Choosing to butcher and process your own deer gives you complete control over the handling of your venison while saving you money over the long run. Processing your own also guarantees that you will be getting your own deer back. Meat processors do their best to keep the meat from individual animals separate, but it is simply a matter of efficiency that meat from several animals will be mixed together when it is ground. A butcher simply can’t afford to take the time to clean his equipment between grinding each deer, so your ground meat will undoubtedly contain some of one or more other deer as well. While this isn’t a major concern, you have know way of knowing if the other guy was as careful as you were with his meat care. Doing your own also gives you complete control over portion size, and how you want your animal cut. Maybe you want it all ground into sausage and burger, maybe you want all steaks. Butchers are usually willing to cut any way you request, but doing it yourself, you can be sure you get what you want. Another reason to cut your own is that you don’t have to wait to get your meat back from the processor. As soon as you get home and get unpacked, you cut up your deer, wrap it and put it away in the freezer. Perhaps the best reason to process your own is purely economical. Having game commercially processed is expensive and for the cost of having a few deer commercially processed, you can buy your own tools and equipment that will likely last you for life. Except for a few wrapping supplies, buying the tools you need to process your own deer is a one time investment so after the first few deer, you are basically processing your own for free. The savings get even better and the work easier, if you pool resources with hunting partners and share both the cost of equipment and labor. Just as with reloading, the more you use your tools, the cheaper they get. Fortunately, the tools needed for processing game aren’t expensive to begin with except for an electric grinder which will cost several hundred dollars.
The biggest investment required for processing your own game is an electric grinder. There is a large quantity of meat on a deer that is really only suitable for grinding unless you want to eat a lot of stew. A good electric grinder allows you to grind this meat into burger quickly and easily. A grinder will also make it possible for you to make your own sausage and summer sausage if you are so inclined. After your knife, your grinder will be your most used processing tool. As with all hunting gear, get the biggest, best grinder you can afford keeping in mind that it is likely a one time purchase. Grinders come in a wide range of sizes and prices. Price increases dramatically as capacity and motor size go up, so be sure to purchase the right size grinder for the amount of meat you anticipate grinding. The one half and one third horsepower size grinders are probably perfect for most hunters, but if you plan on doing several deer at a time or can afford a larger grinder, you may want to splurge and get a larger model. If you do get a large model it is unlikely that you will be disappointed because your grinder is too powerful. You don’t need a commercial size grinder, but it should definitely be an all stainless, commercial grade model. The grinder will account for the vast majority of your initial investment, so don’t skimp and wind up wishing you had bought a better one. If you don’t want to buy a grinder or don’t want to bother with grinding your own meat, you can always cut and wrap all the steaks and roasts yourself and take the rest to a processor to be ground. This won’t really save you any money, but it is an option.
Tools
To process your own deer you will need:
• An electric grinder ( The grinders sold by Cabela’s and Lem Products are excellent.)
• 1 or more good boning knives (A good boning knife is an absolute necessity for processing your own deer. Every piece of meat you eat will have been cut with your boning knife. If you own a kitchen knife set, you probably already have a Boning knife. It is the one that looks like a little fillet knife. A high quality, commercial grade boning knife costs around $15, so there is no reason not to have one or two. The Victorinox 5 inch, semi-stiff, curved blade, boning knife with Fibrox handle is an excellent boning knife, and all you really need to completely process any game.)
• A knife sharpener
• Several Cutting boards
• A large open area to work such as a countertop or table (Pick someplace clean that is also easy to clean when you are done. Seek spousal approval beforehand and clean up really well afterwards!)
