• Having trouble using the site?

    Contact support

  • Not receiving emails?

    We're currently aware of an issue with our email provider and working to fix it as quickly as we can! Appreciate your patience here!

    View thread

Hunting & Fishing Some meat questions...

K

kellogg2185

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 13, 2009
34
4
39
St. Louis, MO
#1
So here's my predicament... I'll be hunting back home in Missouri, but I live in DC. Every other time I've been hunting, I clean the deer myself, then have it processed. Usually there's a 2-4 week waiting period, and then I can pick it up. I go to a processor because I like to have the jerky, snack stix, and deer sausage, as I don't do that myself. As I'll be leaving to come back to DC shortly after, and won't be able to come back to MO to pick up the deer, what are my options? Worse comes to worse, I'll just do it myself, but I would really like to be able to get some jerky and all that. Especially would like to be able to send my kid brother some jerky from my deer, as he's stationed on the USS G. Washington, and won't be able to hunt for the next two to three years. Is there a way I could have a family member pick it up and ship it to me, with dry ice, or something along those lines? Any ideas will be appreciated a lot guys, thanks.

- Kellogg
 
#2
Re: Some meat questions...

That was the biggest reason I started processing my own. I was stationed in VA and would come home to Alabama to hunt. If I connected, it was expensive to have it processed and shipped. I processed my own, packed it in coolers and brought it back with me. My wife and I make Italian sausage, Bratwurst, breakfast sausage, jerky and put the roasts in the freezer in vacuum bags. I don't know if this helps much but it worked for me. Good luck on your hunt.
 
#3
Re: Some meat questions...

We process all of our own stuff and since there are several people that do it we put all use each others equipment and that helps with the cost. It also is quite a bit quicker once you have done a few.
 
#4
Re: Some meat questions...

Kellogg: I grew up in a hunting family and remember when I was a teenager, it was 25.00 to have your deer cut up, wrapped, and frozen. For a middle class truck driver's family, that wasn't too bad so my dad would load up his field dressed deer on Sunday night and drop it off at the butcher on his way to work the next day. Now, it's 85.00; and much more if you want jerky, etc. I live in Fred'burg, south of you, and go home each year to hunt in North Dakota. If I get a deer, I bone it out and put it in 2 Gal freezer bags. My in-laws either drive it out with them in coolers when they come for Christmas, and/or I wrap the frozen meat up good and pack as much as I can in my 3 Day pack. The airlines have no problem letting me carry on venison. ONce I get it out here, I thaw it just enough so it fits through my grinder and or cut it up into steaks, roasts, etc. Gander Mountain has a good selection of power meat grinders and processing equipment, so does Bass Pro Shops. I did almost an entire deer a few weeks ago in under an hour. I used to use my old hand crank grinder but that gets REAL old. Spend the money and get an electric one; after two deer, it will have paid for itself. PM me if you have any other questions. Joe
 
#7
Re: Some meat questions...

Kellogg,

I'm in the same boat you are. I live in California and go back to Oklahoma every year for the deer hunting. In 2008 I wanted to ship some meat back to myself. I got about 25 lbs. shipped to me on dry ice and it cost about $250 bucks. Totally not worth it. I am not sure if there is a better or cheaper way to do it but if anyone knows I would appreiciate the knowledge.
 
#8
Re: Some meat questions...

I have shipped a whole cut-n-wrapped antelope from Mt to Cal, I bought one of those Styrofoam cheepo icechests, dry ice bottom, meat, more dry ice on top, pack in big cardboard box, shipped overnight, was frozen solid on arrival.

I butcher my own food, make my own jerkey in my oven, better than anything most have ever had. Make a decent sausage too, breakfast, italian and chorizo.
 
#9
Re: Some meat questions...

Are you flying or driving? Makes a big difference. We bone out the meat: backstrap, rumps, shoulders (intact bone in). Pack them in the cooler and ice...we like to keep them on ice (change and pour off the water daily) for a week...does two things, cleans out blood shot meat and hydrates the outer layer. When we take them out, we wrap in Saran and freezer paper then home freeze. The additional hydration will allow the pieces parts to stay good for at least a year in the freezer. We thaw and grind as we need them. If you grind fresh, the burger won't last 3 months even in the freezer. The backstraps go to make the original country fried steak. We cook the backstraps in a big roaster with onion soup mix, mushroom soup, and any other seasoning we think of...at a low heat, well sealed with aluminum foil, OVERNIGHT. Say, 225 degrees F. Cut it with a fork. JMHO
 
#11
Re: Some meat questions...

