Preferred Butchering Cuts

[The Mediocre Hunter]

Ok so does everyone agree with just grinding the neck? Or does anyone do roasts with it? I have it cut into the sections now and want to decide if cut it up for ground, or leave bone in or debone for roasts. I've been working on getting the fat and silver skin off of the chunks I took off the hind leg but seems like there's always more that shows up. Don't want to over do it but don't want to leave stuff on there that will make the meat end up bad. Also noticed that as the meat gets warmer the harder it is to trim. Do you guys see this or is my mind making this up?

I prefer the neck in roasts. Way too much connecting tissue especially on a big buck to trim off for burger. In a slow cooker a lot of that connecting tissue either melts away or separates from the neck muscles leaving some nice tender meat. Perfect for sandwiches.
Cold or slightly frozen meat trims way easier. Anytime it softens up too much it’s much more difficult to work with. When that happens I throw it in the freezer for a bit till it firms up again.
When I trim for burger only pure red meat goes in the grinder. In the end you will have much better tasting burger. It’s very time consuming but worth the effort.

Sounds good. Do I leave the bone in the neck?

And ok on the grind pile. I'll have to trim more on those pieces. Do you mix the deer grind with some pork or anything while packaging or just package it pure?

I trim it off the neck bone.

As far as adding pork I don’t do that. I like pure venison. Just rough grind first and fine grind next and the burger holds together well without any fillers.

I grind the neck. I leave the sirloin and a rounds whole so theres plenty of better roasts.

I'll debone and trim all the fat off but dont worry about connective tissue. This goes for all scraps aswell. Then straight into the grinder. I'm sure it depends on your grinder. Some folks think the sinue clogs everything up. Ive found if everythings cold theres no issue. Put your grinder in the freezer and the meat ideally is right at the point of freezing. It just makes everything easier (and safer from a food safety perspective).

I dont add fat to my burger or sausage either. When I started out years ago I added pork fat back but over they years added less and less. About 5 years ago I started doing straight vennison and I honestly think its better.

How much connective tissue do you leave? And how little can your scraps be? I feel like I'm losing alot while trimming the silver skin

[The Mediocre Hunter]

Ok so does everyone agree with just grinding the neck? Or does anyone do roasts with it? I have it cut into the sections now and want to decide if cut it up for ground, or leave bone in or debone for roasts. I've been working on getting the fat and silver skin off of the chunks I took off the hind leg but seems like there's always more that shows up. Don't want to over do it but don't want to leave stuff on there that will make the meat end up bad. Also noticed that as the meat gets warmer the harder it is to trim. Do you guys see this or is my mind making this up?

I prefer the neck in roasts. Way too much connecting tissue especially on a big buck to trim off for burger. In a slow cooker a lot of that connecting tissue either melts away or separates from the neck muscles leaving some nice tender meat. Perfect for sandwiches.
Cold or slightly frozen meat trims way easier. Anytime it softens up too much it’s much more difficult to work with. When that happens I throw it in the freezer for a bit till it firms up again.
When I trim for burger only pure red meat goes in the grinder. In the end you will have much better tasting burger. It’s very time consuming but worth the effort.

Sounds good. Do I leave the bone in the neck?

And ok on the grind pile. I'll have to trim more on those pieces. Do you mix the deer grind with some pork or anything while packaging or just package it pure?

I trim it off the neck bone.

As far as adding pork I don’t do that. I like pure venison. Just rough grind first and fine grind next and the burger holds together well without any fillers.

That's good to know. And just clarify, are you saying mix the rough grind and the fine grind or, fine grind what I've already rough ground and that makes or hold together without the fillers?

I grind once with a coarse plate then send it thru again using a fine plate. I like doing it that way especially for venison burgers because they press better and hold together. For chili or other burger the rough grind is plenty.

Sounds like a plan. I'll have to make two batches. Do you use the rough for sausage or not make some? Sorry that might be a dumb question.

[Jonny]

If you're doing it yourself, I would recommend leaving it in as big of pieces as you can. When you cut steaks and package them that way, you create more surface area to get freezer burned.

Some simple tips is keep the shanks whole. Maybe the best part of the whole deer. I'd also suggest plastic wrap then freezer paper on all cuts except what will be ground. The plastic wrap makes keeping air of the meat very easy. Simple and cheap too.

