Deer Precessing Tips and Recipes

Yep, that's how I do it. It's common practice where I live, since it's almost always too warm during deer season to hang 'em.
Definitely, the fat and silverskin has got to go.
For the freezer, I'll take a doe over a buck any day, but I have run into some tasty bucks that were harvested on farmlands.
A few years back, I (begrudgingly and scornfully) used an electric knife to help my neighbor debone and butcher one. I'm a convert....makes it sooooo much easier.

I render the deer fat and use it for making soap.

I like that golfball method for skinning, although I've never used it. I'm about to though as nowadays it's usually just me out there skinning. I see that most folks here go about things pretty much the same way, and how to get the best flavor into the food we make. Only thing is, I like the taste of deer better than beef and would never want mine to taste that way. At least I know I ain't on to something no one else knows as I process my own deer.

I ran across a Hobart commericial tenderizer at a yard sale. I paid $10.00 for it. The tenderizer blades were good, but the shafts were so worn, they wouldn't spin much as they kept jumping out of the holes on one side where they should fit into a groove. I simply cut a shim out of a piece of maple and stick it between the frame and the side of the carriage that holds the blades. Works like a charm. I did have it rewired, rust removed, and painted at the local high scholl vocational center, and now the total investment comes to 57 bucks. I am happy. Makes beaucoup beautiful steaks.

For the rest of it, I am stuck with making jerky as I have no sausage grinder and stuffer. A fair amount of meat does go to the catahoula and the red cur dog. Maybe soon I'll try to get into that as time permits.

Anyway, from kill to ice cooler is usually about an hour. Three days in the ice chest with a little salt and change the water and add ice as needed. Cleaning the silver skin, fat, etc. off & cutting and tenderizing steak and cutting jerky usually take another hour and a half. I load the dehydrator up after seasoning and vacum pack the jerky and put it in a spare frig.

Not a whole lot of work, but it's the best by far over the guy who runs a commerical operation when I finally get it on a plate.

Nice to live in a country as developed as America is, and still be able to go out and hunt your food, grow your food, live as much by your own resources as we are able to do here. I am lucky, you are too.

Hope your Thanksgiving was good one.
Fox.

WE learned the "golfball" (round rock) technique this year and ABSOLUTLY love it ( we also dont gut til it's hided) MUCH MUCH MUCH cleaner no hair anywhere!!
We also debone,, and toss into a cooler of "ICE" (with drain open) and leave it (and refill with ice as needed)for 2-3 days.
We also remove EVERY BIT OF FAT and SENEW (snot)before processing.. MUCH MUCH better that way.
ALSO, if you pkg it in 1lb pkgs of deerburger, put in a ziplock and "FLATTEN" it so that you can get more in the freezer!!!

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Most of our deer into fresh sausage. I buy a mix that does 15 pounds.. Usually a good size deer will yield 30 pounds of ground meat.
Then I place it in a stuffer and push it into one pound wild game bags..bought at lehmans. Then I bought a little jig deal that tapes the bag shut.. Whole process is a lot faster than the ziplock way.. Plus it can be sliced right through the bag into patty sizes.. I always add about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper and about a tablespoon of sage to the store bought mix.
I grind it once, mix it then run it through the grinder again.