ORIGINAL: caza
my family consumes approx 100# of ground deer/wildhog a year my processor does a great job with just enough fat added to make it cook well, and pakages it very well. will it be worth the investment
to purchase my own grinder and and mix and package it myself. if so what type of grinder and about how much should it cost.
Ground beef here goes for around $1.99 a pound for the cheap stuff and as much as $3.00 a pound for the good stuff.
So let's figure this in butcher terms.
The Amish that I have process, at least one deer a year, charges $45 to cut up a deer. They also charge $15 to skin it. They also charge another $25 - to debone it and grind it all up.
There is not a lot of meat in a deer.
My guesstimation - for a Pennsylvania Whitetail would be around 33%
Which means that if your deer weighed around 100 lbs / live weight, you would get about 33 lbs. of meat out of it.
So right there - with no pork added, you are going to pay the butcher $85 for 33 lbs of meat.
When you figure in the price of fuel and the price of a hunting license and the price of clothes and guns and ammo, you are probably up around $8.00 a lbs.
Now you want to BUY your own grinder and make your own.
A good grinder will run you around $300 or more.
Since I cut up no less than 3 deer a year and give away the meat and don't get anything given to me. I would figure that I have just as much into my meat as what I would have if I would take it to the Amish and have them do it for me.
BUT
When I cut the meat, I control what goes into it, how it is stored, how long it is aged, how much fat goes into it, how much hair ends up in it. How much gristle and bone fragments ends up in the meat.
As long as you have some place to hang the deer that is very cold or refridgerated and unless you have some people to help you. It wouldn't be in your best interest to start cutting your own meat.
At the same time, if you are LAZY, and like to sit on the couch and watch football games and not do much on the weekends except drink beer and watch TV. Then butchering is not for you.
I figure it takes me 8 hours, from the time I skin my deer until I clean my grinder to cut up a deer by myself.
Lot's of people will say that they will help you, but when the time comes to do the actual work. Everyone will have an excuse!
I have looked at lot's of grinders and will be the first to tell you that bigger is always better.. Forget about the amperage rating and estimated horsepower ratings on most grinders. Get one that is mounted on a plain old piece of board and uses a top cog V belt and a seperate motor.
The only other grinder I would look at would be the one from Harbor Freight and Salvage that has a grinder mounted to the side of a band saw.
A grinder is nice, but a bandsaw is even better.
It's hard to cut meat when it is frozen and in large pieces on your kitchen table.
Cut it into smaller pieces and you will be able to cut it up quicker and throw the scraps in a plastic bag and put it out with your regular garbage.
Most garbage men here don't like to take deer bones, because once they take it from one , they have to take it from everybody. Just figure 10,000 people, cutting their own deer and how many bones do you have in the garbage truck that week? Lot's!
My only other suggestion would be for you to spend the extra .01 a pound and eat BEEF!