easy deer processing?
09-10-2010 | 02:45 PM
#11
Fork Horn
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 339
Likes: 0
From: Kansas
Gut the deer... there isn't that much too it and doesn't take as long as you think.
Hang the deer for as long as you can as long as the temperatures right for it... I do less than 60F outside....
Processing your own deer is a good way to waste a 12pack and cut your own steaks. Be proud of it...
I wash the meat off in water... I've never seen or heard of anyone soaking it. I've never heard of not removing the guts from a deer either... it will ruin the meat if you leave it in there... whoever told you that is full of it.
Hang the deer for as long as you can as long as the temperatures right for it... I do less than 60F outside....
Processing your own deer is a good way to waste a 12pack and cut your own steaks. Be proud of it...
I wash the meat off in water... I've never seen or heard of anyone soaking it. I've never heard of not removing the guts from a deer either... it will ruin the meat if you leave it in there... whoever told you that is full of it.
09-17-2010 | 07:30 PM
#12
Banned
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 220
Likes: 0
I'm not quite sure here what the question is - but I will try to provide the right answers.
The answer is - that as soon as you harvest a deer, the very first thing you need to do is remove all the entrails and hang the deer as soon as you get back to your camp or to where you live. You should also remove the scent glands located inside the hocks of the rear legs before you leave the woods. You don't want to bring those home with you.
The very first process involved requires you to wash out the cavity where the guts were at, and make sure that there is nothing left over in the chest cavity.
Next, you want to hang up the deer in such a way, as to be able to remove the hide as quickly as possible. A deer gambrel is not a expensive item, along with a simple block and tackle.
So the best thing to own is a sharp knife and a Milwaukee Sawzall saw with a 9 inch blade. If you have a rafter exposed in your garage and the temperature in the garage is below 40* - you can hang your deer meat for a day or two and that is about as long as you would want to expose it to near freezing temperatures.
At that point, you either need to hire someone to cut up your meat for you or you need to get to work. I saw a machine that cuts meat and also grinds meat for a couple of hundred dollars.
In the long run - you don't save much money - butchering your own meat.
At the same time, you are going to need some sort of meat saw, a grinder, a deep freeze and a table to cut meat on. Wrapping paper or a Cyropacker - Food Saver or plastic zip lock bags.
I would suggest that you pay someone to cut your meat this year and then start buying these tools needed to butcher your own meat over the next 12 months so that next year you will be better prepared when hunting season rolls around.
As others has said, you can only keep meat in a cooler of ice water for about a day before it starts to break down. It's not good to soak meat in water before you freeze it.
If you cannot afford to send your deer out to butcher, you can buy the plastic bags. Assemble some type of butcher table. Buy a really sharp butcher knife and cube the entire deer and put it in the freezer. Even a hacksaw would help you to cut a couple of roasts off the back legs.
You can debone the backstraps off the backbone if you split the backbone along the middle of the spine and then quarter the backbone. It makes it easier to handle that way.
You probably won't get more then 4 strips of meat off each section of backbone, so the entire back bone only produces about 16 or so pieces of meat. It's not exactly the prized possession that everyone makes it out to be.
Even cutting the steaks off the hind legs, you probably won't get more then 10 steaks off a hind leg without a bandsaw and unless the meat is partially frozen before you try to cut it.
Meat don't cut good when it is not froze.
Another rule of thumb is that you will probably only get 1/4th the amount of meat - as to what the deer weighs. So a 160 lbs deer only produces about 45 - 50 lbs of good deboned meat.
I laugh my butt off when a uneducated person goes to the butcher shop with a 50 lbs deer and expects to get 50 lbs of processed meat back. By the time you throw away the head and the hoofs and the hide and the bones and the guts - there really isn't all that much meat on a deer.
The answer is - that as soon as you harvest a deer, the very first thing you need to do is remove all the entrails and hang the deer as soon as you get back to your camp or to where you live. You should also remove the scent glands located inside the hocks of the rear legs before you leave the woods. You don't want to bring those home with you.
The very first process involved requires you to wash out the cavity where the guts were at, and make sure that there is nothing left over in the chest cavity.
Next, you want to hang up the deer in such a way, as to be able to remove the hide as quickly as possible. A deer gambrel is not a expensive item, along with a simple block and tackle.
So the best thing to own is a sharp knife and a Milwaukee Sawzall saw with a 9 inch blade. If you have a rafter exposed in your garage and the temperature in the garage is below 40* - you can hang your deer meat for a day or two and that is about as long as you would want to expose it to near freezing temperatures.
At that point, you either need to hire someone to cut up your meat for you or you need to get to work. I saw a machine that cuts meat and also grinds meat for a couple of hundred dollars.
In the long run - you don't save much money - butchering your own meat.
At the same time, you are going to need some sort of meat saw, a grinder, a deep freeze and a table to cut meat on. Wrapping paper or a Cyropacker - Food Saver or plastic zip lock bags.
I would suggest that you pay someone to cut your meat this year and then start buying these tools needed to butcher your own meat over the next 12 months so that next year you will be better prepared when hunting season rolls around.
As others has said, you can only keep meat in a cooler of ice water for about a day before it starts to break down. It's not good to soak meat in water before you freeze it.
If you cannot afford to send your deer out to butcher, you can buy the plastic bags. Assemble some type of butcher table. Buy a really sharp butcher knife and cube the entire deer and put it in the freezer. Even a hacksaw would help you to cut a couple of roasts off the back legs.
You can debone the backstraps off the backbone if you split the backbone along the middle of the spine and then quarter the backbone. It makes it easier to handle that way.
You probably won't get more then 4 strips of meat off each section of backbone, so the entire back bone only produces about 16 or so pieces of meat. It's not exactly the prized possession that everyone makes it out to be.
Even cutting the steaks off the hind legs, you probably won't get more then 10 steaks off a hind leg without a bandsaw and unless the meat is partially frozen before you try to cut it.
Meat don't cut good when it is not froze.
Another rule of thumb is that you will probably only get 1/4th the amount of meat - as to what the deer weighs. So a 160 lbs deer only produces about 45 - 50 lbs of good deboned meat.
I laugh my butt off when a uneducated person goes to the butcher shop with a 50 lbs deer and expects to get 50 lbs of processed meat back. By the time you throw away the head and the hoofs and the hide and the bones and the guts - there really isn't all that much meat on a deer.
