PROCESSING VENISON AT HOME - Part one

Author’s Note: This two-part series will detail some of the processing I did on the deer I killed while bowhunting recently. Part two will run tomorrow.

TRIMMING, GRINDING, AND STUFFING
By: Ray Hansen

Cutting, trimming, grinding, and stuffing. Razor-sharp knives in experienced hands, slicing down to the bone. An entire deer that slowly becomes a skeleton before your eyes. Sounds like the plot for a Halloween horror classic, but it’s nothing macabre.

It’s all about turning venison on the deer into steaks that will sizzle, sensational smoked sausage, hearty hamburger, simmering slumgullion, a bounty of bratwurst, and a few other fine cuts that will warm the coming winter nights. Life-long friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan and I recently spent a couple days in an unheated pole barn doing just that. For us it is all part of the hunt – a part we choose to do ourselves rather than bringing the meat to a commercial processor.

I have nothing against bringing a deer in to have a butcher trim and package it. I’ve done it. Not all hunters however, have the knowledge, time, or equipment to handle this chore alone. Duane and I however – at least for the first deer we take in any season – like to process them ourselves.

So, on Monday and Wednesday of last week we went to work on the two big does we killed while bowhunting the week prior. It was a pleasure to tackle this chore.

HANG ‘EM HIGH

Step one is hauling the deer to the pole barn and hanging them to let the muscles relax and give the meat a little time to age. If tempertures remain around forty degrees we may let the deer hang several days. On this October hunt in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we skinned the deer immediately to get faster cooling since temperatures were borderline. After two days we started processing Duane’s 3 ½ year-old, 125 pound doe.

We work with four-inch and six-inch fillet knives just like those used on fish. Our goal is to cut meat cleanly away from the bone, one quarter at a time. Each slab is laid on a clean cutting surface where we trim away all fat, connecting tissues, membrane, and “silver skin” which is found on the surface of some of the muscles.

After initial trimming, we begin cutting steaks from the hindquarters, and building a side pile of smaller chunks of lean venison that will become stew meat or will be ground up. The steaks are cut across the grain, and shaping them is a matter of personal taste. Duane likes his thin and flat like a rib-eye. I like mine round and thicker like filet mignon. We have plenty of meat to work with so each gets his quota of preferred cuts.

DEEP FREEZE

This year we are trying a new approach to packaging meat, using the “ZipVac” system. This is a very simple yet effective way to handle venison, fish, or anything that benefits from vacuum-packing. Put the cut into the appropriate sized bag, zip the seal closed using finger pressure, then place a small hand-held vacuum pump over a valve built into the bag and remove the air. In a few seconds the bag collapses tightly around the meat and stays that way. Twist the valve a quarter turn to lock it and the venison is freezer ready. It sure beats the other methods I’ve used such as freezer paper.

As a side note, campers, travelers, backpackers, hunters, and others could use this style vacuum packing for anything they wanted to keep fresh or stay dry like granola, matches, scents used when hunting, and many, many other things.

Check this blog tomorrow for the final part of today’s blog. See you here!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008