Game butchering. UPDATE Only 1 Tenderloin

peterf said:
About ten years ago I got taken by a local butcher. After we got my skinned and quartered moose hung in his cooler he told me that they had a slight price increase from the year before. I thought a slight increase was no big deal so I shrugged it off. When I went to pick up the meat I couldn't believe it. His price per pound had doubled and the pork fat that I had him add to the burger was priced as a top pork cut as well as added to the total weight and charged again. I told him that maybe he had made some money off me but had gotten rid of a long term customer.
Since then I have always cut my own. I use the book "Basic Butchering of Livestock and Game". It's not that hard, it just takes some time.
Click to expand...

peterf: let me guess, this incident happened at the Coldwater Game Farm. The guy there is a known crook, shister, and general all round dishonest guy. We took a moose in there about 8yrs back. It was $1020.00 bucks to skin, cut & wrap, and make us some sausage that was so fat we could not eat it. Even the dog turned his nose at the sausage.
 
I know butchers take a piece or two of each game. it adds up and they have a full freezer. I want to butcher my own deer. Just have to buy the stuff for it, I planned to do it this year but with the baby no dice. I have two deer at the butcher right now. Next year I plan to do it but my hunting group doesn't want to so if I get one on my own I will be doing it
 
Mattones said:
I know butchers take a piece or two of each game. it adds up and they have a full freezer. I want to butcher my own deer. Just have to buy the stuff for it, I planned to do it this year but with the baby no dice. I have two deer at the butcher right now. Next year I plan to do it but my hunting group doesn't want to so if I get one on my own I will be doing it
Click to expand...

One of my buddies cut game for years and he was so sick of seeing and smelling wild game he wouldn't touch it.
He'd buy bison and pork at auction and eat that.
 
Mattones said:
I know butchers take a piece or two of each game. it adds up and they have a full freezer. I want to butcher my own deer. Just have to buy the stuff for it, I planned to do it this year but with the baby no dice. I have two deer at the butcher right now. Next year I plan to do it but my hunting group doesn't want to so if I get one on my own I will be doing it
Click to expand...

Too bad you are not closer, you probably have all you need in the knife set from the wedding presents. Short knifes are better for deboning and the medium to long for making steak and roast.
I bought two 10" canadian tire knives for less than $40.00 for the pair.
 
07blackwater said:
One of my buddies cut game for years and he was so sick of seeing and smelling wild game he wouldn't touch it.
He'd buy bison and pork at auction and eat that.
Click to expand...

This seems very odd to me... One of the reasons I butcher all my own game is because I enjoy it so much.

Perhaps proper care of the carcass has something to do with it. I'm not sure I'd want to butcher game that had been treated poorly.
 
two-dogs said:
not if you pound it! And roll it in corn flake crumbs and fry in butter, serve with A1 sauce.
Click to expand...

LOL.

Different strokes.

A1 sauce, eh? f:P:

Backstrap is not over-rated at all, IMO. It is excellent! Especially on a big, fat mule deer. It's basically deer strip-loin (AKA "New York Steak"), for chrissakes!
 
If I need to pound it; it's stew meat or grind.
And while I may sound aloof, I'm not. But my venison steaks get salt, pepper and Olive oil, butter or bacon fat to stop sticking to the pan. That is the norm at my house.
Never BBQ sauce ( or the like ) unless it was shot poorly ( Usually a gifted cut, but there was a big MD this year that was incredibly tough to put down...he walked away despite absorbing lead. He needed a touch of flavoring to allow pan frying).
I find the large grain of Backstrap to be less than ideal to my Palate. Could be just me of course
 
Apparently some deer have no tenderloins.....

Current butcher is honest, but we remove tenderloins in advance having learned that lesson many years ago. My guy charges $75.00 per beast, whether big or small. Starting to get expensive so will be completing the acquisition of a home meat processing gear for next season.

Cheers.
 
tokguy said:
If I need to pound it; it's stew meat or grind.
And while I may sound aloof, I'm not. But my venison steaks get salt, pepper and Olive oil, butter or bacon fat to stop sticking to the pan. That is the norm at my house.
Never BBQ sauce ( or the like ) unless it was shot poorly ( Usually a gifted cut, but there was a big MD this year that was incredibly tough to put down...he walked away despite absorbing lead. He needed a touch of flavoring to allow pan frying).
I find the large grain of Backstrap to be less than ideal to my Palate. Could be just me of course
Click to expand...

The grain of back-strap has only been an issue for us with one particular buck. It was very tough. Although, the entire animal was much tougher than any other we have had.

He didn't have a particularly quick death, though.

All the rest, the back-straps have been nearly as tender as good quality beef tenderloin, despite the grain.
 
So, for all this has turned into a long-winded whinge-fest, did you actually ever bother to discuss this with the butcher, or are you gonna spend the rest of time going on about it?

My experience with butchers has been good. Most cannot be bothered to steal from their customers, they have work to do, and a cooler full of better cuts of meat that they can choose from, if they are not so sick of seeing the stuff as to want to eat fish instead.

I know a few customers that got back a heck of a lot less than they should have because of the condition they brought it into the shop, in. Like, if it dries out while hanging, until the outer surface is essentially jerky, most of it is going to be trim and dumped on the floor. But you know, that can't possibly be the fault of the guy that brought it in, eh?

And geeze, what're ya doing leaving the tenderloins in the carcass for anyway?

My bet, the missing one got cut up or torn up on removal and ended up in the stew meat or burger. Can I prove it was? Nope. Can you prove it wasn't? Nope. If the cutter really is crooked, and a thief, so be that, there are ways to follow through with those too.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
So, for all this has turned into a long-winded whinge-fest, did you actually ever bother to discuss this with the butcher, or are you gonna spend the rest of time going on about it?

My experience with butchers has been good. Most cannot be bothered to steal from their customers, they have work to do, and a cooler full of better cuts of meat that they can choose from, if they are not so sick of seeing the stuff as to want to eat fish instead.

I know a few customers that got back a heck of a lot less than they should have because of the condition they brought it into the shop, in. Like, if it dries out while hanging, until the outer surface is essentially jerky, most of it is going to be trim and dumped on the floor. But you know, that can't possibly be the fault of the guy that brought it in, eh?

And geeze, what're ya doing leaving the tenderloins in the carcass for anyway?

My bet, the missing one got cut up or torn up on removal and ended up in the stew meat or burger. Can I prove it was? Nope. Can you prove it wasn't? Nope. If the cutter really is crooked, and a thief, so be that, there are ways to follow through with those too.

Cheers
Trev
Click to expand...

Hi Trev,

Whatever.

All my best,

Dan

PS: you claim a suspiciously intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the game butchering business. "I know a few customers that got back a heck of a lot less than they should have..."
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom