buy Hi Mountain Jerky Cure and Seasoning, the Pepper Blend. My jerky seasoning is so inconsistant between batches if I mix my own seasoning, so the Hi Mountain brand is easy. I would love to hear others recipes so maybe I could try something different!


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## Spotted (Sep 19, 2012)

We just take ours to the butcher and its wrapped in the brown paper.. 
Our neighbor built himself a big walk in cooler..Might be a good investment for you if you do it all the time...Our meat is usually hung for a while, but its problably colder here in hunting season, then where you are.


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## OutOfTheLoop (Apr 1, 2012)

I always cut out the backstrap and used the rest for jerky/nuggets. I took a back leg off at the hip once, made an aluminum foil very large pan, and coveted the leg with a few cans of beer, a few tubs of butter, and put onions in it, warped it up tight and grilled it for 6 hours. It fell off the bone and was sooooo yummy!
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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Oh that's a good one outof the loop!
I cut some smaller roasts and am debating on how to do them, garlic in there for sure! How did you grill it, charcoal, wood, gas?

COWCHICK I'm asking for a vacuum sealer for Christmas!
I use Hi Mountain too! Like the teriyaki best.
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## OutOfTheLoop (Apr 1, 2012)

We used charcoal. I hate gas grills!
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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Me too!!
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## AndyTheCornbread (Feb 3, 2019)

Reviving this thread, maybe @FlyGap will see it and come back. Besides most states seasons are wrapped up or nearly wrapped up so maybe a few new folks had this same question. 

I butcher 6 - 10 deer a year depending on how many of my kids got tags, what tags they got and what tags I got. Then I process 0 - 2 elk and possibly a bear or two. Lots of rabbits both wild and domestic because I am allergic to any chicken products including egg yolks and I don't mean intolerant I mean truly allergic. Also butcher at least 2 pigs a year. 

I do all the gutting/skinning/butchering/processing/smoking etc. myself and our deer up here are not little. The only one I weighed this year was 232lbs after it was field dressed. 

The way I process deer is as follows: Backstraps and rear ham largest two muscles get turned into steaks. I trim off all fat and remove most of the skein from everything else and grind it into burger(_I have a bunch of commercial butchering and processing equipment, one part of it is a commercial, electric meat grinder_). 

I don't mix anything in with the venison burger because depending on what I end up doing with it, it can get mixed with a lot of different things or nothing so rather than try to anticipate exactly what I need and risk wasting something I grind and store it pure and then mix batches based on what I want to do at that time. E.g. sausage like krakowska I use equal parts venison and ground pork, for burgers I use 1lb of ground bacon to 3lbs of ground vension, taco meat is straight venison and so are many other things like fleischkuekle. 

When I grind I put a sausage tube attachment on the end of my grinder and let it feed directly into a vacuum seal bag. When the bag is full I put it in the vacuum sealer(_also a commercial vacuum sealer not your usual Costco overheating piece of garbage_) seal it and then start on the next bag of grind. It takes about 20 minutes to grind and seal an entire buck(60lbs of burger for an average buck) less for a doe. 

I have one of those giant jerky shooters and commercial dehydrator so I use ground venison or elk unmixed with any other meat for jerky that I shoot out in lines onto the dehydrator screens. Usually it is freezer jerky(_no nitrates_) so after making it, it needs to be frozen if you aren't going to eat it within about a week. I just seal up bunches of it with the vacuum sealer and freeze them that way. 

Our gun season for deer is 5 or so weeks long so I try and get tags filled in such a way that I have about 1 - 2 deer a week to process. Elk are usually during archery season or during late shoulder seasons after deer season is over. I use most of the back two quarters on elk for steak and the backstraps too. The rest I grind same as I do the deer.

Bear are almost always early fall as I rarely ever hunt spring bear. 

The pigs I do in mid-late summer depends on when they were born. These I do into regular pig cuts, E.g. pork chops, cured and smoked hams, ham slices, bacon, ground pork etc.

When all my kids were home(_two are away in college now_) that was five kids to feed plus myself. Pretty much all the meat we ever eat we either raised or hunted. I haven't raised beef in a while but when I did, I didn't elk hunt because that would have been more meat than we could use in a single year.

I made the investment in commercial processing equipment because I was doing so much in a year it was painstaking to do it all by hand with regular household kitchen equipment. I like to do big batches of stuff so I only have to do it a few times a year E.g. I like being able to make 20 - 60lbs of sausage at once and get it all smoked up and sealed back up and frozen into family meal sized bags so I don't have to monkey with it more than a couple of times per year. The investment in quality, high grade equipment has paid itself off many times over, over the years.

If anyone has questions on specifics I am more than happy to answer. I have been butchering our own animals since I was a pre-teen kid in braces so I have a lot of experience doing this and I might be able to save you some time with ways I have come up with to process game and domestic animals that work well for me.


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

I cut up all my wild game. When I get a deer or antelope I remove the 4 quarters, back strap and tenderloins and place all in game bags (cheese cloth) and they go in the beer refridge for a week. I think not only does it cut up easier it enhances flavor and tenderness. Drink any beer that gets displaced! LOL. Then I cut it all up , Back straps and tenderloins into steaks and pack 2 to the package sliced nice and thick. The rear quarters is all deboned and cut into two round roasts and the remainder of the rear quarters and all of the fore quarters goes to burger mixed with 25% pig suet. I make lots of summer sausage , jerky and Tamales with the burger. Love those Tamales. I freeze them a dozen to the bag and pull them out as I want them. Micro wave and they are a good breakfast , lunch or dinner. I process my own bear too. Nothing better than a smoked bear roast but, it causes a lot of gas! LOL


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

Boy, this is an old thread.


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