Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation That darn silverskin

How do you deal with that pesky stuff?
It plugs up my grinder something fierce.
The legs seem to be the worst.

i pretrim as much as i can and then just resort to cleaning the cutters when needed. the nice thing is the cutters will kind of wad it all up into clogs big enough to toss. the shanks and neck are the worst.

I read this the other day, and sent it to my brother, I thought it might help you.

http://griffinsguide.com/content/2013/11/01/deer-cuttin-qa-about-silver-skin/

How important is removal of “silver skin” from venison meat cuts in terms of impact on flavor — e.g., gaminess? Does it matter? Is it worth the time to get rid of it all? — Tim Rued

1. Removal of the silver skin is best for certain cuts of the deer meat. The gaminess is somewhat on the silver skin—most of that will be in the meat itself—but a lot of the gaminess depends upon what the deer eats, clean the field dressing was, how well cleaned the animal was after being field dressed, and whether it was properly cooled. All of those factors will determine the deer’s gaminess.

2. The thick, heavy silver skin and heavy white tendons need to be trimmed off. Most of this product is found on the leg meat from the front legs; this meat is commonly called the shank meat. The lighter silver skin on the legs will be fine to grind up for sausage or trim. We say that if you can see through the silver skin, it will grind up easily and be okay. The amount of time to trim off all the silver skin on the leg meat would be substantial, and the benefits so slight that it wouldn’t be worth it. On the solid muscle cuts such as back strap or shoulder clod roast, the silver skin will peel away very easy.

3. The trick to removing silver skin on these parts is to cut cold meat (at temperatures of less than 40°). Treat the piece of meat like a fish fillet: Turn it over and cut down to the silver skin front, from the thickest part to the thinner part—just like a fish fillet. Hold the first silver skin tight in your left hand, guiding a sharp knife at a 30° angle while maintaining light pressure on the knife. Slowly push the knife along the silver skin and push it all the way to the end. Let your knife do the work; don’t force the knife, or the silver skin will peel right off. Maintain a light, easy pressure, and it will come off easily.

What’s the easiest way to remove silver skin from shoulder meat so it doesn’t clog up my grinder? — Nate Nance

4. We’ve talked about removing the silver skin; now let’s focus on grinding the trim. Cut up the deer and let it cool overnight (or, more optimally, for a day) at 32°. A sliver of ice crystals on the trim will tip you off that the trim is ready grinding; the coolness of the meat will ensure that it won’t clog your grinder. It also allows for some of the blood to drain out of the trim before it’s processed.

5. Other tricks: Make sure the blades on the grinder are sharp—always start out with clean, sharp blades. When you put the grinder together, spray the auger, blades, and head with some cooking oil. This will prevent burnout and the dulling of your blades, which can be caused in those first few seconds of each session, before the machine’s blades are actually grinding meat. The meat keeps the blade and the plate cool; pressure on the blade and plate normally cause them to heat up, with dull blades exacerbating the process. Keep your blades sharp and your cutting will move at a good pace and will heat up the meat more quickly.

Kerry is a professional butcher and the founder of Deer Dummy. Check out his entire line of products at deerdummy.com.

The below advice is from a GREAT website called Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and is a paragraph from this page http://honest-food.net/2014/12/01/tools-for-home-butchering/, under "At Home". I have tried the this type of knife and it works a treat on silver skin.

If you haven’t already, you need to quarter your critter. I use a pair of boning knives for most of this work as well as the fine work that follows. My go-to is an ancient stiff-bladed boning knife I got from my friend Elise. I’ve also used this J.A. Henckels boning knife and it’s pretty close. I like the stiff blade for most uses because it feels more substantial somehow. That said, I switch to a flexible boning knife when I remove the backstraps and slice off silverskin. The reason is because the bend in the blade really helps you extract as much meat — or save as much in the case of silverskin removal — as possible. Flex blades tend to be thinner, too, which helps a lot. My flex blade knife of choice is the Global 6 1/4 inch flexible boning knife. I’ve been using one for many years and I find its thin blade to be perfect for fine work. The Global edge really holds, too, unlike my ancient, stiff-bladed knife, which needs to be resharpened often.

I 'pre freeze' first, then trim when it's still partially frozen, much easier to remove. I also prefer to grind when the meat is a 'little' frozen.

next time you try to remove silver skin from a backstrap try this. start cutting from one end with a thin bladed knife. once you get it started all the way across grab the skin and put the knife under the silver skin backwards and just pull the silvar over the back of the knife. in most cases it will come off like filleting a fish in one piece.

I'll use a fork similar to that. Lose almost no meat.

it helps to use a thin blade, that is kept very, very sharp. I hold the silver skin with a pair of pliers, to keep it steady when I cut it off.

Thank you so much

For the first time, not even sure what made me try it, this year ai got a filet knife in the act.

Silver skin comes off just like fish skin.
One does lose meat ion those shanks this way.

Maybe cleaning blade on the grinder is still the best way.

best way is to not gring any silverskin like i do.

dogs don't seem to mind the silver skin of shanks

I may just cut the shank meat up for stew meat instead of attempting to plug up my grinder with it. It helps to have a sharp blade I guess.

I got pretty picky after fighting it for years. There are ways to cook and eat a lot of the meat on the legs, but I pretty much quit using the lower shanks. Most years I try to shoot a smaller doe to help with the meat supply. Quality, not quantity.

I use the tough stuff for chili verde which I "can" in retort bags in large quantities, or plain meat for quick stroganoff or stew.