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Well, I won’t do that again...

Tell you another thing that blows my mind
$3.50 processed deer bologna where you give them the meat!

A guy can go to the store and buy a good bologna already made at that price and not hand over meat, makes ZERO sense. The deer bologna I make is every bit as good.I probably make 15lbs a year. It sure didnt cost me $52.50 to make it. Probably $20 at most.
 
Jasper2 said:
The expense depends on how you look at it. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the time lost is more important to some than the money paid to have it processed...myself included. Also, I don't enjoy the process nearly enough to justify doing it myself on those grounds.

It's still way cheaper than beef per pound even if taken to a processor!
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Time lost that I could be helping the kids with their homework instead of their mom helping them. Lol
Uhhhh, I’m going cut deer meat! Handle it honey! You got this! Lol
 
Ikeman: Processing a deer is about 41/2 to 5 hours work, the processors make it look easy because they usually have 3 or 4 guys working on the deer at one time and they have the right tools. You do not have to do it all at one time! learn how to skin your deer without getting hair all over it, then learn how to break it down to refrigerate it or put it on ice in a cooler, enough for 1 day! go have a beer and call all your friends, as long as you get it chilled down that is the most important thing. The next day cut up the steaks and go eat some! the following day cut the roast and bone the rest for ground meat, just like anything else, break it down into small tasks and when you get tired take a break and do some the next day. I am sure there are good vidios out there on deer processing, after you get that down good you can move on to making sausage, snack sticks, etc..
 
Keep at it! It's so much more satisfying doing it all yourself. As soon as I shoot mine I quarter and get them on ice. That's probably an hour. 3 days later I will package into grind, stew meat, roasts, straps and shoulder roasts. That's probably 2 hours. End of season I will do all the sausage processing and jerky making. It takes no time away from hunting as I do it after hunting hours.

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Here are a couple of tips that I do during my own processing first one is a vacuum seal all meat to be ground throughout the season and grind it all at once after the season is over I hate cleaning my grinder LOL the second is when you are using a vacuum sealer and you have washed your meat or there is a lot of blood sometimes when it goes to seal the liquid will make a streak through your sealing band and cause air leakage I take a paper towel fold it multiple times and lay it at the end of the meat before the sealing area as the vacuum sealer sucks the air out any moisture will be absorbed in the paper towel before it seals = no air leaks
 
IkemanTX said:
So, I wanted to get more hands on with my deer processing so I hung my buck for 6 days in the unseasonably cool weather and butchered him.
Lord, is that a LOT of work. Especially when you don’t have any experience or the proper tools.

It may make me look like an idiot, but it took me SIX frickin hours and I feel like I wasted so much meat.

I lost most of a shoulder due to blood damage, but beyond that I am unhappy with the percentage of yield I achieved. I wanted to do some better cuts than what you normally get with a processor, but failed at that too.

That is officially the last time I butcher one myself.
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I skinned an help butcher deer for a buddy of my dads all thru middle school an high school. We used to do about 300 a season. He always used to tell me its called butchering so you cant screw it up. Dont give up on it. All you need is a couple fillet knives an a saw an your set. When cutting steaks you can cut those put of the back straps then take the hams an separate the muscles an cut steaks out of them. More you do the better an quicker you will get.
Just remember its called butchering you cant screw it up.
 
Y’all are all definitely giving me more confidence!!!

One thing I am VERY excited for is to braise the whole shoulder, but that will be a while. I don’t even have a roasting pan big enough!

The first cooked piece will be the tenderloins for lunch tomorrow. I pulled them the day I shot him, let them sit open air in the fridge overnight, and they have been wet-aging in a vac bag for a week now. I have yet to decide how I am going to prepare them. I need to figure out something that will reheat well, because the leftover will be meal prepped for work trips.
 
Ikeman TX , Rember that the yield on beef is about 60% wild game is going to be less, Shoot it in the shoulder or both shoulders with a rifle and it is going to be a lot less
 
I get mad at the growing pile of stuff I trim off, I decided to keep it for the dog any issue with that for the pros in here?

As I sit in my garage breaking down the quarters it dawned on me that all of the folks on here that used to butcher deer professionally do it themselves now, hmmm!

I think I read you typically get about 40 percent from a deer. I've got pretty good notes from my deer last year but i don't have a hanging scale so field dressed is a guess based on the girth.

I really don't mind it if I'm not crazy busy, last year was my first year butchering on my own and my first deer was a double man I was definitely overwhelmed but by the 5th I was getting much better, biggest time suck is the trimming.

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jlh42581 said:
Tell you another thing that blows my mind
$3.50 processed deer bologna where you give them the meat!

A guy can go to the store and buy a good bologna already made at that price and not hand over meat, makes ZERO sense. The deer bologna I make is every bit as good.I probably make 15lbs a year. It sure didnt cost me $52.50 to make it. Probably $20 at most.
Click to expand...

I would love to get your recipe!
 
Wish I spent the money years ago for the equipment rather than wasting it on processed. Never seemed satisfied. Trim all my own steaks and roast. Just can’t do sausage or other smoked meats (snack sticks, summer sausage).

Time consuming. But sharp knives and practice. And sharp knives makes life nicer


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Oh on the topic of butchering not to hijack your threat @IkemanTX. How do you guys feel about aging your meat? You leave the hide on, off etc? I quartered and threw in my beer fridge for a week. Just feel like I cut off a bunch of meat and I'm curious what folks do here.

