Processing your own wild game
I wanted to start a thread where people can put in instructions and tips for processing your own meat. I just started this year (actually last week) and it's gonna save me a ton of money.
I'm still learning but I got some helpful advice from here and some other places and thought it would be helpful to pool all of our info together for other would-be home processors.
I started to buy an expensive processor from Cabela's. I think it was a 1/2 hp motor grinder with all the accessories for $239 plus shipping. I had several people on TBH tell me that the $99 grinder from Northern Tool was just fine for the job of processing deer and hogs. I'm glad I listened. Here is the grinder I got.
If you're gonna make sausage (pan or smoked links) you may want to buy a stainless meat mixer for mixing in your fat and seasonings. I bought this one at Northern Tool:
A few other things that you may want to get are a hamburger patty maker that attaches to the grinder (I got mine at Allied Kenco in Houston....www.alliedkenco.com).
If you don't have something to store meat in prior to and after grinding you may want to invest in some plastic and/or stainless tubs:
Another thing you'll need is a kitchen scale. I bought one at Wal-Mart but I didn't realize it only went up to 5 lbs. I wish I'd splurged on a better one at the meat market.
Now let's talk about the different parts of the deer and how I processed them. Once again....I'm new at most of this and I'm sure others have better ways of doing them. Please chime in! That's what this thread is for.
Backstraps:
I already have them cut up into steaks (or medallions). For the medallions you can just cut down through the backstrap with a sharp boning knife but don't go all the way through. Then move the knife over a bit and cut all the way through the backstrap. Now you've got a beautiful little steak that is "butterflied" and it opens up nicely. When you figure out how many of those it takes to feed your family, separate them to be wrapped up together into one convenient package. I like to tenderize them prior to wrapping them so I don't have to do it each time I thaw out a pack. Just lay the steaks on a cutting board, cover in saran wrap to minimize mess, and hammer away with a good heavy meat tenderizer. If you're "high dollar" you can buy a hand cranked or electric tenderizer to run all of your steaks through. After tenderizing, you can even season them and wrap in bacon if you're so inclined and freeze them like that. I think it's a sin to ground up backstrap or make jerky out of it (personal opinion), because it's such a perfect piece of meat. Some people save their backstraps whole and make stuffed loin type meals.
Tenderloins (from inside the body cavity): Another perfect piece of meat! I just take them out of the deer, clean them up, peel off fat/skin by hand, and wrap them up. I like to grill them wrapped in bacon or put them in a covered dish in the oven with cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and seasonings on them. Cook at 350 for around 45 minutes. Should be slightly pink in the middle. Deeelicious!
Hams: I like to "steak out" one ham from the deer. I'm no good at it though and usually mess up the steaks. If someone can give some input on this process I would appreciate it. I have a video called "Deboning a Deer" that shows a little bit about it but not enough to make it easy for me. I know you have to separate the steaks by the layers of silvery stuff in between them. I just haven't mastered how to get the whole ham off the back hindquarter yet or how to get the maximum number of steaks. Anyway.....get as many steaks as you can, tenderize, and wrap up. Be sure to label the packages with a Sharpie so you know what's in there. I also like to put the date so we can use the oldest stuff first.
Everything else: This includes the one ham I didn't make steaks from, the neck meat, rib meat, flank meat, and front shoulders (I hate messing with front shoulders!). I trim all of this meat off the deer and get rid of as much of the silvery skin stuff as I can. Don't kill yourself trying to get it perfect. Just get as much as you can without going crazy. The grinder will forgive you!
You can save the deboned meat in Ziploc freezer bags in the fridge until you're ready to grind. It shouldn't be too bloody if you kept it iced down for a few days in the cooler (draining the water off it regularly).
I would suggest putting the meat in the freezer for a few hours prior to grinding. It makes it easier to work with. You don't want it frozen solid....just kind of "crispy" if you know what I mean.
Getting ready:
The grinder is easy to use. Clean everything with soap and water prior to getting started. If you have a mixer, tubs, or patty maker, clean them too. Get everything set up. Don't forget you'll need the bags for packaging your meat (they sell some that say burger, some that say pork sausage, etc. You can use freezer paper if you have to, but catching the meat in the bag as it comes out of the grinder is easy and fast! You'll need twist ties for the bags. You'll need wax paper if you are making patties.
You'll also need beef fat (aka beef tallow) for your burger and pork fat (trimmings from a butcher or buy cheap pork butt roasts from the grocery store). You'll want to have it cut up into pieces that are the same size or smaller than your pieces of deboned meat.
