Who cuts there own big game?

[StinkyFish]

I have cut up several elk and countless deer Just woundering if anybody has any good suggestions, Publications, or web sites they reccomend to make this job a little easier. Thanks

[Boatdog]

I've cut my own since I was 14 (28 yrs now). The first time I had a butcher do it, I was really disappointed and thought I got ripped off.

I then researched farm aninal butchering, and learned all of the cuts and the best way to extract them via 'boning'. I suggest you take a stroll on the giant internet hi-way if what you're looking for doesn't turn up here.

Home butchering is the best!

EDIT: I vaccuum pack all of it for max quality. That's my tip!



[img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

[ 01-02-2004, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Boatdog ]

[FishinTechnician]

My son and I did up to eleven deer a year while I was living in Virginia and I still wouldn't do it any other way. I think deboning is the best and helps to keep meat from getting strong in the freezer. We didn't follow any strict butchering schematic, but did the following. Front shoulders were generally used for hamburger as were trimmings from neck, ribs and brisket. Sometimes we would freeze smaller front shoulders and cook as roasts. Hindquarters were deboned and cut into roast size chunks. T-loin was cut from backbone and cut into several chunks, frozen and sliced just before cooking. Other scraps of meat were saved for hamburger and ground twice with beef fat. Much preferred deer burger to beef. In early years we wrapped meat in plastic wrap, then white butcher paper. In later years we switched to vacuum packing. Found those small meat grinders inadequate and spent $500 for a Thunderbird brand grinder, which cuts grinding time to about 25% of smaller grinders and will last for years. Went through two of the smaller Oster/Hamilton Beach grinders before I got smart.

[skein]

I echo what these guys are saying, do it yourself and bone the meat out. Cutting it up yourself gives you the opportunity to make as many steaks or roasts or hamburger as you want. You don't end up with a bunch of bone dust all over the meat or cuts that aren't what you want. Even my jerky meat is selected to make smoking (and chewing) easy.

The wife and I figure it's just part of the hunt, and use the same care with the cutting up process as we do out in the field. When we open a package we know it's ready to go. Mmmmmmm.

Skein

[salmurai]

I too, bag my own. It is the only way to go. Boning all the way. No bone dust, no fat and most important.... CLEAN and you know it's your own kill. I just bone it all out, trim where needed, and separate into muscle bundles. Then vacuum pack. I'll leave the dried up outer meat in place to help keep the cut of meat from drying out, as long as it is clean. I leave all that I can as "roasts" and cut steaks after I thaw it out. It is really nice to thaw out steaks already cut and trimmed up, ready for the pan, but this takes a lot of time when I'm dealing with an entire animal. That's why I only do what I have to first and do the rest later. I usually end up with a "hamburger pile" and a "jerky pile" as well as a pile of "roasts". Also, don't forget the ribs. Yummy..... I cut these out with a sawsall after I bone the carcass. Then I'll soak them in a bucket of water to bring them back into looking like they're edible, then boil for about 30 minutes in a turkey pot (with water), then put them on the bbq with your favorite sauce....

[nitrobass]

I also do it myself, time permitting. The biggest problem I have when I've had butchers do it is that they cut it up like a beef. The end result is usually thicker steak cuts with more sinew. Butchers generally get paid by the hour, and their cut steaks show that. If you do it yourself you can seperate the primals and produce some really nice cuts of meat. I like getting a cast iron pan nice and hot and toss some good scraps on it while I'm cutting away. A cold beverage helps the process too. Like anything else, the more time you spend the better the result.

[TonTo]

Always cut it myself and always will.Don't have to worry about the meat cutter flaking out and letting it rot,I might flake out but my meat will get cut and wrapped on time.Useually end up with three cuts steak,stew and burger...an occasional roast if I get to finnish cutting steaks.Bone it all,and I lable select cuts like strap steaks.Now the burger is another storry I've ground my own but would rather send it out,but I insist it's ground with all my own meat,and not mixed bulk with others.

[Killertraylor]

I've cut several deer and elk up myself, but the last 4 or 5 years I've had it done by a butcher and can't tell the difference in the taste. My butcher cut meat never has "bone dust" on it. They make better hamburger than I do but most of all I like the convenience. The key is to find a good butcher you can trust (and even then it's always a risk - Sportsmans' meat in Estecada did 5 or 6 animals for me and look what happenned there :shocked: Glad I didn't have one there when he left.). If I had more time, I'd probably do it myself, and I'm sure I'll do several more myself before I die.

