Do I need to buy a deep freeze for deer meat?

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Tikka223

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I shot my first buck the other day and have a couple of weeks to figure out where I am going to put the meat. Skinned and dressed it probably weighs 100lbs. I've got a few questions.

1) How much space will the meat take up when it's back from the butcher? I also order 20lbs of 50/50 deer/porc sausage.

2) The freezer portion of my fridge is probably about 4 cubic feet. Is it big enough?

3) Should I be buying a deep freeze to store the meat?

I never use the freezer side of my fridge so if it's big enough then great. It also means that I don't have to buy another appliance that I probably will never use.

Thoughts?
 
Tikka223 said:
I shot my first buck the other day and have a couple of weeks to figure out where I am going to put the meat. Skinned and dressed it probably weighs 100lbs. I've got a few questions.

1) How much space will the meat take up when it's back from the butcher? I also order 20lbs of 50/50 deer/porc sausage.

2) The freezer portion of my fridge is probably about 4 cubic feet. Is it big enough?

3) Should I be buying a deep freeze to store the meat?

I never use the freezer side of my fridge so if it's big enough then great. It also means that I don't have to buy another appliance that I probably will never use.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

How good are your Tetris skills? You might be able to jam it all in there, but I wouldn't expect much else to fit. Make some jerky and you can free up a bit of room.
I would just buy an old deep freeze that is in decent shape. You can find them pretty cheap used. You never need to worry about space, and you have the added bonus of now being able to buy and freeze bulk meat when it is on sale.
A Foodsaver vacuum sealer is one of my top 3 best purchases ever. 2 year old meat that is forgotten in the corner will come out just like the day you packaged it, as long as you have a good seal.
 
Tough question. Why do you have a couple weeks to decide? And if you are hanging it for a couple, it'll weigh and give you smaller finished cuts as well.
If you are willing to totally clean the freezer out you might fit it all in. If you are making sausage that will add to your space requirements as the added Pork will also need to be considered.
It's almost time for the seasonal ' Hang or Don't Hang ' arguement thread anyhow.:popCorn:
 
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tokguy said:
Tough question. Why do you have a couple weeks to decide? And if you are hanging it for a couple, it'll weighand give you smaller finished cuts as well.
If you are willing to totally clean the freezer out you might fit it all in. If you are making sausage that will add to your space requirements as the added Pork will also need to be considered.
It's almost time for the seasonal ' Hang or Don't Hang ' arguement thread anyhow.:popCorn:
Click to expand...

Ha!..... and don't forget the hide on or off thread......
 
I've got a couple of weeks to decide because it's at the butcher's.

Good point on cramming the freezer full, the temperature may not stay the same throughout.

What size freezer should I be looking for?
 
I would just go ahead and buy a used deep freeze. You can get years of use out of them, and maybe next year you'll get a moose. Who knows? Maybe you'll take up goose hunting. A limit of those takes up some space! More freezer space is more better.

Edit - O.P. snuck in before me. Apartment sized little one for deer, if moose is ever going to be an option, 22 cubic feet should about do it.
 
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Cool. Your first deer, at the butcher. That should convince you to not do that again. So, 100lbs on the hook. Let's be conservative. Not in rut. Take out 25 lbs for head and bones. 75 lbs of meat. Trim fat and waste, 65 lbs. You asked for 20 lbs sausage, so back to 75 lbs of meat.
Yes, it will fill your fridge freezer. Everyone in the country should have a small chest freezer. Even a 10cuft one is small enough for a tiny apt. It allows you to take advantage of food sales and, in your case, meat gifts from the gods.
Not knowing the size of your household or living space, I would hesitate to recommend a specific size, however, buy the largest one you can live with in terms of external dimensions.
When you get into butchering for yourself, you can then look at canning the meat.
 
Tikka223 said:
I shot my first buck the other day and have a couple of weeks to figure out where I am going to put the meat. Skinned and dressed it probably weighs 100lbs. I've got a few questions.

1) How much space will the meat take up when it's back from the butcher? I also order 20lbs of 50/50 deer/porc sausage.

2) The freezer portion of my fridge is probably about 4 cubic feet. Is it big enough?

3) Should I be buying a deep freeze to store the meat?

I never use the freezer side of my fridge so if it's big enough then great. It also means that I don't have to buy another appliance that I probably will never use.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Meat freezer burns very quickly in a fridge freezer. This is do to inconsistent temperatures when the door is opened so often evacuating the cold air. You mention the freezer side, so I am not certain about a side x side set up but I would assume the same results as an overhead. The bottom drawer type looks like a better set up.

There is generally lots of small freezers for sale used. Your meat will keep better and as mentioned you will find other uses for it.
 
I used to keep my deer in both fridge freezers it works if you have it vacuum packed. I ended up buying a new chest freezer from bestbuy seems they had the best prices
 
I would suggest a deep freeze. Biggest problem with using the fridge freezers is that most of them are "frost free". This is when the freezer will actually slightly change temperature to get rid of the frost build up and that causes major freezer burn.
 
Small chest chest freezer is a good bet.

I cut and wrap my own meat, and put it up boneless.

With some creative stacking, I can usually make enough room in the refrigerator, for a couple large steel bowls full of almost an entire deer.

Once cut and wrapped, each package is stacked in the freezer, and I can count upon being able to pick up the package and know that the weight I feel, is what I have to eat.

It saves on storing bones to throw away later too.

Although, the ribs are a pretty popular treat with my dogs!

Cheers
Trev
 
I find an average deer (I tend to get small bucks) gives me two liquor store wine bottle boxes of cut meat and another box of bones. That would fit in an apartment-size freezer. If you get another deer or even a half of a deer from a joint hunt or take up waterfowling or get in on a moose or elk hunt, you need a big one. I have two chest freezers in use and an empty upright I use as a cooler for fresh meat when needed.
 
Best investment I ever made was a stand up freezer.... I run a small chest freezer for stocking up on sales and the standup is full of game and store bought meat...... easy to access anything you want and nothing can fall to the bottom and dissapear....
 
Will the butcher freeze it for you before delivery/pick up? Definitely go with a vacum type of package. I have venison from 2012 that's absolutely perfect...in my chest freezer that is.
 
Tikka223 said:
I shot my first buck the other day and have a couple of weeks to figure out where I am going to put the meat. Skinned and dressed it probably weighs 100lbs. I've got a few questions.

1) How much space will the meat take up when it's back from the butcher? I also order 20lbs of 50/50 deer/porc sausage.

2) The freezer portion of my fridge is probably about 4 cubic feet. Is it big enough?

3) Should I be buying a deep freeze to store the meat?

I never use the freezer side of my fridge so if it's big enough then great. It also means that I don't have to buy another appliance that I probably will never use.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

A small stand-up freezer isn't very expensive and can be worth the money,especially when freezing game meat and fish etc. When it's empty,simply unplug it for next year.
 
Don't know if it is a real issue, but when an upright freezer was the only one I had, I found meat didn't keep as well because every time you open it, all the cold air falls out.

Not a problem with chest freezers.
 
I'd go with a chest freezer as well. You can use milk crates or ventilated plastic trays to keep stuff organized. I vacuum pack my meat using a food saver. I have venison from a deer that I shot in Alberta in 2014 and it's still perfect.
 
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