So I've got the meat now, and I'm good as far as making it into jerky goes, but what about burger? General consensus is to mix it with some beef fat/suet, but I'm getting a wide variety of recommendations for the mixing ratio. I've heard everything from ten to forty percent beef fat, the rest deer meat. The other question is for mixing, should I grind both separately and hand mix, grind both separately and then grind again together to mix, or just mix the cubed meat/fat together, and grind all at once? Thanks guys!
 
#12
Re: Some meat questions...

Unless you plan on making patties don't add any fat. I grind all ours with no fat for just cooking in lasagna,spag,tacos, veg. beef soup etc. The beauty of deer meat is it is very lean and very healthy. I add pork fat at 40% for sausage, 25% for summer sausage. The best jerky method around is to grind it and use pepacked seasoning and a jerky shooter (Cabelas, Bass pro)and a dehydrator. For sausage and summer sausage I grind the meat then grind the pork fat then hand mix the seasoning/fat/meat. I make probably 1/2 of all our deer into cubed steak with a cuber attachment on the grinder....cooks good any way you want to try it. About 80% of all the meat we eat is deer so I do about 6-8 deer a year and the above is what I have worked out that is best for us over the years.
 
#13
Re: Some meat questions...

As I usually do, I called my mom and asked her, as she's my go-to source for all things culinary, and she said that her brothers have ground plain venison, and weren't real pleased with the taste.
 
#15
Re: Some meat questions...

Shot it, quarter it, freeze it and haul it back to DC then have it processed localy. Drive a bit into Virginia and have a good old boy process it for you.

Just do a little planing ahead with the processor and you should be good to go.
 
#17
Re: Some meat questions...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kellogg</div><div class="ubbcode-body">As I usually do, I called my mom and asked her, as she's my go-to source for all things culinary, and she said that her brothers have ground plain venison, and weren't real pleased with the taste.</div></div>
We made Hamburgers out of ours this year - first time ever with a new grinder the wife got. She mixed in cow burger to give it some fat so it would stay together. She also tried some pork butt too. It is a very lean burger and you have to watch that you don't over cook them but they are oh so good. Slap some cheese on them and you can't tell the difference between a cow burger and deer.
 
#18
Re: Some meat questions...

*IF* i add fat, it's pork fat, and in the form of a boston butt ground to match the venison, and that's ONLY for burgers. meatloaf gets moist from proper baking and the careful addition of a couple eggs.

I prefer the taste of well cared for venison over any beef (save for some of the steaks I've had in Omaha and in Vegas (Hugo's Cellar in the Four Queens has THE BEST steak on the planet...)

the biggest piece of advice i can give to anyone who does not want any gamey-ness in their venison is to get rid of the deer fat. You can probably find a person near you who will take venison suet for candles if you want to make use of most of your harvest.
 
#19
Re: Some meat questions...

I have been grinding deer into burger for a LONG time. I remove all silver skin, fat, and whatnot before I grind it. Sealed properly it will last a long time frozen. If you do add fat, to "moisten" it, do it at the time of cooking. The fat is the first thing to get freezer burnt and makes the burger taste rancid.
 
#20
Re: Some meat questions...

No fat for me, I love venison as is, but I am known to fry a burger with some bacon grease, or slather some BG on the patties before I grill them.

I only shoot young fat deer, mostly does, farm fed on alfalfa, corn, beat tops, better than beef IMO.
 
#21
Re: Some meat questions...

Thanks for all the help guys, really appreciate it. It sounds like I'll be grinding it by itself, and adding fat by mixing the two together by hand right before cooking, if I'm gonna make burgers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

neeltburn
Hunting & Fishing DIY Walk in Deer Cooler
Replies
11
Views
430
YBPS
Y
B
SAC sizer die setup?
Replies
42
Views
647
bbowles
B
G
Need some rings for this old scope
Replies
9
Views
221
gopherslayer
G
G
Hunting Etiquette
Replies
207
Views
4K
Ronws
Ronws
Buck Wilde
Athlon Ares 2.5-15x Overkill for Hunting?
Replies
15
Views
582
Hickswr
H
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Merch
Alerts