How do you do the shank whole without taking off the silver skin? Or does it not matter much on that either? And do you only do the plastic wrap/butcher paper and no vacuum seal? I'm trying to do a mixture of it and see if I can tell a difference later.

The silver skin will break down as you slow cook it. So just leave it otherwise you will never finish taking silver skin off a shank. If you are worried go buy a beef or pork shank and cook it first and it will eliminate all the doubt.

I vacuum seal now but plastic wrap and freezer paper is fine. Either works. Just be careful with the vacuum seal because the plastic isn’t that tough, so it can puncture easily. Don’t need to baby it, but don’t frisbee it into the freezer.

The amount of silver skin you leave all depends on your grinder. Where I take my trim the guy has an industrial grinder (and he’s Amish which is kinda weird) and I’ve never had an issue leaving silver skin. But my old grinder that my dad has had for 20 years, put silver skin through it and it’s game over. Plus it depends on the deer size. A 4+ year old buck has football sized roasts compared to a tennis ball off a yearling.

[Dewey]

Ok so does everyone agree with just grinding the neck? Or does anyone do roasts with it? I have it cut into the sections now and want to decide if cut it up for ground, or leave bone in or debone for roasts. I've been working on getting the fat and silver skin off of the chunks I took off the hind leg but seems like there's always more that shows up. Don't want to over do it but don't want to leave stuff on there that will make the meat end up bad. Also noticed that as the meat gets warmer the harder it is to trim. Do you guys see this or is my mind making this up?

I prefer the neck in roasts. Way too much connecting tissue especially on a big buck to trim off for burger. In a slow cooker a lot of that connecting tissue either melts away or separates from the neck muscles leaving some nice tender meat. Perfect for sandwiches.
Cold or slightly frozen meat trims way easier. Anytime it softens up too much it’s much more difficult to work with. When that happens I throw it in the freezer for a bit till it firms up again.
When I trim for burger only pure red meat goes in the grinder. In the end you will have much better tasting burger. It’s very time consuming but worth the effort.

Sounds good. Do I leave the bone in the neck?

And ok on the grind pile. I'll have to trim more on those pieces. Do you mix the deer grind with some pork or anything while packaging or just package it pure?

I trim it off the neck bone.

As far as adding pork I don’t do that. I like pure venison. Just rough grind first and fine grind next and the burger holds together well without any fillers.

That's good to know. And just clarify, are you saying mix the rough grind and the fine grind or, fine grind what I've already rough ground and that makes or hold together without the fillers?

I grind once with a coarse plate then send it thru again using a fine plate. I like doing it that way especially for venison burgers because they press better and hold together. For chili or other burger the rough grind is plenty.

Sounds like a plan. I'll have to make two batches. Do you use the rough for sausage or not make some? Sorry that might be a dumb question.

I don’t do much sausage anymore. If I do I drop trimmings off at my local meat market.

[ThePreBanMan]

Steaks, steaks, and more steaks...

[Boogieman1]

I prefer to process the whole sucker at once and be done with it. Mainly cause my wife gives me a earful for making a mess. I pull the tenders, cut the back strap in half (so I have 4 packaged individually) cut some good steaks, cut off the shanks, pull the small flat iron steaks off the shoulders, cut off head & neck along with 1 shoulder and give to a Hispanic lady down the road in exchange for some tamales, debone the rest and grind it about 70/30 with beef fat.

I don’t have a band saw I use a old wood handled butchers saw. A good variety of sharp knives also comes in handy imo.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

If you're doing it yourself, I would recommend leaving it in as big of pieces as you can. When you cut steaks and package them that way, you create more surface area to get freezer burned.

Some simple tips is keep the shanks whole. Maybe the best part of the whole deer. I'd also suggest plastic wrap then freezer paper on all cuts except what will be ground. The plastic wrap makes keeping air of the meat very easy. Simple and cheap too.

How do you do the shank whole without taking off the silver skin? Or does it not matter much on that either? And do you only do the plastic wrap/butcher paper and no vacuum seal? I'm trying to do a mixture of it and see if I can tell a difference later.

The silver skin will break down as you slow cook it. So just leave it otherwise you will never finish taking silver skin off a shank. If you are worried go buy a beef or pork shank and cook it first and it will eliminate all the doubt.

I vacuum seal now but plastic wrap and freezer paper is fine. Either works. Just be careful with the vacuum seal because the plastic isn’t that tough, so it can puncture easily. Don’t need to baby it, but don’t frisbee it into the freezer.