[elkaholic]

Do it myself and for others. I like them to hang longer than most butcher shops would allow, seems to help the tenderness on the steak from elk anyway. Also, I know i'm getting my animal and that my burger came from my meat.

The only tip would be to weigh the burger meat and for every four pounds of lean meat add 1 pound of "hills meat" bacon ends and pieces. Yummy bacon burgers every time and adds a little grease when frying up, also binds the lean meat to make patties better.

[OneLastCast]

My wife and I also butcher our own game. Several years ago Mudsuckers dad gave me a book called "Dressing and Cooking Wild Game" distributed by Prentice Hall Press. I think Jim Zumbo may have a book or two with some info in it.
We always completely bone out our meat and make sure we trim every bit of fat or blood off. Never have had a bad steak yet. The last couple of years the wife has not wanted me to add any fat into the burger when grinding. As we rarely make patties it works fine for other recipes.

One thing I am going to do this year is I was given two formica counter tops about 1" thick and 8 feet long. I am going to mount these in the shop at about 42 inches high for butcher tables.(they will be hinged to swing down out of the way when not in use). With the tables at that height maybe I can finally get rid of those back aches from leaning over a butcher table all evening.

[StinkyFish]

Thanks for the tips guys. that is pretty much the way we have always done it and thought I would get a feel for how everybody else does it. We have always added pork roast to the burger as aposed to the beef suet seams to have a better taste and texture. I like the bacon Idea that sounds good. How about bacon wrapping a backstrap steak before I vaccum pack? I have never used a butcher for cutting so I have no experience with bone dust or stronger flavors. thanks again.

[Fishbone]

"Dressing and Cooking Wild Game."

Creative Publishing International.

ISBN: 52944 01116

Good basic reference for butchering wild game, especially deer, elk, pheasant, rabbit, duck, etc.

[biederboat]

I always do my own except if I have a bunch of burger which I take in. Our Kitchen Aid grinder just takes to long. However, we never add suet or anything to the burger. Yeah, it's a bit "crumbly" but there's nothing like 100% lean venison. We even cook it that way on the BBQ, just have a good sharp turner. Also, I take meat in to Voget's in Hubbard for the best pepperoni and smoked dinner sausage I have found.

My tips: dang sharp knives of the right type, double wrap (sometimes I Saran wrap the first coat), good work height (oh my aching back!) and learn how to cut steaks (I think I'm getting a bit better but could improve). I vacuum pack all my fish but my venison has never freezer burned even after 2 years with plain double wrap.

Now, what's funny to me is I don't know how many times I've read you have to hang it, you have to keep it dry, you have to keep it clean, blah blah blah. Maybe I'm lucky, but even though I've cut up the next day, been concerned that it got to warm, had an animal that ran a bunch or cut the bladder and watched it drain all over the hind quarters, it NEVER seems to affect the quality of the meat and I'm feeding it to my whole family. One of the worst elk I ever had was a Murder's Creek calf, dang that thing was gamey. But it was kept clean & cold. Now, I don't purposedly try to "ruin" anything, I just don't seem to notice any change when I have to bend the rules.

[billc_sbio]

I do just about all that we get.

Biggest "problem" is keeping early season animals cold enough out in the garage...gotta work FAST.

Here's a funny "horror" story for all of you who take your's to a processor.

A buddy of mine took in an Elk he'd shot. They weighed the quarters and all the other meat he brought in, and figured out about how much he should get back...marked it on his pick up tag.

About a week later, they called him up, told him to come pick up his wrapped meat. He got there and they took his tag, went in the back and came out with a large cardboard box of wrapped meat.

My friend hefted it and it was only about 60# of meat. His tag indicated he should be getting back about double that. He said something to the guy running the place who looked at his tag. The guy grabbed another box and said, "C'mon!". They walked back in the freezer and walked around taking 2-4 packages of meat out of about 20 OTHER boxes, other hunter's meat! When the 2nd box was full, he turned and handed it to my friend, said, "Here, this oughta be about right?!!"

[ 01-03-2004, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: billc_sbio ]

[winterkill]

I have never taken my meat to a butcher, I guess I am lucky.

