Do you butcher your own deer?
- Thread starter migrant hunter
- Start date
I really need to do this. All I need is the stuffer. My grinder has stuffer tubes but I have heard a good stuffer is the way to go.
I've never been really blown away by any of the sausage I have had made locally. It all ends up far too salty for my taste. Some of the bear sausage that I just got done locally is salty enough that I don't need to add any salt when I make big pots of soup/stew with it. The salt in the sausage is more than enough to salt the entire batch.
I like sausage that actually tastes like meat.
I got two mule deer a couple weeks back and it was just too warm to hang them in Saskatoon so my buck went to the local butcher. They hung it for a week and 69kgs hanging cost me $199, the doe I did myself because I didn't think it needed to rest anymore and was considerably smaller,my 2 year old loved watching me do it.
There must be a way to make deer sausage that tastes like deer.
I do agree with you, however. In fact the only sausage I had made this year was with bear meat. The tougher cuts of deer got ground - love that in burgers and bolognese!
After trying the bear meat as a roast, and then trying the salty sausage, I immediately regretted getting so much sausage made. The smokies aren't too bad, but the Brats are over-the-top salty. Still haven't picked up the Euro Wieners - hope they aren't too salty as well...
Been really enjoying the rendered bear lard on my English muffins with over-easy eggs these past few weeks.
There must be a way to make deer sausage that tastes like deer.
I do agree with you, however. In fact the only sausage I had made this year was with bear meat. The tougher cuts of deer got ground - love that in burgers and bolognese!
After trying the bear meat as a roast, and then trying the salty sausage, I immediately regretted getting so much sausage made. The smokies aren't too bad, but the Brats are over-the-top salty. Still haven't picked up the Euro Wieners - hope they aren't too salty as well...
Been really enjoying the rendered bear lard on my English muffins with over-easy eggs these past few weeks.
Had bear stew last night from the Sept. 12 bear with wild mushroom gravy.
I do too. I use little pork, mostly pork fat, a few spices and I smoke the links, usually in 6 to 8 ft linked strings. It comes out moist(less dry than straight deer meat)and has a great flavor. these are for Red Beans with Sausage and rice, delhi eating with cheese, or adding to Jambalaya and Gumbo.
I usually spice up some sausage patties for more of a breakfast type deer sausage.
I pretty much an average guy, with an average income. While I don't live EXACTLY pay-to-pay, I can only do so by NOT paying others to do what I can do myself. At nearly $1 a pound on the hook to have a reputable butcher do my meat (whether or not you want the bone, you pay for it), it makes hunting expensive. The day I have to start paying butchers is the day I might just as well quit hunting and start buying meat. Our three deer will cost me a roll of vacuum sealer bags. Each year we add to our ability.
When we first started this, I had one nice boning knife, a borrowed grinder/stuffer, a folding table and myself. 12 years later, my wife and son help, we have a 1hp grinder (replaced the $90 Can Tire one last year), a 20lb vertical stuffer, decent knives for everyone, new food saver machine (replaced the cheap one that lasted 4 years of year-round use), meat hooks, and other food processing items. All because I spend that money one us and not pay a butcher.
When we first started this, I had one nice boning knife, a borrowed grinder/stuffer, a folding table and myself. 12 years later, my wife and son help, we have a 1hp grinder (replaced the $90 Can Tire one last year), a 20lb vertical stuffer, decent knives for everyone, new food saver machine (replaced the cheap one that lasted 4 years of year-round use), meat hooks, and other food processing items. All because I spend that money one us and not pay a butcher.
saskgunowner101
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- near Prince Albert
We've butchered deer ourselves since day one. I'm too fussy and too cheap to have someone do something for me that I'm capable of doing. I don't find it stressful as we process over 2-3 days a bit at a time.
we always butcher our own, in fact we did one last evening. Got 11 lbs of ground hamburger, a few 5 lb bags of cubed meat for sausage (custom meats), a bunch of larger pc's to slice later for jerky and or quick fry, and 3 neck roasts and a bunch of dog food. Some bones and scraps to go back to the needy in the forest. Everything vac-packed and into the freezer. Will do the next one on Sunday afternoon during our little grey cup in house party.
My dad always did his own when I was growing up and from the age of 12 I was drafted to assist. Funny, he always wanted to make bone in chops from the lower back but all he had was a hacksaw, not a proper meat saw. So whenever he tried to make those chops, the hacksaw would jump around between the vertebrae and never cut where he wanted but he'd get mad at me for not holding onto the end of the back piece hard enough. He never thought of stripping the backstrap off to make boneless chops for some reason.
Same with fish, he always filleted rock fish and steaked salmon, so the salmon we ate was always boney. It wasn't until I moved away and started doing my own that I realized there were other ways of doing things. Anyway, I married a woman who had grown up helping her family butcher "dog killed" sheep they bought from a shepherd when she was a kid in Europe so with our combined experience, from the time we were married in 1974 and I got out hunting in the fall of '75 we've cut our own. We've done everything from scrawny little spike bucks to full size Rosies on our kitchen table.
Same with fish, he always filleted rock fish and steaked salmon, so the salmon we ate was always boney. It wasn't until I moved away and started doing my own that I realized there were other ways of doing things. Anyway, I married a woman who had grown up helping her family butcher "dog killed" sheep they bought from a shepherd when she was a kid in Europe so with our combined experience, from the time we were married in 1974 and I got out hunting in the fall of '75 we've cut our own. We've done everything from scrawny little spike bucks to full size Rosies on our kitchen table.
SwL_Wildcat
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
This. We did 2 deer in about 2.5 hours. A few roasts and a few steaks and the rest ground up. The next night we spent 3 hours mixing pork/deer (dork) and making 30 Lbs of sausage. The following evening we mixed up the last of the pork & deer and vacuum sealed about 50 lbs into 1.5 lb portions.
I was a retail meat cutter for over 20yrs. When I do deer or moose, I fillet the whole animal removing all bone and fat. The lack of fat and bone dust is a great way to improve the taste esp for deer. Takes a bit of time to do it this way but it's worth it later when it goes on the plate.
I wash them out with cold/clean water, hang head down, hide off. Dry with a towel and use a fan to further dry it off. Hang in a non-humid spot for a week or more and you're GTG.
I wash them out with cold/clean water, hang head down, hide off. Dry with a towel and use a fan to further dry it off. Hang in a non-humid spot for a week or more and you're GTG.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
This. I am a merciless trimmer. Silver skin, fat and all bone goes away. It's the only way to fly.
This. ^^^^
The exception being the shank. We used to not bother with it, but knowledge is wonderful...after about 8 hour the tendons and sinew cook down into gelatin. Makes great stew meat.
I was almost 19 before I saw a 'deer steak / chop' that had a bone in it. The old Square Head driller just ran them through the bandsaw..."ummm, no I'm not really hungry anymore...Good, thanks..."
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Ever since I saw Rinella do Osso Bucco I've wondered if I wasted shanks making ground out of them. Gotta try that some time.
