Hind quarters?
I've been butchering my own deer for about 5 years now. Just looking for some advice on what I may be missing (especially hind quarters). Here's what I do...
Front legs:
Take them off first and use meat for grind
Backstraps:
Self explanatory... cut em out and either butterfly or leave whole for the grill.
**Oops forgot about inner tenderloins. They go first (usually don't make it to packagaing [8D]
Neck:
Bigger bucks I cut the neck bone out and make a roast. Smaller deer I just don't see how to make a big enough roast out of it so I'll use whatever good meat I can get off for trim.
** Next I trim all the pieces I missed off the whole front half of the deer until I'm satisfied I got about all I could.
** Then I cut the spine near the hams and drop the skeleton leaving the hind quarters hanging. Then I cut down the middle of the hinds and seperate them. Take them down and cut the legs off.
Hind Quarters:
now this is where I'm still somewhat fuzzy. What I usually do (only way I was taught). I seperate the different muscle groups. Top round, bottom round, center round, sirloin tip, shank(use for grind), and sirloin.
Sirloin tip I butterfly or cut into big steaks (good piece of meat IMO)
Center round I cut into chunks for pan fry with peppers and onions. Dont' really know what else to do with it.
Top and bottom round. This is what I'd like to know what else to do with it. i usually have enough steaks from the straps, tenderloins, sirloins. The rounds IMO aren't really that great of steaks anway. What else can I do with them. I tried making roast out of them but they arent' really big enough. I butterflied one lengthwise and wrapped it up and it came out ok. But i think I'm missing something here. Grind? steaks? pan fry? Roast? What do you do with them?
any suggestions would be appreciated.