Do you butcher your own meat?

A

Atfulldraw

New member
Jan 2, 2013
28
My family and I cut, grind and package our own meat. We are getting pretty good at it. The last time we butchered a cow elk it took about 3 hours start to finish. Anyone else process their own game meat?
 
Yes-we butcher, grind, and make burger and bulk sausages.  We haven't made Polish type or summer sausage yet. 

 
I usually cut up my own elk , really depends on time though. I had my bull cut in 2011. I had a buisey Taxidermy year and was swamped.
 
I have done both but lately because of the family I have been making almost all of my deer into jerky.  they just don't eat the steaks.  I save a little for me and my brother but most is jerky.  It doesn't last long then.
 
We butcher all our own meat at base camp, we set up a screen tent to keep out flies and yellow jacketsand cut and wrap steaks and roasts, and have a hobart grinder to grind hamburger and package that as well, then it all goes into a chest freezer, and the generator runs nonstop!  Last fall we went through 26 gallons of fuel! The only way to go it seems to take about 4 hours start to finish, when we get home all we have to do is divide the frozen meat!
 
It's a family affair at my house.. we all get into it.. I usually do most of the deboning. the kids love to feed the grinder and package. It's fun stuff..
 
Yep, Do it all.  Last year had steaks, roast and burger and then made Corned elk, hickory stix, hot stix, jalapeno stix, brats, italian sausage, breakfast sausage and 3 kinds of  jerky.  Each year I usually buy one item for my production set-up.  This year was a power foot pedal for my grinder.  Love it.
 
Do it all, but won't tell how long it takes me.  I already felt slow and somebody had to post that dang 8 minute deer video...thanks a lot.
 
I have done all my own for over 40 years now.
I bought the Cabela's 1HP grinder and the cuber to go with it.
and there commercial vacuum sealer.
It all works great.
Doing your own is the only way to go. IMHO

Where I live here in Michigan, most places charge over a $100.00 just for a deer.
I can't even imagine ?, what they would charge for a Elk ?.

Kevin
 
We cut all of ours up. Turn some music on drink a beer and have fun. Cutting up your kill should be fun not a chore. 
 
We cut and package all of our game. I trim all the silver skin off the chunks and break them into the indivual muscle. I put every thing up as a roast, then cut into steaks after thawing if that is what we want. All of the lean trim gets ground for burger with 12% beef suet. I love the whole process.
 
My familiy has always butchered our own meat.  Once in a blue moon if we are short of time it will go to the meat processor, but I feel like they don't cut it right.  Elk are not beef and should not be cut the same way.
 
Yep--Do it myself-except for sausage-I pay for that, tho I have done it in the past. I spend a lot of time trimming, but think it makes a difference. Usually cut the backstrap into 6" sections as that's about right for 4 steaks about a bacon strip thick, which we seem to prefer. Last time I did hamburger, I went down to local eatery which serves wonderful Prime steaks. They buy the loin whole aged 3 weeks, then they age them an additional 3 weeks--great steaks! I asked him if  he would save the trimmings for me and he did--mixed it at 15% and that's some real good burger. Forgot to mention, I always age my elk/deer in a cooler on ice for 2-3 weeks before butchering.--Bill
 
billg - You sound almost identical to what I do except I try to age the meat in the open air per what I've read.  That said, for early season animals when you can't just hang it in the garage, I've also used a cooler and ice jugs.  I'm hoping to pickup an older fridge and build a frame inside it to enable hanging meat as you can usually find them on Craigslist for free or very cheap.  I do think aging results in more tender and tasteful meat.  I try to focus on getting the meat I'm going to age separated first then process the other parts that I'll use for burger or sausage.  I normally separate the animal into larger sections and freeze those initially based on how much time I'll have to process as I'm just too slow and meticulous to do the whole animal and , then I can work on them throughout the fall/early winter when I have more time as I'm very slow and probably too meticulous.
 
Elkman--Don't be afraid of the Ice/water routine. I've done it for too long on too many animals for there to be a problem with it.--Bill
 
Bill,
Question on Ice Chest ageing...I had a similar though and was going to post on aging in this thread but you introduced it...
I would have to do it in a similar way as you describe...what's your take on storing bult meat on ice?  Direct on/in the ice?  Keep it drained or do you worry about it.
I have always tried to keep my meat somewhat "dry" in ice by draining off water and replentishing ice/etc...but I wanted to hear your thoughts..
As for butchering at home...I'm all in.
Thanks!  John.
 
John-- Not real sure what you mean by "bulk meat", but i'm assuming you mean large chunks. I bone all my animals out where they fall(deer or elk). So all my pieces of meat are rather large. I'm not overly anal about ice water and meat--I generally check it every two to three days,drain water off and replenish ice. You'll notice when you start butchering your meat that it is a light grey color--don't worry as it comes up to room temp it will turn to that nice dark burgandy you're used to. For the record, the longest I've kept deer on ice has been 4 weeks--But I strive for 10-14 days.--Bill
 
Yes you get the cuts of meats that you want and can seperate it however you want and cut it the best way for you to cook.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 28 (members: 0, guests: 28)

Latest posts

Share this page

Back
Top