• Several large plastic tubs to contain and move meat
• Butcher paper or Vacuum sealer
• Tape for sealing packages (if using paper)
• Plastic wrap
• It helps to have some room in your refrigerator or some other cold area to store meat while you are working on various different pieces of the deer
Processing your own deer is just that, a process, it is the process of breaking down a whole deer into smaller and smaller pieces until you are left with edible portions of meat. Before you begin, you should spend some time thinking about what recipes you and your family like to cook and eat. Since you are cutting your own deer for your consumption it only makes since to process it into cuts of meat that you want to consume. If you want to grind your whole deer into burger and sausage, by all means do so. Grinding the whole thing will save some work, but you will miss out on some really good steaks. Venison is very versatile, so don’t think you have to be constrained to specific venison recipes. Just about any recipe that your family now enjoys can be made with venison or any other game meat. A good starting point is to cut into steaks as many of the large pieces as possible and grind the rest for burger or sausage. Roasts don’t usually turn out well due to the leanness of venison, so you may choose to cut them into steaks instead. However you choose to cut up your deer, give yourself a little variety so you don’t get tired of eating one cut of meat.
Venison is naturally very lean and you will be trimming away any visible fat, so ground venison is quite a bit different than ground beef. Ground venison is difficult to form into patties due to the lack of fat which acts as a binder in beef hamburger patties. There are two ways to get around this. The most common method is to purchase beef suet and grind it along with the venison thereby mixing them together. Commercial processors do this and will ask how much fat you want added to your burger. Likewise for sausage, but pork fat is added instead of beef. You may be able to find beef suet at a grocery store by asking the butcher, or you should be able to get it from a local meat processor. If you wish to retain the purity and organic nature of your venison, you can add olive oil and or an egg to the meat before you make patties as these will help hold the meat together. Just be aware that unless you add beef fat, a venison burger will never be as juicy as your typical beef burger.
If you already boned out or quartered your deer in the field, you have a head start on processing. If not, you will need to begin by removing the four quarters. To remove the front shoulders, pull the leg away from the midline of the body and begin cutting in the armpit area cutting along the ribcage towards the spine. Continue to pull the leg away as you work which will make it easier to see exactly where you need to make your cuts, there is no joint attaching the shoulder to the chest, so the shoulder is very easy to remove. Remove both front shoulders and set them aside someplace clean and cool. Now, remove both hindquarters in a similar fashion beginning your cut along the pelvis at the midline of the body directly between the legs. Cut in towards the center of the carcass until your knife finds the pelvic bone, then work your way along the pelvis, cutting as you go. Eventually you will get to the hip joint which is a cup and ball type joint. Prying the leg away from the body perpendicular to the long axis of the carcass will make removing the hindquarter easier and you will hear the joint “pop” when you get close to it. Cut between the cup and ball which are the pelvis and the head of the femur and continue cutting up towards the spine until the hindquarter is free. Repeat this process on the other hindquarter.
Now that you have the four quarters removed, it is time to remove the backstraps, tenderloins, rump roasts and neck meat.
Backstraps
The backstraps are the long muscles that lie along the back on either side of the spine. These are two of the best pieces of meat on a deer and should be removed carefully so as not to waste any. The backstraps lie in an open “v” formed by the ribs and the spinous processes of the vertebrae. The backstrap is one long strip of meat about the size of your arm that runs from the top of the shoulder along the spine to the pelvis. To remove the backstrap, first locate the spin by feeling for bony bumps along the midline of the back. Make an incision the length of the backstrap running your knife along the spinous processes directly towards the center of the carcass. Cut inwards until you feel your knife blade contact the ribs. Use your fingers to pull out and away to make it easier to complete the cut. Once this incision is complete, you can either continue the cut outwards along the ribs beneath the backstrap, or come in from the side working your knife along the ribs toward the spine. Once the backstrap is free along its length, cut through it at its attachment points at the pelvis and shoulder. Repeat with the other backstrap on the other side of the spine. Once you have the backstraps removed, place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to trim them.
Tenderloins
The tenderloins are small cylindrical muscles that lie along the spine on the inside of the body cavity. They run from the ribs to the pelvis. They are fairly lightly attached, so you can usually separate them along their length with your fingers and then cut them free at either end. Remove both tenderloins and place them with the backstraps in the refrigerator. The tenderloins are the most tender and delicious pieces of meat on a deer and should be cooked whole on the grill then sliced across the grain.
