Deer Butchering

How does everyone here butcher the deer and get their cuts of meat? i was helping my buddy do it the other day who had never done it before and I started wondering if everyone else does it the same way.

The way I do it is just reach my fingers in between the muscle groups and separate them until i can get it out and then take a fillet knife and remove the silver skin and slime. then chop it into steak sized pieces or throw it in the grind bucket dependin on which cut of meat it is.

I looked up on the internet and found a nifty way that i might try next time where the guy just takes a fillet knife and sticks it all the way to the bone down by the knee and just runs it up the bone to the ball joint where he then just cuts the meat off the bone. it looked like it just unfolded and then was really easy for him to cut the different sections apart. the only thing about this method was that some of the muscle groups would stay together, which i suppose would be fine as long as there is no silver skin between them

Also, does everyone take that slime off? I have heard it makes no real difference in the taste of the meat and if that is true I would be able to save a few extra pounds that I lose from trimming that stuff

 

Exactly I have been cutting my own meat for 9 years witha man who is like a grandfather to me and he has been a butcher for 45 years.

 

I'm a meat cutter too. Manage a butcher shop in South La. We too process alot of deer but majority of customers like smoked sausage. Meatman is right though about deboning first. You can tunnel bone which means find the top of the HQ bone after you've removed it from remainder of carcass. Put blade down length of bone and cut 360 degrees. Do this from top part of bone then lower. Twist the bone and pull the whole thing out. For steaks just cut across the grain of whichever muscle you choose! But I'm sure meatman would agree, if you have a local butcher that you trust and won't try to charge you arm and a leg then bring it to him. Reason I say that is because people are trying to make a living doing it! haha right meatman?

 

If I wasnt a cheap/broke college student I would be more than happy to bring it to a butcher if i trusted him not to rogue some meat from me or give me someone elses deer that possibly wasnt even gutted for days. im sure you guys have seen some pretty rough deer that werent properly cleaned

 

I actually look forward to butchering my animal, I enjoy it in someways its a good way to relax

 

Yeah I have had some pretty nasty ones in which I load it right back into the vehicle I just took it out from! I also enjoy the money but also the bragging rights when it gets cooked up around me. Dang this is good stuff who made it!? But as for me. I eat deer cuts but I think I'd be totally fine if I never ate a piece of smoked sausage again. Lol. September and october I am pumped up. But by January and february i have had enough! Lol

 

I had a doctor last year bring me two deer in early november. I say doctor to give you an idea how much education this man has. Anyway he brought em in and was nice enough to have had them deboned. He had killed one Friday evening and thought he'd let it sit out on the porch bc it was cool enough with no ice. Or so he thought. Well his son killed one the next morning and he deboned that one as well and put it in the same ice chest. Still no ice bc he thought it was cool enough. He brought them to me Sunday. I was across the room 15 ft when they opened the ice chest. It was long gone and sadly he had mixed both deer so there was no way to salvage any of it. How cold did it get on that friday!? 65 degrees. Remember I live in south Louisiana. Doesn't get cold here til January! I don't think I'd want a doc like that operating on me

 

Hey Meatman, whereabouts in Western, NC are you? I'm not a hunter, but I'll be headed to Boone in a couple of weekends and wouldn't mind bringing some venison home with me if you got some to spare.

 

Yeah, that's a bit too far for me to travel. I hope you enjoy them! My sister used to live in Cleveland, TN, I think we used to pass through Murphy on our way there.

 

I'm getting hungry..... FIRE UP THE GRILL ... Nice write up guys...

 

Awesome write up meat man! Exactly how I bone, but your grinder is way nicer than mine and about 30 years newer haha!

 

Nice write-up! That looks like a nice little shop you have set-up. I had that same grinder when I apprenticed in '96, well I think so, the button setup looks a bit different. One day I'd like to have my own shop...

 

I enjoy butchering my own animals. Usually ends up as a small party with everyone helping out. We make our own sausage after elk season. The sausage making party is usually a weekend long deal. I do agree that paying a butcher to do it is probably the way to get exactly what you want as far as cuts of meat.