Do You Still Gut Your Deer?

Been gutting my own and others deer for 50 years now, I try to hang and skin , then 1/4 up to go to the processing facility, but also always age them packed in ice and draining for 36-48 hours before they go to the processing facility , we only do 6-8 deer a year so this has been very successful for me
 
When I was 16-20, I worked as a butcher at a local grocery store. The owner of the store let us process deer for people after the store closed for the day.

The deer had to be gutted and skinned, but we would hang them in the cooler until we had 10-12, then we would process them for the hunters about 1 evening each week.


There were 3 of us. The manager got 1/2 and the other 2 would split the remainder. The grocery store owner, just gave us the freezer paper, etc., and didn't want a "cut" of the proceeds. (Just a perk of the job for us, I guess)



I learned a great deal, and to this day, I can explain all of the cuts of beef to guests we have at restaurants.


(except for a few new "cuts" of steak, that make cheap meat sound expensive)
"Flank Steak" - we used to just grind that for hamburger


Perhaps the most ridicules:
"Tomahawk Steak" - A ribeye steak, where you now get to pay extra for more bone than is in a rib steak!
 
Safari Dave said:
When I was 16-20, I worked as a butcher at a local grocery store. The owner of the store let us process deer for people after the store closed for the day.

The deer had to be gutted and skinned, but we would hang them in the cooler until we had 10-12, then we would process them for the hunters about 1 evening each week.


There were 3 of us. The manager got 1/2 and the other 2 would split the remainder. The grocery store owner, just gave us the freezer paper, etc., and didn't want a "cut" of the proceeds. (Just a perk of the job for us, I guess)



I learned a great deal, and to this day, I can explain all of the cuts of beef to guests we have at restaurants.


(except for a few new "cuts" of steak, that make cheap meat sound expensive)
"Flank Steak" - we used to just grind that for hamburger


Perhaps the most ridicules:
"Tomahawk Steak" - A ribeye steak, where you now get to pay extra for more bone than is in a rib steak!
Click to expand...
Shanks used to be a cheap roast or burger until someone dreamed up an obscure name for it and called it osso bucco
 
Last many years elk hunting, skin from the back, cut all the meat off at the appropriate places following the major muscular lines. Reach in for the loins and cut. Put in pillow cases and add to panniers. Fast and efficient. Only way to do it. On pack horses or backpacks.
 
Yes, (and it's perfectly cold where i am at that time) I just don't want ANY objectionable parts near my house, shop or at professional butcher shops/tanneries/Taxidermists! As the wildlife agencies say, leave it where you shot it (where any "issues" are, if there are any!) They should sue the shit out of the "fenced" hunting preserves that have perpetuated disease within native wildlife herds (Whitetail Deer!) They won't be able to afford the Bill, but it WILL put a stop to the disease! Not a big fan of fences in Africa either, but at least those properties are bigger than Politicians' properties we pay for here. SMH With animals down South (pigs near the now-secure Border) I have cut the choicest parts out and left 'em for the scavengers right where it dropped! They carry other disease that's even worse for humans (a la Bears!) I believe the game agencies just love if you leave the inedible (in USA lol) parts where you harvested 'em....IF more illegals just ate unused carcasses, it'd reduce our tax bills for the Walls! LOL *Be kind and leave a lil Adobo, etc. (and any NY sports team jerseys-they love that shit!) next to the carcass!
 
Tubby’s Canteen said:
Shanks used to be a cheap roast or burger until someone dreamed up an obscure name for it and called it osso bucco
Click to expand...

Yep, shank used to be a step lower than flank.

Flank and shank used to just be ground into hamburger meat.




I guess people who don't know, just buy it now, and wonder why their meat is tough.
 
I just gut them. I want every piece of meat possible off the animal.
 
Not to hijack the thread but does anyone still scald hogs? I try to avoid it though I have done the odd one that way for a local volunteer fire department for their annual hog bbq.
 
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Tubby’s Canteen said:
Not to hijack the thread but does anyone still scald hogs? I try to avoid it though I have done the odd one that way for a local volunteer fire department for their annual hog bbq.
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I’ve never scalded a wild hog, but you can bet a pen raised hog gets a scalding. Too close to Louisiana to not make cracklins.

That said, it’s been years.

PS. A nice pig cracklin’, done right, is one of the best things you’ve ever eaten. :cool:
 
Flipper Dude said:
I’ve never scalded a wild hog, but you can bet a pen raised hog gets a scalding. Too close to Louisiana to not make cracklins.

That said, it’s been years.

PS. A nice pig cracklin’, done right, is one of the best things you’ve ever eaten. :cool:
Click to expand...

I’ve never tried cracklings , most all the hogs I’ve killed got skinned for time efficiency. My grandparents and uncle had a federally inspected slaughterhouse and we were only ever able to get an inspector one day a week so most weeks we’d kill 4-6 beef and a dozen or so hogs and have to get it all done inside of eight hours.

The ones father and I did home ourselves we skinned out of convenience.
 
My grandpa, an old farmer, had his own way of gauging water temperature for scalding. If you could only pass your fingers through it twice, it was too hot. If you could do it 4 times, it was too cold. 3 was the key. Very scientific. And I must say, very accurate with his gnarly fingers.
 
Tubby’s Canteen said:
Not to hijack the thread but does anyone still scald hogs? I try to avoid it though I have done the odd one that way for a local volunteer fire department for their annual hog bbq.
Click to expand...
No
I only did that with rased hogs.
We have not had them in years.
On wild hogs I don’t use the skin.
 
Flipper Dude said:
I’ve never scalded a wild hog, but you can bet a pen raised hog gets a scalding. Too close to Louisiana to not make cracklins.

That said, it’s been years.

PS. A nice pig cracklin’, done right, is one of the best things you’ve ever eaten. :cool:
Click to expand...
I like the lardons better than cracklings myself
 
Flipper Dude said:
My grandpa, an old farmer, had his own way of gauging water temperature for scalding. If you could only pass your fingers through it twice, it was too hot. If you could do it 4 times, it was too cold. 3 was the key. Very scientific. And I must say, very accurate with his gnarly fingers.
Click to expand...
Did he add pine tops to the water to?
That sound like how my dad checked the water.
 
Quick pigskin story. My brother in law and I were up in the Mobile-Tensaw delta duck hunting and it was extremely cold for south Alabama, we had an outstanding morning with limits of canvasbacks, redheads and mallards. When we returned to the launch I sent my BIL to the bait shop to pay for the launch. I loaded the boat and the dog before he came back. It seemed it took him forever but when he came back he had two paper bags, in one he had a 6 pack of Budweiser and I the other a freshly fried bunch of pigskins, most still had a touch of fat and meat on them and a generous amount of sea salt.
The owners of the shop had just butchered the hog and fried up the skin. I will never forget how good those things were!

Okay, back to gutting deer.
 
TX049 said:
I genuinely didn't know people used a different method on dove. What's the alternative? Are people actually processing with a knife?
Click to expand...

I assume the alternative would be to pluck the completely like fowl.
 
Tubby’s Canteen said:
I assume the alternative would be to pluck the completely like fowl.
Click to expand...

I had always just pulled the breasts on doves up until i met my wife. My future father in law always planted some really good dove fields and after a particularly good hunt where limits were shot in about 30 minutes he asked if I wanted to go fishing. Never turned down a good fishing trip so I dropped my dove at the house and told Charlotte I would clean them when we returned.

When I got home I found 15 perfectly picked doves in the fridge, she had plucked every one of them and deep fried them for supper that night.

Now I split my doves about 50-50, breasted and picked , breasted for the grill and picked for deep fryer.
 
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