.... ice chest full of deer hind qurters;..... Grinding questions

[okiegirl1]

well, I added another pound of deer to the mix, fried up a patty, and it's still really greasy.

that makes 4# deer/2# suet

I think I'll grind up the rest of the deer (about 6#) and add it to the mix. that'd make 10#deer/2# suet. is that 80/20, right? when I buy ground beef I buy 80/20. sorry, just typing out loud

I didn't season any of it.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I think you'll be fine. You might want to cook some up when you get it done, just to make sure.

There are so many different ways to make it. You have to find what you like.

You can always season it when you cook it, that way you don't have sausage when you really want taco meat. Same reason I've been canning plain salted meat.

 

[opiemaster]

Well Okie girl, I wish I had been on here sooner. I process all my own deer meat and have for years. As stated before, back straps are cut to whichever thicknes you want, preferred around 1 to 1 1/2 inch thick, you can wrap them in backon and grill, or cut them 2 1/2 inches thick, and butterfly them ( cut them almost in half and lay them open.) these can either be fried in cracker crums and butter or grilled. Your hind quarters you can carefully debone them and you can gut steaks out of the larger paeices of meat or use them as roasts. the extra small odds and end peices you use for jerky and hamburger. The neck meat you can cut the meat off of it and also use it for hamburger. Dont for grt stew meat also, if you like stews you can also cut some of the odds and end meat into 1 inch squares to put up for tew meat. put them in 1lb packages so you can just grab them out and be ready to go. I also make my own sausage. There are several different recipies for sausage. You can get pork fat from just about any grocery store with an meat dept.they will darn near give it to you. I grind up the deer meat and the pork fat separate. I usualy do about 1 lb of fat to 4 lbs venison. Try different recipies if you tell me what kind of sausage you like I will try to find you a recipe for that. We soak our meet for 3 days in salt water, this helps draw all the blood and game taste out of it ( some peopke dont like the game taste). Keep it chilled with ice. I usualy let the kids run the hand operated grinder as long as they are old enough to know NOT to stick your fingers in there why you are cranking the handle. LOL. I wouldnt let them run a motorized one. Well if you have anymore wuastions, just ask.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Okie, adding pork fat is not necessary. It's mainly for taste. Back 15 years ago, when we did our first deer we added pork. Nowadays, we just grind and bag in one lb. packages. When I brown for spaghetti etc, I just cook it in bacon fat, and it is fine. for making burgers, I add egg to hold it all together. All adding pork does is add fat to it, which may or may not be needed, depending on what you want.

 

[okiegirl1]

thank you so much to everyone.

I ended up with 4 good size roasts, 12 1# packages of ground (80/20), and 2# jerky meat. plus the back strap steaks we ate at our party Sunday.

I'm sure with more experience I would've ended up with more meat, but hopefully we'll get some more and I can practice.

Oh, one more thing. I found out at some point when I was deboning, my lovely (thief) dog stole one of the big hind quarters. My daughter said "mom, did you give that to them?" I'm up to my eyeballs in blood and yuck so I just glance over seeing the dogs chewing on what I thought was one of the leg bones I had already worked on. Later that afternoon, in come one of the dogs holding what is left of this big chunk of meat covered in grass and dirt. There was so much in the ice chest, I must've just missed it. Stupid dog! (stupid me for not watching better)

 

[opiemaster]

LOL, yup, dogs and butchering go hand n hand. My dogs LOVE deer season as much as we do, They get to chew on any of the scraps. But they will try to sneak something out of an unattended cooler to if they can! I have english mastiffs, so when the sneak something its usually gone FAST bones and all!

 

[ScottSD]

DO NOT GRIND THOSE BACKSTRAPS!!! Slice them into about one inch thick pieces,(they will be a little larger than a silver dollar) wrap a strip of bacon around them and THEN put them on the grill!! DO NOT COOK THEM TO DEATH!!
Another option for the backstraps, is to slice them, and fry them in a skillet with a lot of butter in it!!
Everything else, you can grind. We mix it 2/3 venison to 1/3 pork sausage, and make patties.

Just my nickles worth!!

A silver dollar?

Just how small are the deer in Ohio anyway?

End sarcasm as I didn't mean to be offensive.