Meat Processing (Deer)

[chris2fer6148]

howdy yall ! grateful for the insight from all the kind folk at Rokslide !

curious as to how you guys go about the harvesting the meat after the kill?

is it tough work and you just bring the deer to a butcher? or do you enjoy the process and do it all yourself?

is there crucial processing that must be done while out in the field immediately after the kill shot to prevent bacterial growth within the carcass?

how do you guys go about transporting the meat from the field to home? was thinking about a large ice chest but uncertain how big its supposed to be

any and all input is welcome! feel free to link any articles that touch up on the subject

thank you loads

 

[MuleyFever]

Yeah its work but the kind of work you should do yourself, in my opinion. I just sat down from processing some elk into 10lbs of brats, 3lbs of chorizo, 5lbs of Italian sausage and a few pounds of burger. Buy a few books and have at it.

 

[chris2fer6148]

ohh wow that totally make sense! best to get myself in there and learn hands on!

to be able to learn to myself seems a crucial part of the harvest. how can I fully Honor the process and the animal unless I'm there from beginning to end

thank you for your reply ! do you by chance have any books you recommend that have been of help to your harvesting techniques?

 

[MuleyFever]

I grew up doing it, my resource was my old man. Honestly there are so many resources. Just Google how to process wild game and you will have more reading and videos than you can count.

 

[rbljack]

Yep google and Youtube have tons of information that will assist you. There are many good videos that break the processes down into manageable pieces. From simply gutting an animal, or doing a gutless method and breaking down the animal into more manageable pieces (aka "quarters") to storing meat in the field, how to field process an animal that you may want to get mounted later, processing meat when you get home, etc etc etc.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

It's not fun but I do it all myself, that way I get to tell everyone I never let another man touch my meat.

Are you asking because you've never done it and wanting to get started? Very high level overview, you'll break your animal down into quarters, backstrap/tenderloin, and neck/trimmings and toss them all into a cooler ASAP. I like to keep the meat on top of the ice to stay dry, but some intentionally soak it, you'll develop your own preference over time. Some people process right away, I wait 7-10 days or until convenient, usually starting the following weekend. I'll muscle out the hindquarters and freeze the muscle groups labeled appropriately to process later, sirloin, top round, etc... Using the correct names isn't important as long as you know what to do, I'll label stuff football or jerky, etc. Then I'll pull all the meat off the front quarters which is usually going to be ground. I'll cut steaks from the backstrap and typically cube everything else up in grinder sized chunks and freeze in large bags. I don't grind until summertime. You can keep the heart and liver, I like both especially on a younger deer but some guys will only keep the heart. The shanks are the best part of the deer, if you cross cut them with the bone-in they make great slow cooked foods with tons of flavor. I've been simply cleaning them up and freezing them whole and making pot roast with them either slow cooked all day or in the pressure cooker. Get on YouTube and watch videos "how to quarter deer" "how to muscle out a hindquarter" "how to process a deer" "how to use butcher paper to freeze meat" and stuff like that. You don't have a location in your profile but I always start people out on hogs because it's not a huge deal when they mess up, you'll butcher (not in a good way) the first couple you do, but the good thing is no matter how bad it is it'll always make good ground so not a big deal.

You're going to want a couple deep meat tubs and a boning or fillet knife, doesn't have to be expensive but you'll appreciate the extra blade while you're working. Take your time and go slow, you don't have to do the whole deer in a day. Do one hindquarter on day 5 and then watch some more videos on breaking it down and do the next one on day 6, etc.
I bought this knife a few years ago for $13 and it's great for the price for working meat. https://www.amazon.com/UltraSource-Breaking-Butcher-Knife-Fluted/dp/B00JPE9OK4/
Meat tubs like this, probably just pick them up locally, I'm just using Amazon because it's easy to reference. https://www.amazon.com/Academy-Sports-LEM-Economy-Meat/dp/B005QJGMA2/

edit: Since you asked about books, Rinella has some out that I'm sure go over it very well and they'll probably come with his Osso Bucco recipe for the shanks. He's the one that made that popular and now people aren't feeding the shanks to their dogs anymore. lol

Also read your post again about the ice chest. For whitetail usually a 75qt Yeti is what we use but a monster you may need more space. I think a 75qt Coleman probably has more internal space but I don't have one to compare. You don't need a high dollar cooler, the Coleman Xtreme Marine series I had a while back routinely held ice longer than our Yeti's.

 

[Boarmaster]

I hunt in Alabama from a camp. We bring ours to the camp cleaning station and hang it up and gut them. Its cold enough then so I leave the deer hang for one to two days.

Then I skin and bone it out. I put the boned out meat in two gal ziplok bags in a cooler over ice blocks (frozen 2gallon water blocks or Artic ice packs) it stays in there until I get home. I usually leave the bags open.

