Meat storage & preparation

[Rich M]

I come from old school - freezer paper! We've had 2 yr old steaks/roasts/etc. without freezer burn using freezer paper. When you fold it, you squeeze the air out.

I have a vacuum packer and primarily use that on fish - extends their life a bit.

1 quart zip locks per pound of venison (just venison - no mix) and those last well.

Someone said milk crates - I have 2 small laundry basket type containers that fit perfect in my chest freezer. Each holds about 30# of ground meat and some steaks/roasts. The containers are great for storage.

[Tufrthnails]

I have two different places I store meat. But basically when I kill a deer I debone it, And I have bins in my cooler that I use to put meat in with holes drilled in to allow meat to bled out. It stays on ice for a min of 7 days max of 21 days, which ages it pretty effectively. If I am out of state and I kill a deer at the end of my trip it will get separate treatment when I get back. I will turn my shop fridge down to 38 deg and lay it out in the racks with a dip pan under it and it will stay there for at least 7 days. I cut all my meat into muscle groups and vacuum seal them with date and cut on the bag. then It will most likely got into a milk crate and stored in my neighbors large chest freezer. I have a upright fridge freezer in my shop that I keep any meat I may want quick access to. Milk crates seem to work really well for me and my neighbor for organizing meat. We both shoot a lot of deer every year so we have never run into an issue of who's meat is who's. Usually we are trying to finish the last of the previous years meat right before season starts and will give that away if friends or family are running low or out of wild game. I lost my big freezer this year and that put a hurting on my venison. I am out right now, but the neighbor of course has hooked me up with plenty when I want some. Side note I bought circuit alarms for both my fridge/freeze and my neighbor's freezer and they work very well.

Sounds like an awesome set up!

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It works for me. I ruined a lot of meat over the years and Florida deer typically are very gamey. I always looking for new ways to improve my wild game. This is a great thread. I think the biggest thing for me has been when I started dry aging. It is night and day difference. Now the KY deer taste great to me 20 min after I debone them, but they are ag deer so they aren't eating much acorns and browse.

[Tufrthnails]

I use a chest freezer for deer and my garage freezer for fish. I usually stack the freezer in sections. Burger on this side, then cube steak, then sausage, ect...

I usually use Ziploc bags for burger and sausage. Leave it open and dunk it in water. Right before it's completely submerged close the bag. All the air will be out.

Backstraps, cubesteak, and any other roasts(muscles) I double wrap in paper. It never lasts more than a year.

I've been looking at a vacuum, just haven't pull the trigger yet.

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I just started vac last season because I got some of my neighbors cuts that had been sealed from the year before and they perfect. To me it is worth the initial investment. But I did the seran wrap and wax paper for 20 years.

[cedarsavage]

I cut them myself. I usually quarter them and put them in garbage bags in the cooler if I'm gonna cut it within a few days or if it will be a while I throw the quarters in the deep freeze til I can get to it. I'm gonna switch to actual game bags this year though. I make the big cuts seperating muscle groups and my wife cleans hair and silver skin off, then we put them in freezer bags or Saran Wrap and wrap them with freezer paper. I've never had any issues with freezer burn

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[PK_]

If you are vac sealing, it is a good idea to double seal the ends. I lost a lot of meat one year because seals did not stay air tight. Double seal I have never had that problem but I actually prefer plastic wrap and freezer paper, IDK why.

Last couple years I have just quartered them then take them to a butcher. I just do not have a good setup right now for processing.

I put my stuff in a chest freezer. I am very particular about stacking stuff neatly and keeping certain cuts all together. I hate rummaging through a chest freezer trying to find certain cuts and not knowing exactly how much of what is left. I package things so that 1 package or 2 packages is a meal for my family, depending on the cut.

[Kraftd]

Butcher myself also. I've tried a couple different aging methods depending on weather, but honestly, now I just try to get them cut up and put away as quick as possible, and really don't notice any difference. You can always dry age cuts in the fridge when you pull them for a while, which I do fairly often.

I break mine down then saran wrap and freezer paper. No problem with them lasting years that way, though usually I end up rationing a little anyways by hunting season. Been doing more larger bone-in cuts lately like whole neck and shoulder roasts. Cook them up then refreeze meal portions in ziplocs of the meat. Do my own ground too, no mix, can always add that later if I want. Usually I save bags of trimmings, and do a grind day mid winter for that though. Also not a fan of canned meat, so all mine gets frozen.

I have a chest freezer in the basement with all wild game I like to keep fairly organized, but by about this time of year, my wife sees the space and it starts to fill up with other stuff. Usually by December it's pretty full with just fish and game. Try to eat wild game or fish at least three nights a week, usually more.

[vermonthunter16]

Also butcher my own deer and I have always done the saran wrap and freezer paper. Have had 0 issues.

[cbigbear]

Great info keep it coming!!!!

In the past I had a massive chest freezer & real dislike the organization. Just a pile of stuff to have to dig thru. Think I'm start looking for a stand up freezer. Ideally I'd like a stand up fridge/freezer but have the freezer section be larger than the fridge section. Anyone know if these exist? The reason for this is I would have somewhere to dry age meat as well as store frozen meat.

