Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation How to get your deer butchered

So I shot a pretty big 6-pointer (3x3 for you westerners)today. My sister took him to the processor, I told them to get him made into sausage and some jerky, then burger the rest.
1. How old should this deer be? I'd guess 2.5 years, I think he is way too big to be only 1.5. But his rack isn't an old looking rack, pronghorn style with brow tines, not a nice curved rack.
2. Would he have been better served as steaks and roasts?

I was thinking he might be tough, but then I was rethinking tonight that maybe not.
I'm planning on taking at least one more doe for steaks and roasts and such.
I'll add a picture later, I'm at work right now.

Venison tough is venison cooked wrong......

Tenderloins whole, 8 inch chunks of back strap, a roast out of each hind, a pile of canning chunks, some cube steaks if I feel like messing with 'em...the rest grind for burger and sausage.

We do it ourselves.........

I'm with Roy ...take care of it properly from the time it it's the ground til it hits your plate and all will be good....Butchering it yourself and not over cooking ensures this

Given that Whitetail can probably live to somewhere around 10 to 12 years old, a carcass from a 2 1/2 year old deer is at its prime, and shouldn't be "tough" unless its been handled incorrectly, or cooked badly.

With regards the age, I'm not familar with Whitetails, but I'll bet you can age it pretty accurately up to about 18months old or so by tooth erruption..

Basically all deer gain their permanent molars at a set rate, which varies from species to species...If you learn to identify the pattern of erruption you can use it to age a deer in the first 18-24 months of its life pretty accurately (depending on species) but after that its a lot more difficult, with tooth wear being a reasonable indicator method, but its by no means fool proof. Antler growth however is one of the least reliable methods as it has been proved to vary so much, even within localised areas.

The rut may also affect the carcass quality of a whitetail buck , (Fallow bucks, and Sika and Red stags are not good to eat rut and post-rut) but I've no experience of this so I will leave others to comment on this...

As for how to cut it up, how do you and your family like your venison?

Personally, I like it hung for abut week to ten days and then cut it up as required...I tend to steak out as much as possible, and use the off cuts for stewing meat and/or burger mince, but I have had whole carcasses turned into sauage and burgers before now...

I would be very leery of dropping off a carcass at a processor unless they had an excellnt reputation. I would want to know I was definately going to get my meat, and only my meat, back and that the carcass was going to be boned properly and not cut up whole sale with a bandsaw as many do...

Regards,

Peter

Not being a deer roast fan myself, mine go tenerderloins whole, backstraps into butterfly steaks, hind quarters and part of front quarters into steaks and the rest to burger. I agree with Pete on aging it. We have a couple of very good, clean and honest processors here adn I use them on occassion. You can also get the butcher at the local grocery store to grind your burger after normal meat cutting hours.

You will really enjoy the meat more if you learn to butcher yourself. I was self-taught due to budget restraints. There are tons of do-it-yourself websites out on the web. You'll need a grinder and a vacuum sealer and a few sharp knifes. That will cost less than having your first deer processed. The key to self processing is patience. Take your time and go for clean and ready to cooking. Get all the silverskin/fat off where possible and freeze in a deep freeze if you have one. A young deer shouldn't be tough. If you get it cooled quickly in the field it should taste great. I shivered when you had every ground or jerkeyed.

I keep the backstraps and tenders whole until cooking time. I love chicken fry, so I make most of my cuts on the large muscles 1/2" to 3/4" thick and pound thin prior to cooking. I burger all the scraps and a shoulder. I'm keeping one shoulder whole for smoking this year.

I couldn't afford to get it processed.

We've got #'s 7, 8 and 9 hanging now and it's 65 or 70 bucks a pop to get 'em cut around here.

That's a lot of cash I'd rather spend on powder and shot.

Thanks, but we'll happily cut our own, we've got knives......grins.

