Best budget processing setup for white in a home kitchen

[bburke292]

Looking to start processing white in my homes kitchen any suggestions or tips/tricks to get started? Tired of paying and waiting for the processor in town. I am finally ready to start need some help!

 

[EdP]

Watch some videos, buy a small grinder. Maybe not the smallest but one size up. Sharpen your knives. Don't over think it. Start to finish the wife and I will do an animal in 3-4 hrs including clean-up. I cut and she grinds and wraps. Cut roasts larger than you think they need to be because they shrink a lot in cooking. A kitchen scale is handy to have to help keep package sizes (ground or stew cuts) the same size.

 

[fishslap]

Victorinox knives. Cheap and very good. Get the filet for silver skin removal and upgrade to the wusthof 7” later when you have the money. Well worth it if you like to remove all of the outer silver skin from cuts. Get a few sizes of the victorinox boning. I like the breaking knife for cutting steaks. Sharpeners of your choice. I use a mix of stones and electric. I picked up a sharpal ceramic honing rod last year for touch up and well worth it.

Large plastic cutting board. I use an 18”x 30”.

Kitchen scale.

Grinder will be the most expensive. I use an LEM # 12. They have sales. I’m sure there are cheaper options. If you have a kitchen aid mixer, you can get by with the grinder attachment.

Vacuum sealer. I use an LEM. I cheap vac sealer can be frustrating but we got by on a foodsaver for years.

Large plastic bowls, tubs etc. but sized to fit in the fridge or coolers. I butcher in the kitchen and nest the bowls in ice water so i can keep the meat cold that I just trimmed before i move a full bowl to the refrigerator or cooler. I’d look to invest in a couple meat lugs if you can. I have LEM a few shorter and taller versions.

You can search this site for the general components above and read up on details.

Have your recipes and preferred meal sizes in mind when butchering. Get familiar with general cuts. Here’s how I process:
-Neck: Two “roast” size pieces for deer. I do bon appetite’s braised short rib recipe for these.
-Backstrap: I leave these in small sections for grilling.
-Front shoulder: Separate the flatiron steak. Keep a larger section of the shoulder for a shoulder roast if you want (we don’t). Trim the rest and divide into your grind and/or stew meat. We do more grind than stew.
-Rib, Belly, Diaphragm: Grind pile for us but you can read up on the other names for these cuts and options.
-tenderloins…you know hat to do with these.
-Shanks: I used to do bone in rounds for osso buco but now I just do boneless shank packages and grind the rest. I use a meateater blade roast recipe for shank also. I like high quality grind so I’d rather braise most of the shank than grind.
-Hind Quarter: Here’s where I’m probably different than most guys. I break it down to the smallest whole muscle pieces that have no silver skin within them then trim off all outer silver skin. I then steak everything I can except the eye of round and maybe a small roast not worth steaking. When cutting steaks, cut against the grain and thicker than you think since they spread out when laid flat (test a few). I don’t label as specific cuts but if I have any with some facia/silver skin left in them I’ll just put them in a pile and put “tougher” on the label and use appropriately. If you want to keep a whole roast, up to you. All trim is cleaned up and in the grind pile. Note for small steaks we use them for kabobs, slice for stir fry, stew if we don’t keep other stew meat, etc. For all other steaks, we grill after 30min in a ziplock bag w/ 1 tbs soy, 1tbs red wine vinegar, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tsp Montreal or other steak seasoning.

That’s the short of it.

 

[sndmn11]

Dear Lord don't skimp on the grinder. We were haled back by a MEAT under 1hp grinder. We dreaded grinding time because it would get clogged up. We bought a LEM 1hp big bite and it's turned an hours' long process into 15min

 

[bburke292]

Great info every one thank y’all so much! so good grinder is number 1 I was planing to use my wife’s kitchen aid stand mixer this year which probably would have broken it and start a solid fight with her. Only other things I’m missing is the large tubs and cutting boards.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

The double grind attachment for a LEM grinder is worth it's weight in gold. I have that on my #12 and it spits out double ground meat as fast as I can shove it in.

 

[bburke292]

My next question is what’s a good setup for hanging a deer I live in South Carolina and it get pretty warm in the days until about November am good to still just hang it in my garage with a bunch of fans on the deer to keep flys off or should I make setup to do it in the house for more temperature control?

