Deer Dressing

[nohunt]

I just read a 1999 article that I'd saved in my Wildgame Meat Folder.
The author claimed that it is typical of a butcher to mix in different deer meats with your deer meat.
Mad Cow (similiar) diseases can be spread from contaminated meats that you DID NOT bring in. [I guess in 1999 there were several cases in Colorado and a lot of folks to be on the safe side just garbaged their meats.]
The author gave a noval idea; Make friends with a Butcher's helper before Hunting Season. Hire him straight out to come do your deer on his day/evening off.
Pay him what the Butcher charges you.
Butcher may give him 20-dollars per deer to process. He'd be happy to make much more money.
nohunt

[whitetail1]

i personally butcher my own deer for that reason. plus i can prepare the meat the way i want it. however i do have summer sausage and brats made. i know that the meat i take to the butcher gets mixed with other meats and i do not get my meat back. what i usually do is wait till all deer seasons are over and take my meat in. this way hopefully it will not get mixed with a lot of other meat.

[Bud Light]

They may mix your meat when making the sausage, burger, jims, and jerky but they weigh it first and you don't lose any. It all has to be mixed anyhow so it only makes sense. How you know your deer wasn't the diseased one? You may be getting the good deal.

[remingtonman]

I personlly butcher my own venison so I can have boneless cuts of meat(roast, steaks, chops and trimmings). Most butchers just cut the meat like beef, bone in, and as we know venison is not beef and needs to be cut and trimmed differently.
I have no problem with butchers, but I am not happy if any of my meat gets mixed with someone elses. I am not as worried about desease as I am these guys riding around with their deer strapped to their vehicle showing off all day. NO THANKS. I take extra care from the time the animal is killed and field dressed to the time it gets in the freezer. It wouldn't make sense to take a nice doe or young buck only to have it mixed in with a rutted up buck that was run for 10 miles then improperly cared for.
It is not that hard to make sausage and burger, but if you prefer not to I like whitetail1's suggestion.

[MATTITO]

I am much less concerned about the mad cow disease than I am about gut shot and other bacterial tainted meat. I just cut out the boring explanation of mad cow disease from this paragraph (you can thank me later).
I prefer to butcher the deer myself as well, as I tend to throw out anything suspicious or containing the fat on it. So I get only 50 lbs of meat instead of 60 that the butcher might pull off, but I would rather have 50 that I know tastes good and everyone I serve it to will think the same.
Ok it did take me about 8 hours to skin, debone, make specific cuts for chops etc, and package the first time. Ouch. The times have reduced dramatically over the years. Now its just part of the hunting process. You guys are right about giving the sausages type meats to the butcher until either before or after everyone as has dropped things off.

[Pro-Line]

MATTITO...I echo your philosophy. I leave the fat out of my meat. Even my hamburger/sausage meat is fat free. I mix pork fat/olive oil in with mine when I grind it...due to the horrible taste of deer fat.

[nohunt]

How many of us have seen guys with deer draped over vehicles or in pickup beds for days on end??? Bragging rights as they parade around.

That critter may end up costing me $55.00 a pound. Buying guns, ammo, shooting, fooling around hunting, buying licenses, pretty expensive meat. Thank big G, I do my own meat processing. Like he said, everytime you do it, it just gets easier and faster.

Which is why I went all out years ago, do my own sausage. A cousin of mine has a butcher shop in S. Dak. He tries his best to keep meats segragated per order. Almost impossible.
Big commercial grinders, mixers and stuffers - - - He can't do a 10-pound load really. He'd spend all day cleaning and sterilizing equipment with each customer's batch. He can't sit there all day babying each batch of meat cutting out to discard and so on.

But at home, take 5, 10-pounds out of the freezer. 50-bucks for a hand grinder, piece of cake to do it yourself. Very fresh Spices are sold in packets & jars for any kind of Sausage and quantity of pounds a person may want to make.

I make up my own as I need them so I don't know, but I'd wager directions would be included to add so much spice per pound of meat and How To Do It, come right with those packets of spices.

A hellofa good feeling, I know where that meat has been and what is in it.

Most hand grinders come with stuffer tubes.
Cabella's, (a local butcher shop) sells casings.

You'll find that for your individual tastes, experiment with spices. You may like more or less of a certain flavor. After you mix it, fry up a patty. You may want to add more of something.
e.g. This morning I did up 5-pounds, the friend wanted double on the garlic. Instead of 1/4th cup minced Garlic I used 1/2 cup.

I added onion and jalapeno peppers too.
He swears, bestest dern sausage he'd ever et.

Once you do it 'ALL' at home, you'll wonder why you hadn't done so years ago. It is that simple and easy.
nohunt


Snug down real good on that stock and shoot straight

[Robb92]

THANKS FOR THE INFO I ALONG WITH EVERY ONE ELSE WHO HAS POSTED DO MY OWN BUTCHERING. CHEEPER AND EASIER FOR ME