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I didn’t age mine when I did it myself. I’m know the processor does. I cannot tell a difference. I don’t think anyone could.
Granted it’s been YEARS since I did it myself. I didn’t even do enough to become good at it.


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Wirrex said:
I would love to get your recipe!
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Smoked Venison Bologna - 10lbs

Ingredients:

1) 6 lbs coarse ground venison
2) 4 lbs course ground fatty pork butt/shoulder or fatty hamburger
3) 2 tsp (0.40 oz) of Prague Powder #1 (or equiv curing salt, keep in mind, curing SALT is slightly different)
4) 4 tblsp + 2 tsp kosher salt, can substitute 4 tblsp of pickling salt (adjust if using curing salt)
5) 2 tblsp whole mustard seed
6) 1 tblsp coarse ground black pepper
7) 4 tsp sugar (optional)
8) 1 tblsp garlic powder
9) 1 tblsp onion powder
10) 4 tblsp crushed red pepper
11) 1 cup of water

Instructions

1. First grind of the meat - Cut the meat into 1" cubes and put in freezer for 30 to 45 minutes to firm meat for grinding. Grind with coarse plate for proper texture. Always keep the meat cold (< 40o F).

2. Season the meat - Add all ingredients to ground meat and thoroughly mix by hand or with a meat mixer.

3. Regrind the meat before stuffing* - Regrind the meat with the coarse plate to assure the desired texture for stuffing and mixing of all the ingredients.

4. Stuff the sausage into casings - Keep meat cold (< 40o F) while stuffing. Stuff into synthetic or fibrous casings that are 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. A 2 1/2" dia. by 17" long stick will weigh about 3 1/2 lbs.

5. Cure the sticks in the refrigerator and refrigerate at least overnight. Can be kept in refrigerator for up to three days.

6. Smoke the sausage in smoker - Preheat smoker to 120
Hang or lay sausage on racks in smoker, making sure the sticks are well separated from each other. Insert temperature probe into center of sausage near the middle of the smoker.

Smoke 2 hours at 120-130 smoker temp

Increase temp to 150 Smoke/Cook 2 hours .... pay attention to internal temp

Increase temp to 180 at most, pay very close attention to internal bologna temp, pull it at 155 out of the smoker. If you are using a gas smoker or wish to have a little more control you can pull after the main first smoke and finish this in the oven.


7. Stopping the smoking/cooking - To stop the cooking process once the sausage reaches an internal temperature of 155o F immediately plunge the sticks into ice cold water

8. Blooming: Dry the outside of the sticks with a towel and allow to further air dry for an hour

9. Consider if you want a double smoke, if so, pull the casings off after cooling and cold smoke again 1 hour (optional)

10. Wrap in butcher paper or vac seal



Note: You can do this all in the oven, i did for many many years. Add a teaspoon of liquid smoke if this is the case and just use the temps above in your oven. At one point I didnt even own a way to grind stuff myself so Id get the meat ground then make it into loaves that looked almost like little bread loaves before making it in the oven.

Its never a bad idea to cook a small bit of your mix(test fry) to see if you like it, you can adjust it before cooking but not after
 
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@donnieballgame feed the dog the scraps no problem. I feed them raw. I’m not in a cwd state if that matters.

Canned deer meat is awesome and easy to do. It’s good in stews but I have used it in everything from chili to tacos. The texture is a little off in things like chili but the flavor is fine. It just depends on the mindset of the person eating it.
 
Well as far as feeding scraps to the dogs I used to feed quite a bit to my dog I did hear someone say one time if you do this sometimes the dogs will be more prone to chase deer I never had that problem personally kind of makes sense though. As far as aging I like to let mine hang for up to a week weather permitting if it's warm I just cut them up always with the hide on I feel it does make a difference in the taste then before I prepare a meal weather using a wet marinade or dry rub I always let it age in the fridge for a minimum of three days in a container or Ziploc bag. One thing to try is to take one hindquarter with leg bone still attached the complete hindquarter using an injector inject it and age it for a few days in the refrigerator and then hang it in a smoker and use toothpicks and enough bacon to completely cover all of the meet then bring it up to temp so you start to cook the bacon on the outside then drop the temp and slow smoke it for a long time it's absolutely phenomenal it might turn into an all day adventure but invite some friends over and have some beers and life is good
 
SkylineReaper said:
Well as far as feeding scraps to the dogs I used to feed quite a bit to my dog I did hear someone say one time if you do this sometimes the dogs will be more prone to chase deer I never had that problem personally kind of makes sense though. As far as aging I like to let mine hang for up to a week weather permitting if it's warm I just cut them up always with the hide on I feel it does make a difference in the taste then before I prepare a meal weather using a wet marinade or dry rub I always let it age in the fridge for a minimum of three days in a container or Ziploc bag. One thing to try is to take one hindquarter with leg bone still attached the complete hindquarter using an injector inject it and age it for a few days in the refrigerator and then hang it in a smoker and use toothpicks and enough bacon to completely cover all of the meet then bring it up to temp so you start to cook the bacon on the outside then drop the temp and slow smoke it for a long time it's absolutely phenomenal it might turn into an all day adventure but invite some friends over and have some beers and life is good
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Something I’ve always wondered about the practice. What happens to the glands in the hind quarter? Do u remove them first or just leave them in and smoke?


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