Offseason Learning: Processing Wild Game

[MtnElk]

thanks all, looking forward to diving in and checking out all the suggestions. Hopefully I'll actually have elk to process next year ha

 

[Beignet]

My advice for OP is not just a sharp knife, but a long and very sharp boning style knife. Plus a small sharpener to touch things up as you go. Trimming silver skin is the pits, but a slender, sharp knife helps loads.

As others have said, just follow the muscle groups. I butchered my first deer on my own as an adult and it isn’t as difficult as one might think.

Better keep those shanks whole and cut them off at the knee for the slow cooker. Grinding them bits is a serious offense.

 

[shannerdrake]

My advice for OP is not just a sharp knife, but a long and very sharp boning style knife. Plus a small sharpener to touch things up as you go. Trimming silver skin is the pits, but a slender, sharp knife helps loads.

As others have said, just follow the muscle groups. I butchered my first deer on my own as an adult and it isn’t as difficult as one might think.

Better keep those shanks whole and cut them off at the knee for the slow cooker. Grinding them bits is a serious offense.

I also recommend a small meat hook. Not the kind for hanging meat, but the handheld ones that grab meat. They are $8 on Amazon. Save your fingers and keeps a hand clean.

I process almost exclusively with a 6in Rapala Falcon for $12 on Amazon. I’ve done about a dozen deer and three elk with that $12 knife. Keep a sharpening steel close and give it a couple strokes every time you switch to a new primal and it will stay razor sharp for the entire animal.

Echo what was said about following muscle groups. There are seams in the meat that will tell you where to cut. It sounds crazy but the muscle groups of animals are pretty consistent. The primal muscles on a raccoon aren’t much different than a deer outside of the size.

Lastly, you can’t screw its up. Just do it. If you cut something wrong it just turns into steaks, or stew meat, or burger bucket. Butchering your own animals will make you a better cook and it takes the hunt past the shot.

 

[Caseknife]

Felt that I did pretty good with the buck I got this fall. Mom always made mincemeat with the neck when I was a kid. Tried that this year, 9 quarts of mincemeat. Warm mincemeat bars just out of the oven are delicious. Also made bone broth with the pelvis, backbone to the rib cage and the upper leg bones cut in half, and then the neck bones after the meat cooked off for the mincemeat. Ended up with 12 quarts of bone broth for soups and stews.

 

[NEWHunter]

As somebody else mentioned, if you are just starting out, taking your grind pile to your local butcher works great. For my deer a year or so I just drop it off and pick it up ground and vac sealed for just over $1.00/lb.

Get one of those cut resistant gloves for your non-knife hand.

 

[kansasdad]

Think ergonomics!

@Jamen was so correct about getting the table height correct for your body size. Good lighting, proper trash receptacles, non slip cutting surfaces, knives that have sharp edges and good grips, and proper receptacles for the intermediate and final products.

Think food safety!

Whole muscle meat should theoretically be sterile internally. You win and lose against bacteria with external surface being (relatively) contamination free, lack of moisture and low temperature reducing/inhibiting bacterial growth.

Think communication!

Use some manner of documenting what is inside your packages. Consider color coding for various species (elk is black, geese green, antelope red etc etc) and label month/day of harvest as well as content (neck, loin, shanks, burger etc)

 

[LuketheDog]

I like to leave it in whole muscle groups verses cutting steaks. You never know what you are going to want to make a few months from now. So you can just pull out a whole muscle “roast” and cut it down further for the weeks meals. On elk or bigger I make it into a portion size for a family of 4 but same principle.

Ditto, this is how mine goes into the freezer...

 

[Boarmaster]

Best way to learn is to do. You can start by buying larger cuts of meat and breaking them down yourself then packing and freezing. I just found our local grocery store had rib roasts for approx $6 a lb. I invested in a few and cut my ribeye steaks for the next six months out of them. I then vacpack them for the freezer.

Buy a pork butt and cut out some country style ribs.

If you are really serious about it buy some good boning knives , good grinder and some cheap pork butts and make your own bulk sausage. Italian, breakfast, chorizo. Expand into a stuffer later on if you wish.

Your grinder is the bedrock of your processing equipment. It will process and stuff. I stuff grind and bulk sausage into meat bags with my grinder using the right plate and tube. When you do harvest a game animal you will easily make the transition into processing it. In the meantime you will enjoy quality cuts and premium sausage at a great price.

 

[thomas89]

Lots of good advice.

As far as a "perfect" work station goes, don't worry about it. There have been more deer processed on cluttered kitchen counters or half lit garages than a professional looking shop I'm sure.

I have a 6' folding plastic table that I put 8"x8" half cinder blocks under the legs to raise it up so I'm not hunched over. I bought a $15 set of two "bus boy" tubs from Sams Club for my meat totes. Stuff specifically marketed towards processing is really quite expensive (for example LEM tubs are I think $25 each from Sportsman's Warehouse if memory serves). A good shop light goes a long way, but again, just use what you got, a headlamp works if you need additional lighting. I bought a $20 sani-safe knife off amazon that I am really liking.

Someone above said "you can't screw it up" and that's REALLY good advice, I have probably ground more chunks of meat that should have been steaks than most, but they still end up on a plate one way or another. I don't really like roasts, so I never cut them, it'll just be grind or jerky...still ending up on a plate though. Totally personal preference. A big hurdle with home-processing for me (and this probably translates to most other learning curves) is the thought that someone was out there doing it better/cleaner/faster than I was. My carcasses never look super picked over when I walk away from them in the field, I just don't take every tiny bit from every nook and cranny. I've never done a "rib-roll" in my life, it just wasn't worth the time for me to get the meat to a consumable portion. This may change in the future because I did upgrade my grinder to be able to handle more rough scraps in a timely manner, but it's all a process. Don't worry about having those picturesque layouts of meat on a cutting board or a tiny trim pile. Don't worry about not using bone for bone stock, or fat for DIY suet cakes, or hides for a pair of buckskin pants, we're not all Martha Stewart with meat crafts. If the critters in the field will get better use than I can make of it at home, I try to leave it in the field (still following applicable game laws obviously).

Just dive in and start cutting, don't over think it. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Sask hunter]

I find I way easier to separate different roast and what not off big animals VS deer. A doe eye of round isn’t very big especially compared to a moose. Best part is when you cut an animal you can cater to what you want. Like jerky cut the whole thing into slices and grind for jerky. Go though lots of burger and sausage trim and grind the whole thing.

 

[Caseknife]

This was my tub of meat for burger, doesn't have to be pure meat to make good burger. After it is cooked can't tell that any of that silver skin is in the meat.

 

[Gellar]

This is almost sick how fast he breaks this down. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmCup8-pjDJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=