Preferred Butchering Cuts

[Grasshopper]

In my house we like roasts. There's no way I'm going to trim off the neck I just cut it off and put it in a Crock-Pot whole bones in. I usually pour in a pot of coffee and top off with water. Salt pepper garlic and onions. The acid in the coffee helps break down the connective tissue. 9 hours on low and it will melt in your mouth. I also get 2 roasts out of each front shoulder. Cut between the scapula and humorous and then cut again at the bottom of the humorous. The shoulder roasts are my favorite I cook them basically the same as the neck.

I understand the acidity part of it and love coffee, but does that not just make the whole meal taste like coffee? The meal sounds good, I'm going to try it, just wanted to ask.

So on the roasts you get from the shoulders, you're leaving all sinew attached right?

The coffee flavor is not really noticable after it's cooked. I don't spend a lot of time trimming anything off of roasts. I will take off the easy stuff like tallow but for the most part I just cook it down. You know it's done when the bones pull out easily. The neck will have thick sinew inside. I guess it's what connects to the backstraps once cooked you can easily pull it out. My dog likes to chew on it so I let him.

[Djbradles]

In my house we like roasts. There's no way I'm going to trim off the neck I just cut it off and put it in a Crock-Pot whole bones in. I usually pour in a pot of coffee and top off with water. Salt pepper garlic and onions. The acid in the coffee helps break down the connective tissue. 9 hours on low and it will melt in your mouth. I also get 2 roasts out of each front shoulder. Cut between the scapula and humorous and then cut again at the bottom of the humorous. The shoulder roasts are my favorite I cook them basically the same as the neck.

I understand the acidity part of it and love coffee, but does that not just make the whole meal taste like coffee? The meal sounds good, I'm going to try it, just wanted to ask.

So on the roasts you get from the shoulders, you're leaving all sinew attached right?

The coffee flavor is not really noticable after it's cooked. I don't spend a lot of time trimming anything off of roasts. I will take off the easy stuff like tallow but for the most part I just cook it down. You know it's done when the bones pull out easily. The neck will have thick sinew inside. I guess it's what connects to the backstraps once cooked you can easily pull it out. My dog likes to chew on it so I let him.

Sounds like a great way to not lose any meat at all by whole roasting. I just finished up my second deer yesterday and trim all the meat I can. I keep the leg roasts: sirloin, top, bottom, and eye. I turn the shoulder into trim but one shoulder I removed the shank and left the blade and humerus with all the meat on for a slow cooker recipe. Backstraps, tenderloins, but all else is for the grind. I really need to try my hand at creating some fancy cuts like a loin chop.

[NorthStar]

Here is the one dumb question I am allowed per day....What do the shanks become at the butcher when de-boned? Steaks? And how should I go about communicating to the butcher that I would like the shanks back, even if I still want roasts, chops, and steaks as well?

[Dewey]

Here is the one dumb question I am allowed per day....What do the shanks become at the butcher when de-boned? Steaks? And how should I go about communicating to the butcher that I would like the shanks back, even if I still want roasts, chops, and steaks as well?

They likely grind them into burger.

[Kraftd]

Here is the one dumb question I am allowed per day....What do the shanks become at the butcher when de-boned? Steaks? And how should I go about communicating to the butcher that I would like the shanks back, even if I still want roasts, chops, and steaks as well?

Usually ground, or I suspect sometimes just waste. They are very easy to remove whole and should be easy to just tell the bucther you want all foru shanks wrapped individually.

[NorthStar]

Here is the one dumb question I am allowed per day....What do the shanks become at the butcher when de-boned? Steaks? And how should I go about communicating to the butcher that I would like the shanks back, even if I still want roasts, chops, and steaks as well?

Usually ground, or I suspect sometimes just waste. They are very easy to remove whole and should be easy to just tell the bucther you want all foru shanks wrapped individually.

Right on! Thanks

[Kraftd]

Here is what I do. To each their own, and nothing wrong with ground, but if you're an all ground person there is a world of other great options out there that in my opinion are worth a go.

Mine pretty much get broken down as follows:

-Tenderloins, at least one eaten fresh, the other frozen if I have will power. Almost always grilled or seared med-rare in cast iron
-Heart eaten fresh or frozen if I shoot deer close together. I usually butterfly open and grill to med-rare as one piece, slice thin and eat or make tacos.
-Backstraps cut into thirds with silverskin on and frozen (occasionally will do crown roast with one side). Usually aged 7-14 days when pulled from freezer and grilled or seared whole to med-rare. I also do carpacio or tartar quite a bit with the straps or rounds.
-Foreshanks cut from shoulders and frozen individually for various braised preparations
-One shoulder frozen whole with shank removed for smoking or to be pulled and broken down for homemade sausage at a later date
-One shoulder sawed in half for a blade and joint roast.
-I hate breaking shoulders down but if I get a couple of deer a year will break one or two down for sausage meat, saving flat-irons separately for searing in cast iron.
-Brisket saved and frozen whole. Don't think of it as beef brisket, think of it more as skirt steak. I usually make fajitas after a marinade and grill to rare/med-rare and cut thin across the grain. I will save flank section from larger deer for the same, otherwise flanks go in the trim pile.
-Ribs sawz-all at the line where I take the straps out then up the sternum and cut in half and in half again and freeze as half racks. Deer ribs are AMAZING. I crock pot until they are close but not fall apart tender then finish over charcoal. If you try this, you will never throw them out or turn them into sausage again I promise.
-Hams I break into sirloin (football roast) which gets frozen whole for roasts/jerky/pastrami/corned etc., eye of round which gets cast iron sear in butter whole or dried for braseola, top round cut in half and frozen for steaks or jerky, bottom round same, tri-tip frozen whole or broken down for stew.
-As I cut any trim free of sinew that is +-1.5" cube or better gets saved for stew/kabob meat.
-Rest of the trimmings get saved in gallon or two gallon ziplocs for various sausage or ground.
-Neck I fillet off the twin steak looking muscle under the trachea and freeze whole or in half for steaks. Cut out the trach then work my way around the spine to get the whole neck off. Usually cut in half and in half again for four neck roasts. These will be pot roast, barbacoa, chili, etc. Some type of braise.
-For other organs I save all tounges for tacos, will save the nuts for the novelty (they're actually pretty darn good), liver for a buddy (I don't love them), and caul fat if I can keep it pretty free of hair.

I mostly grind on demand instead of pounds up front. We may meat burgers once a month and I;ll grind with a little bacon. Otherwise we don't really eat much grind. I'll usually even use stew meat braised down to shredded for chili.

Anything that will be eaten as steak gets pulled and dry-aged in my garage fridge for a minimum of 5 days. Pretty much always have a chunk aging. The kids love to cook up their own venison for dinner so like to pretty much always have a piece or two ready to go. From about now through summer I'll make some kind of roast or braised preparation for dinner one weekend day. Then leftovers get frozen in ziplocs for lunch portions. This could be pot roast, stew, chili, curry, shanks any number of ways, smoked, barbacoa, etc. When you pull things like the barbacoa it can also go in tacos, sandos, nachos, fried rice, omelettes sky is the limit. Much better to have these around than crappy frozen dinner. Always a nice rotating supply in the freezer.

[IkemanTx]

If it is cool enough for me to butcher myself, I try to stick as close to this guide as possible.

https://youtu.be/PoawhsmKIEY

[Djbradles]

Here is what I do. To each their own, and nothing wrong with ground, but if you're an all ground person there is a world of other great options out there that in my opinion are worth a go.

Mine pretty much get broken down as follows:

-Tenderloins, at least one eaten fresh, the other frozen if I have will power. Almost always grilled or seared med-rare in cast iron
-Heart eaten fresh or frozen if I shoot deer close together. I usually butterfly open and grill to med-rare as one piece, slice thin and eat or make tacos.
-Backstraps cut into thirds with silverskin on and frozen (occasionally will do crown roast with one side). Usually aged 7-14 days when pulled from freezer and grilled or seared whole to med-rare. I also do carpacio or tartar quite a bit with the straps or rounds.
-Foreshanks cut from shoulders and frozen individually for various braised preparations
-One shoulder frozen whole with shank removed for smoking or to be pulled and broken down for homemade sausage at a later date
-One shoulder sawed in half for a blade and joint roast.
-I hate breaking shoulders down but if I get a couple of deer a year will break one or two down for sausage meat, saving flat-irons separately for searing in cast iron.
-Brisket saved and frozen whole. Don't think of it as beef brisket, think of it more as skirt steak. I usually make fajitas after a marinade and grill to rare/med-rare and cut thin across the grain. I will save flank section from larger deer for the same, otherwise flanks go in the trim pile.
-Ribs sawz-all at the line where I take the straps out then up the sternum and cut in half and in half again and freeze as half racks. Deer ribs are AMAZING. I crock pot until they are close but not fall apart tender then finish over charcoal. If you try this, you will never throw them out or turn them into sausage again I promise.
-Hams I break into sirloin (football roast) which gets frozen whole for roasts/jerky/pastrami/corned etc., eye of round which gets cast iron sear in butter whole or dried for braseola, top round cut in half and frozen for steaks or jerky, bottom round same, tri-tip frozen whole or broken down for stew.
-As I cut any trim free of sinew that is +-1.5" cube or better gets saved for stew/kabob meat.
-Rest of the trimmings get saved in gallon or two gallon ziplocs for various sausage or ground.
-Neck I fillet off the twin steak looking muscle under the trachea and freeze whole or in half for steaks. Cut out the trach then work my way around the spine to get the whole neck off. Usually cut in half and in half again for four neck roasts. These will be pot roast, barbacoa, chili, etc. Some type of braise.
-For other organs I save all tounges for tacos, will save the nuts for the novelty (they're actually pretty darn good), liver for a buddy (I don't love them), and caul fat if I can keep it pretty free of hair.