When I get home I generally transfer the ziploks to my chest freezer. I sometimes cut up and vac pack the loins right then And freeze them.

When I get to it I thaw the boned out bags of meat, cut them into the size
i need for the grinder and I grind them into burger. I put then grind into meat bags using my grinder with the large kidney shaped plate. Toss them in the freezer.

I cut steaks or chops out of some of the roasts. I also cut up some of the roasts into stew or chili cubes.
vacpack them and toss them in the freezer.

Before I had equipment to process I just cut roasts, steaks and stew meat. I wrapped the meat in plastic wrap and freezer paper and froze it. I used a processor occasionally to make summer sausage.

Sounds like your just starting out. You tube is your friend. Find you tube videos made by hunters that are hunting in similar situations as you. There are so many variables on how you should go about getting your game from field to table. Its hard to get all the advise from a forum just asking general questions.
Good luck

 

[Szwampdonkey]

Processing your own meat is just part of the process and can be as much fun as the hunt. I don’t look at it as hard work at all.

Me, my old man, and my son just set up in the garage with each of us having a station over a few beers and before you know it we are done and the meat is exactly how i want it.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

OP, here's what's in a hindquarter how I break them down. The chunk in the middle we call football, it's the sirloin. It makes great philly cheesesteaks when sliced super thin and pan fried hot. Below the football and bottom right I make into jerky. Very top is the eye of round, it's jerky, do not try to steak this no matter how much it looks like a tenderloin just trust me. Underneath that is the shank, to the right of that is the hock that comes off of the shank. Most people grind that hock but I find a pair of them in the pressure cooker makes awesome potroast. To the far left up top you have the tritip, I typically chop that up into small chunks for jerky or just stir fry or it goes to ground. The little piece just to the left of the center football I'm not sure where that came from, can't think of what cut that is.
edit: I think that extra piece is a flap that's on the sirloin (football) and for some reason I separated it this time, probably was trying to get that football down to the size of one of my standard vacuum seal bags.

 

[TaperPin]

I carefully peel the meaty parts away from the non meaty parts with a Forschner boning knife and it goes into a clean pillow case as a game bag. For packing out, the game bag goes into the pack with a garbage bag as a liner. At camp it’s hung in the same bag and on the way home the entire thing is put in a cooler. I make deer into hamburger, so if it’s dropped off at a processor I just tell them to toss the pillow case. If proof of sex needs to be attached to a piece of edible meat it gets wrapped separately and sits on top of the other meat in the game bag.

I know a two guys that dragged a full grown muledeer over 5 miles - they said that wasn’t a good idea. lol

 

[RSather528]

In our deer camp up north we hang the deer if the weather allows. It’s usually cool or cold enough for a few days of hanging before we take them home. If it’s a warm year they are broken down right in camp. All above resources and info is solid. Doing it myself seems more economical to me and know it’s the deer we harvested. No offense to any butcher or butcher shop, just have heard too many not so good experiences when game has been dropped off for processing.

 

[sconnieVLP]

Processing your own meat is just part of the process and can be as much fun as the hunt. I don’t look at it as hard work at all.

Me, my old man, and my son just set up in the garage with each of us having a station over a few beers and before you know it we are done and the meat is exactly how i want it.

Back home we do it the same way, although we also have the benefit of one of the guys we hunt with deciding he needed to build a full blown meat processing room, complete with a rail system for the walk-in cooler, to do it in. During rifle season once the cooler is getting full we’ll bring a case of beer in and have an assembly line set up all the way from skinning to grinding. Goes fast that way.

Definitely more of a pain by myself so I skin/quarter by my truck in the field then roll the cooler up into my apartment. I have to imagine many of my neighbors in my urban apartment complex wouldn’t take me rolling a whole carcass in really well.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Back home we do it the same way, although we also have the benefit of one of the guys we hunt with deciding he needed to build a full blown meat processing room, complete with a rail system for the walk-in cooler, to do it in. During rifle season once the cooler is getting full we’ll bring a case of beer in and have an assembly line set up all the way from skinning to grinding. Goes fast that way.

Definitely more of a pain by myself so I skin/quarter by my truck in the field then roll the cooler up into my apartment. I have to imagine many of my neighbors in my urban apartment complex wouldn’t take me rolling a whole carcass in really well.

You'd be a hero to the neighborhood kids. LOL

 

[dj1975232]

My dad was a meatcutter growing up, so I learned from an early age. I like that I can control the whole process. Also, my kids have always been part of the process from early on. They run the grinder and help with packaging.

 

[atmat]

how do you guys go about transporting the meat from the field to home? was thinking about a large ice chest but uncertain how big its supposed to be

I can fit 1-2 TX whitetails in a 65 quart cooler, depending on size/gender.