Might have learned my lesson

[TraumaSlave]

Fortunate enough to have been blessed with a targeted doe last week. Put up a new from box ladder stand and gave it 5 days. 1st hunt in New stand...20 minutes seated.... 20 yards broad side..... xbow gets the job done. Great shot. Low chest that knicked the bottom of the heart. She ran 100 yds bleeding like a hose. Decided to take the opportunity to process myself. Has definitely been a learning curve. 600 watt little grinder my wife bought me for xmas/bday/something. Ehh. Making summer sausage. Ehh. Knowing exactly what is in my grind. Woo-hoo. Multi day event..... ehh

 

[Ski]

Get used to it! Nothing much more gratifying to a man than having the capability and know how to be self sufficient!

 

[EastTNHunter]

You'll get more efficient. You oughta know a thing or two about blood and guts with your background :D

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

Congrats on processing!!! In case you didn't know, you will need to add about 15-20% fat to your burger. Local butcher can help ya out with fat…

 

[megalomaniac]

It gets WAY faster.

I can have an animal skinned and quartered in the field in about 15 to 20 min.

Age the meat for 7 to 9 days, then have the quarters deboned and ground in about an hour. Backstraps withheld and halved, wrapped and frozen in no time.

You don't have to trim every tiny bit of fascia off the quarters before grinding (the processors sure dont)..just get the thickest tendons out and let the grinder do the rest.

Now every other year I do like a batch of jalapeño cheddar smoked sausage... for that I take the deboned quarters to my local smokehouse and let them make a big batch. It pains me to pay $4 per pound, but that stuff is SO good.

But there is something about processing your own meat that psychologically makes it taste better.

 

[megalomaniac]

Congrats on processing!!! In case you didn't know, you will need to add about 15-20% fat to your burger. Local butcher can help ya out with fat…

I used to think and do that, but I no longer add beef fat to my ground... if you've handled the meat properly, there is no reason to cook a burger more than medium rare, and venison is still quite juicy if not overcooked despite not adding beef fat. Plus I feel I'm more likely to get cross contamination from bacteria from the beef fat making it necessary to cook my burgers medium to medium well.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

It gets WAY faster.

I can have an animal skinned and quartered in the field in about 15 to 20 min.

Age the meat for 7 to 9 days, then have the quarters deboned and ground in about an hour. Backstraps withheld and halved, wrapped and frozen in no time.

You don't have to trim every tiny bit of fascia off the quarters before grinding (the processors sure dont)..just get the thickest tendons out and let the grinder do the rest.

Now every other year I do like a batch of jalapeño cheddar smoked sausage... for that I take the deboned quarters to my local smokehouse and let them make a big batch. It pains me to pay $4 per pound, but that stuff is SO good.

But there is something about processing your own meat that psychologically makes it taste better.

I think I'm to particular when trimming for the grinder but a little w-sauce with salt and pepper makes it hard to beat… I wet age mine.. extra work but I've had great success.. beef was $5.50 per lbs last week.. I bagged $100 dollars worth!! Hehehe

 

[Gronkmonster]

Congrats on processing!!! In case you didn't know, you will need to add about 15-20% fat to your burger. Local butcher can help ya out with fat…

Got my beef fat at Kroger, they had like five 2-3 pound packages in the back. Mixed my burgers 85/15 and those were the best burgers I've ever had

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I used to think and do that, but I no longer add beef fat to my ground... if you've handled the meat properly, there is no reason to cook a burger more than medium rare, and venison is still quite juicy if not overcooked despite not adding beef fat. Plus I feel I'm more likely to get cross contamination from bacteria from the beef fat making it necessary to cook my burgers medium to medium well.

I can't keep it together without the fat… upper east side deer are zero body fat… at least the runts that my arrows find.

 

[megalomaniac]

Once the high temps drop below 65deg, this is the best way I've found to age meat if you don't have a walk in cooler... woven wire patio table in the shade, just put the quarters on it and let them sit for 7 to 9 days. Maybe flip them every couple days, but isn't necessary

 

[megalomaniac]

I can't keep it together without the fat… upper east side deer are zero body fat… at least the runts that my arrows find.