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[Swampbuck]

I don't think a vacuum sealer is a must but it sure makes the process a lot quicker and easier!

I store mine in a separate upright freezer. Keep it organized on different shelves by meat type so its easy to find. A chest freezer seems like it would be difficult to organize unless you are meticulous about that but I am not lol.... On each shelf I try to do one side fish and the other side venison so keeps the meat types separated well from one anther.

I process a deer as follows;

Backstraps - Get cut into steak sizes and packed away (roughly 5-1LB Bags) Usually reserve these for steaks

Back Legs - Get separated into top round, bottom round, sirloin, tri steak and loin. I put them away in rougly 1 Lb bags and get about 15-20 bags. I cook them the following way
-Sautéed and Smothered with Peppers and onions
-Stir Fry
-Venison Marinara
-Steaks
-Pan Fried
-Bacon Wrapped with Jalepeno/Cream Cheese
-Stew
-Roasted Loin in Wine Sauce

I know there are some other ways just forgetting. But I think the legs get under utilized often. The key is making sure the cuts are made along the muscle groups to avoid them being tough.

Front Legs, ribs and Neck - Depending on age will keep half for roasts and ribs or use some for stew and the rest will go with all the trimmings, shanks, etc to get sausage, burger and tamales. Usually breaks out to the following
- 30 lbs Smoked Sausage
- 10 Lbs tamales
- 5-10 packs of stew or sautee meat or maybe 2 roasts

[olivertractor]

Great info keep it coming!!!!

In the past I had a massive chest freezer & real dislike the organization. Just a pile of stuff to have to dig thru. Think I'm start looking for a stand up freezer. Ideally I'd like a stand up fridge/freezer but have the freezer section be larger than the fridge section. Anyone know if these exist? The reason for this is I would have somewhere to dry age meat as well as store frozen meat.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I have a small chest and an upright. Seems stuff stays better in chest, probably uses less energy. Upright is not always plugged in but great for par freezing fish, berries, ice water jugs for freezing, and also use upright for utilizing oldest stuff first needless to say it's not unplugged often

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[Iabow]

Learned to butcher my own deer up from my great uncle and grandpa who were heads at Rath Packing Company back in the day.

The hind quarters I like to segment and steak em out although been making a couple roast.

The front shoulder the little chuck mock tender ( cut off the flat of the shoulder ) I make stew meat out of, Deer Stew made like beef stew is oh so good.

The loins I leave in sections to cut latter or cooked whole and of course the inside loin.
I will freezer paper all of these, just wrap real tight. Works good and last a long time.

The rest I hamburger it, a good grinder is a cheap investment and you can do it how you like. I usually use the coarse then fine attachment to really make a nice mix.
The hamburger gets Vac sealed using a 4 cup measuring cup to rough out to 2 lbs a bag. Premake the Vac bags.

Planning on making a few bacon warped loins this year for the grill like a London broil.

No special recipes, it gets used for everything.


I am with couple others I have not found aging to really help anything, I done 1.5 weeks and did not notice a real difference that I could tell. I do think getting it gutted and cooled as fast as you can helps with taste.

[Wlog]

I use saran wrap and then wrap in freezer paper, it will keep for over a year (usually doesn't last that long).

Wlog is the man! Walk in cooler would be awesome! I bet you have a lot of friends when deer season rolls around.

[ Post made via Android ]

I've got more $ invested into the whole process than I care to admit but $65-80 every time you shoot a deer adds up quick too. Plus I like knowing it's the deer that I shot and took care of rather than getting back someone else's deer and not knowing how well it was cared for. If you want your family to enjoy venison, especially little kids, it's got to taste good. I've fed it to plenty of people who can't believe it's deer meat I'm feeding them because they've had really gamey tasting venison before.

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[Lockdown]

I actually enjoy butchering my own deer to a certain extent. Some of the butchers in the area are charging $100 to process deer now, but I do know of one that charges $60. I like cuttin it up myself because I'm pickier and get more meat off him than a butcher would. My buck last year weighed 159 lbs dressed and I got 59 pounds of meat off him.

Back in the day dad and I let em hang a few days (weather permitting) then butchered. Since then I've been letting them hang 4-6 days if I can.

Last year I decided to do something different and let him hang for 6 days, packaged and froze all my trimmings, then threw the backstraps, tenderloins, and all the steak/roast muscles in the fridge for close to another week.

I felt like it made a noticeable difference, but nothing major. I'm going to try it again and see if the results are similar.

I've been cutting up 6 to 8" sections of backstraps and throwing them on the grill that way. I use mostly indirect heat and cook it about and hour and man is it good.

I actually ate the last of my venison last week. Sucks buying hamburger when it's $5 a pound!

Oh and I am also a freezer paper guy. Never had an issue with freezer burn as long as there is more than one thickness of paper when wrapped... If that makes sense.

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[JoeRE]

I actually enjoy butchering my own deer to a certain extent.

Yea, it is certainly time consuming, tedious, and messy to clean up sometimes but still to me the process is very enjoyable, rewarding, fulfilling on a very basic level. The world would be a better place if [glow=red]everyone[/glow] had to butcher the meat they want to eat...at least once anyway

[Buckshot20]

I prefer meat that comes from the grocery store, where no animals were killed!!!

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