Well after 5 days of letting the meat bleed out on ice, we decided to start butchering the meat up yesterday. After a quick trip to Zach's seasons in Deer Park we picked up a 50lb season bag of Original pan sausage, a 25lb season bag of Honey pan sausage, and a 25lb season bag of pepper beef jerky. We then went to a local Kroger that had Pork Shoulder on sale for $1.49 per lb and I picked up 15lbs for my pan sausage and my buddy picked up 20lbs for his pan sausage. We then went to Wal-Mart for some brisket even though it was $2.49 per lb and he picked up a 20lb brisket for his 50/50 hamburger meat. We also picked up 5-11" rolls of foodsaver bags for the meat. After getting home, we started processing around 4:30 and finally gave up the ghost for the night at 5:30 this morning! We completely finished processing the doe I gave my buddy since he hasn't been able to get anything yet and he ended up getting 35lbs of pan sausage, 22lbs of hamburger, and 7lbs of backstrap for a total of 64lbs of meat and we ground up the scraps of tendons and junk for dog food and it netted him 5 more lbs for them. We were only able to process the rear shoulders off my spike before calling it but ended up getting 10lbs of venison for the 25lbs of pan sausage and 8lbs of jerky. Hoping to finish the rest of it tonight and going to fire up the pit tomorrow to put the shoulder bones on to smoke them for the dogs.
Nope no roasts, if the pieces were big enough we cut them into 1/4" strips for the jerky and the pieces that were too small we put them through the grinder for ether hamburger meat or pan sausage. The backstraps we are cutting into little finger steaks to ether be fried or put into stews. It doesn't look like I will get to finish my deer tonight since my sciatic nerve that is going through my right leg is inflamed and hurting like heck but it will get completed tomorrow for sure even if I have to muster through the pain. I don't want this meat to go bad for sure.
If I ever get around to getting me a deer, it will all go into the grinder!! My wife makes the best jerky I have ever eaten, so I might cut some up in strips for jerky, but that depends on how big a deer I get. .
I did my first deer in all jerky, except stuff that had too much connective tissue. Ended up with a whopping two gallons of jerky.... I have gotten a pretty good recipe together and like it. The rest I mixed with 70/30 hamburger. Should have had a bit more fat after trying some burgers, but they held together ok. For my second deer, I steaked everything I could and then ground the trimmings and vaccusealed them to make summer sausage if I kill another one this year or the first one I kill next year.
I like processing my own deer, but it does take time. I bought a LEM #12 grinder, 15# Sausage stuffer, and 10 tray dehydrator a few years ago and made good use of them this year, except for the stuffer. That grinder cant get fed fast enough with cuts of meat. Regrinding takes a little longer because the meat packs and sticks.I am impressed with it.
My next goal is obviously to stuff the summer sausage, but I may try to make some brats or some kind of link sausage. My wife might like breakfast sausage in links better than patties. Just need to find the right recipes. Any suggestions? I'll trade my jerky recipe for your finest sausage.
Something about butchering your own meat. I love doing it, in fact, from the first animal on I've always processed my own. I don't really have a good recipe for anything but Sometime's I do fake it with sausage!
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