The Butchering Thread

[Kaiser878]

I butchered the deer I mentioned earlier tonight. It had been in the fridge since last sunday. ... man was it some pretty meat. To bad it's all gonna get ground into burger. All I hsd to do was chunk up the quarters and the shoulders. Took less than an hour.

I intend in shooting one more deer, or having jen shoot hers. So I just put the chunked meat in freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer. When the next deer is shot, I'll thaw it out and grind it all together.

 

[hickslawns]

Wow. You guys are much more proficient than I am. Apparently I am spending too much time trimming the fat. I bet I average 12hrs from field to freezer per deer.

 

[Joel]

Phil I'm with you. I think it might be time for me to try again though, it's been awhile.

 

[Kaiser878]

Wow. You guys are much more proficient than I am. Apparently I am spending too much time trimming the fat. I bet I average 12hrs from field to freezer per deer.

One of the positives to storing it in a fridge for a few days is that the fat cools off and solidifies. Making its removal much much easier and quicker.

 

[Redhunter1012]

You guys that need extra fridges must not garage sale much. I picked up a nice beer fridge for $25 bucks this past spring. 3 summers ago I got a huge standup freezer for $40 bucks because it was a little rusty. I have a smaller chest freezer that I use for my fish, and veggies that I picked up for $25 a few years ago.

 

[xbowguy]

Do you do anything special on the inside of the fridge? Do you hang the meat in it or just set it in there? I'm building a garage in the spring and a spare fridge sounds like a plan.... Ten j won't feel so rushed when butchering....

The fridge I have now had several small square shelves. I tore them all out and just used the fastening brackets on the sides. I bought a metal shelf rack and used those inside. This way you can fit 3 small or 2 large deer inside.

 

[jagermeister]

Damn Phil, 12 hours? I'd shoot myself in the face. Lol. I am as OCD as it gets when it comes to trimming the meat. And I only have 4-6 hours from hanging to packaged. Just something that takes practice I suppose. I've put 3 deer in a freezer in that time when I've had help packaging.

Here's a great tip: Those LEM-brand or equivalent plastic meat tubs are a God send, but for what they are they are pretty expensive. Best thing you can do is go to Lowes or Home Depot back in the concrete aisle... Find the 'concrete mixing tubs.' They are black. Much bigger than standard meat tubs and only about a third of the cost. Usually only about 5-6 bucks for one.

 

[Dannmann801]

Like Kaiser said, the thought of not butchering my own is foreign to me, when I first started hunting it was something I was quite curious and excited about to learn. Like Phil, I'm kind of slow but getting better every time. Plastic meat tubs are definitely cool, and having a bigass cooler to leave the quarters in is a great thing. I love running the grinder, but it's always a little disappointing to cut/cut/cut and make a big tub to grind, and then BAMM it's ground in no time flat! I want to play with my toys longer! ugh.

 

[giles]

We slowly built up our processing tools. Started out with a knife, sharpener, and ziplock bags. Moved up to the freezer paper for a couple of years before buying a vacuum sealer (best investment EVER).

A few years after that I bought my wife a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas...I'll be damned if I didn't make sure it came with the meat grinder attachment. It worked just fine for a while. I think we bought the dehydrator next. Just last year we stepped up to a real grinder with the sausage stuffer.

This is about the time of year I get sick of butchering deer. I think we've done 7 so far this year. It seems everyone brings their deer here.

I don't have a spare fridge and don't think I need one. I leave the plug out of the cooler, tip it up at an angle, layer with ice, put down a towel, then the meat goes on top inside or on a black trash bag.

Best tip I can think of is to skin that sucker as soon as you get home. At least down to the neck. Then reattach it with zip ties to keep the meat from drying out.

 

[Gordo]

One of the positives to storing it in a fridge for a few days is that the fat cools off and solidifies. Making its removal much much easier and quicker.

Correcto. That cure time makes the veni so much easier to deal with. Its night and day when compared to same day butchering. Straight up beautiful, quality cuts.

