Butchering your own meat...

[Mikido]

I bought a huge custom cutting board (4' x 3', not on attached picture) and process on my warehouse work bench with the custom Meatcrafter and bone saw. Wrap on plastic wrap then store in groups in freezer bags.
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What are you sawing exactly?

 

[Mike Islander]

What are you sawing exactly?

Bone in leg roasts. Shanks for osso buco. Neck roasts. Doesn't everybody?

 

[Anschutz]

Growing up, we had a spare fridge in the Garage for a redneck aging cooler. Hung hindquarters and shoulders on a wooden rod with MuleTape. Tenderloins drained on a raised wire rack if we didn't eat them that day.

In college, I processed on the tailgate of my truck and put in freezer bags. Cadets can make a deer disappear pretty quickly with contraband griddles.

In Colorado, I found elk tags were easy to process.

Last year, it was in the high 40s when we shot our caribou. I hung it in the Garage for a day with the heat off and had some spoilage. Won't be a problem with a winter caribou though if I go this year.

I have a LEM grinder and tend to cut most of the meat into steaks or roasts. That stainless setup in post 2 looks phenomenal. Plenty of work space and you're not messing with the wife's counters.

 

[Jhammer]

I like to do it myself and get the kids involved. The only time I'll have it done is if the weather is to warm and I don't have time and the last time I did that was about 5 years ago. Even then I just get it cut and wrapped and still grind my own sausage and burger.

 

[butcherboy]

I completely understand that a lot of guys want and like to cut their own wild game. I wish more would because they would learn really fast about proper meat care in the field and proper cooling techniques at home.

It’s sad that their are shady processors out there and people trust them with their meat and get a bad job or worse.

I make a lot of different sausages but do stick with what’s popular in my area. It doesn’t make sense to keep certain seasonings around when no one asks for them. My most popular is a green chile/cheddar bratwurst. Nothing but the finest NM Hatch chile is used. Hatch chile has a distinct flavor that can’t be found anywhere else.

Even though I don’t process wild game anymore, I will make sausage and jerky if customers bring in meat deboned, trimmed, clean, and ready for the grinder. I require at least 12# of meat so I can keep customer orders separate.

 

[rbljack]

Another DIYer here. I process my own deer and wild hogs. If i ever get a elk tag drawn or can tag on a OTC hunt, I will be doing the elk too. Slowly building up the essential tools. What I dont have is the dedicated area for doing the work. Nice set ups in those pics yall! We make our own burger, roasts, jerky, summer sausage, breakfast sausages, brauts, italian sausages, snack sticks, etc.

Invest in quality tools to start with and go bigger on the grinder then ya think you need! I have the number 8, and really wish I had the 32 instead. Next purchase for me will be a vac sealer....hopefully the Chamber vac style. I got the electric sausage stuffer for xmas last year...and that has made the sausage making chores a bit easier. Wish I had the mixer too....LOL, but not enough room for all the tools.

There is a lot to be said for processing your own meats. But it also does take time and effort. The end result is that you know exactly what meat is in your packages.

 

[Zappaman]

I completely understand that a lot of guys want and like to cut their own wild game. I wish more would because they would learn really fast about proper meat care in the field and proper cooling techniques at home.

It’s sad that their are shady processors out there and people trust them with their meat and get a bad job or worse.

I make a lot of different sausages but do stick with what’s popular in my area. It doesn’t make sense to keep certain seasonings around when no one asks for them. My most popular is a green chile/cheddar bratwurst. Nothing but the finest NM Hatch chile is used. Hatch chile has a distinct flavor that can’t be found anywhere else.

Even though I don’t process wild game anymore, I will make sausage and jerky if customers bring in meat deboned, trimmed, clean, and ready for the grinder. I require at least 12# of meat so I can keep customer orders separate.

I grew up in Roswell (pre X-files), and went to NMSU in Las Cruces in the late 80s. We used to haggle over a 40. lb sack of green chile at the farm road side- NEVER paid more that $7 a bag

Here in Kansas, Gene's #1 is his jalapeno/cheddar buck sticks he makes for about five of us each year. My average order is 80 lbs. He also makes excellent jerky- black pepper and also teriyaki... both are equally savory. We make our own smoked salami (about 100 lbs in January with our late season doe tags).

And... yes, I have at least 30 lbs of frozen green (processed myself of course!) Eat it ALL year round- an addiction really.

 

[Mikido]

Bone in leg roasts. Shanks for osso buco. Neck roasts. Doesn't everybody?

I have those same cuts, just avoid using a saw.

Leg roast, knife at the joints.
Shank osso buco, I’ve never done these traditional way. I cook the whole thing, remove and enjoy meat, then hammer and crack the bone in the middle somewhere and enjoy.
Neck roast, knife and twist, sometimes a flathead screwdriver to pop the joint.