Yup, they the burgers have to be handled carefully after freezing and rethawing to cook, but if you are gentle with them going on the grill, they firm up nicely by the time they are ready to flip and won't fall apart.

 

[recurve60#]

Cutting up a deer is what you are doing all day that day. A helper makes things easier.

 

[Pilchard]

Once the high temps drop below 65deg, this is the best way I've found to age meat if you don't have a walk in cooler... woven wire patio table in the shade, just put the quarters on it and let them sit for 7 to 9 days. Maybe flip them every couple days, but isn't necessary

You let your deer meat sit out for 7 days with temps around 60 degrees?

 

[megalomaniac]

You let your deer meat sit out for 7 days with temps around 60 degrees?

Yup. Now that's the daytime high... 60.to 65 deg. It's usually.in the low to mid 30s at night when the daytime high is 60 to 65.

As long as your quarters are clean (no gut , dirt, or water contamination....those are your enemies when it comes to aging meat) they will age perfectly in the shade for over a week even if daytime temps get in the 60s

 

[Pilchard]

Yup. Now that's the daytime high... 60.to 65 deg. It's usually.in the low to mid 30s at night when the daytime high is 60 to 65.

As long as your quarters are clean (no gut , dirt, or water contamination....those are your enemies when it comes to aging meat) they will age perfectly in the shade for over a week even if daytime temps get in the 60s

Interesting! I've always heard anything over 40 degrees is unsafe. Presumably in the shade things stay under 40?

I'm genuinely curious. Not trying to be a goof.

 

[megalomaniac]

Interesting! I've always heard anything over 40 degrees is unsafe. Presumably in the shade things stay under 40?

I'm genuinely curious. Not trying to be a goof.

I thought the same thing... but when I was in Argentina hunting red stag, I killed one and the gauchos hung the quarters in the shade in cheesecloth. Daytime highs mid 70s, nighttime lows in 40s. We ate on one of those quarters 5d after the kill and it was delicious. (But meat was clean).

I learned then that pure clean meat will age just fine in temps much higher than what I originally thought. Sure the outside 1/8 in of the meat forms a hard rind and you may have to trim that off, but the meat underneath is simply wonderful after aging it for a week.

And.i eat my steaks RARE and ground venison medium rare. Never had a problem.

 

[Pilchard]

I thought the same thing... but when I was in Argentina hunting red stag, I killed one and the gauchos hung the quarters in the shade in cheesecloth. Daytime highs mid 70s, nighttime lows in 40s. We ate on one of those quarters 5d after the kill and it was delicious. (But meat was clean).

I learned then that pure clean meat will age just fine in temps much higher than what I originally thought. Sure the outside 1/8 in of the meat forms a hard rind and you may have to trim that off, but the meat underneath is simply wonderful after aging it for a week.

And.i eat my steaks RARE and ground venison medium rare. Never had a problem.

Cool! Given your field of work I have no reason to doubt you.

We regularly hung deer for more than a week in WV at my family's farm but only when the highs were below 40 degrees.

 

[Jbird22]

It gets WAY faster.

I can have an animal skinned and quartered in the field in about 15 to 20 min.

Age the meat for 7 to 9 days, then have the quarters deboned and ground in about an hour. Backstraps withheld and halved, wrapped and frozen in no time.

You don't have to trim every tiny bit of fascia off the quarters before grinding (the processors sure dont)..just get the thickest tendons out and let the grinder do the rest.

Now every other year I do like a batch of jalapeño cheddar smoked sausage... for that I take the deboned quarters to my local smokehouse and let them make a big batch. It pains me to pay $4 per pound, but that stuff is SO good.

But there is something about processing your own meat that psychologically makes it taste better.

Which local smokehouse do you use? I mostly use Fortenberry's but wouldn't mind occasionally trying others in South MS.

