Processing deer yourself

Buy the book "charchuterie" off of Amazon. Great recipes. I'd reccomend a sausage stuffer as well. It's a pain in the arse putting meat in a casing with a grinder. Lem makes a ground meat packaging system that is cheap and easy to use as well. Small locations grocery stores that make their own sausage usually have casings. There is a small store near me that gives me all their pork fat trimmings for free if I call and ask them to hold them for me. I buy the butcher a 6 pack when I pick them up. I have a madterbuilt electric smoker and Amazin pellet tray to smoke the sausage. I also use the livers to make boudin.

Now that I have the process down from using the charchuterie book recipes I'm going to start making my own.

Brown a small bit in a pan to taste.

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.

Some people enjoy this sort of thing baw

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Too much trouble and time when you can get it all cleaned up and packed for $125.00

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Wrong. If you like doing that sort of thing ting it’s no trouble at all. It’s fun and a great use of time. Plus you get to eat it.

OP- this place has everything you could possibly need. Rebel Butcher Supply

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If you search ebay the stainless stuffers can be found for under $100.

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I'm getting mine from Amazon Prime and one that holds up to 7 lbs. of product is just over $100.

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Too much trouble and time when you can get it all cleaned up and packed for $125.00

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Very true, but keep in mind that if you are in a CWD designated zone, your deer could be confiscated, especially if you are near or cross over state boundaries to have it processed. That's the case here now.

Anyone got a smoker set up they use. I love smoked sausage and that costs a fortune at the processor.

I do everything but smoke my own sausage, and would love to do that if I had the time.

One thing I do, is freeze all of my trimmings/sausage meat in long flat bags. When its sausage time, the wrapper can be cut away and the meat can be cut into chunks with a cleaver or when slightly thawed a knife.

I take all of my sausage meat to a processor to season and smoke....in July or August when they aren't processing other deer, that way I know my sausage has MY deer in it.