Deer Processing

[jdmidwest]

I had a dilema this year, I killed a nice ole buck and needed a deer processor. The one that had been doing mine the last several years had retired and the new highway took his business. He was good at what he did, pretty fast, and had a quality product. Others I had used in the past locally have also gone.

Normally, if it is a younger deer, I process it myself. The new telecheck is the greatest thing to come along in a long while. I always hunt the farm. Before the telecheck, you kill the deer, gut it, haul it 15 miles to the check station, check it, then haul it 15 miles back to finish the processing. Now, you kill it, gut it, skin it, quarter it, put it in the fridge, then take care of the formalities. If the temperature is low enough, you let it hang and age, but the last several years it has been too warm of a night during rifle season to do so, so it goes straight to the fridge.

My family has always taken great care of any meat that we butchered. As a kid growing up we butchered our own pork, beef, and poultry at the farm. We had 100 percent control of the quality of the meat we consumed. We smoked our own hams and bacon.

I took the hams to this processor in good faith with a reccommedation from friends. The hams were skinned and chilled, fresh and nice. I processed the tenderloins and shoulders myself. Since it was a mature buck, I wanted the rest made into sausage. My first mistake was doing that, the deer had been feeding mostly on grass this year and the meat was great unlike it is when they are eating alot of acorns. I went to pick up the sausage today and noticed that the packages were unmarked. She just brought out a box of sausage sticks and counted me out some. I asked if that was my deer, she replied that they just toss everyones deer together and cook it down. YUK!

I have seen some deer that others handle. Hunters that don't know the proper way to care for fresh wild game. To top it off, it was hot this year, it would have been hard to cool off any meat without refrigeration. Deer get left overnight in the field, carried around on hoods of cars, not field dressed, gut shot, busted gall bladder and urine bladders, on and on. Needless to say, the look on my face must have clued her in, she said I did not have to take it if I did not want it. I took her up on it, knowing dam good and well that the meat I contributed increased the flavor of whatever batch they put it in to. Always before, the processors I used give me back my meat. They cooked it in small batches and made sure it was my meat. This one told me after the fact, if I wanted my own meat, I should have waited till after the first of the year.

[Phil Lilley]

At least she was honest... Ozark Mountain in Ozark I think lumps it all together too. It's hard to find a processor that does custom work.

[Kicknbass]

Sorry to say that when it comes to sausage, most shops do this. I think it would be rare to find a shop that doesn't mix the meat when making summer sausage.

Good luck.

EB

[jdmidwest]

This one did the custom meat processing, you just have to hold on to your meat and take it in after the first of the year. She said it was a storage problem. I took the meat in the second week of Nov., over a month ago. I wonder, if they have a storage problem, where this meat come from. The deer I took in a month ago would be spoiled unless it was frozen.

The others in the past I have used cooked the meat in seperate batches, one had a minimum of 16 lbs. of boned meat.

[flyfishmaster]

I think you are right about lumping all the meat and making a bigger batch. Most shops in Illinois do it too. They started this about 5 years ago. They will do the the custom processing.... for an extra cost of course. This is why I process my own deer, plus it gives me another reason to drink a few beers.