The Deer processing

It’s hard to overcome a maiden doe for venison high quality. But even venison from a doe has to be prepared correctly to boost its taste and texture.

You can’t eat horns, as the old saying goes, and odds are a lot of united states go after deer primarily for the animal meat. Understanding the chances, we’re keen on getting a fat younger doe or dollar very first thing, after that focusing on antlers. That’s not to say an old gnarly-horn dollar can’t create great beef, but typically it winds up as sausage or jerky.

It’s probably safe to express that a lot of deer hunters simply take their deer to regional processors versus process the venison themselves. Nothing wrong with that; most processors do good job and stay busy during and immediately after deer season. Nevertheless, a hunter who’s undergone a couple of months can certainly still process his own venison without a lot of trouble, because of the correct resources and a modicum of knowledge with regards to deer physiology and cuts of animal meat.

Tenderize First
Just before get started, age the deer in a cool weather for weekly or more. The aging process will tenderize the meat and improve the quality of venison of any deer, despite its age. Even venison from a maiden doe should be aged prior to it being processed and place away in a freezer for future use. In the event that you don’t gain access to a meat locker or perhaps the weather condition is not conducive to dangling a deer inside storage or outbuilding, there are various other choices that will assist the exact same purpose.

Some dudes debone a deer immediately after they harvest it and put the venison on racks in a vintage refrigerator or on steel shelving in a cool garage or outbuilding. Or they ensure that is stays in an ice chest for some time, and slice the beef up because desired.

We once hunted with a small grouping of dog hunters in Chipley, Fla., therefore we went whitetails with July and Walker hounds. A number of the races lasted for over an hour or so when a buck ended up being finally shot, its leg muscles could be stiff as a board from all working.

Yet we could tenderize the beef to your persistence of a yearling’s. Just how? very first, we deboned the venison and slashed it across the grain into relatively little pieces and chunks, becoming mindful to eliminate the gristle and tallow. After that we deposited the pieces of meat into an ice chest and held it indeed there for several days, permitting out the bloody melted water and replacing the ice until, eventually, the water became very nearly obvious. Rolled in experienced flour and fried in a cast iron skillet, the venison had been tender adequate to eat in a sandwich without tearing within the biscuit; same went the stew animal meat. We merely aged the venison with ice liquid to-break it down.

Tools to do the job
Presuming a deer has-been hanged and aged for an acceptable length of time, the next step is deboning the beef. Save your valuable shopping blade for gutting; a knives for do-it-yourself butchers tend to be a paring blade with a 3- or 3 ½-inch blade to cut in the tiny places, and a bigger knife with a 7- or 8-inch knife for basic work. Cheap Army-Navy mess boning knives tend to be among the best to use for many cutting. Choose all of them in Army-Navy Surplus shops or flea areas. For boning completely lots of deer, a boning hook can be a good tool to own. It can help properly placed stress from the cut while the animal meat has been cut through the bone. Available through numerous internet sites, a boning hook are available for under $10.

To get rid of the hams whole for smoking, use a saw to cut the bone (for safety’s sake, do not use a blade of any type). Bone saws can be purchased just about anywhere outside gear comes, or you can cut costs and get a PVC pipe saw in hardware division of a big-box store; it really works just as well as a bone saw on whitetails.

And lastly, an animal meat grinder is a useful device for switching the venison taken off a deer’s shoulders and neck into hamburger meat. Assuming you’ve been great, it is possible to ask Santa Claus for starters.

Follow the Muscle Lines
Normally, it should take a hunter about half an hour to debone a skinned carcass. There are simply not many slices there. Once the backstraps and tenderloins are eliminated, all the meat in the forward end must be ground or chunked for stew meat. That makes the hams. Cut the levels of animal meat away by using the muscle tissue creases, after that cut the chunks of venison into steaks or roasts as desired.

Wrap Precisely for Freezing
If you intend to freeze all the animal meat, put it in butcher paper and print the time and title for the slice externally with a waterproof pen. Or make use of freezer place that's then deposited in a freezer zip-and-seal bag for the appropriate size. Identify the date and cut on the outside associated with bag. Placing the cut-in the zip-and-seal case without wrapping it very first can lead to freezer burn due to the fact dampness within the case condenses then freezes.

Several Tricks of this Trade
—Make cuts on a deer from inside, maybe not from the exterior. Constantly puncture skin for the deer and work the knife blade from in skin, perhaps not from beyond it, whether you’re gutting it or circling the legs to begin with the skinning procedure. If you cut through the outside, inevitably you’ll slashed hair to get everything across animal meat. In the event that you result in the necessary cuts from inside, hair will move out associated with means and remain attached to the conceal better as you bring the blade forward.