re: Processing deer yourself

I make breakfast sausage with no links and summer sausage. I haven’t got into anything else. They make high temp cheese you can mix with your sausage so it’s all in one, but it’s expensive so I just eat it with sliced cheese. Have a skillet ready and just cook a little of the sausage as you mix it to taste. It won’t change a whole lot outside of maybe smoke flavor.

I have 3 bins probably about 3 gallons each when I process. 1 for trash (or dog treats), 1 for grind, and 1 for steaks/ roasts.

Cut all your meat for grinding into long skinny strips as the grinders pull it through easier. Then put it in the freezer for 10-20 minutes once you are done. Get your grinder ready and go to town. The key is long strips partially frozen and it will go a lot faster no matter the size of your grinder.

I have a jerky gun for ground meat also. It’s a lot easier for me to get ground jerky consistently all cooked the same and venison is way easier to chew when ground. A little more work but worth it IMO. Strip venison jerky is extremely chewy.

Outside of that, only process the cuts you will actually use. I make some packaged to give away like steaks and ground ready to eat and mark them that way. Roasts I will use I don’t trim first because it’s better to trim after it’s thawed as you’ll have less good meat harmed that way. I make a good bit of cubed meat roasts and package them that way because I eat a lot of stews and kabobs with venison.