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Can I Butcher?

How is the taste of the abdominal muscle? Should I have cut it off for consumption?
Can you clarify what you mean? Like belly/flank/brisket? Or the tenderloin?

getinthegame_venisonchart_7301.jpg
 
They're good. Make good tacos. But depending on the size of the deer there can be not much there.
Yes, I should have cut it off but I did a really good job cleaning the rest so not much loss. I did go up up into the neck figuring that was a backstrap extension.
 
Neck is great but a pain in the ass. Feels like you can knife on it forever and keep getting more and more.
 
I like cutting head off between the first neck bone and the head and then cutting the neck off at the last neck vertebrae before the first ribs. Leave neck as a roast with bones in slow cook in crock pot and shred. In the diagram above it would be about from the top of the neck line to the base of the skull. Much quicker and easier just make sure to cut between the neck bones and you won't need a bone saw. Hope this makes sense.
 
Also what’s the cheapest DIY option for a butcher block? Should I just buy a foldable plastic table?

I bought a 6' folding plastic table and it works well. Me and my son set it up on my back porch which is unheated. We put a small space heater under the table, sit there listening to music and BS'ing and cut up our deer. It's almost as enjoyable as the hunt. (Unless of course he is one one of his occasional 17 yr old moods then it's miserable for both of us :()
 
I want to butcher my own deer so I can take more does and have plenty of venison and not worry about paying a butcher. I have no friends who hunt let alone butcher or show me how. I’ve watched YouTube videos and it doesn’t look too tough, I have some questions though:

1. I can’t find a GREAT DIY video for newbs. Any suggestions?
No real advice here. Just do it, it's not hard to figure out. You really can't screw anything up too bad. On the other hand I think you either have good knife skills or don't. I have a good buddy that just doesn't have it, and that's ok, but when we butcher together he keeps what he cuts up ya know.
2. Do I have to have an expensive meat grinder or will the $100 one I saw in the bass pro add get me by? Should I buy once cry once? Or is it ok to use cheap equipment if I’m only doing a handful of deer per year?
My advice, I'd get a good hand grinder. I do 3-4 deer per year with a hand grinder, it's not that bad, and it's got all cast parts that are never going to break. On the other hand if I were to spend the money on a motorized I'd invest in one with quality parts. Stay away from the plastic junk for sure.
3. Do I have to have a vacuum seal or can meat last over a year in nothing but a zip lock?
Don't need a vacuum sealer at all. I would mostly avoid ziploc, it's difficult to get the air out. Air pockets cause freezer burn. Cling wrap and butcher paper works great.
4. Can I just skip meat grinding and only butcher steaks? I don’t want to waste a lot of meat bc it’s not fair to the animal. But can I substitute the excess cubes as little cubes for frying or something or do you have to use that type of meat for the grinder?
Certainly you can butcher a whole animal and just use the scraps for canning and stew meat type stuff. Burger is just so dang convenient for easy meals.
Sorry for all the questions. I’m just trying to figure out if I can teach myself to butcher on a budget without wasting meat.
 
The best advise I can give other than what has already been spoken above is to follow the curves of the separate muscle groups, this where you are going to get your roast and steaks from. For example you can use a rear whole leg and cure it as a venison ham. The other leg you cut some roasts out of and cut some steaks.

when in doubt turn it into stew meat.
 
However if you are in an area with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) please bone out meat and do not leave spinal cord and vertebra in the roast.
I made sure not to cut into spinal cord or head for the meat although I had to when I wacked the waste into pieces for the garbage. I am not in a DMA (Disease Management Area) in PA but I was not taking any chances.
 
The best advise I can give other than what has already been spoken above is to follow the curves of the separate muscle groups, this where you are going to get your roast and steaks from. For example you can use a rear whole leg and cure it as a venison ham. The other leg you cut some roasts out of and cut some steaks.

when in doubt turn it into stew meat.
I never cut steaks. It's easy to cut a roast into steaks. Can't ever turn steaks into a roast
 
Any tips for finding and cutting out lymph nodes? In WI we have Chronic wasting disease (CWD) and our DNR suggests avoiding these/cutting into them. Are they easy to find and remove?
 
Any tips for finding and cutting out lymph nodes? In WI we have Chronic wasting disease (CWD) and our DNR suggests avoiding these/cutting into them. Are they easy to find and remove?
I believe both posted videos show where they are.

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I want to butcher my own deer so I can take more does and have plenty of venison and not worry about paying a butcher. I have no friends who hunt let alone butcher or show me how. I’ve watched YouTube videos and it doesn’t look too tough, I have some questions though:

1. I can’t find a GREAT DIY video for newbs. Any suggestions?

2. Do I have to have an expensive meat grinder or will the $100 one I saw in the bass pro add get me by? Should I buy once cry once? Or is it ok to use cheap equipment if I’m only doing a handful of deer per year?

3. Do I have to have a vacuum seal or can meat last over a year in nothing but a zip lock?

4. Can I just skip meat grinding and only butcher steaks? I don’t want to waste a lot of meat bc it’s not fair to the animal. But can I substitute the excess cubes as little cubes for frying or something or do you have to use that type of meat for the grinder?

Sorry for all the questions. I’m just trying to figure out if I can teach myself to butcher on a budget without wasting meat.

You got lots of good answers already. Two tips that were not obvious to me at least;

1) Refrigerate you meet for at least a day or two (some people do weeks of aging for taste). This makes the meat more solid and WAY easier to slice up than totally fresh, raw, slimy meat.

2) I tried to use my super sharp Piranta knife. It worked awesome for field dressing, skinning and quartering is why not butchering? Not good. You need a longer (6inch or so) filet type knife. I just used an old fish fillet knife I had in my tackle box. Just make sure to sharpen the crap out of it.

Good luck and enjoy!
 
You got lots of good answers already. Two tips that were not obvious to me at least;

1) Refrigerate you meet for at least a day or two (some people do weeks of aging for taste). This makes the meat more solid and WAY easier to slice up than totally fresh, raw, slimy meat.

2) I tried to use my super sharp Piranta knife. It worked awesome for field dressing, skinning and quartering is why not butchering? Not good. You need a longer (6inch or so) filet type knife. I just used an old fish fillet knife I had in my tackle box. Just make sure to sharpen the crap out of it.

Good luck and enjoy!
I use a combo of 2 pirantas with different blades(maybe 60 and 23? The normal blade and blunt-tipped skinning one. great for getting in to small areas and trimming silverskim), havalon filet knife(great for trimming larger areas of silverskin andgeneral use) large chef knife(for bigger, rougher cuts), bone saw (for sawing bone...), ratchet pruner(great for cutting ribs. I keep some ribs, make some rack-of-venison roasts, etc). I also "waste" a lot of time making my meat pristine plus making some more specialty cuts.
 
You got lots of good answers already. Two tips that were not obvious to me at least;

1) Refrigerate you meet for at least a day or two (some people do weeks of aging for taste). This makes the meat more solid and WAY easier to slice up than totally fresh, raw, slimy meat.

2) I tried to use my super sharp Piranta knife. It worked awesome for field dressing, skinning and quartering is why not butchering? Not good. You need a longer (6inch or so) filet type knife. I just used an old fish fillet knife I had in my tackle box. Just make sure to sharpen the crap out of it.

Good luck and enjoy!

Thanks for the advice man! On refrigeration, I have a spare fridge in the basement, should I just quarter the animal and throw it in a trash bag and toss it in you think? Or don’t some guys leave them outside if the temps are low?
 
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