How Many Process Their Own Game?

[Eterry]

I use pint jars as there are just 2 of us. I cut up the roast in 1 inch chunks and stuff them in the jars with some seasoned salt and lemon pepper. I like to leave as much deer "juice" in the jars as i like the flavor. Then you fill with water or tomato juice (V8 is best), use spoon to get out air bubbles and seal.
You pressure cook at 60lbs (iirc) for 90 mins.
It taste like roast beef, we both really like it but it's labor intensive. You can't wander off while it's cooking under that much pressure.
I googled mom's pressure cooker and got the free owner's manual, has recipes for fish, meat, veggies.

I checked my notes... the meat cooks under 11 POUNDS of pressure... heaven knows what would happen if you got 60lbs of pressure...

We always processed our deer, except for 2 shot in the morning when i worked 2nd shift.

A friend got me into making sausage... ground 50lbs one morning with hand grinder... now have an electric. Bought a 5lb stuffer, built a electric smoker from an upright freezer.
I've made boudin, brats, chorizo, bangers, salami, bologna, liverwurst, Italian sausage, bockwurst, knockwurst, and several others.
I use deer meat in place of beef... i make a mean asian broccoli beef and carne guisada.

 

[Le Loup]

I live in a forest & have lived in the bush for most of my life. One has no choice but to skin & butcher one's own game. I have pretty much skinned & butchered everything from rabbits to buffalo.


Keith.

 

[shane a gress]

Recipe please....

This is straight from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.
Cut into 1 1/2" to 2" cubes
Add half teaspoon canning salt to each pint jar
Process pints 1 hour and 15 minutes at 10 lbs
Quarts at 1 hour and 30 minutes.

 

[shane a gress]

Well I had to read this, and yes, I’ve always processed my deer. Some day when I grow up I’ll learn to be faster at it, but I don’t hang my meat any longer than I have to as a general rule. A couple years ago I did hang it for a week, and half the kids wouldn’t eat it. This year, the wife’s already used some of the first deer in recipies and no one could tell.

Speaking of which, gotta get to cutting up a doe tonight.

Shane, wanna share your pressure canning process and elaborate on recipes you use the meat for?

BTW, my favorite knife to process my deer, is my fish fillet knife.

I use a jar in a pot of chili, make gravy from the broth and have hot deer meat open faced sandwich, shepherds pie, or a kettle of stew. Typing this is making me hungry...
Gotta go fix some vittles!!!

 

[Eterry]

A couple of tips... if you have a hand grinder and a lot of meat to grind remove the handle and screw attaching the handle to the augar, find a bolt to match it, thread it up, put on a wobble socket, attach an electric drill and presto... an electric grinder. When thru with grinder a few slices of bread run thru grinder helps to clean it up.

On YouTube look for bearded butchers... they post videos on skinning, field dressing, and cutting up a deer. They are butchers who love to hunt. I found some time saving tips watching them.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Anybody else do their own processing?

Jeff H

For those that have not yet, or if you are maybe a little hazy on how to get the cuts just right. . .

I found this man's videos helped me a bunch, there are some newer ones that cover breaking down the whole animal such as this one



I find it really helps people when they see you can hang the meat and do a section at a time.
The other thing about doing it yourself is you get the grind meat from where it should be gotten, I think we get 15% more meat, not because the butcher is cheating, but he has maybe 12 animals to process a day, he just doesn't have time to fiddle with things like meat between ribs, Neck meat and the like.

 

[Griz44Mag]

I checked my notes... the meat cooks under 11 POUNDS of pressure... heaven knows what would happen if you got 60lbs of pressure...

We always processed our deer, except for 2 shot in the morning when i worked 2nd shift.

A friend got me into making sausage... ground 50lbs one morning with hand grinder... now have an electric. Bought a 5lb stuffer, built a electric smoker from an upright freezer.
I've made boudin, brats, chorizo, bangers, salami, bologna, liverwurst, Italian sausage, bockwurst, knockwurst, and several others.
I use deer meat in place of beef... i make a mean asian broccoli beef and carne guisada.

STOP IT.....
You are making me hungry. Now I have to head for the freezer and break out another package of garlic and pepper links.....

 

[Phillip McDonald]

We do all of ours. Have as long as I can remember. I really enjoy it.

 

[BrownBear]

...a lot of meat to grind....

A little secret we use to help long-term holding and helping explain our 1-hour per deer processing:

Every cut you make in meat opens it to air, even in vacuum bags. Grinding meat before freezing just blows it full of air. We make 3 basic cuts- steaks, roasts and "stew." In fact the stew isn't even cut into chunks, rather it's meat that CAN be cut into chunks when time for cooking. We don't grind burger when butchering because we don't want all that air mixed in. Air causes oxidation and produces "off" flavors quicker than in meat protected from air. When a burger meal is in order, we just thaw one or several packs of our "stew" meat and grind it, often along with a slice or two of bacon. Better meat, faster processing.... What's not to like?

