MEAT hunters !!!!

boneless is the way to go, better for the vacuum packer, I put olive oil and montreal steak spice on before I pack. ready to go when it is defrosted and vacuum packing with oil helps keep it tender when cooking

...i've never done that! ...gonna have to give that a go...

otherwise for deer:

...depends on the location where i shoot the animal...if it's more than a mile into the bush then i use aluminum mountaineering pulleys and hang and debone it...if it's less than a mile then i drag it, hang it at home, skin it, let it freeze, and use an electric sawzall to split and cut with the bone in

elk, moose, bear:

...whatever works...mostly quartering in the field...freezing at home...sawzall in the end...
 
The wife and I cut everything ourselves, deboned. We keep all the good cuts of meat for steaks and roast and the trim goes in for sausage, hamburger and pepperoni. This year we got chorizo dinner sausages and jalapeño cheddar pepperoni.

ET
 
boneless is the way to go, better for the vacuum packer, I put olive oil and montreal steak spice on before I pack. ready to go when it is defrosted and vacuum packing with oil helps keep it tender when cooking

Hell yeah!! I am gonna have to try that!!! I de-bone and do all my own meat from steaks to peperoni and jerky. Been just using butcher paper and freezing to date, but am gonna have to try the vacuum pack with seasoning included.....

it isn't rocket surgery doing your own meat. Just got to have patience and the room to do it. My garage becomes an butcher shop, 24x26 with 10foot ceilings helps. grinder, meat mixer, sausage stuffer, smoker. Not to mention some "good" knives, don't buy junk! you get what you pay for!!

man I am stuck on that vacuum sealing with seasoning. that sounds fricken awesome!!!
 
I've cut everything myself, steaks, roast and stew meat, everything else taken into butcher after deboned and trimmed of fat to be made into sausage. Hopefully this fall I will be upgrading and have my own smoker and get a vacuum sealer and wont have to take anything to the butcher.
 
If you are already vacuum packing and seasoning cuts and really want to go "over the top", check out a process called "sous vide".

A friend of mine invested in the equipment and this method is incredible for both flavor and tenderness. I am planning on getting my own set-up before hunting season so I can experiment with the process further.
 
I have found steaks made with a bandsaw throught the bone very gamey, the marrow from the bone gets smeared all over the surface of the steak. If you scrape it off its better, but not great.

I cutup my own deer now, all deboned and steaked with just a fillet knife. The grain feed deer here in S. Ontario are much tastier and less gamey than the deer I use to eat up north in Thunder Bay. I have shot many deer any number of different ways and have never found it made a differnce with the gamey taste, however I do find big rutting bucks terrible tasting or it might just be psycological since they stink so badly :) .
 
I agree. Bone in has a more gamey taste.

Notice it kits with moose steaks. Bear as well.

Most my bear is sausage. Stock up for summer camp fire roasting
 
Of all the things I've tried with deer the two things that have improved things the most are cooling the carcass as quickly as possible and taking the meat off the bone. The difference deboning made in the flavour of frozen venison shocked the hell out of me. We had always cut it on the bandsaw like a beef as we were usually butchering a beef around the same time as hunting season ended. No bones = better deer meat
 
we don't hang, we cut all our meet on a saw (bone in) - no ill effects. we used to hang for a week and de-bone. (white tail)
 
I've been trying to use all of the animal as much as possible these past two years.

all the off cut fat and meat gets rendered in to tallow via boiling in a large canning pot filled with water. the tallow can be used in candles , soap and as a dubbin for leather and the broth gets used for soup.

the ribs I smoke then boil to render the tallow, i separate the fat chunks and bone and discard . the meat and the broth that is made gets frozen for soup .
 
white tail are cooled as quickly as possible, (snow in bush, use rib spreader, and or garden hose when getting home) hung and skinned right-o-way, slice off some for for supper quick fry, let hang over night, party it up, have a good time shoot'n the chite, first light next day, debone everything, grind hamburger, cube meat for custom sausage, tenderloins stays whole, some nice chunks stay whole for very thin slicing for quick fry, everything is vac packed and into the freezer. DO NOT take any meat in for custom sausage etc during the "rush", almost a 100% guaranteed you will not get your own carefully cleaned meat back!
Leave hides and heads and feet and scraps in attached garage on the floor for the weasels to move in and keep the mice out all winter. Take real scraps back to the forest for the needy wildlife to clean up.
 
we gut and wash all deer as soon as possible.i am surprised so many guys do not wash out there deer with cold water .then let hang for as long as the weather permits .after the hunt we all get together and have a cutting up party .bone out all the roast but I just love a good loin steak with the bone in .wrap it all in butcher paper and good to go .lots of fine eating all winter Dutch
 
I debone, cut, grind and wrap everything myself except sausage. Leaving the bone in results in a seriously gamier taste. I had a small mulie buck almost ruined by having a pro butcher cut it with the bone in.
 
A deboned steak is just a hunk of meat....Ribs, briskets and steaks, bone in is the only way to go....it aint a T-bone without the bone.
To me the tastest part of any game steak is the meat attached to the bone (and it must be RARE)....couldn't image eating deboned ribs!!!
Gamey taste comes from animals shot in the rut, improper cooling (get that hide off it fast), and also from over cooking the meat. You have to remember that most all game meat cooks 30% faster than beef. If you don't like rare meat, stick to beef!
We just had some really nice 1" thick BBQed Elk T-bones for supper....3 1/2 minutes per side with hickory flavoured BBQ sauce, not a chance in Hell I'd turn that premium cut into a hunk of deboned meat, but that's just me. :)
 
Gamey taste comes from animals shot in the rut, improper cooling (get that hide off it fast)

Yup!

One moose a year, quartered on the spot (it's allowed) brought to shed as fast as possible and skinned right away. Hang for about a week and to the butcher, roast cut BONE IN, better taste.

All meat is wrapped in wax paper to prevent freezer burns.
 
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