Ever since I have started hunting we have butchered and smoked our own meat. We start by hanging them in a cellar at around 40-45 degrees. We hang elk for about 4-5 days and deer 3-4 days. I have been told that this helps drain blood and to 'set' the meat When we butcher the animals we usually cut as many steaks as we can. Whatever is left from deer we cut up and then freeze (without grinding). Once elk season arrives and we get our elk (hopefully) we bust out the deer meat that is frozen. We grind up the elk and leftover deer meat together, then we either make burger or sausage out of it. We don't make sausage and we onl.y make 2 types of sausage: breakfast, and summer.

With every elk,, we either make steaks and sausage or steaks and burger, not sausage and burger at the same time. We also wrap our own meat. The only thing we add is pork fat for the sausage. We buy our seasoning for the sausage from a shop in Carlton.

I don't know anybetter, but I would reccommend butchering your own animals. I like knowing exactly what is in the meat, and I like knowing it is MY meat!
Ian

[Silver Eagle]

Stinkyfish, Me and the Boys have been cutting up our own Deer and Elk for 30+ years and have found that after you do a few you basically know how your going to do it. But a Week ago I decided to try something a little different, we have alway ground our own Hamburger (Deer or Elk burger) if you please and I bought a Saw Grinder combo from Harbor Frieght, worked good on Burger, well to make a long story short we have been raising Pigs for a few years and I was getting tired of paying a (what seemed to me) lot of money to get my Pork taken care of, so we (the boys and me) decided we could do it, one of the guys I work with had a 25 year old book on butchering, got a few copies of the section on cuts and grabbed the Halibut 410 and away we went, we had seven so fiqured what the heck, shot the biggest boar, 270, dropped out the guts and hung it over night, we cut it up by the book for awhile, everything went well till we got to the rear quarters, was going to just cut into ham (bone in) fresh slices, it was too big and was taking too long to cut, so resorted to Elk cutting technics and boned it and cut into steaks, worked good and went fast, the bottom line is I know I got all my meat back and even if some of the chops are not the prettest there all here. Only have 6 more and there getting bigger every day, Friday two more notches on Halibut gun. Ray :smile:

[Gun Rod Bow]

I/We always cut my own. The whole family gets involved. The wife doesn't mind cutting steaks, as long as she doesn't have to work on the whole enchillada.

The girls can wrap and mark packages.

I have burger ground and beef suete (sp?) added. Also send out ground meat for weenies. Haven't done my own sausage yet but want to.

Working together to care for the meat that my family will eat for the year is an important part of the hunting tradition IMO.

[Grantspastor]

Always have (Moose take the longest, but are the best!) I'm like GRB...can't seem to find any roasts anywhere (too dry) I just cut up the steaks...grind all the rest into hamburger with 15% beef fat added. I once had two whole Caribou turned into sausage.

[ 01-07-2004, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: Grantspastor ]

[Brownie Buster]

I agreewith all the rest of you. Cutting and wrapping your own meat is the only way to go. Just a few words of wisdom though:
1. Take care of your animal and you will have very little waste

2. A cuber, grinder, and smoker will leave you with every taste, treat, and treasure that you want for wild game

3. little pieces you don't know what to do with, cut them into strips and bamm, theres your jerky

4. Dont leave your bone in farmers and ranchers feils, it really upsets us andmakes our dogs sick. Remember You might want to hunt his land some time.

Last but not least, If you take it to a butcher whos knows whos gut shot animal you may get.

[chummer]

I had a butcher friend of mine who showed me how to break down an animal and ever since have done our groups own except sausage and pepperoni. Since i'm the only one who butchers, I'm the cutter the others take care of the trim and the wrapping. This year was an exceptionally good year for us resulting in 2 deer and 4 elk, needless to say I was up to my eyeballs in steaks and burger for a while. a table of the right height is a must to avoid a sore back and good sharp knives!!

[billc_sbio]

IMHO, Antelope (in Oregon) are some of the most "difficult" to deal with properly.

From what I've had (our own), their meat's not that bad.

But you sure hear some stories about how TERRIBLE it is!

I'm sure it's the same for Bowhunters, especially getting a big Elk down in some canyon early in the season?!!

Geez...Antelope huntin in Oregon...out in the desert...the middle of NOWHERE...just having water's a luxury! Then, get an animal down mid-morning and it's heating up in the 90s...pushin 100! Yikes! No ice for 50 miles in any direction and a dusty road to get you anywhere...WORST of conditions!

Fortunately the last 2 I was involved with, Miss Lil,

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...8782SKeDOWCBnf

got her's down with a single shot from her .270 at about 5 p.m. on a day that was fairly cool from a smokey sky from local forest fires, and evening was coming on.

