Processing questions? Help please


VTbowman

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I tried to cut my own up a few years back to save on some "Doe".

I ended up with about 50 lbs of stew meat!!! I really felt it would be easier then it was and realized that a good understanding of the muscle groups of a deer is a good thing to know before cutting it yourself. I of coarse got my backstraps and tender loins out well enough but the rest was a freak show.

I just pay the $50 to get it cut, hamburger, and wrapped proffesionally now.

As for the salt/ice water. Don't know. Did you do this to leech out remaining blood since you could not let it hang?

Good Luck.

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Re: Processing questions? Help please

It does take some practice.We do all our own.We hang it up and then quarter it with a saws all and put in a fridge.We then take each quarter and remove anything we don't want to eat.Then we remove each muscle.You can take your fingers and find where they will come apart easier.Then each muscle is cut, according to the grain,into steaks.Shoulders don't make very big steaks.They usually go into the grinder,after they been cleaned of anything that ain't red meat.I think it would be harder to cut steaks if you de-boned it while it was hanging.It would be harder to figure out what peice you're working on.We've done so many I can pick up a peice and tell you where it came from.It does take some work but I thinks its worth it.We can cut what we want,when we want it.Sometimes instead of steaks,we cut thinner to make jerky.If we're low on hamburger we cut more into stew-type chunks and grind it.The only part we don't fool with is ribs.There's not enough meat on them to mess with.We've got 3 deer right now to work on.I'll make some pics and post them to give you an idea of how we take a ham and make it into steaks and hamburger.Best of luck and good eating. grin.gifcool.gif

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Re: Processing questions? Help please

When I do the backstraps I leave the blue part on it.When you cut it then you can cut it thick once all the way through say an 1/12 inches or so.Then cut it down to the blue stuff in the middle of that piece.Lay it open and there you have a butterfly chop about 3/4 of an inch thick.I like this method so you get a little bigger piece of meat to work with when cooking it. smile.gif

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