Oh Deer...(processing wild game)
 

I usually get 2-4 deer every year. In the past, I have allowed to processing plant to take care of it. I realized I could do it myself for free, so I started doing that. I use to freeze the meat. When we went non electric, I started canning the deer or making jerky. Canning meat takes a LOT of time.

I am looking, or hoping, to try something different.

Does anyone know other ways to process deer meat for storage? Can you cure it like pork and beef? If so how and how long will it keep? I only have a few days to do something with this buck so I deeply appreciate your responses! Thanks! I have never tried any other form of processing meat for future use.

Use to know a Guy that would leave the Hide on wash the inside out with Salt Brine and pack salt in the Bullet holes and along the edge of the Hide.

He would cut off what he wanted to eat,put some salt over the cut.

I know some that would have a fit you try that now days.

big rockpile

There is a current thread in the Survival and emergency preparedness forum with instructions on how to process it in a pressure canner.

I have had salt cured deer ham before but it has been a long while. I did run across this thread describing a process similar to what we used to do.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?...ght=curing+ham

Hope it helps or I can see if I can get some more details out of my father about the process we used to use.

An early Foxfire book described salt curing hams. Should be similar. Jerkey was originally a native american preservation method too.

My father used to salt cure pork. I'm sure the same process would work for venision. However, the weather is too warm for that now. To be successful, it takes daytime temps in the 30's, maybe mid 40's.

How are you canning your venison? Pressure canning or the old water bath method?

For pressure canning, try borrowing a second one. With two of them running, you can put a lot of meat in jars in one day. Keep them running, in rotation. Even if you only do two batches per canner, per day, that'll give you 28 quarts of venison. If you prep as much as possible, with an early start, you can do at least 3 batches per canner per day.

Lee

I have canned meat in a pressure canner for the past few years. I only have access to one canner. I may check around and see if I can borrow another if I have to can it. I could also trade some to my Amish friends for fruit trees, veggies or some pork. I make jerky as well and will make some jerky with part of this deer. I am always looking for a new way to process meat, mainly to give variety and see if we like it and if it is something we might want to do again. I live in Tennessee and the weather is not super cool here yet. I might need to add I live in the mountains of east Tennessee, we have different weather than most of the state. I was hoping to try my hand at salt curing but am not sure how to do that. I hate to ruin this deer. I could dry it all and use it to suppliment the dog food (I often dry jerky for the dogs when I have excess meat).

I may look further into salt curing and see what I think. I will also check out the link. Thanks so much for the responses so far.

*edited to add: I checked out the link provided and it sounds interesting. The ham looks delicious as well. I think I may try this with some of the meat at least. I don't think it is cool enough here, even in the root cellar, so I may have to break down and hijack my daughter's fridge for a month. It is worth trying with a few hams, if it does nto work great, then we will all know not to try it in the future huh? lol I will make sure I take pics and keep record of the process in case someone else comes in with this question in the future. Thanks!

there are several recipes on the web for salami and other dry-cured sausages on the web.

basically the recipe is for each 10 lb of ground meat, add 5 tablespoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) along with a cup of brandy (vodka works too). that's the cure, then add any spices you like for flavor. garlic and pepper are a good start - use lots of garlic, it keeps werewolves away. mix everything together and stuff into casings (the washed intestines of the animal that provided the meat) and hang in a cool dry place. keep rats and mice away. venison is very lean. it will benefit from the addition of pork, mutton, or beef fat. count the fat as part of the weight.

if you use pork, your sausage must be cooked before eating (cotto salami) to destroy trichina (a parasite). freezing the pork for a certain period also kills trichina. google "certified pork" to get the neccessary temperatures and times.

keeps a long time. if you hang it for a few months, it will become as dry as jerky.

good luck

Salt curing is the way to go if you can keep it temp regulated like in a root cellar. Being able to cut off a little at a time is very cool.

salt curing in a refridgeator
 

We do this do not use your daughters, use an old one as it will rust out and will only last a couple of years at best. Works well on pork we don't like deer salt cured, you may. We can or freeze deer.