In my case, I got mine down with a shot from my .25-06

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...48537063SXlFMM

about 1 hour into the season on a really cool day, the sun heavily masked by smoke from the Bisquit Fire, 350 miles to the west, and in both cases we were able to get the hides off in a hurry, getting the meat cooling and then down to the closest little 'ville, which was only about 20 miles away and has a cooler, just for big game.

I'll bet some of the hardcore archers have some real "horror" stories to tell about gettin Elk down in the bottoms in 80+ degree heat and long hikes to carry the quarters out?!! Just thinking of all the Yellow Jackets makes me shudder! :shocked:

[tag-a-long]

I had my bear processed this year. It was very expensive. The cost for the cutting and wrapping was almost as much as having pepperoni sticks made. I echo the "bone it out yourself" idea. We just processed my cow elk, and it took all day, but it was worth it. no unwanted pieces of wild game fat in it at all. It is as clean as you could ask for. Not to mention that I know where and how it was handled.

[SHOUGALNITE]

I just started cutting my own meat. I get alot of hamburger.

[nitroduk]

the most important thing is getting your meat cooled and cleaned up as soon as possible, my dad is a butcher and he has always cut our meat with us. one rule he always had , no matter where or what you kill for food, skin it out, split it and cool it out as soon as possible.

[nitroduk]

also remember with wild game, cut along the seams and you will get a lot more staek out of it.

[billc_sbio]

Yep, I've been simply AMAZED at how well the hide/hair keeps the heat in!

On one Elk hunt a friend of mine got an Elk down and he and another buddy got it gutted right away. They signaled for us, the rest of the party to assemble and get the gear we needed for the long pack out, back to the trucks.

It took us about an hour to get to the trucks, get our gear, sleds, etc., and get back to the animal...when we got back, the Elk was cooling out well inside. The temperature outside was about 15 degrees and the animal was lying in thick snow. When we started peeling its hide off I couldn't believe the amount of steam that rose up off the meat! Touching it, the meat was still warmer than my hand! As we got the hide pulled off, even over the ribs and the area just adjacent to where the the abdomen had been opened and cooing, it was STILL steaming like crazy!

And that was in real COLD weather! Imagine what it would be like around the end of August on one of those early hunts?!!

[ 01-10-2004, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: billc_sbio ]

[Mr. Fisherman]

I have always done my own. Grew up poor, didn't have a choice. I don't see me changing my ways either.
It is just too easy to do it your self and the end result is quality.
I haven't done any big game hunting since I moved back to Oregon but I have helped a friend or two with butchering their game.
Back home we used to all get together and butcher all our animals and package them up as a team. Just formed an assembly line and went to town. Beer and BBQ with tidy packages ready for the freezer. Many hands make for light work and it was just one more thing to look forward to each year, like Hunting camp. Ah the good ol' days...

Maybe someone could put together a good ol' IHunt cut and wrap party next year. Maybe those with cutting and wrapping experience can pitch in for a package of something.
Just a thought...

For those of you wanting experience this would be a great way to get it first hand from experienced folks.

Another way is to check the local library. Use what is available... It's your tax money at work .

Just my .02......

[Cosmic Lazy Susan]

I cut and wrap my own. Always have, learned it that way from my Dad. Wife does the wrapping.

I cut as many steaks as I can. What isn't fit for steak becomes stroganoff. What is fit for stroganoff becomes jerky. Whats left over after that I ball up in plastic bags and freeze for crab bait.

Venison scraps work great for crab bait as the seals and sealions won't mess with it and tear up your nets.

Dale

[Lured In]

My dad always said the first one is the hardest.

Personally I chose not to use a butcher as I have heard too many horror stories about how little comes back as steaks or roasts.

After a couple of hands on lessons from dear old Dad, my wife and I banged out our first 'unsupervised' cut and wrap last year. The kids loved it, my wife had a blast and I couldn't have been more pleased with the quality of cuts and the amount of meat we were able to salvage into jerky or stew meat. All total out of a medium black tail, we only had about 6 pounds of jerky/stew meat and I did roasts or steaks for everything else. All told I think it took us about 7 hours to debone, clean, cut and wrap the whole thing.

The good part with doing your own, is that you can always take some of your wrapped meat in to have it ground or turned into pepperoni, but it doesn't work the other way around.