Advice on processing

[jtw0057]

Ok so currently processing my first deer. Just got it skinned and am about to start hacking at the meat. What do y’all do to mitigate hair getting on the meat?


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[jtw0057]

I guess better year how do you get hair off that is on the meat. Not really pulling off easy


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[Nutterbuster]

Little late for it now, but the biggest thing is cutting from the skin out to the hair when skinning. Hair doesn't come loose, it gets cut loose. If you don't cut hair loose, very little gets on the meat.

I usually give quarters a spray and wipe down with a cloth back home if for some reason I got some dirt, hair, or leaf litter on it.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Paper towels work great for picking hairs off the meat used to use a torch to burn hair's off but never really was a fan of it

 

[Seekbigger]

Little late for it now, but the biggest thing is cutting from the skin out to the hair when skinning. Hair doesn't come loose, it gets cut loose. If you don't cut hair loose, very little gets on the meat.

I usually give quarters a spray and wipe down with a cloth back home if for some reason I got some dirt, hair, or leaf litter on it.

This is the best advice given, always cut from under the skin out!

 

[NimbleTimbo]

best way is avoidance and care while skinning. never cut across grain on hairs, cut from under skin --> out like was said. paper towels are the best I have found for the few left.

 

[Bigterp]

I’ve been there before, when you’re trimming all the pieces up you’re cutting off silver skin & connective stuff that’s where the hair mostly is just tend it as you group your meat for packaging. A lot of it is going away , but you’re going to fight it a little bit given it’s already on there. But avoiding it as much as possible from the beginning is best practice. Congrats for digging in & figuring it out!

 

[jtw0057]

Yeah I tried to be careful with my cuts but it just didn’t work out for me. Everything is on ice so I’ll try the paper towels later when I decide to clean them up more. The hams and I guess femur/ shin area got the worst of it with the hair.


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[Bowmanmike]

If you hang the deer from the rear legs i learned to skin the rear legs before lifting the carcass. That helps a lot with keeping hair if the back end.

 

[Slipnslide]

I hang it, skin it and any hair left on I burn off with a torch. You shouldn't be dealing with much hair so it goes really fast, hardly have to touch a hair with flame and it's gone

 

[jtw0057]

Ok another question, how long do y’all keep the deer in the cooler before you get to butchering? Planning on “wet” aging it some but more of a cooler is my only option and I probably won’t break down the hams until next week at some point.


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[Exhumis]

Ok another question, how long do y’all keep the deer in the cooler before you get to butchering? Planning on “wet” aging it some but more of a cooler is my only option and I probably won’t break down the hams until next week at some point.


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I used to let mine sit for three days. I’d keep checking the coolers and drain out bloody water and refill with potable water and ice and monitor temps.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Ok another question, how long do y’all keep the deer in the cooler before you get to butchering? Planning on “wet” aging it some but more of a cooler is my only option and I probably won’t break down the hams until next week at some point.


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If you can make room in the fridge, the meat lugs you can get from rural king or similar places can be stacked 8 high in an empty fridge. You can get most if not all of a deboned deer into one lug, maybe two if its a big deer. Trade lugs out every day so as to get rid of the myoglobin that leaks out.

 

[Tr33_n1nj@]

cookie sheet, butcher paper, wire cooling rack.

 

[Iron_llama]

I've used a blowtorch on stray hairs that didn't wipe away with a damp cloth. Works OK but is tedious. I use a wet rag to wipe away any residue from the burned hair. I avoid cutting hairs when gutting and skinning, wash down the carcass with a hose, wipe it down, etc. By the time I'm trimming up meat to vac-pac I don't have that many hairs, and can generally pick them up with the tip of my knife, then wipe them on the discard pile.

 

[jtw0057]

Backstraps where easy. Made some kabobs with one of em. Gonna work on the hams and grind this weekend. Picked up some pork belly to mix with it to add a little fat. Planning on brining one of the hams and making a smoked ham out of it to see how that goes. Rest of it will be sausage most likely.

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[thedutchtouch]

Cut from inside to out on the next one, but I've seen YouTubers use blow torches or the roofing torches with great success, just move it quickly and you don't burn the flesh, hair disappears

 

[LtMoe66]

Use coarse copper scouring pads. Wipe your meat off with them. Usually pulls off hair and other particles. The copper ones don’t splinter or leave pieces like the steel wool. Learned from a butcher! Here’s an example.

 

[jtw0057]

Use coarse copper scouring pads. Wipe your meat off with them. Usually pulls off hair and other particles. The copper ones don’t splinter or leave pieces like the steel wool. Learned from a butcher! Here’s an example.View attachment 80252

Cool, I’ve got a couple of those if it looks too bad when I get it out of the cooler.

I’m pretty sure I cut in to out for the most part but I definitely struggled around the shanks and the hams to get it off cleanly.


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[thedutchtouch]

Use coarse copper scouring pads. Wipe your meat off with them. Usually pulls off hair and other particles. The copper ones don’t splinter or leave pieces like the steel wool. Learned from a butcher! Here’s an example.View attachment 80252

What a fantastic little nugget of information. Are they one deer per pad kinda things? Though it is always nice to have an excuse to buy a blow torch/extra fuel bottle