Meat cuts or sausages?

I just like having processed snacks to take in lunches, hunting/fishing trips, etc. Fresh sausages are great to have a stockpile of for summer BBQ's. As I said earlier, I like good beef for putting on the grill. The fat is why I prefer it for steaks.

There's nothing mysterious about it...different strokes for different folks.
 
I realize there's no wrong or right here, I'm just surprised by the seemingly huge divide between the likers and dislikers of venison.

We're not talking Marmite here, after all.
 
ironsighter said:
Reading this thread and seeing how many people seemingly don't like deer meat... It really makes me wonder... why?

There's gotta be something fundamentally different in order to result in some people loving it and others not liking it much.

But where does that difference lie?

People say that it is a combination of factors; the animal's diet, the age of the animal, the way it died, how quickly it was gutted and skinned, how it is processed, and how it is cooked...

I'm not really sold on the whole diet and age thing; I've eaten old bush bucks that tasted just as good as alfalfa-eating spikers. So that leaves gutting, skinning, processing and cooking.

I gut a deer pretty-much within minutes after it dies. Then I take it home and skin it and leave it hang in the shed for a day or 3, depending on temp. I butcher it myself, trim religiously, and vacuum-pack before freezing. I don't think there's a whole lot of magic here.

That brings us to cooking. There's one thing I do know about deer meat; cooking it requires one to abandon much of what they know about cooking meat. It can become dry and tough in about 1/2 the time it takes to cook beef to medium. Deer steaks are best just a touch past blue rare. Roasts are best between rare and medium rare. Stew meat and ground can be used pretty-much like their domestic counterparts, though.

In my world, deer is some of the most tender, flavourful meat I have ever eaten. It knocks the socks off your average Kirkland ribeye or pork chop. This isn't wishful thinking, it is exactly what myself, my family, and many friends experience when we eat mule deer roasts and steaks.

I don't even know what the word "gamey" means. I think it is something that people just imagine.
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I pretty much agree with you for the most part. I would absolutely rather have a younger grain fed deer than an old bush buck. Quick kills are definitely much better than a long chase or blood trail tracking with the animal heating up. Quick gutting and cooling of the meat is very important. If there is snow, fill the cavity right up and use a rib spreader to keep the ribs open to let more heat out. Our deer are skinned shortly after we get home and the meat washed and cooled off with the garden hose and hung. The Bar gets opened and the party calibration then begins. Some thin quick fry slices are sliced off for the supper meal. The butchering begins first thing in the morning. Trim off as much fat as possible. Deer fat is not pleasant in any way. Years ago I had a book that said to leave the hide on to keep the dust off the meat and hang the deer for a number of days and skin it on the day that you were going to butcher it. That was absolute bogus info. Never ever do that!
We sometime have pure venison hamburger, sometimes we mix it 50/50 with either beef or pork hamburger. We make some mighty fine deer jerky. Once in a while we get custom sausage and pepperettes made out of some. I like venison sliced real thin and quick fried in a cast iron pan in butter and add salt and pepper. With fresh deer, I live on that for a few days! I've lost my taste for venison roasts. I did that once before many years ago.
 
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BigUglyMan said:
Tastes bad when you cook it with bone in.
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X 2. The tallow fat is also a good way to cure you of venison...yuk.
We are quite particular about the butchering of venison, not a sniff of bone or fat. Which in turn ( IMO) makes for some pretty dry, dead-*ss tasting burger; thus the addition of pork.
As to people who use beef to mix, I'd ask this of you. Do you save the fat off of a beef cut ( after cooking)? Not many folks are frying eggs or tomatoes in beef fat; pork or bacon fat...darn straight. Pork fat is good to cook with, brings flavor...that's why we mix with pork.
And I'm not fond of pork actually. But I do find it adds flavor to grind, I'll even mix to into beef to make hamburgers juicier. I can't get my head around the whole concept of 'Lean Hamburger'...my palate wants some fat for flavor. Just not beef fat so much, and definitely not venison fat

But we definitely only use waste cuts for grind, the rest are roasts, steaks, stew meat and stir fry.
 