Make sausage!!!! Yummy!!!! We have Jerky, Steak (in the freezer- can you make an year-round one?) and lotsa sausage! You can cure the sausage, though it will have to be kept in a cool place. If there's no where cool, I guess jerky is the best way to go....

Before you cure meat of any kind be sure you take any joints out. Joints are full of liquid and will spoil when the rest is cured. I like to sugar cure deer. I just bone it out then use sugar cure on the piece. It doesn't matter how big or rough the piece is. To get the recipe for sugar cure look on the bag of sugar cure and use that. I also like salt cure for deer meat but not as well as sugar cure. It may be hard to find sugar cure but if you look around you can.

Pemmican isn't half bad either, lasts for months without refrigeration.

You can buy sugar cure in 28 ozs on eBay. Prices vary.

If you have a place in the area which processes deer see if you can bring in the butchered meat and have them turn it into sausage for you.

Great, great, great ideas. I am so glad I started this thread. I got all of the meat off the deer on Saturday and have some hams ready for sugar curing, made a ton of jerky, made some dog jerky out of the mebranes with bits of meat left on them and I have all of the meat in a cooler waiting to turn into whatever I desire.

I plan to make some hams. I was going to do it with the meat on the bone, but after reading this, I think I will take the meat off the bones and do it as that will make smaller hams for me and Chris and will be easier for me to handle while curing.

I checked EVERYWHERE in this county, Monroe and Polk Counties and could not find anyone who had sugar cure. Co-op could order it for me but it would be a week. My uncle, who gave me the deer, checked around and found some in Bradley County at an old hardware store. I barely made it Friday before they closed and got all three bags they had. GOOD DEAL...as they plan to not carry it anymore and will only order it for people. I got it 50% off so 10 bucks for three 7 lb. bags! Well worth the trouble locating some.

So now that I have jerky coming out of my ears and all of the smaller pieces taken care of, I will be curing the hams this week. I have experimented with the huge cooler we have. If I set 4 half gallon jugs of ice in the bottom, with the meat in there is stays about 38-45 degrees. I can re-freeze the jugs of ice as needed and keep replacements ready in my daughter's freezer. I am just experimenting pretty much with this meat this time. So I am going to try to cure it in the cooler, since it is a huge cooler and has plenty of room. With the ice in jugs, there is no moisture issue. I lay rags over the jugs to keep them clean from the drippings and such.

So...we will be getting them in the cooler for curing this evening. I will post pics and keep everyone updated. If the meat does not kill us when we eat it in a few months, I may share! LOL If I suddenly stop posting in a few months, you will know never to try this process of curing meat.

Another method is to make and fry up sausage patties and can them in lard. Use wide mouth jars and lard. Fry up the patties and place inside the wide mouth jars. Heat up the lard and pour into the jars over the sausage, making sure no bubbles are present. Then place clean lid and ring on jar and let cool. As the jars cool they will "pop" creating a seal.

You don't have to use a pressure canner or water bath canner with this method. Just pour the hot lard in the jars and seal with the lids. That's all you do.

When ready to eat, just remove however many sausage patties you desire from the jars and heat up in a frying pan. When heated remove the patties from the hot lard and pour the hot lard back into the jar to reseal. It's that easy and the patties can last for several months in storage. We usually have ours ate up before spring gets here.

Thanks for starting this thread and for those that have contributed, thanks to you as well.

OK I HAVE to try this now. I have had a lot of old people around this area ask me if I can sausage and tell me it is the best tasting thing you will put in your mouth. I have never canned any, but I plan to now. You made it sound so simple and that fact that I do not have to stare at a pressure cooker for an hour and a half makes it even more tempting. So I do think I will make some sausage and can it.

Thanks so much for posting this!

We skin and gut the animal and let it hang for a day or two before further processing. Try to kill on a day that will be followed by two or three nights right around freezing. An immediate and thorough cooling out is key.
I've been known to run the hose over a skinned deer for a half hour for the initial cooling. If you can kill during colder weather and the carcass cools out
thoroughly, it can safely hang for two or three weeks or more.
Our last was hung during a cool string of 2 30 degree nights, followed by two weeks of 45 for lows and 65-70 during the days.

