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finishing the job

Jamie

Jamie

Senior Member
6,184
201
Ohio
now that the killing is done for another 8 months it's time to finish the processing. when I'm lucky enough to bring home a deer I'm in the habit of reducing them to boned out meat as fast as I can. I only steak the choice muscle from the hind quarters. I clean up the loins thoroughly and cut them into approximately 1 lb size pieces, which is typically 3 per loin for an adult deer. that way I can cook them whole or steak them when it's time to eat. tenderloins never seem to make it to the freezer. :) the rest of the meat from the hind quarters, front shoulders, neck and trimmings from the loins and rounds gets chunked up and put into 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags and frozen until it's time to grind for burger or making sausages. I keep the shanks all separate for canning or braising. I'm running low on ground venison, so I took 4 bags out of freezer yesterday and left them in the shop overnight, a total of 52lbs. this morning they were still well over half frozen, which is perfect for grinding, imo. the firmer the better. grinding is the easy part of this affair. the packaging takes some time and effort, but pays great dividends later when you are short on time. took me less than an hour to get set up and grind all of it. took me nearly three hours to package it all. this with the 5-10lbs I still have from last time I made burger will last until this time next year. each package is 1lb to 1lb 1oz. digital scale makes it easy to keep portions consistent. flattening the packages keeps me from wasting valuable storage space in freezer and thawing very fast.

next project will be making breakfast sausage. then sometime after that other sausages. by then it will be time to fish and make some money. here is the proceeds from today.

52 lbs ground venison 2-24-14.jpg
 
Nice work! This site and threads like this one are getting me motivated to process my own deer. I did my first few deer, then sent the last few to the processor. They do a nice job and charge $70 regardless of the deer but I feel like I'm not getting as much meat as if I did it myself. The last two deer were packaged neatly and were ready to be picked up within 2 days but the boxes felt a little light to me. I'm gonna spend the next 8 months getting all the stuff together that I need to do it myself.
 
worse still, you are not getting your own meat back in the form of burger, perhaps not even steaks. seeing how irresponsible too many hunters are caring for their meat was enough to drive me away from commercial processing. I like knowing exactly what I'm eating. butchering is just one more portion of the entire hunting experience. for me, the processing is just as important as going hunting.
 
So you are freezing, thawing, grinding, then re-freezing? Is that safe?

I have meat froze that I didn't get time to finish working on, so I figured I would have to thaw and can it all.
 
there is absolutely no danger in thawing and refreezing meat as far as consumption is concerned, assuming it was properly handled prior to being frozen. no more danger than cooking and eating fresh meat that has never seen a freezer, anyway. why would there be if you cook it before you eat it? I freeze and partially thaw meat specifically for grinding it. grinder blade cuts firm, partially frozen meat where it will rather smear/mash it more when going through the grinder completely thawed. this can have a considerable effect on texture of finished product. the more fat in the meat, the worse it is for the smearing effect.

the "danger" is that when meat is thawed at room temperature it tends to let go of its moisture. refreezing and thawing again only exacerbates that issue. is always best to thaw meat in refrigerator. takes four times as long, but is safer and meat will not lose as much moisture.
 
Thanks, Jamie. I was raised up being told that once meat was thawed it could not be re-frozen as it would not be safe to eat.

On a totally different note.......... I had water bathed some deer meat, then after hearing all of horror stories of that being unsafe (thanks TOO) I don't want to eat it, but could give it to my dogs to hide their medicine in. Except that didn't work as well as I had hoped.
Can I add some type of fat or lard to the canned deer meat to make it grind better. (as in stick together better like burger) The grind would only be for dogs, but it needs to stick together enough to hide medicine in.
 
If done properly water bathing deer meat works wonders for strong meat. Just don't let it set too long.
My dad taught about water bathing deer meat in 1968 and have been doing it every year since.
In the past I have never lost one ounce of gun shot deer meat due to the blood shot. I just lance the bloody area and soak in cold water. Change the water couple times and you'll have blood free and tenderized meat.

What horror stories did you hear about water bathing deer meat? Sounds like repeated stories by someone who hasn't tried it.
 
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I meant I water bath canned it as opposed to pressure cooker canning.

I did buy a pressure cooker canner and did the rest of the meat with it, but planned to use the water-canned meat for the dogs, but it looks like it will need to be ground or they find and spit out the pills. :smiley_chinrub:
 
Diane said:
I meant I water bath canned it as opposed to pressure cooker canning.

I did buy a pressure cooker canner and did the rest of the meat with it, but planned to use the water-canned meat for the dogs, but it looks like it will need to be ground or they find and spit out the pills. :smiley_chinrub:
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OK that clears it up. We're talking about 2 different processes. Sorry about that.
Continue on. LOL
 
just so everyone understands, when canning meat or any low acid food, you CAN NOT use a water bath. it must be pressure canned so that it can reach 240 degrees to kill the bacteria that causes botulism. that is very serious matter as it can be lethal. water bath canning won't make it much over 212 degrees no matter how long you boil it.

Diane, I would not feed that water bath canned venison to your dogs. throw it out.
 
Diane, I would not feed that water bath canned venison to your dogs. throw it out.
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Ok, thanks. I just hate the thought of throwing away 12 pints of deer meat. Breaks my heart. :smiley_cry:
 
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