The amount of silver skin you leave all depends on your grinder. Where I take my trim the guy has an industrial grinder (and he’s Amish which is kinda weird) and I’ve never had an issue leaving silver skin. But my old grinder that my dad has had for 20 years, put silver skin through it and it’s game over. Plus it depends on the deer size. A 4+ year old buck has football sized roasts compared to a tennis ball off a yearling.

Makes sense. I disconnected the bone joints so there wouldn't be any sharp points on any of it. The only thing I took a sawzall to was the ribs. I know typically ppl grind the meat but I've seen someone make some lean ribs with it and want to try it. I'll definitely do freezer plastic and butcher paper on that. My grinder is not Industrial by any means but I think it's not too cheap. Is actually a "commercial" kitchen aid multi station thing. It worked pretty well last time we made some chorizo with it.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

Ok so does everyone agree with just grinding the neck? Or does anyone do roasts with it? I have it cut into the sections now and want to decide if cut it up for ground, or leave bone in or debone for roasts. I've been working on getting the fat and silver skin off of the chunks I took off the hind leg but seems like there's always more that shows up. Don't want to over do it but don't want to leave stuff on there that will make the meat end up bad. Also noticed that as the meat gets warmer the harder it is to trim. Do you guys see this or is my mind making this up?

I prefer the neck in roasts. Way too much connecting tissue especially on a big buck to trim off for burger. In a slow cooker a lot of that connecting tissue either melts away or separates from the neck muscles leaving some nice tender meat. Perfect for sandwiches.
Cold or slightly frozen meat trims way easier. Anytime it softens up too much it’s much more difficult to work with. When that happens I throw it in the freezer for a bit till it firms up again.
When I trim for burger only pure red meat goes in the grinder. In the end you will have much better tasting burger. It’s very time consuming but worth the effort.

Sounds good. Do I leave the bone in the neck?

And ok on the grind pile. I'll have to trim more on those pieces. Do you mix the deer grind with some pork or anything while packaging or just package it pure?

I trim it off the neck bone.

As far as adding pork I don’t do that. I like pure venison. Just rough grind first and fine grind next and the burger holds together well without any fillers.

That's good to know. And just clarify, are you saying mix the rough grind and the fine grind or, fine grind what I've already rough ground and that makes or hold together without the fillers?

I grind once with a coarse plate then send it thru again using a fine plate. I like doing it that way especially for venison burgers because they press better and hold together. For chili or other burger the rough grind is plenty.

Sounds like a plan. I'll have to make two batches. Do you use the rough for sausage or not make some? Sorry that might be a dumb question.

I don’t do much sausage anymore. If I do I drop trimmings off at my local meat market.

Ok I see. I might have them make some links and sausage then.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

I prefer to process the whole sucker at once and be done with it. Mainly cause my wife gives me a earful for making a mess. I pull the tenders, cut the back strap in half (so I have 4 packaged individually) cut some good steaks, cut off the shanks, pull the small flat iron steaks off the shoulders, cut off head & neck along with 1 shoulder and give to a Hispanic lady down the road in exchange for some tamales, debone the rest and grind it about 70/30 with beef fat.

I don’t have a band saw I use a old wood handled butchers saw. A good variety of sharp knives also comes in handy imo.

I'll look up pictures of the flat iron steaks you're talking about. I guess I threw them in the grind pile.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

Steaks, steaks, and more steaks...

Must be nice! I have to have a variety I think. You do your steaks with the bone in or cut them after the roasts?

[ThePreBanMan]

Steaks, steaks, and more steaks...

Must be nice! I have to have a variety I think. You do your steaks with the bone in or cut them after the roasts?

My processor does it bone-in. When I do it I bone it out.

[brancher147]

I debone gutless method in the field and usually separate everything then so when I get home it's ready to go and saves a lot of time. I grind most into burger and freeze as burger or sausage, or then do jerky with a jerky gun. Usually pressure can one deer a year. I freeze some for stew meat already cut up. Backstraps I cut into quart bag size pieces and freeze with silverskin on (I figure it helps from getting freezer burnt and is just as easy to cut off later). Inner loins rarely make it to the freezer. I remove all fat and silverskin before processing (except backstraps as mentioned). I don't do any steaks or roasts as we just don't use that stuff. I usually do 6-8 deer per year and a bear usually every other year or so.

