Need Help! 4 to 7 guys looking at processing own Deer

[boston]

A few of my family members and friends are interseted in starting to process our own deer for next year. Wives and kids ect.. aren't too big on steaks, roasts,Hamburger ect... because they believe it tastes to wild,(Since getting new wives and kids would be time consuming and costly we are exploring other options) We have previously boned our own deer then took it to locker for summer sausage, ring sausage, jerky and snack sticks

(this is starting to get really expensive!!)

We have a couple options in the way of buildings or

garages to set up an area for processing and keep it

for that purpouse. We typically harvest 3 or 4 deer each season between us. We would be looking at making mostly summer sausage, ring sausage,snack sticks and jerkey.

(possibly experimenting with other things in time)

We figure we would need at least these components

(Electric Grinder, Mixer, Sausage Stuffer, Vacuum Sealer

Smoker, (?Gas or Electric)or smokers) and a larger Fridge or

Freezer (maybe more than 1) to store our meat after deboning or quartering until we can set up a weekend day or days to process the deer- and then to store our meat before

smoking.We would like to Purchase big enough equipment to do the job effeciently but not go overboard on size. We are hoping to get by for about $1500 in equipment. I'm not sure if this sounds like not nearly enough money or way too much.

We want to start searching now (for bargains, maybe used equipment ect..., so we have our building set up by end of summer 2007)Some replies or suggestions would be greatly

aprreciated and needed- like old posts (threads to read) places to order or get equipment,(size and types/brands of equip.)starter books or articles. (we are kind of looking to make a hobby out of this) As we go through this process I will try to keep responders up to date on what decisions we make as well as what worked and didnt work. We have discussed this over previous years, but the discussions turned more serious this year, rather than the usual "yea, we should do that" comments. Thanks in advance for any informational help you can give us.

I realize this is kind of a broad topic? so dont feel like 1 person has to answer on all parts (size and type of grinder or size and type of smoker would be a great place to start.) Thanks again

[Outdoors_guy]

You could probably get by without the vacuum sealer. Those things are kind of spendy and then you could put that money towards a grinder or mixer. I work at a meat market and you could get by with just wrapping your sausage. It keeps longer if you wrap it with wax paper and then again with a freezer wrap over that. I,m not saying it would keep longer than vacuum sealed but longer if you were to just wrap it once with wax paper.

[eagle_3464]

Getting set up for processing can be quite an initial expense but the equipment will last you for years to come and you will easily pay for the equipment with the savings on processing. The snack sticks will require a separate stuffer but a small 10# to 15# will be edequate. The summer sausage, rings, and brats can be done with the grinder providing you get the stuffing tube attachments. These types are done much faster running the meat back through the grinder with a 1/2" plate. We use a big #32 grinder that was being replaced in a grocery meat department. For the smoker you will need something of pretty good size to process 4 or more deer. If any of you are good with steel and welders you can build your own for several hundred $$. I did my own on wheels with a hitch to make it portable. Very good sized being 4'w 6'd 7'h, I can easily do 300# with just one smoking cycle. I built it so that I can also use flattened expanded metal racks to do things like fish. Another cheap smoker idea is to convert an old refridgerator gone to salvage. You can check the web for equipment and supplies. The SausageMaker is one that I know as is Mandeville Co in Mpls. The later used to sell used equipment too. Hope this helps somewhat. Let me know if you have other questions.

[Code-Man]

my advice to you guys is to pool money and wait. The Gander Mts/Cabelas ext. will have clearance sales. Pool money and get good equipment. You get what you pay for. I got a 50 jerky gun for 20 bucks last year from Gander. So see what you need. Grinders/Dehydrators/Jerky Guns/Paper/Tape/food savers/Meat Scale whatever you think you will need and watch the adds. We bought a hand held grinder. Don't recomend it if you are doing more then one deer at a time. TIP Cut up meat as much as possible then put on cookie sheets and put in freezer for 10 minutes before grinding. It'll be easier.

[96trigger]

We process almost all of our own deer meat. Between the two families its usually around 8 deer. We make polish, german, and italian sausage, summer sausage, jerky, and are going to try the sticks this year. I have an uncle that really likes to process meat so he bought a nice grinder and sausage stuffer from cabelas. All commercial grade. I have the meet slicer, and my uncle bought a meat band saw for chops and roasts. The most expensive thing you might have trouble finding is the smoker. A little tip on the sausages like brats, polish, and italian, we use liquid smoke, it works just great and the flavor is really good. We do smoke our summer sausage and will smoke our venison sticks and verky this year because we got a new smoker. Don't be afraid to buy a couple of nice pieces of equipment over a couple of years.

One more thing that really makes it easy is to have good workbenches and a sink where you work. My house had two kitchens, one is now a mud room with two sinks and counter tops. This works great, my uncle with all the toys has a whole basement kitchen for processing. If you have a nice place, it will be much more fun.

One last thing, we used to go to the grocery store for pork trim to mix, now we just buy a pig, send it to the butcher and keep the choice cuts, all the left over meet is boned out and sent back to us in 10lb bags. Good luck, its a great time to spend with family and friends after the deer season. It gives us something to do in march. Also, we know exactly who has handled our meat and that it is our meat that we are getting back.

[NorthernMN]

$1500 seems like more money than it should cost. I have just a #22 hand grinder and this year I made lots of things with just that. I bought stuffing tubes for it and it worked fine. I make polish sausage, summer sausage, breakfast sausage, sausage sticks, and jerky. The sausagemaker.com sells everything you need I think people get carried away buying all that equipment. It doesn't take that much when you are only doing a few deer each year. The hand grinder work great for grinding and stuffing. It even stuffs the small sausage sticks just fine. I have less than $300 wrapped up in all my equipment and I do just fine. I would recomend getting a dehydrator for doing jerky. It comes out better than in an oven.