Burger:
You'll have to use your judgment on how much (if any) fat to use for your burger. I put too much fat in my last batch. It will cook off and you can drain it if you put too much but it's better to get the formula the way you like it with a small batch first before you run a lot of meat through the grinder. I suggest a 80/20 mix. So for a ten lb. batch you will need 7 lbs of meat and 3 lbs of fat. If you have a bag of meat that weighs 12 lbs, then multiply 12 x .30 and you come up with 3.6 lbs of fat that you will need. I suck at math so I think that's right! Just figure out 30% of your meat's weight and add that much fat. You can either premix your meat and fat chunks together in the mixer or by hand and just drop everything in the grinder tray without thinking about it or you can put in three or four pieces of meat to one piece of fat and keep grinding it together. You'll need to use the meat stomper to push the meat down the throat of the grinder. On my trial run last week, I ground the burger once through the coarse plate and then reground it through the fine plate to make sure the meat/fat was thoroughly mixed. On the second grinding I attached the largest stuffing tube and then placed a bag over the tube and let the meat force it's way into the bag, slowly filling it and keeping excess air out. Stop the grinder when it's full (best to have two people doing this) and tie off the bag. There are lines on the bag to show the optimal fill level.
If you are using the patty maker pictured above, it is attached to the grinder and the meat goes into the patty mold and fills it up. When the patty is complete you turn off the grinder, slide the plastic tray over and catch the patty on wax paper (pre-cut into squares) and lay it down. Turn the grinder back on and fill up the other patty mold that is now in front of the grinder plate. Repeat above steps until you have the # of patties you want.
Once again...I'm new at this so if someone has some suggestions/tips please let us know!
Pan Sausage:
My sausage turned out great. You can mix the venison cubes, pork trimmings, and seasonings with the meat mixer or by hand in a clean cooler or tub. Just weigh out your meat and use follow the instructions on the seasoning packet. Most of the ones I saw were for 25 lbs of meat. So you'll have to measure them out and divide it up if you're making a smaller batch. If you're not going to let the meat "marinade" in the seasoning all night, then I'd suggest using a little more than what the formula shows. On my batch I used 10 lbs of venison and 4.5 lbs of pork fat trimmings. Can't remember how I came to that number but it turned out good! I mixed everything together in the meat mixer and then ground it once through the largest plate. I grinded again through the smallest plate and put it in the bags. You can fry up a little patty after the first grinding and check your seasonings. You may want to add some red pepper or something else before the second grinding/packaging.
Chili Meat: Follow the directions for burger except just grind once through the coarse plate (big holes).
To be continued....
I'm still learning but I got some helpful advice from here and some other places and thought it would be helpful to pool all of our info together for other would-be home processors.
I started to buy an expensive processor from Cabela's. I think it was a 1/2 hp motor grinder with all the accessories for $239 plus shipping. I had several people on TBH tell me that the $99 grinder from Northern Tool was just fine for the job of processing deer and hogs. I'm glad I listened. Here is the grinder I got.
If you're gonna make sausage (pan or smoked links) you may want to buy a stainless meat mixer for mixing in your fat and seasonings. I bought this one at Northern Tool:
A few other things that you may want to get are a hamburger patty maker that attaches to the grinder (I got mine at Allied Kenco in Houston....www.alliedkenco.com).
If you don't have something to store meat in prior to and after grinding you may want to invest in some plastic and/or stainless tubs:
Another thing you'll need is a kitchen scale. I bought one at Wal-Mart but I didn't realize it only went up to 5 lbs. I wish I'd splurged on a better one at the meat market.
Now let's talk about the different parts of the deer and how I processed them. Once again....I'm new at most of this and I'm sure others have better ways of doing them. Please chime in! That's what this thread is for.
Backstraps:
I already have them cut up into steaks (or medallions). For the medallions you can just cut down through the backstrap with a sharp boning knife but don't go all the way through. Then move the knife over a bit and cut all the way through the backstrap. Now you've got a beautiful little steak that is "butterflied" and it opens up nicely. When you figure out how many of those it takes to feed your family, separate them to be wrapped up together into one convenient package. I like to tenderize them prior to wrapping them so I don't have to do it each time I thaw out a pack. Just lay the steaks on a cutting board, cover in saran wrap to minimize mess, and hammer away with a good heavy meat tenderizer. If you're "high dollar" you can buy a hand cranked or electric tenderizer to run all of your steaks through. After tenderizing, you can even season them and wrap in bacon if you're so inclined and freeze them like that. I think it's a sin to ground up backstrap or make jerky out of it (personal opinion), because it's such a perfect piece of meat. Some people save their backstraps whole and make stuffed loin type meals.
Tenderloins (from inside the body cavity): Another perfect piece of meat! I just take them out of the deer, clean them up, peel off fat/skin by hand, and wrap them up. I like to grill them wrapped in bacon or put them in a covered dish in the oven with cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and seasonings on them. Cook at 350 for around 45 minutes. Should be slightly pink in the middle. Deeelicious!
