What do you do with the meat from the deer you take? Steaks? Jerky? I hope to take my first deer this year and not quite sure what to do with all of it. Assuming I get one of course. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by techguy:
What do you do with the meat from the deer you take? Steaks? Jerky?

Yes. And, more, 'n' stuff.

H&K-Guy

I take mine to a nearby processing plant.
They charge $100 for an entire deer, you just bring it in.
The price goes down if you've gutted it, skinned it, quartered it or deboned it.

They can make it into sausage, but you had better tell them not to make it spicy (the mexicans who work there get a little crazy).

I have them make it into steaks, cubed, and then turn everything else into sausage.

I've prolly got 40 lbs of sausage left from last year (but I had ~180 lbs last year handled by them) .

Inside tenderloins usually get lightly breaded and gently sautéed to medium rare. Backstraps get the same or grilled in steaks, never above medium rare. Sirloin gets cut into steaks and grilled medium rare. Round/rump, front shoulders, neck, and trim get turned into brats that I make myself. I've also made pastrami from the heart, which was delicious!

I'm not a regular deer hunter. I've hunted some over the past few years at friends leases. I find that the jerky, beef sticks, and ground venison are good choices. Depending on your preference, you may want to have it cut with some added fat from our friend the cow.

Besides all the above, you could have the scraps either cubed for stew meat, ground for hamburgers (experiment with beef blends) or a coarser grind for a pan sausage (I presume everyone meant link sausage). Or, you could use the cubed meat at home and grind your own sausage. Good Luck.

Well now, venison jerky ain't all bad!

I've been eating Venison for over 50 years, and hunting them for 45.
Here is my thoughts.

1- look at the feed. If you are hunting in mountains or elsewhere, where deer eat plants, brush, sage brush, I might think about sausage and jerky, except for the best cuts.

2- if the deer have access to corn, soybeans, apples, then there is a better chance for some delicious meat! S I'll have Hamburg and stew meat, but more steak and roasts.

Tenderloin. Don't freeze it. I slice mine up 1/2" thick across the grain, cook in frying pan with butter, salt, pepper, maybe garlic and onion powder, with onions and peppers. Yum! As mentioned, med-med rare because it's so lean.

I used to process my own deer, but found a highly stilled butcher and haven't looked back. A friend of mine uses the same butcher, last year the butcher mixed raw bacon in with the Hamburg.
I thought it was gross, bacon should be fried then put on the burger, but it ended up being the best hamburger I've ever had!

I have the tenderloins cut into medallions, about 1 lb per package, those typically get grilled, medium-rare to medium at most. Over cooking is not good. I also get a few lbs of trail bologna with hot peppper cheese mixed in. Most is ground, no fat added. We use it for all taco’s, spaghetti, sloppy joes, chili and anything else where a low fat ground meet works well.

I used to pay to have it butchered and got a little of everything.

Then I started doing it myself and did a little of everything.

Now what I do is make two things, cutlets and cubes (for the crock pot or stir fry or what have you)

I've ground lots of meat in that past and used it all and would love to do more. But it's lot of work with my antique hand grinders, so the last few deer I haven't.

Only three cuts for me (unless it's a grain-fed big 'un): Burger, stew meat, and back-strap butterfly steaks. I'll sometimes make some scraps into jerky, but usually just those three.

I also mix my burger 50:50 with a good quality fatty beef burger. Way too dry otherwise.

Watch a few youtube videos of folks doing it. Not that hard, maybe a little time consuming, but very well worth the effort. You will end up with high quality cuts of steak, jerky, burger, stew meat, and loin (butter+salt+pepper like TBH said).

The biggest thing about meat is getting it cooled quickly. Not too big of an issue when it's 10 degrees, but we aren't always lucky enough to have such great weather. Early seasons are held when temps are still well above freezing and sometimes up to the 70's based on where I hunt along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge of VA. Often when you hear about people that don't like venison, it's because it is a little and possibly a lot spoiled. Gutting an animal and packing it full of ice helps to cool the meat. The hide and fat layer insulate the body, so getting it off sooner rather than latter helps too. Some folks like to "age" the meat which can be done by hanging in a very cool to cold location for an extended time. I don't think it helps, especially if you are just grinding it or cutting into stew meat.

Gut shot animals, ones that ran after being shot (adrenaline leads to a very gamy taste and smell), or unskilled hunters that gouge the piss or shit bags also ruins the taste of the meat. Having someone to walk you through is nice, but again, watch a few vids...you'll get the feel for it even before you come to that point.

I pull the outer and inner loins for nice cutlets on all deer as soon as the hide is off. For the first two deer of the season, I usually make jerky, which is a great snack while hunting the rest of the season . After that, I grind into burger and cube for stew meat. Normally have enough to get from one season to the next even after giving away some to those that can't get out to hunt.

Good luck to you and all my fellow hunters in the coming season.

I no longer hunt (arthritis got too bad) but when I did I usually killed 3 or 4 deer. I was lucky to have access to a walk-in cooler to cool and age my deer. I would take 1 to a processor for burger and cube steak (after I removed the tenderloins, backstrap) a buddy and I would take the largest oldest buck to a processor and have it made into link sausage. The other deer would be turned into neck roasts, stew meat, rump roasts, backstrap chops, etc. when first starting out I would go with a processor. As you learn what you like you can learn to process more and more yourself. Good luck and happy eating.

I used to have them ground and made into pan sausage and chili meat. Nobody liked the steaks that much.

Mostly sausage and burger. Local place now offers flavored sausage options and the apple is fantastic. Used to have more made into tenderized steaks but I prefer it fried (and I try not to eat much fried food). However, I just received an air fryer yesterday so that may change.

Burger gets blended with a little pork fat, I prefer it to beef for chili and spaghetti.

Michael

I know a guy that owns a local meat market in Louisiana. He says that a deer is really just sausage on legs.

My deer processor is very cheap. You can take a whole deer to him (not gutted) and they only charge $65 to process. The only problem is they don't vacuum seal the meat like a lot of the more expensive processors do.

At any rate, whoever you have process he deer will have a list of options for you.

Grind
Summer Sausage
Steaks
Tenderloins and backstraps whole
Breakfast sausage
Cubed Steak
tenderized steak
Jerky
Roast

Those are just some of the options. Pick what you want!

I always cut up my own deer and do something different each year I get one. This year I will probably can it in the pressure cooker.

quote:

The price goes down if you've gutted it, skinned it, quartered it or deboned it.

That's funny, the one I go to in Aberdeen does the opposite. If you skin it, they charge more, becaue they want the hide.

Steaks, roasts and hamburger. I make jerky out of some of the hamburger.