I'm one of those people who loves hunting but is not a big fan of deer meat and especially not mule deer. With whitetail I usually cut out the back straps and tenderloin and the rest goes for sausage, either mine or I give it to a buddy. I've only ever shot one mule deer but the whole thing went to a friend for sausage and pepperoni. I don't like the idea of wasting good meat even if it's not really what I like so if I don't have someone to take the meat I don't think I'd shoot a deer. I know of a few people who will shoot a deer and just do nothing with the meat just because they paid for a tag. Drives me nuts and is very wasteful.
 
I love sausages made from deer. If anyone on the board does not like theirs (pepperettes, summer sausage, etc), I will happily take it off your hands for you lol. I need to keep up my slender & delicate Polack physique.

Cannon
 
retoxtony said:
I'm one of those people who loves hunting but is not a big fan of deer meat and especially not mule deer. With whitetail I usually cut out the back straps and tenderloin and the rest goes for sausage, either mine or I give it to a buddy. I've only ever shot one mule deer but the whole thing went to a friend for sausage and pepperoni. I don't like the idea of wasting good meat even if it's not really what I like so if I don't have someone to take the meat I don't think I'd shoot a deer. I know of a few people who will shoot a deer and just do nothing with the meat just because they paid for a tag. Drives me nuts and is very wasteful.
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what are the differences in Mule Deer meat and Whitetail meat? I was born and raised in Sask back in the 50's and 60's. I ate a lot of deer meat back then, not sure if they were Mule or Whitetail. I know there are a lot of Mule Deer around there nowadays. It's illegal for us here in MB to shoot a Mule Deer. Please try to explain the difference in the meat, I'm very curious to know.
 
two-dogs said:
what are the differences in Mule Deer meat and Whitetail meat? I was born and raised in Sask back in the 50's and 60's. I ate a lot of deer meat back then, not sure if they were Mule or Whitetail. I know there are a lot of Mule Deer around there nowadays. It's illegal for us here in MB to shoot a Mule Deer. Please try to explain the difference in the meat, I'm very curious to know.
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Very little difference, unless you plan to eat the ears or tail.
 
two-dogs said:
what are the differences in Mule Deer meat and Whitetail meat? I was born and raised in Sask back in the 50's and 60's. I ate a lot of deer meat back then, not sure if they were Mule or Whitetail. I know there are a lot of Mule Deer around there nowadays. It's illegal for us here in MB to shoot a Mule Deer. Please try to explain the difference in the meat, I'm very curious to know.
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WT has no flavour and mule deer tastes excellent, IMO.

If you prefer tasteless meat like veal and low grade "pink" beef from your local store, then you'll prefer WT.

If you prefer tastier meats like lamb, bison, farmed or wild elk, moose, and high quality aged beef, you'll prefer mule deer.
 
tokguy said:
As to people who use beef to mix, I'd ask this of you. Do you save the fat off of a beef cut ( after cooking)? Not many folks are frying eggs or tomatoes in beef fat; pork or bacon fat...darn straight. Pork fat is good to cook with, brings flavor...that's why we mix with pork.
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As a matter of fact, I made a blade roast in the slow cooker last week and saved the fat. Once you render it into tallow to remove the water, it will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. It is certainly different from lard or bacon grease, but it is still a good, flavourful frying fat.
 
two-dogs said:
what are the differences in Mule Deer meat and Whitetail meat? I was born and raised in Sask back in the 50's and 60's. I ate a lot of deer meat back then, not sure if they were Mule or Whitetail. I know there are a lot of Mule Deer around there nowadays. It's illegal for us here in MB to shoot a Mule Deer. Please try to explain the difference in the meat, I'm very curious to know.
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I've always found mule deer to be a bit more wild tasting. I think the taste difference has more to do with the fact that generally the mule deer I've tried has been older bigger bucks and not younger deer or does. I might feel differently if I tried a nice tender doe but when we usually only get drawn every 4 years for muleys around here, most guys are only interested in the big bucks. It's funny cause I was actually talking about this with my mother in law this morning and she and her husband actually think the opposite of me, they prefer mule deer over whitetail.
 