Try this and see if you can taste a difference (probably not), Generally bone dust can and should be avoided

 

[Mike Islander]

I have those same cuts, just avoid using a saw.

Leg roast, knife at the joints.
Shank osso buco, I’ve never done these traditional way. I cook the whole thing, remove and enjoy meat, then hammer and crack the bone in the middle somewhere and enjoy.
Neck roast, knife and twist, sometimes a flathead screwdriver to pop the joint.

Try this and see if you can taste a difference (probably not), Generally bone dust can and should be avoided

No significant dust created on a moist deer. And the lungs is the only concern, so a non-issue for me. I actually have done all of the above, but I also use my bone saw for the tasks I mentioned, by choice.

 

[positivepete!]

I always do my own meat. There is just something more fulfilling about taking game from the field all the way to table yourself. I took one pronghorn to a processor due to Temps over 100 and I was very disappointed. I like to trim up my meat as much as possible so as to not have a lot of work to do when preping to cook. I am pretty sure all the processor did was wash the meat, slightly freeze it and then cut it with a saw so he could put it into packaging. First and only time I let anyone else cut up game for me.

 

[Mikido]

No significant dust created on a moist deer. And the lungs is the only concern, so a non-issue for me. I actually have done all of the above, but I also use my bone saw for the tasks I mentioned, by choice.

Your lungs or the deers

Got a pic of the osso buco finished product?

 

[Zappaman]

One thing I can say at 57 years old I do things basically the same as my dad taught me. But I now do them with WAY more attention to detail than dad did. In fact, my dad pretty much let me have the chore of butchering (anything) after I got to about 17. But he (for some unknow reason) stopped hunting deer in his 50s, he never let on why. He was a WELL know deer hunter in south Texas *who COULD shoot a deer at 400 on the run- in the heart* as he was born and raised on the ranch until the age of 35 (and was a sheep rancher, so the coyotes kept him very sharp behind his gun). But I guess golf was less messy and more fun and he had me to do it- so I did!

With my background here I gutted many hundreds of deer (mine and others I helped out with over years when I guided on our ranches for our friends and families we let hunt). I also butchered goats, sheep, and a few steers and tons of rabbits, squirrels and birds too.

In all these years with all these animals going across my butchering boards (back of trucks, fallen piece of barn wood, cleaner rocks), I HAVE learned a lot of tricks on my own. I'm taking about small stuff (i.e. pulling a vein group off the side of a ham without taking a lot of meat- free hand). What used to take 5 minutes, now take 15 seconds (always with a VERY sharp knife). Yes, I've also learned over the years to keep a steel nearby and keep the Hinkle's sharpened in the block (I sharpen my knives about once a week year round- when just using them lightly off season too). I always take TWO knifes to help gut a deer too. *I cut my fingers WAY less that I did in my 20s- some years a small "nick" but no stitches needed.

Anyway... the point I'm trying to make is that I have enjoyed the process of all this over my lifetime. I cook almost every day (no restaurant in town) and my wife and I stay in shape and have an excellent diet. We both lived in cities (met in Austin in 2001) and I always "went hunting" a few times a year. Our ranches were sold off back in the 90s so I wasn't gone much then to hunt like I was (AT the ranch) growing up. But when we moved to our small town in Kansas, it all came together. Deer are plentiful, I live in the middle of a federal wildlife refuge full of ducks and geese. We have turkey and quail and a few rabbits too.

Thankfully I have a home with kitchen space to take care of most tasks. Still I have an older "church table" I pull out outside when I skin and quarter a hanging deer (using a larger folding ladder- I can tie a 200 lb deer to the ladder laying down, then pull it up using the ladder for leverage (ha, another trick!). My $150 grinder from Northern tool has ground 1000 lbs in 8 years if not more. Sausage stuffer was a dream come true-- now I can make sausage in 5 hours Vs 8 hours (but I don't get that great upper body "workout" balancing my 215 lbs on top of a damn stuffer... for hours

I'm just telling my story here while trying to toss in some basic, yet helpful ideas to our younger guys starting out. I've already gotten some great tips from MANY of you guys posting here- so thank you all- and keep them coming!

 

[TX_Diver]

I completely understand that a lot of guys want and like to cut their own wild game. I wish more would because they would learn really fast about proper meat care in the field and proper cooling techniques at home.

It’s sad that their are shady processors out there and people trust them with their meat and get a bad job or worse.

I make a lot of different sausages but do stick with what’s popular in my area. It doesn’t make sense to keep certain seasonings around when no one asks for them. My most popular is a green chile/cheddar bratwurst. Nothing but the finest NM Hatch chile is used. Hatch chile has a distinct flavor that can’t be found anywhere else.

