REM_7600

DavidG has it right! Process your own. I have a partial unedited video somewhere we wanted to do a field to freezer. We almost got there! We showed tracking, dressing, Disassembly, properly caring for the meat as well as cutting into MY favorite - thick steaks with the remainder going to the burger bowl. I've never invested in a sausage maker, I have a kitchenaid grinder/bread mixing machine from the 70's and easily process deer, elk, and even moose.

Once ground (I mix 1-5 with pork/bacon), adds enough to not cook with grease. A great addition is a relatively cheap burger press! For sausage make a very thin patty, for burger, make em whatever thickness you're comfy with! Fennel is a great addition in sausage (use sparingly). Bacon ends, sometimes available in bulk are awesome to do you're final grind with.

BLEED WELL & DRESS THE ANIMAL IMMEDIATELY AFTER KILL, SKIN ASAP,DISASSEMBLE, REFRIGERATE MAJOR PARTS 1-4 days AS YOU LIKE, CUT, PACKAGE, ENJOY A JOB WELL DONE!

That's my $.02

REM7600

PS: I usually refrigerate major parts "bone out" for 2-3 days. Then when freezing, vacuum sealer is the only way to store meat well.

Alsatian

When I kill a game animal, it has generally been dead about 5 minutes by the time I unsheathe my hunting knife. This might be because I have to find the animal after it has gone out of sight, because I give it some time to be sure it is dead, because it takes a while to collect my gear and stow it in my pack and then walk to the dead animal, because I'm taking pictures, or all of the above. In any case, I bet that I could not make those dead animals "bleed" more than 1/4 cup of blood at that time -- after the animal has been dead for 5 minutes. Blood flows because a heart pumps the blood. No beating heart, no pumping blood, not much "bleeding" is going to happen. Sure, if you open up the chest cavity and you have a nice double lung shot, you are going to find plenty of blood. Heck yes, get all of that out of there -- as well as guts and lungs and heart and liver and the rest. But I wouldn't really call that "bleeding" the animal.


The Reader's Digest version of the above is, in my opinion, you don't need to perform a special procedure to "bleed" a big game animal.


As has been said by another, the meat will freezer burn if stored in the freezer for very long in those shrink wrapped Styrofoam dishes. By "very long," I think 2 months would cause significant freezer burn. The first lesson you should learn from this experience is to NEVER use that processor again to process any of your meat. No competent meat processor would do that.


It is easy to process your meat yourself. It adds to the satisfaction of hunting. You have more control over the quality of your meat and what kind of cuts. I like to keep the backstraps intact, possibly cutting in half in the middle and freezing two separate packages from one backstrap, if that is big enough on a deer for two separate meals. I then cut the backstrap into steaks when I unthaw and prepare to cook. I think by avoiding cutting the meat up it keeps it fresher. Big chunks of meat I like to package in roasts of 2 LBS to 3.5 LBS in size. Smaller chunks I package for making stew. My attitude to the roasts is I can do just about anything with them. I can cut them into smaller pieces to make stew meat. I can slice thin slices off of them and make venison scaloppini for frying. I can grind up and make sausage if I want. Or I can make a braised roast with them.


If you double wrap your meat in good plastic wrap and then wrap tightly in butcher paper, it stays good a surprisingly long period of time in a DEEP FREEZER. I have had excellent meat taken out of the deep freeze after 3 years.

grinder67

I was referring to the OP but I am sure you knew that. Around here if you take a deer to a processor( I dont) your steaks and burger will be your deer your summer sausage will most likely not be. Around hear the processors send it to a butcher a hour or so away that makes a lot of summer sausage

9th tine

To tell you the truth,,Deer do not have to hang ,Such as Beef does
I have questioned a number of butcher's about this matter in the past.
paper wrap is better than the foam plastic wrap ,,But Shrink wrap is best.
It is beast to leave the meat frozen after processing for 15 day's that will insure to kill any bacteria ect..
I De-Bone my deer soon as i get them home,Put meat in gallon size freezer bags allow to stiffen some in freezer then cut and process,seperate what goes to grind and what is back strap steak and such.

Oldtimr

Nothing has to hang, however dry aged beef and dry aged venison taste better than not aged. I know a guy who throws his doves unplucked and ungutted in a crisper drawer in a fridge in his garage for a week before he cleans them. I would not eat them, nor would I eat any undrawn bird that was aged, all I would think about would be the guts festering in them before they were cleaned.

Berserker

Sometimes I do mine, sometimes I bring in. My butcher wants them to hang upside down to get the blood out.

9th tine

The blood shot meat is what really need's to be cleaned good,, That is where the main problem comes from,Like was said earlier they really don,t bleed out after the kill.

Oldtimr

You cannot clean blood shot meat. You cut it away and toss it out or maybe cook it for the dog but you don't eat it or mix it in with the good meat. Hanging does not help bleed out a carcass. Obviously, a hanging carcass will drip liquid from the forces of gravity. The reason to hang meat and dry age it in a controlled environment is so the enzymes in the meat break down the tissue and some of the water in the meat evaporates concentrating the flavors.

Berserker

Butcher should be meat from hind quarters that was hung by head. Squeezed it and blood came out. He believed gravity would drain it out through nose if hung by back end.