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Use a big cooler and frozen milk jugs to keep it cold and age it, or build yourself a cold locker

 

[fishslap]

My next question is what’s a good setup for hanging a deer I live in South Carolina and it get pretty warm in the days until about November am good to still just hang it in my garage with a bunch of fans on the deer to keep flys off or should I make setup to do it in the house for more temperature control?

I don’t hang or age (don’t believe it matters), so I use an old garage fridge to store and work out of. If I can’t fit it all in, I might leave a piece in the cooler with ice or debone and throw it in the main fridge and cut those pieces first. Whitetail shoulders and hams should fit no problem in a standard fridge then just do the straps and other loose meat first. Small bull moose shoulders:

 

[Kurts86]

Buy big cutting boards off Amazon or from a restaurant supply store. Same thing with plastic totes.

Do NOT cheap out on a grinder. I nearly killed my wife’s Kitchenaid grinding a pronghorn, then I got a smaller LEM that died just out of warranty and now I have a 1.5 hp Meat dual grind. I don’t think the brand matters but the horsepower really does.

I don’t think processing it yourself saves money for at least a few years. It saves money in the long run but quality and control over your meat is a much more compelling reason to get processing equipment. It’s also time consuming to do the work and clean up. I’d say it’s like reloading, it doesn’t save money but it can improve quality.

 

[Boarmaster]

Do not cheap out on your grinder. Your grinder is the backbone of your processing if your doing more than steaks and roasts. You can use it for more than game. I make pork sausage. Buy once , cry once.
With a good grinder you can really build a good home processing plant. I have a LEM #22 big bite.
I grind with one pass so long as meat is cold. You should always have your meat very cold and firm with any grinder to get a good product. I have never ground anything twice in my 15 years of processing and sausage making.

You need a few tubs. Make sure they fit under whatever grinder you buy.

I use Victorinox knives. I have a few boning knives and a breaking knife. You need a way to sharpen those.

I use a vac sealer and bags for stuffed sausage , steaks, chops and loins.

I use meat bags along with my grinder for ground and bulk sausage. You need a taping device ( cheap) and tape to seal the bags. Obviously you need bags. I used to do grind in flattened vac pak bags. They stack nice but it took me three times longer to run the same amount as the bags.

If you want stuffed sausages you will need a stuffer. I started with a 5 lb stuffer. Worked but a total pain.
I bought a 15lb stuffer a few years later. I went years without a stuffer. I just made fresh bulk type sausage.
Stuffing is still my least favorite part of processing. Some of your bigger stuffers have a problem stuffing small diameter meat sticks. If I made meat sticks I would probably stuff them with my grinder or my 5 lb stuffer.

There will be some trial and error.

I use only LEM products and equipment but starting over I would certainly look at MEAT equipment.
I waited for good sales for all my equipment. MEAT is getting great reviews.

 

[Boarmaster]

Great info every one thank y’all so much! so good grinder is number 1 I was planing to use my wife’s kitchen aid stand mixer this year which probably would have broken it and start a solid fight with her. Only other things I’m missing is the large tubs and cutting boards.

Get that kitchen-aid attachment out of your head. I used one at a friend’s house years ago and frankly I would pay a processor before I did that that again.

 

[Boarmaster]

My next question is what’s a good setup for hanging a deer I live in South Carolina and it get pretty warm in the days until about November am good to still just hang it in my garage with a bunch of fans on the deer to keep flys off or should I make setup to do it in the house for more temperature control?

When I lived and hunted in SC for ten years I hung deer in a cool place if it was under 50 degrees. Early season I skinned and quarter deer as soon as the field dressed deer cooled down. I put it on top of ice in a large cooler until I got to processing it which was up to a week sometimes. Some guys had dedicated frigs they had set up to hang quarters in their barn or garage for that.

 

[SloppyJ]

The double grind attachment for a LEM grinder is worth it's weight in gold. I have that on my #12 and it spits out double ground meat as fast as I can shove it in.

Do you think it really makes a difference compared to running it through twice? I have the #12 too and it's a beast but I've been wondering about that attachment. Typically I grind once then throw everything back in the freezer too chill before the second grind. Could you potentially have sausage ground completely in one pass?

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

A spare fridge as noted is handy if you have the space for it to store stuff, but personally I just use coolers with frozen jugs in them to store meat while I'm butchering it (same as what I use in the field).