Is your stew meat the pieces that have the sinew and silver skin marbled into the meat? I have a lot that I keep trimming and just find it marbled like that.

We don’t get any marbling on our deer. They mostly have no fat as it’s mature forest here and they are running up and down mountains all year. Stew meat is just trimmed meat from hams or shoulders.

[Boogieman1]

I prefer to process the whole sucker at once and be done with it. Mainly cause my wife gives me a earful for making a mess. I pull the tenders, cut the back strap in half (so I have 4 packaged individually) cut some good steaks, cut off the shanks, pull the small flat iron steaks off the shoulders, cut off head & neck along with 1 shoulder and give to a Hispanic lady down the road in exchange for some tamales, debone the rest and grind it about 70/30 with beef fat.

I don’t have a band saw I use a old wood handled butchers saw. A good variety of sharp knives also comes in handy imo.

I'll look up pictures of the flat iron steaks you're talking about. I guess I threw them in the grind pile.

I don’t know if it’s on any deer processing stuff. I worked at a meat locker through high school, on beef it’s called a flat iron. Small side of shoulder, scrape it off shoulder blade with a knife. Not very big on deer, but tender with good flavor. Both sides are 1 serving for me.

[EllieTheChubb]

Ok so does everyone agree with just grinding the neck? Or does anyone do roasts with it? I have it cut into the sections now and want to decide if cut it up for ground, or leave bone in or debone for roasts. I've been working on getting the fat and silver skin off of the chunks I took off the hind leg but seems like there's always more that shows up. Don't want to over do it but don't want to leave stuff on there that will make the meat end up bad. Also noticed that as the meat gets warmer the harder it is to trim. Do you guys see this or is my mind making this up?

I prefer the neck in roasts. Way too much connecting tissue especially on a big buck to trim off for burger. In a slow cooker a lot of that connecting tissue either melts away or separates from the neck muscles leaving some nice tender meat. Perfect for sandwiches.
Cold or slightly frozen meat trims way easier. Anytime it softens up too much it’s much more difficult to work with. When that happens I throw it in the freezer for a bit till it firms up again.
When I trim for burger only pure red meat goes in the grinder. In the end you will have much better tasting burger. It’s very time consuming but worth the effort.

Sounds good. Do I leave the bone in the neck?

And ok on the grind pile. I'll have to trim more on those pieces. Do you mix the deer grind with some pork or anything while packaging or just package it pure?

I trim it off the neck bone.

As far as adding pork I don’t do that. I like pure venison. Just rough grind first and fine grind next and the burger holds together well without any fillers.

I grind the neck. I leave the sirloin and a rounds whole so theres plenty of better roasts.

I'll debone and trim all the fat off but dont worry about connective tissue. This goes for all scraps aswell. Then straight into the grinder. I'm sure it depends on your grinder. Some folks think the sinue clogs everything up. Ive found if everythings cold theres no issue. Put your grinder in the freezer and the meat ideally is right at the point of freezing. It just makes everything easier (and safer from a food safety perspective).

I dont add fat to my burger or sausage either. When I started out years ago I added pork fat back but over they years added less and less. About 5 years ago I started doing straight vennison and I honestly think its better.

How much connective tissue do you leave? And how little can your scraps be? I feel like I'm losing alot while trimming the silver skin

I cut off any connective tissue thats flapping and remove the big tendons. Then cut into long strips. the size is deternimed by the hopper on the grinder. You want it to easily drop in. With the long strips it will self feed. Scraps can be as small as you like but you'll need to use a plunger to get it into the auger.
If you have a stand mixer buy the meat grinder atrachment. It works well. a little small but makes short work. Much cheaper than buying a seperate grinder and electric motor and is about 3"x6"x8" so it's easy to store and basically no setup. Also dishwasher safe. Mines about 30 years old and It cuts through sinew like its not even there.

[tundra@1]

How do you make a mess cutting a deer up? What do you need a band saw for???????????? many years ago I took a butchering class at a local tech school and I learned a lot................... I just did a deer last week, the whole deer, with a Havalon replaceable blade knife,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, good advice on some of the posts,,,,,,,, go look at the bearded butchers, for those who have no clue or are just learning................................ the last thing I would do is waste a good deer, by grinding it all up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, that's a joke