Thanks for all the comments.
I guess I will learn how to butcher!
It is unseasonably warm here during the daytime (close to 70's) that hanging it outside, as is the norm around here, isn't really possible (I think).
This was the first deer I've taken in at least 7 years, but I'm "on" again to hunting, I hope to take at least one more this year, and can take up to 6.
I have an old buddy who used to butcher, I'll have him come and show me the next time I get one.
Thanks again,
Patrick

Patrick,

The warm weather plays havoc with hanging a carcass. If your only dealing with one or two at a time, keep an eye out for an old soft drinks cabinet....Very old if a shop or garage is getting referbished you can pick the old ones up quite cheaply. For a whitetail, you'll need something about 20" wide x24" deep x 65" tall internally...

I use an old commercial fridge I bought of ebay for less than $100 delivered...Its a bit smaller than the measurments above but is fine for our small Roe deer.







I

One can also partition off a back corner of a garage into a walk in "cooler", or build a 4'X 4' X 8' tall free standing "building".

Insulate walls/roof with blue foam board, and stick an old air conditioner in the wall set on max cool.......

Ok, thanks for those!

This deer arrived home and was skinnned and quartered,quarters put in spare refridge and garage cleaned in about 1 hour....Doesn't take much to get it into a refridge....don't think whole carcass think breaking it down into parts

That's the way I do it as well. Brought home skinned quarters in a cooler yesterday - some clean / prep (not full trip) and they went in a spare fridge last night. Give them several days, cut them up, package, and eat or freeze. Good stuff!

OK, I have a question. What is the purpose of hanging the deer?

I always get them butchered (We do our own)as soon as possible. Never had any bad tasting meat. Tom got a deer yesterday morning around 9 a.m. it was in the freezer cut and packaged by 6 pm. Never had any strong taste in them and they are always tender when cooked.

Ages the meat. Enzymes break it down and make it more tender. But to age it you must keep it under 40� (?) but above freezing.

Deer needs to either hang or be left quartered in a refridge to let the chemical reactions take place..rigor mortis sets in after a bit and needs a couple days to relax and have nature take it's course and have the meat "un stiffen" and become tender


"First, the muscles go into rigor mortis, a stiffening lasting at most 24 hours. Butchering a deer during rigor mortis is one of the worst things you can do. It can cause a phenomenon called shortening, where the muscles contract and remain tougher than if butchering took place a day later.

Proper aging begins as soon as rigor mortis ends-and this process is definitely not controlled rot. Rot is zillions of bacteria eating the muscle cells, their waste products creating the familiar stench of decaying flesh. Bacteria attack only after meat is exposed to the air, and bacterial rot is accelerated by higher temperatures. It doesn't happen at all if the meat is frozen. To properly age your deer, you must keep it at temperatures above freezing and below about 40 degrees. This holds bacteria (and rot) at bay, allowing natural enzymes to do their work."

I used to do that and had similar results, only in hindsight I would go as far as saying the meat was quite bland...

Hanging changes/enhances the flavour, but whether that change/enhancement is considered an improvement to the taste is of course down to the individual eating it...

While I don't particularly like "strong" or very gamey tasting venison, I do like my venision to taste of "venison" if that makes sense...if you have the faciliy to hygienically hang a caracass at just over freezing, give it a go for say 10 days and see if you like the results...

Regards,

Peter

Hey Keith, i'm with you on the roast thing but I do roast cuts anyways then I steak them after i take em out of the freezer.

this works ok for me cause it cuts down on eposed meat surface for freezer burn possibility & I can cut the steaks how ever thick or thin i like for who ever i might be cooking for at the moment.

Plus it's a quick way to get a deer cut up & in the freezer

Always butcher your own if you can. Regardless of where it's processed always save the back straps/tenderloins. Don't grind them up!!! This is what I call venison candy! The best of the deer at any age.

Yep on all counts - and even if you do take it in to a processor - take out the tenderloins yourself! They are right there in the body cavity and dry out quickly so don't let someone mess these up for you. Take the 60 seconds extra to remove them and enjoy!