oobuckshot

I cut my deer into quarters and put in the freezer because I did not have to process. Is there a safe way to now grind it into deer bugers? Or cut into steaks?

Kip

OOBuck, I usually let my venison get almost frozen before grinding/cutting. If you let the meat thaw just enough to get the knife through it, it can be re-froze with no probems. The burger always grinds nicer and the steaks more uniform cuts.

Budbowhunter

I agree. Half frozen meat is easier to work with. And if the meat's core temp. has not reached the 'danger zone' (40 degress to 140 degrees) it will refreeze just fine. Just thaw it slowly. Like in the fridge. Setting it out can cause the surface meat to warm up too fast and bacteria to form on the surface.

KEEP IT LEGAL. KEEP IT SAFE. OR WE MAY NOT GET TO KEEP IT AT ALL.

jimmya

for steaks as said before half frozen is easier to work with. for grinding i usually bone it and cut up in pieces before i freeze it. but you will have to thaw it, bone it, grind it, and refreeze it. i have never had a problem with food poisinoing are anything like that.

Kip

Bump for James

HAWKEYES

Living up here in the great white north, our deer tend to freeze overnight in rifle season. I bring min into the garage or even into the basement to thaw before I skin and butcher it. It is a lot easier to skin a deer that is not frozen. If you do skin one frozen you wil see what I mean. You will be skinning stroke for sroke and you will end up with hair all over your meat if you are not very careful. I have thawed out a lot of deer that had frozen and have not been able to tell the difference between the ones that froze compaired to the ones that didn't. I see you mentioned a bone saw, I skin and quarter my deer without the use of a saw other than to cut the hind legs off, everything else comes off with the knife. The hind quarters can be removed with a knife by following the side of the spine down to the opening of where you cleaned the rectum. Now follow the edge of the pelvis to it's point and down and around. At the top of the pelvis slice in to the bone and follow it out to the edge of the flank, now cut the meat down until you get to the ball socket. Cut the outer edge of the ball socket to get it to drop open and then cut the tendon that holds the ball into the socket. Get a good grip on the hind quarter so you do not drop it on the ground and finish cuttig untilyou have it off and all you are left with is a clean pelvis. The front shoulders come off with just the knife and the backstraps the same. For the backstaps, after the front shoulders have been removed cut down along the spine from the top of the shoulder area to the start of the hindquarters. Use your fingers to spread the meat away from the bone as you cut to make sure you get it all. Don't worry about the back fat as this will peel off nice and easy once the backstrap is out. For the best tasting meat, make sure you remove all the fat and never freeze it for extended periods with the bone in it. I find if I cut it with the bone in it, it tends to look good but taste real gamey. Make sure you are cutting against the grain of the meat not with it or you will be chewing for a long time also. I wrap all my meat in plastic wrap, then in freezer paper. Get all the air out with the plastic wrap and your meat will last a long time in the freezer. By wrapping this way it also takes a long time to thaw, compaired to just wrapping in freezer wrap. If you need it to thaw faster take off the freezer paper when it comes out of the freezer and it will thaw a lot faster. Hope this helps. Good Luck and Happy Hunting.

LIVE TO HUNT,HUNT TO LIVE.

jamesp59

Thanks guys for the info. I processed it last night and it came out great. I bought a video to learned how to do it and all my tools. I didnt buy a bone saw i bought a good miter box sew that worked great. It took like 4 hours but i got 30lbs of all boneless meat and some great looking steaks and roast. I took one into have it proccessed a month ago and will never do it again. I even learnd how to cap it too. The video tought me how too do alot. I would tell every one that is thinking of doing there own deer to get one it shows u step by step on proccessing and skinning and capping. Thanks again
James

schlich92

What is the name of the video? Just wondering, I know there are a lot of them out there and it is hard to tell if they are any good without actually watching them. I have been thinking about buying one, but don't want a video that is worthless.

jamesp59

Its called deer processing and i got it from cabelas its a 2 video pack.