I mostly grind on demand instead of pounds up front. We may meat burgers once a month and I;ll grind with a little bacon. Otherwise we don't really eat much grind. I'll usually even use stew meat braised down to shredded for chili.

Anything that will be eaten as steak gets pulled and dry-aged in my garage fridge for a minimum of 5 days. Pretty much always have a chunk aging. The kids love to cook up their own venison for dinner so like to pretty much always have a piece or two ready to go. From about now through summer I'll make some kind of roast or braised preparation for dinner one weekend day. Then leftovers get frozen in ziplocs for lunch portions. This could be pot roast, stew, chili, curry, shanks any number of ways, smoked, barbacoa, etc. When you pull things like the barbacoa it can also go in tacos, sandos, nachos, fried rice, omelettes sky is the limit. Much better to have these around than crappy frozen dinner. Always a nice rotating supply in the freezer.

Nice post and very thoughtful for getting the most quality out of your game.

[Kraftd]

Here is what I do. To each their own, and nothing wrong with ground, but if you're an all ground person there is a world of other great options out there that in my opinion are worth a go.

Mine pretty much get broken down as follows:

-Tenderloins, at least one eaten fresh, the other frozen if I have will power. Almost always grilled or seared med-rare in cast iron
-Heart eaten fresh or frozen if I shoot deer close together. I usually butterfly open and grill to med-rare as one piece, slice thin and eat or make tacos.
-Backstraps cut into thirds with silverskin on and frozen (occasionally will do crown roast with one side). Usually aged 7-14 days when pulled from freezer and grilled or seared whole to med-rare. I also do carpacio or tartar quite a bit with the straps or rounds.
-Foreshanks cut from shoulders and frozen individually for various braised preparations
-One shoulder frozen whole with shank removed for smoking or to be pulled and broken down for homemade sausage at a later date
-One shoulder sawed in half for a blade and joint roast.
-I hate breaking shoulders down but if I get a couple of deer a year will break one or two down for sausage meat, saving flat-irons separately for searing in cast iron.
-Brisket saved and frozen whole. Don't think of it as beef brisket, think of it more as skirt steak. I usually make fajitas after a marinade and grill to rare/med-rare and cut thin across the grain. I will save flank section from larger deer for the same, otherwise flanks go in the trim pile.
-Ribs sawz-all at the line where I take the straps out then up the sternum and cut in half and in half again and freeze as half racks. Deer ribs are AMAZING. I crock pot until they are close but not fall apart tender then finish over charcoal. If you try this, you will never throw them out or turn them into sausage again I promise.
-Hams I break into sirloin (football roast) which gets frozen whole for roasts/jerky/pastrami/corned etc., eye of round which gets cast iron sear in butter whole or dried for braseola, top round cut in half and frozen for steaks or jerky, bottom round same, tri-tip frozen whole or broken down for stew.
-As I cut any trim free of sinew that is +-1.5" cube or better gets saved for stew/kabob meat.
-Rest of the trimmings get saved in gallon or two gallon ziplocs for various sausage or ground.
-Neck I fillet off the twin steak looking muscle under the trachea and freeze whole or in half for steaks. Cut out the trach then work my way around the spine to get the whole neck off. Usually cut in half and in half again for four neck roasts. These will be pot roast, barbacoa, chili, etc. Some type of braise.
-For other organs I save all tounges for tacos, will save the nuts for the novelty (they're actually pretty darn good), liver for a buddy (I don't love them), and caul fat if I can keep it pretty free of hair.

I mostly grind on demand instead of pounds up front. We may meat burgers once a month and I;ll grind with a little bacon. Otherwise we don't really eat much grind. I'll usually even use stew meat braised down to shredded for chili.

Anything that will be eaten as steak gets pulled and dry-aged in my garage fridge for a minimum of 5 days. Pretty much always have a chunk aging. The kids love to cook up their own venison for dinner so like to pretty much always have a piece or two ready to go. From about now through summer I'll make some kind of roast or braised preparation for dinner one weekend day. Then leftovers get frozen in ziplocs for lunch portions. This could be pot roast, stew, chili, curry, shanks any number of ways, smoked, barbacoa, etc. When you pull things like the barbacoa it can also go in tacos, sandos, nachos, fried rice, omelettes sky is the limit. Much better to have these around than crappy frozen dinner. Always a nice rotating supply in the freezer.

Nice post and very thoughtful for getting the most quality out of your game.

Almost forgot, lots of bone broth, stock, and demi glace with the bones too!