 

[BSK]

600 watt little grinder my wife bought me for xmas/bday/something. Ehh. Making summer sausage. Ehh. Knowing exactly what is in my grind. Woo-hoo. Multi day event..... ehh

Do yourself a favor and buy a restaurant-grade grinder. They aren't cheap but you'll get years and years of service out of it and you won't believe how fast it will grind. You won't be able to feed meat into it fast enough.

 

[BSK]

I thought the same thing... but when I was in Argentina hunting red stag, I killed one and the gauchos hung the quarters in the shade in cheesecloth. Daytime highs mid 70s, nighttime lows in 40s. We ate on one of those quarters 5d after the kill and it was delicious. (But meat was clean).

I learned then that pure clean meat will age just fine in temps much higher than what I originally thought. Sure the outside 1/8 in of the meat forms a hard rind and you may have to trim that off, but the meat underneath is simply wonderful after aging it for a week.

And.i eat my steaks RARE and ground venison medium rare. Never had a problem.

True Italian prosciutto is cured that way. Just hung and dry-cured in cool stone huts with no preservatives or smoke. Sometimes a ham goes bad but it's amazing how often they don't.

 

[BSK]

You don't have to trim every tiny bit of fascia off the quarters before grinding (the processors sure dont).

Sacrilege! Actually, if you're going to grind it, I agree. But we save our hams for roasts, so they are skinned with fillet knives to remove all fascia.

 

[killingtime 41]

The way I age the meat is in a cooler. What I do is put ice in the cooler little less than half add all the meat then cover it in ice. 24 hours drain the bloody water out of the cooler. Leave the ice that hasn't melted and top off with new ice. Do this for 3 days. And anyone who's ate the meat I do that with. Can't believe how delicious it is.

 

[megalomaniac]

The way I age the meat is in a cooler. What I do is put ice in the cooler little less than half add all the meat then cover it in ice. 24 hours drain the bloody water out of the cooler. Leave the ice that hasn't melted and top off with new ice. Do this for 3 days. And anyone who's ate the meat I do that with. Can't believe how delicious it is.

Once you start dry aging meat, you won't EVER go back to soaking meat in ice water.

You don't see any restaurants serve beef aged in icewater... and ther is a reason for that. Meat loses flavor and is less tender than dry aged game. Been there, done that... I used to age my meat in a cooler the same way for a decade. Dry aged is WAY better.

If it's too hot to dry age in cool temps with air circulation, I'll put the clean dry meat in garbage bags in the ice chest to keep water off the meat and only age 5 to 6 days. Not ideal, but better than soaking in icewater.

 

[megalomaniac]

Which local smokehouse do you use? I mostly use Fortenberry's but wouldn't mind occasionally trying others in South MS.

Stricks...

Love them.because your meat goes into an individual Tupperware container before freezing... so you are guaranteed to get your meat back. They only take skinned and quartered meat, and if not already deboned, charge an additional $5 per quarter to debone.

Smoked sausage is vacuum packed in half pound packages, so no freezer burn even after a year in the freezer.

Vans makes some excellent smoked sausage as well, but Stricks is only 10m from my house and they are just as good.

 

[Hduke86]

I'd be fighting off the crows, coyotes, raccoons, and the few bears we have around here if I left meat outside on a table.

 

[Jbird22]

Stricks...

Love them.because your meat goes into an individual Tupperware container before freezing... so you are guaranteed to get your meat back. They only take skinned and quartered meat, and if not already deboned, charge an additional $5 per quarter to debone.

Smoked sausage is vacuum packed in half pound packages, so no freezer burn even after a year in the freezer.

Vans makes some excellent smoked sausage as well, but Stricks is only 10m from my house and they are just as good.

Thanks..I've had Stricks bbq but never used them for making sausage. Vans is without a doubt the best I've ever had but too far and too pricey for me. Fortenberry's is good and local so I understand the convenience factor. We debone our own as well.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Knowing exactly what is in my grind

Why I started doing my own looking ago.