Do you butcher your own?

So I have one more hindquarter to go. I was just wondering how many are like me, and do their own butchering? I process from field to table, quartering, cutting out the roasts, grinding burger, making jerky and sausage sometimes.

Do you do your own, or do you take it to a butcher when you tag deer?

I take care of everything except the making of sausage. I usually bring the deboned meat I want made into sausage to one of the local shops. But steaks, stew meat, roasts and the like, I do on my own.

Sausage is the trick. You need a good recipe. I invested in a five pound stuffer a number of years ago. The fresh italian we made were really good, and we did some summer sausages. You dry them in your kitchen oven after your done filling the casing. Fairly good one time, the next, not so much. Must have seasoned it a bit wrong or something.

Only problem with jerky and sausage, besides knowing a good recipe, is that it uses so much of your meat. Has to be a really good year for us to make that, otherwise everything but backstraps and roasts goes into the burger pile. That's what we really eat the most, use it for everything from grilled burgers to spaghetti sauce, chili, and everything in between.

Do it all myself, spent years watching my father cut up his deer when I was a kid. I spend more time trimming and removing the "silver skin " besides can't get myself to spend the $ 75.00 to get it done, and I am more selective at what I shoot if I think of all the work that needs to be done after I pull the trigger  

We do it all ourselves also. A family affair. However, I am slowly learning about how the muscles are layed out to get better cuts.

The silverskin annoys me especially when it is in the middle of the meat as a layer.

Agreed on the silverskin. One trick I have learned is unless it's roasts or backstraps to be cooked whole, you can just ignore what you can't get to and put it in the burger pile. Get what you can, yes, but for instance, the lower shank on the leg can be ground, as well as much of the shoulder, without slicing that off. Once it's burger, you'll never know it's there.

I still taste bits of hard silver skin in my burger this year at least. I was too lazy to take it out. Last year I did less burger and cleaned it up much better. The difference was huge.

Maybe I need to ground it over and over a bit more?

I double grind. First, I coarse grind the meat, and then the beef fat that I plan to add. I mix that together well, then put it through the fine burger grind.

Butcher all our own deer.Really want to get into making sausage.

I killed 4 deer during Maryland opening week.  I spent 9 hours processing venison last Sunday.  That's right, 9 hours.  My back hurt, but the 200+ lbs of meat in the freezer is priceless.

palehorse wrote:I killed 4 deer during Maryland opening week.  I spent 9 hours processing venison last Sunday.  That's right, 9 hours.  My back hurt, but the 200+ lbs of meat in the freezer is priceless.

Been there, done that. Dana killed 3, in one night. That was the night after my son had taken his first 3 point. Only problem was, Dana killed hers the night before hurricane Isabel hit us. Power was out for a long time. Had to keep it all in coolers, and ice was in short supply. Got it all done and wrapped, had to take that and about 50 pounds of burger from the previous season that we still had in the freezer to my moms, 45 minutes away. They had power, and she called all her friends and we went from house to house stashing it in their freezers. Poor folks, they had no idea what they had agreed to when my mom called them.

Got home from that all day adventure, and figured I'd bleach the ice box, because it was all bloody, we had raw quarters stashed in there with ice on them. As soon as I opened the door, the little light came on. So back we went to collect all our meat the next day, all over Frederick County AGAIN.

I do my own butchering but send it out for bacon burger & smoked sausage. The one or two I kill a year it's not worth investing in the equipment to do it myself.

I butcher mine, but I hate to say I have been taken one to a butcher the last couple years simply because my job leaves me with no time. But hands down, my butcher job is superior.

I have had the opportunity to help others butcher their deer. I watched, helped, learned and ate. It is nice to be with a few buddies and get the job done together. Even if it makes it a late night. I just got my first deer and butchered it with a friend in the garage.  Satisfying feeling having completed the harvest!
slowbow...sounds about right having the power come back on just after you got home!

Butcher my own (sometimes get help wrapping the meat). I quarter, debone and make my own cuts. After backstraps removed I mostly grind into burger and leave some roasts for jerky. Very satisfying!

Butchering your own is a job and my back aches when I am done. I have had only 3 deer processed in my life. I found someone reasonable and he did one of those three last year. He might see some more.

I do my own - field to table.
<><
<------------------<<<<<<

We've always done our own, but we're very lucky to have a walk-in cooler, good grinder, meat saw, and small smokehouse all at our hunting camp. We usually hang and age in the cooler for about a week then finish the process and make sausage. We tend to have a few in the cooler at a time so it makes it sort of an event where we have the whole crew working together. If I had to do it by myself.......what a job.

I bone and pack out, then put in old fridge a few days before seaming out and freezing.

I have always butchered my own from field to table. Took some very clean meat to a butcher shop once for smoked sausage and I dont know what I got back but it surely wasnt very good. About 15 years ago I bought my own grinder and stuffer then built me a  smokehouse and never looked back. It took some trial and error but I now have a sausage recipe that I love.

I always butcher my own unless it is very warm and I am not able to get to it right away. I can a lot of the would be burger/sausage meat. It is not very hard to do and really makes life easy for some quick meals. If your running late grab a jar mix with beef gravy and put over mashed potatoes, rice, on buns or mix with bbq sauce and you have an instant meal. Started canning by trying to cube it and make it tender for stew meat. Problem is that it becomes so tender it just falls apart (you have to sear it first for stew meat). Very simple in the butcher phase also. De-bone, take out your select cuts freeze the rest in 2 gal freezer bags until you are ready to can. Meat does not have to be as clean of silver skin as for jerky, sausage or hamburger either. Just get the larger tendons out. Takes no time to fill jars(cut up while still partially frozen) and 90 min to process while you watch a football game.

I butcher my own any time the weather is cool enough. I don't have a walk in or spare frig, so early season deer usually get sent to a  butcher. Prefer doing my own thou. Better results and allows for a little quality family time