Hams: I like to "steak out" one ham from the deer. I'm no good at it though and usually mess up the steaks. If someone can give some input on this process I would appreciate it. I have a video called "Deboning a Deer" that shows a little bit about it but not enough to make it easy for me. I know you have to separate the steaks by the layers of silvery stuff in between them. I just haven't mastered how to get the whole ham off the back hindquarter yet or how to get the maximum number of steaks. Anyway.....get as many steaks as you can, tenderize, and wrap up. Be sure to label the packages with a Sharpie so you know what's in there. I also like to put the date so we can use the oldest stuff first.
Everything else: This includes the one ham I didn't make steaks from, the neck meat, rib meat, flank meat, and front shoulders (I hate messing with front shoulders!). I trim all of this meat off the deer and get rid of as much of the silvery skin stuff as I can. Don't kill yourself trying to get it perfect. Just get as much as you can without going crazy. The grinder will forgive you!
You can save the deboned meat in Ziploc freezer bags in the fridge until you're ready to grind. It shouldn't be too bloody if you kept it iced down for a few days in the cooler (draining the water off it regularly).
I would suggest putting the meat in the freezer for a few hours prior to grinding. It makes it easier to work with. You don't want it frozen solid....just kind of "crispy" if you know what I mean.
Getting ready:
The grinder is easy to use. Clean everything with soap and water prior to getting started. If you have a mixer, tubs, or patty maker, clean them too. Get everything set up. Don't forget you'll need the bags for packaging your meat (they sell some that say burger, some that say pork sausage, etc. You can use freezer paper if you have to, but catching the meat in the bag as it comes out of the grinder is easy and fast! You'll need twist ties for the bags. You'll need wax paper if you are making patties.
You'll also need beef fat (aka beef tallow) for your burger and pork fat (trimmings from a butcher or buy cheap pork butt roasts from the grocery store). You'll want to have it cut up into pieces that are the same size or smaller than your pieces of deboned meat.
Burger:
You'll have to use your judgment on how much (if any) fat to use for your burger. I put too much fat in my last batch. It will cook off and you can drain it if you put too much but it's better to get the formula the way you like it with a small batch first before you run a lot of meat through the grinder. I suggest a 80/20 mix. So for a ten lb. batch you will need 7 lbs of meat and 3 lbs of fat. If you have a bag of meat that weighs 12 lbs, then multiply 12 x .30 and you come up with 3.6 lbs of fat that you will need. I suck at math so I think that's right! Just figure out 30% of your meat's weight and add that much fat. You can either premix your meat and fat chunks together in the mixer or by hand and just drop everything in the grinder tray without thinking about it or you can put in three or four pieces of meat to one piece of fat and keep grinding it together. You'll need to use the meat stomper to push the meat down the throat of the grinder. On my trial run last week, I ground the burger once through the coarse plate and then reground it through the fine plate to make sure the meat/fat was thoroughly mixed. On the second grinding I attached the largest stuffing tube and then placed a bag over the tube and let the meat force it's way into the bag, slowly filling it and keeping excess air out. Stop the grinder when it's full (best to have two people doing this) and tie off the bag. There are lines on the bag to show the optimal fill level.
If you are using the patty maker pictured above, it is attached to the grinder and the meat goes into the patty mold and fills it up. When the patty is complete you turn off the grinder, slide the plastic tray over and catch the patty on wax paper (pre-cut into squares) and lay it down. Turn the grinder back on and fill up the other patty mold that is now in front of the grinder plate. Repeat above steps until you have the # of patties you want.
Once again...I'm new at this so if someone has some suggestions/tips please let us know!
Pan Sausage:
My sausage turned out great. You can mix the venison cubes, pork trimmings, and seasonings with the meat mixer or by hand in a clean cooler or tub. Just weigh out your meat and use follow the instructions on the seasoning packet. Most of the ones I saw were for 25 lbs of meat. So you'll have to measure them out and divide it up if you're making a smaller batch. If you're not going to let the meat "marinade" in the seasoning all night, then I'd suggest using a little more than what the formula shows. On my batch I used 10 lbs of venison and 4.5 lbs of pork fat trimmings. Can't remember how I came to that number but it turned out good! I mixed everything together in the meat mixer and then ground it once through the largest plate. I grinded again through the smallest plate and put it in the bags. You can fry up a little patty after the first grinding and check your seasonings. You may want to add some red pepper or something else before the second grinding/packaging.
Chili Meat: Follow the directions for burger except just grind once through the coarse plate (big holes).
To be continued....
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