Rump Roasts
The rump roasts are the two large pieces of meat that lay on the top of the pelvis. Sometimes the rump roasts will be cut off along with the hindquarters depending on where you make your cuts. If they are still on the pelvis, cut them off similar to the method used for removing the backstrap except you are removing the meat from the pelvis not the spine. Rump roasts can be cooked as a roast, cut into steaks, or ground into burger.
Neck meat
The meat on the neck is typically ground up or made into stew meat, so you need not be too precise in removing it. Simply run your knife along the neck vertebrae and remove as much meat as you can.
Once you have finished removing these portions, you have removed most of the edible meat on a deer. Now simply go over the carcass removing any more bits of meat that you can grind. There is quite a bit of meat on the ribs that can be removed by simply running your knife along each rib removing the meat from in between. While you should remove as much meat as possible, know that grinding something up doesn’t magically turn it into something edible. You don’t want any fat, bone, ligaments, tendons, or connective tissue in your ground meat, so unless it is actual red muscle, don’t cut it off to grind. Pick one of your plastic tubs to be the grind tub and place all the meat that you plan to grind in it.
You now have all the meat off of the carcass and can dispose of the carcass. Now that you have the whole deer broken down into manageable pieces, the next step is to bone the quarters meaning remove the meat off of the bone. As you are working on your deer, always work with the idea of keeping the pieces as big as possible until it comes time to cut steaks and grind meat. In other words, what you don’t want is to start cutting randomly and end up with a bunch of little bits of meat that your only option is to grind. Work along the natural seams between muscles cutting only the connective tissue to separate out the major muscles. Also realize that there are only so many pieces of a deer big enough to yield steaks, and the rest can be cut up for either jerky, stew, stir fry, and fajitas or ground into burger. The first time seems a little daunting, as it is hard to know where to begin. If you can, get a friend with more experience to help, otherwise just start cutting and learn as you go. The only real mistake you can make is to cut up a piece of meat that could have been used as a steak, but you really haven’t lost anything as you will just end up with some very nice ground venison.
In the field, you don’t want to get your meat wet, but it is nice to give everything a quick rinse in cold water to get rid of any hair, dirt, or excess blood that remains on the meat. After a quick rinse pat everything dry with paper towels.
To remove the leg bones from the four quarters, simply begin separating the muscles from bone by running the blade of your knife along the bone while peeling the muscles away. The goal is to keep all the muscles attached to one another while removing the bone without leaving too much meat attached to it. It is particularly tricky to remove the meat from the scapula, so go slow and be sure to press the side of your knife blade hard against the bone. Boning out the quarters is definitely the part of processing that requires the most skill. It isn’t easy, but you will get better with practice. Once you have the bones removed, you will be able to start separating the individual muscles and creating actual table-ready cuts of meat.
Trimming
Much of your time spent processing your deer will be spent trimming. Trimming is the removal of all fat, sinew, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissue from the meat. As you work on your deer, you will notice that the meat doesn’t really look like the meat you get from the grocery store. Unlike the store-bought beef, your venison has layers of blue and white stuff on it and sometimes a layer of film similar to plastic wrap. That is all the connective tissue that you need to trim off so that the meat will be edible. The connective tissue isn’t harmful in any way; it is just extremely tough and impossible to chew. To get your venison to look like a steak from the store, you have to spend some time trimming it. Spending the extra time to trim properly will result in much better results at the table. Don’t be conservative with your trimming either, trim off and discard anything that isn’t dark red muscle. A deer will yield somewhere around half of a paper grocery bag full of trimmings. You aren’t wasting anything by trimming; rather you are improving the palatability of the pieces being trimmed. Deer fat turns rancid very quickly, so be sure to trim off and throw away any fat, don’t throw it into the grind pile. Also, don’t be tempted to grind up meat with a bunch of connective tissue on it. It will still be tough and unpleasant after being ground and it may clog up your grinder. A little bit is all right, especially on the meat from the lower legs, but really try to trim off as much as possible.
