How-to Process Your Own Venison

[B-man715]

Great information Dark Cloud!

I learned to do it the exact same way from a guy who used to work in a butcher shop (like you did).

About the only thing I do differently is bone-out the front shoulders while still on the carcass. Doing it this way I don't dirty a countertop for 2 minutes of boning.

Then all of the meat goes into a tub (or two for bigger deer) and into the fridge to cool.

Then a day or 7 later when I have some more time and the meat is cool, I pull the cuts out of the fridge for final processing and packaging.

We also use an electric winch to hoist/skin the deer. We have an eye bolt anchored into the concrete, and use the "golf ball method" to winch the hide right off! It easily cuts skinning time in half.

When I first started butchering my own deer it took me about two hours to skin and debone. Now I can have a deer go from a furry critter to meat in a tub in under 30 minutes by myself. Even faster with a helping hand!

[Borch]

Very nice job DC. Looks very much like how we do it as well.

[wolfman-k]

All us former butchers salute you Dark Cloud! The more hunters that can process their own deer, the better! My knives will stay sharper for my own work too. Kidding aside, good info & great pictures.

[Redlantern]

A friend has shown me a very similar method to butchering but he was very particular about not cutting into a gland in the thigh. Is he worrying too much. He tells me it makes for an awful taste.

[bassNspear]

nice job DC!

[CANOPY SAM]

Very Nice DC. Excellent work.

I've done a lot of deer in my time, but never de-boned with the legs still attached. Seems like a pretty good idea.

Also done the non-gutted deboning as well. For those who haven't done this you'd be surprised at how easy it is, except you don't get those prime inner tenderloins.

Only things I do a little different is cut across the grain of the meat for making jerky - I find that the final product is easier to chew then if it's cut with the grain. Also, I don't bother removing all the fat and silver skin for meat that's goin' in the grinding pile. A decent grinder pretty much makes that stuff disappear. I do make sure to eliminate ALL talow - this can really spoil the taste of any cut.

I've spent a lot of time thinking over how much meat one gets off an animal. Many say they can recover 35-40% of the deer's field dressed weight, but I can't ever seem to do this, and I'm pretty careful about not wasting meat.

If you have a mature animal that field dresses around 150 lbs. 35-40% of this weight is 53-60 lbs. A 100 lb. animal (caped and gutted) would give up 35-40 lbs. of raw meat? I don't believe I've ever taken more than 50 lbs. of meat off even the biggest deer I've processed, and again, I'm pretty careful about not wasting meat.

I just finished a mature buck today and I'd estimate I took 45-50 lbs. of meat off a 150 lb. caped and gutted animal.

It's just a best guess, but I'd say I only average perhaps 25-30% final trimmed product. I really wish it were more. Maybe the difference is in how long I age my meat before butchering? I typically hang my deer, skinned, for 3-4 days before beginning the de-boning process. I find that aged venison is so much better than fresh cut meat. Could I be losing 5-10% of weight thru simple dehydration?

B-man, 30 minutes from carcass to raw product - that's incredible! I bet I spend 3 hours per deer from start to finish alone. Does your time include cleaning the meat, or is this just rough de-boned cuts in the tub?

[paul pachowicz]

Redlantern, no, your bud is not being overly picky about taking out ALL the glands that are on a carcass. There a a few of them, right above the shoulder blade, deep into the heel of round, on the bottom sirloin and into the rump near the tri tip. There are a few of my customers who take off the gland on the lower hind leg right in the field. I cut one of them open one time and lemme tell ya, they stink to high heaven.

[B-man715]

B-man, 30 minutes from carcass to raw product - that's incredible! I bet I spend 3 hours per deer from start to finish alone. Does your time include cleaning the meat, or is this just rough de-boned cuts in the tub?

The 30 minutes is just skinning and deboning. I wish I could have everything trimmed/sliced/ground/smoked/dehdyrated/wrapped in a half hour!!