retoxtony said:
I've always found mule deer to be a bit more wild tasting. I think the taste difference has more to do with the fact that generally the mule deer I've tried has been older bigger bucks and not younger deer or does. I might feel differently if I tried a nice tender doe but when we usually only get drawn every 4 years for muleys around here, most guys are only interested in the big bucks. It's funny cause I was actually talking about this with my mother in law this morning and she and her husband actually think the opposite of me, they prefer mule deer over whitetail.
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would that be your Father-in-Law?:p
What part of Sask are you from? I was from the Foam Lake / Invermay area. How does the deer lic work out there since you have both WT and Mule Deer, a lic for each kind of deer or a deer is a deer? You get what you shoot? Were there both WT and Mule Deer out there in Sask back in the 50's and 60's? I don't believe there has been any/many MD in MB for all that long. That's why it is illegal for us to shoot them here.
 
The meatcutter who did two deer and my partner's elk this year does all the (legally harvested) elk for the local Indians. He says the guy who shoots it gets 1/4 cut how he wants. The rest is sausage. Reason being that if Robert Sam's family get sirloin tip roast, and Sam Robert's family gets chuck steak...band council meetings get awkward.

we had him split the trim 50/50 between ground and sausage, and the sausage 50/50 between Italian and pepperoni.
the pepperoni is excellent, and tastes like elk. I'm testing the Italian sausage tonight.
 
Squamch said:
The meatcutter who did two deer and my partner's elk this year does all the (legally harvested) elk for the local Indians. He says the guy who shoots it gets 1/4 cut how he wants. The rest is sausage. Reason being that if Robert Sam's family get sirloin tip roast, and Sam Robert's family gets chuck steak...band council meetings get awkward.

we had him split the trim 50/50 between ground and sausage, and the sausage 50/50 between Italian and pepperoni.
the pepperoni is excellent, and tastes like elk. I'm testing the Italian sausage tonight.
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Elk pepperoni tastes different than other hooved/red meat pepperoni?
 
two-dogs said:
would that be your Father-in-Law?:p
What part of Sask are you from? I was from the Foam Lake / Invermay area. How does the deer lic work out there since you have both WT and Mule Deer, a lic for each kind of deer or a deer is a deer? You get what you shoot? Were there both WT and Mule Deer out there in Sask back in the 50's and 60's? I don't believe there has been any/many MD in MB for all that long. That's why it is illegal for us to shoot them here.
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No, my wife's dad passed away when she was young. Her mother is remarried. My wife doesn't call him dad so I don't call him my father inlaw.
 
two-dogs said:
oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Care to answer the other questions?
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Sorry, we can buy one whitetail (either ###) tag per year but mule deer is draw only unless its for archery in which case you can just buy a tag. They used to have a "earn a buck" thing for mule deer where you could shoot two does and get buck tag but they havent done that for a few years now. I really havent been hunting deer for very many years and i don't know the rules that great, so someone else might chime in if i'm off a bit. I really dont understand how they come up with their system since it seems like whitetail numbers are way down and mule deer are doing good. Same thing with antelope. Cant even get a antelope tag at all and there are LOTS of them around. Atleast in my area.
 
Not hunting right now, just not enough consumption in the family to justify taking a whole deer, but if it was up to me, Id get the prime steaks, about 20 pounds of burger, and the rest made into jerky. Would save me a ton of money on jerky per week, and even jerky chew... Love a good weekend making jerky...mmmmm
 
Initially we cut everything we can into roasts, backstraps into steaks(ends into rolled/tied roasts). Mark the better cuts of meat that will stay roasts, the lesser roasts I later brine/smoke for hams. Package the trim in 5 or 10lb packages for later sausaga/hamb/pepperoni. Also pkg the stringy area's into pre sliced jerky for later brining.

Theory being we can always grind the lesser cuts at a later date if we need more grind. Basically just seperate the muscle groups, trim the silver skin/tallow/tendons and then package.

We used to do it all at once but have found if we just trim, package and label it, then at a later date make sausage, etc. we do a much nicer job as it's not such a big job all at once. Plus you don't get sick of the same sausage all the time, and pepperoni/jerky are a treat.

We've also found that our sausages/pepperoni taste better fresher than after months in the freezer so now we make smaller batches thoughout the year rather than all at once.

Just wish I could find a better buy on those rolls of vacum sealer bags.
 
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