To trim off connective tissue or “silver skin” as it is sometimes called, lay the piece of meat out on your cutting board as flat as possible. Use your hand to press down and lightly smash flat the meat a little bit with the tissue to be trimmed off facing up. Slide your knife blade underneath the tissue starting by stabbing the point in between the muscle and connective tissue. Slide the knife blade beneath as much of the tissue as possible and then slice sideways separating the tissue from the muscle. Start in the middle of the tissue to make it easier to insert the knife. Some muscle will remain attached to the connective tissue, but that is unavoidable. You can decrease the amount of meat lost by angling your knife blade slightly up towards the connective tissue away from the meat. It is nearly impossible to get all the tissue off in one piece, so just keep repeating the process until you have removed all of the connective tissue from a piece of meat. It is also easy to use your fingers to tear away some of the film-like fascia that is wrapped around some of the muscles.
To break down the quarters after they have been de-boned, start by separating the individual muscles along their natural seams. As you do this, sort the meat into several piles or tubs. Make one tub for meat that is ready for the grinder, another tub for meat that needs further trimming, and one tub for large pieces that you plan to cut into steaks. Just keep separating the various muscles until you have all of the shoulders and hindquarters broken down into manageable pieces.
Cutting Steaks
Once you have everything broken down it is time to trim and cut steaks. The majority of your steaks will come from the backstraps and the top portions of the hindquarters. When you are cutting steaks, first be sure that you have completely trimmed the piece that you intend to cut. When you cut your steaks, cut across the grain of the muscle. When you look closely at a piece of meat you will be able to see the muscle fibers running the length of the muscle. You want to make your cuts perpendicular to or across the muscle fibers. This will result in much more tender steaks. Cut the steaks to whatever thickness you prefer and throw any scrap pieces in the grind tub. The individual pieces of meat aren’t very big on a deer, so to get good sized steaks it is helpful to know how to cut a butterfly steak. To cut a butterfly steak, first begin with a relatively square cut on the end of a piece of meat. Cut the steak to your desired thickness across the grain, but stop cutting just short of cutting completely through. The goal is to make one steak out of two pieces of meat connected by a thin strip in the middle. Next, cut another steak of the same thickness, cutting all the way through this time. You should be left with two steaks still joined together that when laid flat somewhat resemble a butterfly’s wings. Lay the steak out and smash it flat a little with your hand. Continue cutting as many steaks as possible out of each piece of meat. The backstrap in particular makes excellent butterfly steaks.
As you cut your steaks, you will end up with a variety of odd sized pieces that aren’t big enough to use as steaks. You have two options with these, you can either throw them in to be ground, or you can set them aside to package separately for use in stew, fajitas, stroganoff, or stir-fry.
Grinding
It works best to save the grinding for last as that way you use up all the odds and ends from all the cuts of meat. When separating out meat for grinding, you still have to trim off fat and sinew. A good rule of thumb to remember is: If you wouldn’t want to eat it attached to your steak, you don’t want it in your hamburger either. Depending on the size and horsepower of your grinder, you will need to cut the meat to be ground into manageable size pieces. Long strips grind the easiest, but really any piece small enough to fit into your grinder will be fine. If you are having to stuff the meat into the grinder, you need to cut smaller pieces. Meat is easier to grind if it is really cold, almost to the point of being frozen, so set your grind tub in the refrigerator or freezer and let it chill while you get your grinder set up.
The best ground meat is ground twice, first with a coarse grinding plate, and then with a finer one. Your grinder probably came with both, but if not be sure to get whichever one you don’t have. Double grinding is easier and gives the finished product a nicer texture. You will need at least two tubs for grinding, one to hold the meat to be ground and one to grind into. Before you start, and periodically during the process, spray the grinder neck with some Pam or other cooking spray to help everything slide through easily. Once you have finished grinding up all your meat, you are almost done processing your venison. All that is left is to package, label, and freeze the meat.
