Lots of people do it. It also makes it easier to remove silver skin. I personally do not do it.

Sometimes I just freeze a few chunks and run them through occasionally while grinding regular meat . The Frozen chunk seems to push through and "clean out" the grinder.


​​​​​​I have a pretty good grinder and can pretty much feed it whatever. But the slightly frozen still seems to feed better.

-Jake

A lot of people cut their meat into square chunks. I cut mine into long strips which works a lot better IMO.

I have always rinsed my meat before grinding if I see hair on it. Usually only a few pieces will have some hair on it. It has never affected my grind, though I do have a heavy duty LEM so that may help. I do like to place the auger and plates in the freezer to cool them down before I start grinding and only pull out the meat from the fridge as I need it rather than letting a tub of meat sit while I am grinding and letting it get to room temp.

A propane torch takes care of hair sticking on the carcass in short order.

Before putting in freezer soak it in milk for an hour to overnight.
Just enaugh milk to cover the meat.
It puts oil in the meat and keeps it from being so dry after cooking.
It also draws out blood for a better flaver.

Before putting in freezer soak it in milk for an hour to overnight.
Just enaugh milk to cover the meat.
It puts oil in the meat and keeps it from being so dry after cooking.
It also draws out blood for a better flaver.

Never heard of that before grinding . I'll try it with a small (milk is expensive!!) batch this year.

-Jake

I can't believe anyone still buys into that soaking your meat in milk crap! Just exactly what is that supposed to do except provide a better platform for bacteria to multiply. It is sad that this kind of stuff is still being spread around to and inexperienced hunters will try it because they know no better. There is no good reason for anybody to soak their venison in anything before they freeze it, none. That nonsense all stemmed from people not taking care of their deer after it was killed to the time it was butchered to disguise the taste of poorly handled meat. There is no such thing as a wild taste, there is no such thing as a "gamey" taste, just the taste of half spoiled meat from mishandling or the taste of the animal you have killed the way it is supposed to taste. Sorry jrbsr I do not buy it, I have been killing deer and eating them for far too long for that and I know what well taken care of meat tastes like and I have heard these tips since I started hunting in the late 50s. These kinds of things are passed on in families and all they know is that they were told this is the way you are supposed to do it. , so they buy in and do it. I would love to make you a steak or any cut from one of my deer that the only extra ordinary thing that has been done is the deer was hung in a cooler for 6 to 7 days before being cut up. I would bet you would never soak your venison in milk again or anything else again. I am not ragging on you, please believe that, just these old wives tales that stemmed from poor handling of game after the harvest just set me off. I love cooking the game, and I am good at it, and these so called fixes for wild game meat just drive me over the edge.

I agree with OT. Properly cared for meat all the way from kill site to a reasonable 3 to 5 day hang time and then butchering always gives a great product. I usually cut my back straps into 3/4" thick steaks. I often grill them but when cooked on the stove I use a cast iron skillet heated up and throw in a pat of butter and then the meat. When the blood starts to come out of the top I flip the meat then throw in a cup of wine, cover and turn off the heat. In a couple minutes it is ready to eat and always nice and pink in the middle, very juicy and tender.