After the meat is in the tub(s) it goes straight into the fridge to cool/age. I always cover the tub with cling wrap to prevent any drying. I would bet that you lose all of 5% by hanging with the hide off. But it is a horse a piece, hang without the hide and you lose some meat, but removing a cold hide is no fun either. And my fridge method only works for 2 deer at one time. (unless you have an empty spare fridge, it would work for about 4-5 deer at a time).

On Sunday I am smoking some whole trimmed venison hind quarters (4-4.5 lbs each). They will have been sitting with a dry rub and liquid injected for 7 days. Nothing better than a venny ham sandwich!!!

[ATV hugger]

Thanks BC,very nice tutorial. We do about the same way except for deboning rear quarters with the legs attached. will have to give that a try. I made some venison bacon for the first time this year. It was awesome!!

[troutned]

Thanks for the lesson. I've learned a lot, and would like to mention a twist that my friends and I have used. We don't cut the front quarters at all. We take them off the animal, remove any "nasties", wrap 'em and freeze 'em. When we have a 4-person get-together, we thaw a front quarter, wrap it in bacon, add some BBQ or other sauce, and grill the entire thing on low heat for a few hours. I suppose it used more C3H8, but it's sure been a nice way to eat front quarters! Maybe someone out there will find this useful!

[11-87]

YouTube has a good Video.. Here's the first of the links..

[paul pachowicz]

Hey Dark Cloud, nice post. Tell ya what, send me an email ([email protected])and I'll send you a picture of the finished product the way I process them for my customers.

[reinhard1]

you do an excelent job. retired butcher after 35 years and cutting deer for 10 years i haven't seen a better proccess. i also do it boneless and in a similar way. thanks for your effort and again the great presentation. oh yea i copied down that recipie also for the marinade. good luck.

[Dark Cloud]

Thanks guys! I look forward to putting the process in video form this fall...

Paul, i'll send an e-mail this evening....

[CANOPY SAM]

C3H8? Propane?

I love the idea of grilling an entire front quarter. If I can, I'll post a pic of me snarfing down a shank on my own - wrapped in bacon, and nothing else!

Use your imagination!

[shortfatguy]

Looks like you do a really nice job! The only thing I have to add is if you use a propane torch to singe the stray hairs off before you start cutting you wont end up having to pick them off of the meat.

[harvey lee]

I also cut out all of the glands. No reason to leave them in the meat.

[Arctic]

Excellent work, Dark Cloud, and great photos!

We also cut up our own deer, usually taking our time during a Sunday football game, while drinking a few beers. It's not a difficult job, and it can be pretty fun if you have a decent meat grinder and enough people (3-5) cutting up the meat.

[WallEYES]

Jay....Great info as usual.....Kind of reminds me of the Paoni and Peshi clan from out east on our canadian whitetail hunt on Crow Lake...we cut and wrapped 5 deer in less than 6 hours

[WIMN]

Thanks for the guide. Used it today in my first attempt to butcher a deer. Had a hard time cutting out the loins, and also misinterpreted your directions on the first step of cutting out the hams (the back leg). I ended up making a few extra cuts by accident. Lessons learned for next time! I did leave the big chunks in salt water to soak over night because I ran out of time before I had to go to work. Read on another HSOforum that that helps remove some of the gamier flavor from the meat.

[eyeguy 54]

Dang near identical to what I do. Nice job. The last pic is my favorite chunk. I cut it into steaks to fry in butter and put on toast. mmmmmmmmm

[Dylan8351]

Great pictorial! It give a great deal of satisfaction not only harvesting your on meat but to process it as well. Thank you!

[LeDoctaire]

Good job explaining! We do it almost the same way, but I have never seen it explained as you go. Thanks for the refresher!

[loosegoose]

Don't waste the football roasts cutting them into steaks. Brine and smoke your own dried venison and cut it thin. Very yummy, especially with a cold one.

[ducker]

Can't get the pics to load. Says Clikc heare for Imageshack.