Packaging
There are a few different ways to package your venison. Vacuum sealers are popular and some people swear by them. Done improperly, vacuum packaged meat can quickly get freezer burned. The most fool proof way to package your venison is to do it the same way commercial meat processors do and that is to double wrap the meat, first in plastic, then in butcher paper. Meat packaged this way will not freezer burn and will last in the freezer for years. You can get big rolls of both plastic wrap and butcher paper at Costco that will last for many, many deer. Butcher paper wrapped packages are also easy to label with a Sharpie marker or other felt tipped pen. It helps to get set up by cutting a bunch of squares of paper off the roll before you begin.
When you package your venison, make packages that contain the right amount of meat to make one meal for your family. By the time you get to packaging, you will want to be done with the whole process, but don’t be tempted to just make a few big packages as you will end up wasting a lot of meat when you do thaw it out. Take the extra time to make small packages that fit the recipes you will be preparing.
To make the packages, start by assembling the right amount of meat and wrap it in a piece of plastic wrap. Next, wrap this in a piece of butcher paper, starting at the corner of the paper, folding it over the meat twice, fold in the sides, then roll it up and seal it with a piece of masking tape. Be sure to label the packages clearly and specifically. Include the species of game, cut of meat, and year packaged i.e. Deer Backstraps, 2011. If you don’t label the packages, you will soon forget what they contain and the mystery packages in the freezer never get eaten.
Once you have all of your meat wrapped, labeled, and in the freezer, you are done. All that is left is to clean up and dispose of all the bones and trimmings. If it is several days before your regular trash pick up, place all of the bones and trimmings in a bag in the freezer so they don’t begin to smell. Just be sure to remember to throw them out on trash day. To really enjoy the best, freshest venison, set aside the tenderloins or some backstrap to eat in the next few days without ever freezing it. This is likely the freshest meat you will ever eat and it is delicious. Once you have a deer or two under your belt, it will all make much more sense and feel a whole lot easier. Processing a deer really isn’t difficult; it just takes a little know-how and several hours of hard work.
The original article can be found at http://www.nosler.com/articles/2011/04/03/processing-your-deer/
Your taxidermist can only work with what you provide him, so be very generous with the amount of skin you include in the cape. The way to do this is to begin caping well behind the shoulders. The taxidermist can always trim off any extra that he doesn’t need, but he can’t make it grow if you don’t give him enough. Begin by making an incision all the way around the deer’s chest. Cut all the way through the skin in a straight line running around the chest as though you were taking a cross-section of the deer. The point of the sternum is a good reference point to start at. You definitely want to be behind the front legs. Next, you will need to make an incision from your cut around the chest all the way up the back of the neck to the base of the skull directly behind the antlers. Before you make this cut, position the deer’s head so that the neck is straight and the head is lined up square with the neck. Really pay attention to the way the deer is positioned and where you are actually cutting. Make sure that you are staying on top of the neck and that your cut isn’t drifting down one side. Make your cut as straight as possible. This incision is where the taxidermist will sew the hide back together after stretching it over the form that makes your mount. The straighter and cleaner your cut is, the easier it will be for the taxidermist to do his job. Make this cut by pushing straight down through the hide. You will cut some hair, but that doesn’t matter as you will never see this part of the mount anyway once it is up on the wall. You will also be cutting into the neck meat, but that is okay.
To get a good cape and head mount, you need to take care of the cape just like you would meat that you are going to eat. You have to keep it cool and away from bugs and dirt. If the cape doesn’t stay cool and it begins to decompose, the hair will “slip” or fall out. This is definitely what you don’t want. If you aren’t going to get the head and cape to the taxidermist within twenty four hours, you should salt the cape.