[boston]

I appreciate the info from all of you (this site is a great

information source). How about grinder size (electric) 1hp,1.5 hp? I realize we could probably get by with a hand grinder but we will probably go with an electric for ease and speed, Thanks again to all who replied.

I,ll probably be asking you guys a lot of Questions as this goes along(need to communicate with rest of my group),hope i dont get too irritating.

[Borch]

Lets see,

Good grinder $200.00

Good Dehydratoor $200

Good Smoker $300

Sausage Stuffer $100

Good Vacuum Sealer $200

Good Set of Knives $100

Tables $200

Freezer $200

You could definitely do it for half of this cost if you shop around a bit. That would leave a lot of money left over for spices, casings, pork, etc.

[DTro]

If your ambitious, here's a good smoker plan for you:

Smoker

[BLACKJACK]

Printed out that smoker plan, looks like a fun project with a nice, usable result!!!

For you guys that have electric grinders, do they also work ok as a stuffer? In the ads most talk about including 'stuffer tubes'. Or is a person better off buying a seperate stuffer? It seems like the seperate stuffer might do a better job of keeping air out of the casings...

Another question: some of you guys are talking about doing polish, ring, summer sausage, etc. Do you just buy a kit with the seasonings and casings for each type of sausage or do you do a home recipe and buy the casings seperately?

With the increase in deer and more tags available, thinking about getting into more deer processing, so far I've limited myself to jerky, but if I can get another deer in the late bow season I may have to expand.

Good topic!

[boston]

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my advice to you guys is to pool money and wait.

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Thats are plan. Any suggestions on propane vs electric smokers

[woody1975]

We started processing/smoking our own last year. We just delagated a certain piece of equipment to each member - In the end (after pork, seasonings, equipment,etc) were purchased, we all paid or took money depending on how much we each spent. Kind of a tough first year, but each year it will begin to pay off. We had good luck with it.

[eagle_3464]

The electric grinder works great for stuffing everything but the small snack sticks. We use a big #32 grinder and that just feeds way to fast for the little guys. Maybe a smaller grinder would work just fine for those but then production would fall short on the other things. My brother-in-law has a small stuffer for the snack sticks but I am thinking of getting a new #32 grinder equipped with the big pulley/handwheel. Hopefully with the handwheel you will have enough control to do the snack sticks. Add a motor and belt for an inexpensive high capacity electric grinder.

[Bad Catcher]

Here is my view. My family has been making homemade sausage for longer than I have been around(30yrs) and my grandparents tell me stories of this when they were young, so this is my take on the whole processing thing. I think it has been a lost experience that people need to try. Don't get me wrong, I have 2 butchers in the family, I use the pros also but to cure and process meat the "old fashioned" way is a learning experience that one never forgets. We have an old grinder that is about 1.5 hp, a small 5 qt stuffer, good knives and a large table. We cut all of our hog and keep most everything and have a half of beef done by a butcher. If we get some deer meat, then we will do a batch of venison rings. We do not use a mixer, all we do is cut into pieces and then add our own seasoning recipes, mix on the table and then grind into tubs. Then stuff into casings, natural sheep and hog. We have used a premix for wieners only. Our smokehouse was a brick house until the grandparents moved off the farm. Now it is a 5'x4'x6' steel box smoker (made by the local High School metal shop for a bargain)or take the sausage to my uncle and use his smokehouse. We usually make about 50lbs of Liver Sausage, 100lbs brats, 100lbs Farmerstyle (rings), 50lbs wieners, 80lbs breakfast links, and sometimes summer sausage. It usually takes about a day and a half once you get situated and have the meat and seasonings sorted. When cooled after smoking we wrap in butchers paper. It is waxed on one side. If frozen and stored right the meat should keep for approximately 6 to 10 months. I have wanted to add several more kinds, but the elders deny my testing.

Good Luck

[BLACKJACK]

Bad, do you have some recipes/spice mixes that you'd like to share?

When we were growing up, the folks and one set of uncles always made a ring sausage every year, it was 2/3 beef and 1/3 pork, that was done at the butcher shop, then the ground mixed meat was brought home, mixed with spices in a tub in 20 pound batches, put thru the hand cranked stuffer to make ring sausage, smoked in the smokehouse out back, then froze. Excellent! An electric fry pan was always going for samples, with a adult beverages mixed in - a good time! Now they've kind of gotten away from that, getting older, less access to home raised beef, etc. I'd like to start up the tradition again, but maybe with venison sausage. Looking serious into making that smokehouse posted in a different topic.

[Bad Catcher]

I release two of them for you, but don't tell anyone. Anything to help out a fellow FM'r. We usually do 50-50 pork and beef. You can change it, but it may start to get dry.

This is for 100 lbs of meat. Here is the Family recipe

2 cups salt

1 cup pepper

4 tsp allspice

2 tsp cloves

1 quart of boiled onion water

1 cup mustard seed

quick cure for amount of meat *see local Butcher*

cut, grind and stuff into hog casing smoke for 4 hours cool heat.

when preparing ring for a meal, I usually boil in a large pot until center is cooked thru. A friend of mine panfried and said it was perfect.

Uncles recipe:

100 lbs of meat

3 cups salt

6 oz pepper

8 oz mustard seed

7 oz white sugar

3 oz brown sugar

1 oz garlic powder

2 oz coriander

quick cure of amount of meat

finish as above.

Enjoy!