We go through more ground meat so I just keep the backstraps, tenderloins, top/bottom/eye of rounds as whole muslce and grind the rest (after seaming out sinew/tendons). I don't cut steaks, you can do that when you thaw stuff if you want. Back straps get cut into 4-8" long pieces and packaged, the rest get packaged as a whole piece of muscle respectively.

I don't have room for a bunch of tubs in the fridge so as I butcher I load stuff into gallon ziplocks and put it into the cooler/fridge till I am ready to package it.

These knifes are inexpensive but work well for me, get a couple and sharpen them up before you start and just swap as needed. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005P0OQJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Walmart has a big cutting board for like $12 but you can find stuff on amazon too.

I still use a roll based vacuum bagger (vs chamber). These premade 8x12 bags are decent quality and save time, I use them for ground meat / smaller cuts. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096RBVQ8Z?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

A larger grinder is nice if you can buy once / cry once, I have a 3/4hp one now IIRC. But I put hundreds of pounds though a LEM 575watt model without issue, other than the fact its LOUD (think cheap food processor loud).

You probably can make due with tubs/bowls around the house but if not restaurant supply/Cabela's has stuff easily.

Do you think it really makes a difference compared to running it through twice? I have the #12 too and it's a beast but I've been wondering about that attachment. Typically I grind once then throw everything back in the freezer too chill before the second grind. Could you potentially have sausage ground completely in one pass?

I quit double grinding years ago. I send everything through a 1/8" plate single pass. I HATE chewy stuff in my meat and have no issues between using the 1/8" plate and the time I take to seam out sinew in the trim meat itself with a knife.

 

[SloppyJ]

I quit double grinding years ago. I send everything through a 1/8" plate single pass. I HATE chewy stuff in my meat and have no issues between using the 1/8" plate and the time I take to seam out sinew in the trim meat itself with a knife.

I really only double grind to get the fat better incorporated.

Im a nazi when it comes to trimming too. I feel bad sometimes but i know my family will eat it and want more if its super clean. Its much easier on my equipment too.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I really only double grind to get the fat better incorporated.

Im a nazi when it comes to trimming too. I feel bad sometimes but i know my family will eat it and want more if its super clean. Its much easier on my equipment too.

If I'm grinding in fat I feed some meat and some fat and at the end just hand mix a bit, it seems reasonably incorporated. Anything you'd make that needs the fat well distributed probably is gonna get mashed up more later anyways right?

More often than not I don't add in any fat, just depends if I had some in the freezer from smoking some pork butts or such.

Btw why do you feel bad about trimming? Are you seaming out the sinew and such and keeping the meat or just cutting off the portions with the sinew and tossing it? I seam it out which is why I'm such a slow butcherer.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Do you think it really makes a difference compared to running it through twice? I have the #12 too and it's a beast but I've been wondering about that attachment. Typically I grind once then throw everything back in the freezer too chill before the second grind. Could you potentially have sausage ground completely in one pass?

it makes a massive difference on time. This is my 5th season with the #12, using my very best tricks (chilling, using the tube to make sure the cylinders of meat fit down the throat, courser plate the second grind, etc) the second grind took 8x longer than the first grind. Screwed on the little $140 double grind attachment earlier this month and the meat went just as fast as the first grind used to, but what comes out the spout is double ground.

This is the one to get: https://www.lemproducts.com/product...PbHAA_j0_vPRFQzham4l2Mx_C3cjkCuyDL6P61phK7g2c


My wife and kids complain horribly if the meat isn't double ground, so I havent' tried doing sausage on a single grind. Also, i use a sausage stuffer, not the grinder to stuff casings.

 

[cnelk]

Pro-Tip

Have a spare grinder knife on hand.
If you happen to hit a piece of bullet with your grinder you'll be hatin life

 

[fishslap]

it makes a massive difference on time. This is my 5th season with the #12, using my very best tricks (chilling, using the tube to make sure the cylinders of meat fit down the throat, courser plate the second grind, etc) the second grind took 8x longer than the first grind. Screwed on the little $140 double grind attachment earlier this month and the meat went just as fast as the first grind used to, but what comes out the spout is double ground.

This is the one to get: https://www.lemproducts.com/product...PbHAA_j0_vPRFQzham4l2Mx_C3cjkCuyDL6P61phK7g2c


My wife and kids complain horribly if the meat isn't double ground, so I havent' tried doing sausage on a single grind. Also, i use a sausage stuffer, not the grinder to stuff casings.

This. I prefer double grind. I use the LEM dual grind attachment. I grind with pork fat mixed in also.