We always begin by trimming the fat the following morning.
We render the fat for cooking tallow and candles.
Then we trim out the abdominal meat and cut that up in strips for bacon.
There are several recipes for sweet and salt cures.
Next we remove the rib meat and front shoulders to be ground for burger.
After grinding the meat,the burger can be dehydrated.
Spread it thinly on stainless pans and cookie sheets, or screen if you have it, and place close to the wood stove or in direct sunlight, covered to prevent insect invasions. Rehydrate for pizza, spaghetti and any other normal recipe calling for burger. It stores well in glass jars, no special sealing required.

The remainder of the carcass we will let hang for storage and to tenderize.
Over the course of a week or two, we'll cut off some backstrap steaks for immediate meals and make jerky from the neck meat.
An occasional brushing down of the remaining meat with apple cider vinegar will prevent mold and bacterial growth. As we have time, we'll cut up the hinds for steak and more jerky.

I've been pushing the limits the last few deer we've had to see just how long they will hang, in cooler weather, removing a bit here and there as we go, applying the vinegar during the warmer days. The only one I've had spoil so far was the one that didn't get cooled out before I hung it in a makeshift smokehouse. It spoiled inside out......
Three weeks is the longest we've let one hang, then a week after that when it was cut up into steaks and set in a 55 degree cellar while we used a portion every couple days. This last time was the longest and there was never any evidence of spoilage. The meat was as tender as I've had for a 280 pound ten point. Incidentally, we didn't even break out the vinegar this last go 'round.
My next experiment will be seeing how long one will keep with 20 degree nights and 40ish days.
My guess is, a long time.

That is invaluable information for me, thanks so much. I am always pushing myself to get the deer up, skinned and completely processed within a few days so I do not lose anything. It is nice to know there are precautions I can take to not be so stressed and not lose the meat in the process.

I appreciate all of the good information in this thread. It has been so helpful to me!

Canned sausage. I hated it growing up. My Mom used to fry up pork sausage patties, put them in jars and cover with the sausage grease. Turned the jars upside down to seal them. (Lard or Crisco would have to be used with venison.)

Later, fish out the patties, put in the pan and heat through. It tasted like leftover greasy sausage that should have been tossed out to the dogs, IMHO. To simulate it. Fry up a couple of patties of sausage. Put them in a bowl. Cover with the grease. Cover the bowl tightly. Then refrigerate a week or so, or better yet, leave on the counter for a day or 2. Heat them up again, and taste. Judge for yourself if you want to committ all that time, meat, jars, etc. for the results you get.

And, it isn't considered to be a safe way to can sausage. Plus, even if the sausage is safe to eat, it won't hold for very long before the grease starts turning rancid.

Just 2-cents from someone who'd prefer any other way to eat venison than eating canned sausage done the old fashioned way.

Lee

Really NCLee? I have had tons of folks tell me that was the best sausage they ever ate and if I made some to please invite them over. I guess it is like anything else, some folks hate it, some love it.

I think back on things we did when I was a kid, leaving things out on the counter or table in jars for days, cutting hunks of meat off the hams and doing nothing to them but going back to cut more off the next few days, never putting eggs in the fridge and such....wonder it did not kill us all.

I hear people say never do....xyz....even tho we did it every day growing up. Some things could not be as bad as they say they are or we'd all died before we grew up and grew old and nostalgic. I guess whats good for the goose is not ALWAYS good for the gander.

Same here. When I was a small kid we lived with grandma (1960's). In her dinning room was a big glass cupboard where all leftovers was placed inside. Any leftover biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, was placed inside for anyone who might get hungry later. Same with supper, all leftovers went inside the glass cupboard. Nobody got sick eating leftovers from the glass cupboard. And the same with the canned sausage. "We've been eating it this way for years, ain't no one died in this home yet from it".