Even though I don’t process wild game anymore, I will make sausage and jerky if customers bring in meat deboned, trimmed, clean, and ready for the grinder. I require at least 12# of meat so I can keep customer orders separate.

Any chance you'd post the sausage recipe? One of the girls I work with travels back and forth to NM frequently. I'm interested in her bringing back some chilis. I lived in NM for awhile but am in the midwest now. We butcher sheep year round at the house and would be interested in making some sausage.

 

[butcherboy]

Any chance you'd post the sausage recipe? One of the girls I work with travels back and forth to NM frequently. I'm interested in her bringing back some chilis. I lived in NM for awhile but am in the midwest now. We butcher sheep year round at the house and would be interested in making some sausage.

No, sorry. Lol it took me quite a few years to get it just right and it’s something my plant is well known for. It’s a combo of the right seasoning, right chile, right amount of heat, and right amount of chile added. I have people ask me all the time for the recipe but it’s my trade secret.

 

[Zappaman]

I was told at the age of 8, that the pinapple upside down cake (recipe) I was eating at the time (black iron cooked) was "won" by my great, great grandmother in a poker match in New Orleans. I was ALSO told that that same "lady" told a train conductor to "get off the damn train, if he didn't like it" when he told her "ladies" weren't allowed to smoke a pipe on the train... only "gentlemen" were allowed to smoke. I was told she smoked her way to wherever she was going.

 

[Sky]

I've always butchered all my own wild game. All of it.

 

[Rknight]

I have for the last 4-5 years. Usually 3-4 deer a year. The cost of good equipment paid for itself quickly came processing costs. Buying a big grinder vs using the kitchen aid attachment was a game changer. I grew up working in restaurants so learned most of it there and have picked up recipes over the years for some basic sausages.

I may have to go to a processor this year or find some help. I’m about out of venison tamales and that’s one thing that takes too damn long for me to do unless you get a lot of people helping

 

[Rich M]

I find myself replying to a lot of threads re. my own preference to butcher my own meat. I kill 3-4 deer a year, 3-4 pigs a year, and when it works out an elk or oryx. I grew up in west Texas and we always butchered our own deer. On (a few) guided hunts (over the last 35 years) I (almost) felt like a jerk for NOT using the "local" butcher for my animals.

I know most hunters probably appreciate the "butchering service" offered up in any market... and I certainly HAVE used a FEW processors (like Penshorns in Marion TX--for bad-ass sausage) over the last 40 years. But even today, I have a sausage press and tend to make my own. This last year I made smoked/pickled buck sticks and they were superb!

So the question is: how many hunters out there today actually process their OWN meat? And while you are at it: HOW do you like to do it? I'm always looking for new ways to use the excellent protein I bring home.

I started helping dad with processing as a lad, a long-long time ago, moved up to official skinner, then skinner and quarter-er, then boning the meat, finally dad sat in his chair watching football and having a beer until it was time to wrap and package - the whole family helped with wrapping for freezer.

Here we are all these years later and I do everything until it is time to package and label - wife is a huge help there.

We don't do sausage or jerky when processing. Will batch mix those if in the mood on a given day.

What I do is grind, steak, cube steak, and even can the meat. For whatever reason, most critters I get are tough, even beef cows that we process so it is mostly or totally ground with .75 hp LEM. Gonna try some wet aging on a cow we quartered last weekend.

We pack burger in 1 quart ziplocks (18-20 oz or so per pack), steaks & roasts get freezer paper, canned is obviously in jars. We do have a vac sealer and use that on fish and will try it with wet aged beef. Otherwise I'm not convinced it is worth the extra cost to seal the meat.

Anyway, it is part of the hunt for me. Just how my family always did it. Would feel strange to drop off the critter and then come pick up the pieces later.

 

[Steve from GA]

Would feel strange to drop off the critter and then come pick up the pieces later.

Totally agree - not to mention the fact that the pieces you pick up may not actually be your critter. A lot of people don't know that's a fairly common practice among processors.

 

[butcherboy]

Totally agree - not to mention the fact that the pieces you pick up may not actually be your critter. A lot of people don't know that's a fairly common practice among processors.

Um no, it’s not a common practice with good legitimate processors. It may be common with part time shop, back door type. I’ve heard of people dropping off a deer and leaving with a processed and frozen deer! I would run as far and as fast from that processor as possible. Also, why would a good processor want to take someone else’s stinky, dirty, shot up animal? We don’t want to eat the nasty thing, you can’t sell it, and the biggest thing is that it’s dishonest. Of all the horror stories people have with processors, I can guarantee you that processors have twice as many if not more about irresponsible hunters. Lol