Im hungry

 

[Big_Holla]

When deer processing hit $80+ up here is when I decided to give it a try one year. I took my trimmings up to the local butcher shop to have it ground and paid a few dollars for that. The rest wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. We have an old fridge that I put the quarters in and worked on them a few evenings after work & dinner and before I knew it we were done. My first investment was a good meat grinder and I figure I paid it off with the first few deer I ran through it. It does have the attachments for making sausage, just have never done it yet.

Any of you sausage stuffers feel the need to get one of those mixers to mix the meat and spices or is it a waste of money??

 

[giles]

When deer processing hit $80+ up here is when I decided to give it a try one year. I took my trimmings up to the local butcher shop to have it ground and paid a few dollars for that. The rest wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. We have an old fridge that I put the quarters in and worked on them a few evenings after work & dinner and before I knew it we were done. My first investment was a good meat grinder and I figure I paid it off with the first few deer I ran through it. It does have the attachments for making sausage, just have never done it yet.

Any of you sausage stuffers feel the need to get one of those mixers to mix the meat and spices or is it a waste of money??

We use the Kitchen Aid I mentioned in my post.

 

[Dustinb80]

I wish I knew how to butcher my own. It is definitely something I intend on learning. Like Giles Ill start building my supplies slowly. I already have the kitchen aide, don't have the grinding attachments. Doesn't really matter tho, the wife would kill me if I used her mixer for that LOL. Even though I bought the damn thing for her.

 

[jeremy44230]

I wish I knew how to butcher my own. It is definitely something I intend on learning. Like Giles Ill start building my supplies slowly. I already have the kitchen aide, don't have the grinding attachments. Doesn't really matter tho, the wife would kill me if I used her mixer for that LOL. Even though I bought the damn thing for her.

I had my first 1 or 2 deer butchered. I made the decision to do my own after that. Best thing I ever did! I enjoy the meat much better!!

 

[Big_Holla]

Butchering isn't hard at all IMO, it's just time consuming depending how anal you are at removing fat and sinew. I'd say the hardest part is skinning and then quartering. Backstraps come out easy if you take your time and work a fillet knife along the back bone to salvage as much as you can. You can do it by yourself but it's easier with a helper for sure. When it comes to cutting up the meat the biggest thing is use your fingers to separate the muscle groups so you get the largest pieces to allow you to make into steaks if you want. For burger I used to be anal when it came to trimming the fat. Now I just make sure I fillet off the silver sinew and any thick fat and that's it, cut it into chunks and run it through that grinder.

 

[Buckmaster]

Any of you sausage stuffers feel the need to get one of those mixers to mix the meat and spices or is it a waste of money??

For long term usage it is useful.

The alternative is using your hands and they become quite numb playing with cold meat.

 

[giles]

I wish I knew how to butcher my own. It is definitely something I intend on learning. Like Giles Ill start building my supplies slowly. I already have the kitchen aide, don't have the grinding attachments. Doesn't really matter tho, the wife would kill me if I used her mixer for that LOL. Even though I bought the damn thing for her.

You ain't that far from me... Go kill one and bring it over. I'll help show/tell you how to get it done.

 

[brock ratcliff]

For long term usage it is useful.

The alternative is using your hands and they become quite numb playing with cold meat.

I would agree with that. However, I add whatever spices I want to the meat before I grind. Just sprinkle it onto the chunks and grind away. I have a huge grinder, but generally run the meat through two times at least anyway.

 

[Buckmaster]

I would agree with that. However, I add whatever spices I want to the meat before I grind. Just sprinkle it onto the chunks and grind away. I have a huge grinder, but generally run the meat through two times at least anyway.

However with some sausage and other recipes, require the addition of cures, water, and binding agents. It's best to mix those items in post grind.

 

[Big_Holla]

I would agree with that. However, I add whatever spices I want to the meat before I grind. Just sprinkle it onto the chunks and grind away. I have a huge grinder, but generally run the meat through two times at least anyway.

I was wondering about running it through a few times if that would work after the spices were added.

However with some sausage and other recipes, require the addition of cures, water, and binding agents. It's best to mix those items in post grind.

Good to know. It sounds like it isn't really that hard to do, kinda like the butchering of a deer it's intimidating at first.