 

[Black Hand]

...he just doesn't have time to fiddle with things like meat between ribs, Neck meat and the like.

I cooked the ribs for the first time this year. From now on, this will be my preferred method to deal with the meat between ribs.

I removed the ribcage from the spine on both sides (I left the flank meat on but trimmed most of the visible fat), cut the large piece in half lengthwise and separated each half into 2 rib pieces. These pieces were cooked on high for 5-6 hours in a slow-cooker until nearly falling off the bone then broiled in the oven with a homemade BBQ sauce. It was an excellent preparation.

I also removed the neck with the bone in, cut into 2 pieces and will use as roasts. They will also be cooked in the slow cooker, since a long slow cooking time is required to deal with all the connective tissue.

 

[BrownBear]

I also removed the neck with the bone in, cut into 2 pieces and will use as roasts. They will also be cooked in the slow cooker, since a long slow cooking time is required to deal with all the connective tissue.

I debone the whole neck to produce two big "slabs" of meat (one from each side). Those I cut in half or leave whole for rolled roasts or roulade. Rolled roasts are good but stuff a roulade with sausage and onions and whatever else comes to mind. Roast it and slice it like cinnamon rolls. You'll wish that any side you cut in half before rolling was left whole instead!

Up side of leaving it on the bone as you're contemplating, you won't lose all the meat closest to the bone. So that's a great way to do it, too.

 

[Black Hand]

I debone the whole neck to produce two big "slabs" of meat (one from each side). Those I cut in half or leave whole for rolled roasts or roulade. Rolled roasts are good but stuff a roulade with sausage and onions and whatever else comes to mind. Roast it and slice it like cinnamon rolls. You'll wish that any side you cut in half before rolling was left whole instead!

Up side of leaving it on the bone as you're contemplating, you won't lose all the meat closest to the bone. So that's a great way to do it, too.

I have the neck meat as full-sized slabs from the deer that came home with me last year. They are large enough to do as you describe.

 

[BrownBear]

I have the neck meat as full-sized slabs from the deer that came home with me last year. They are large enough to do as you describe.

Do it! Great stuff. Our daughter growing up liked roulade with sausage so much, she opined that maybe I should hunt giraffes!

 

[poker]

One more that has never used a processor. Always have done our own, both wild or tame critters. Also have a stuffer and smoke house, so lots of the deer meat gets into sausage.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have bad luck with processors, taited meat, not my deer, lots of meat that dissapeared during the processing. In my early hunting days all the processors opperated out of dingy meat market or a back yard shed, all were overloaded with deer and frequently stacked carcuses up like cord wood outside in warm weather when they ran out of cooler space. A lot of hunters had their deer spoil because they never made it to a cooler.

I took a deer to a new processor one time, dropped it off at the back door. When I went back to pick up the deer and went in his shop for the first time I could see he never cleaned his equipment, his meat saw was black with rotting meat because he would knock off one afternoon and start back the next day without cleaning his equipment.

Another friend processed a bunch of deer and did a good job but they cut them the way they came in, they didn't hose down the deer and required a deer to be skinned before they accepted it. Deer came in covered with leaves and grass, some unwashed gut shot, some with poop stuck to the meat. Like I said they cut them up like they came in, nasty. I would take him a deer in a 55ga trash bag to hang in his cooler so it wouldn't touch the other deer and request my deer would be the first they cut up that day, he did a good job for me.

I have cut up a bunch, but old age and lazyness has me taking them to a processor now. I started using a new one I found a few years ago, his place is spotlessly clean and they cut one deer at a time so you always get back your deer and all of it.

 

[Newtire]

I never thought of taking it to anyone else. My brother-in-law does and they told him they just give you a certain weight of anyone's venison when you bring in a whole animal. They won't touch one cut into hunks in an ice chest he found out. I wouldn't want anyone else's meat that's been treated any old way before they brought it in. No wonder some people say they don't like the taste of venison!

 

[renegadehunter]

I like to make some canned meat off of the grind meat that has a lot of fat/silver sinew. You can leave all the silver on and don't have to spend a bunch of time trying to clean it up. I pack it into jars, and a couple scoops of Lipton onion soup mix, and then pressure cook it at 12lbs for 90 minutes. All of the silver sinew and fat dissolves and is sitting on the top once it cools and can be scooped out. We use it for lunch meat, stroganoff, or just to eat on crackers. It's like candy to me.

 

[BrownBear]

I like to make some canned meat....

Oh yeah. In the many years we lived without electricity when we first came to Alaska, we canned virtually all our venison and fish. Hack the venison into chunks, brown it a little and lightly pack it in jars along with half an onion and a clove of garlic. Everything from sandwich spreads, noodle or rice dishes, stews and even loafs or patties started with canned venison. So good in fact, we still can some even after having electricity the last 40 years or so!

 

[shane a gress]

Most everyone here in this area of PA cans their deer meat. First question after season is, Did you git your deer? Then followed by, How many jars did you end up with?

 

[Pukka Bundook]

I should try canning some. Never done it!