What do you do with your meat? :D

[mtmiller]

Not like you sick bastages.

I am curious what you guys do with your game after it is done kicking (sit down Moosie, I don't want to hear it).

When I first started hunting, everything went to the processor. Later, I learned to cut a few steaks and the rest to the locker. Finally this year, I started to do the entire deer myself. I miss the sausage, but hopefully I will learn to do that next year.

Just curious what everyone else does and if anyone has some good sausage recipes, I am all ears.

 

[trophy_killer]

When we get deer here we just cut it up ourselves. We mostly make steaks, jerkey and roasts out of them. When we are in Idaho though, there's not enough time to cut them up since we are always hunting so we take them to a processor and he makes all of our sausage/salami and all the other goodies.

 

[schmalts]

I do my deer all myself and have for years. The only thing i pay to have done is if i want some summer sausage because i never found a good mix. I do make my own hot sticks, brats, italians, chorizo, polish, ect. Next time we talk i can tell you what i do but it is far easier than most think. You need a good electric grinder with a stuffing attachment, a good meat or baby scale, and half a day to do it as it takes time. I usually make 30-40 lbs at a session. Watch for sales on pork butt, when it gets around a buck a pound get enough to add 40% to whatever you plan to make from game. If you have a good butcher shop nearby you can get pork cheeks and fatty pork from them at a good price and you need to use less of that as it is a lot higher in fat content.
go on the web and find a company for spices. Use sausage maker, or a similare company. they sell pre-mixed spices. I like using those and then add a little of my own spice (garlic or pepper) to customize my product. I cut up or course grind all the meat first, keeping them seperate and store it in big bowls in the garage as i work so it stays cold, kind of like a walk in cooler. I do 10LB batches at a time (around 6lb deer 4 lb fatty pork) and put that much in a flat pile on a breadboard of chop block, sprinkle on the seasoning, knead it in (almost freezes you hands from the salt) then put back in bowl, put the grinder attachment on the grinder with the stuffer tube on at the same time, put on the hog casing, and start feeding it in! it helps to have a partner for this and one guys feeds the meat while one guy is twisting sausages. When all batches are done i seperate into links of 4-6 and vaccume seal.
Dont cut them individually or they will lose the juices as they cook, cut them apart after they are done.
Hot sticks are the made the same but are a different casing and smoked at a low temp for 4 hours or more depending on how smokey you want them. those are tricky to keep from getting too hot. if they get hot and cook they taste like crap.
A good grinder, Even an oster will be fine but i would recommend a little higher quality one , get one on ebay for best prices. They are great for making burger too. Hope this helps a little

 

[Elkhunter]

I used to do my own, but that was years ago. Now I take everything to the processor. I value my free time too much to cut up my own. I will use the burger and make my own Italian sausage and I think I will try my hand at summer sausage this year.

For the spices in my Itaian sausage it is either fresh or I get it from the herb store which is much cheaper than the super market. I have a killer recipe for Itaian sausage if anyone is interested.

 

[Whiskers]

We do are own meat here. Hindquarters, and loins get saved cut into steaks. Everything else we chunk half gets ground into burger the other half stays as stew meat. I would like to learn how to do sausage, and sticks. Anybody has any good recipes email em to me.

[email protected]

 

[dgibson]

Dad & I did our own deer for several years; the first couple had mixed results while we figured stuff out. At that time we used a manual Porkert grinder to make burger and it got old real quick.

We graduated to an electric grinder the same year we started making sausage, and that makes things a lot more enjoyable. Like Schmalts said, you won't regret spending a little extra money on the grinder; more power and more durability are always welcome! We have always used the boxed sausage mixes, but there are some excellent recipes out there, too.

Due to the consistency & "durability" of venison we always ground ours twice: once in a coarse grind, then again in a smaller burger or sausage grind. Going straight from solid to burger tended to clog the ol' Porkert up a little bit.

 

[schmalts]

Yes i would recommend bought spice mix, and then add a little extra for your taste. I like adding extra garlic to everything, and pepper to a lot of things. Heres a good grinder with all the attachments for the $$
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2570187729&category=25372
Also a real good buy is the meat bandsaw/grinder combo sold by Homier tools for 179$ My buddy has one and it is a real nice machine for the money.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 11-06-2003 11:52: Message edited by: schmalts ]</font>

 

[1_pointer]

We have a grinder attachment of a Kitchen Aide mixer. Anyone use one of these? My inlaws use their a couple times a year to make sausage, so I'm assuming I won't wear it out too soon at the rate I'm filling tags!

 

[Elkhunter]

Tyler, we have the kitchen aid also. Never had a problem with it and it works real well. One thing to remember is, If you are going to add fat, get beef fat and get good beef fat. It lasts longer than pork fat in the freezer and when you get it have them gring it for you. It makes it a lot easier on your grinder and can save you time. They will not chargfe you anything to grind it as far as I know.

 

[schmalts]

Beef fat would be good for adding to burger and summer sausage and hot sticks, but i would not recommend it for fresh sausages like italians ECT , for taste reasons. But if you can get them to run any meat through a chopper its worth the money.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 11-07-2003 06:01: Message edited by: schmalts ]</font>

 

[ELKCHSR]

I sit at my table and cut up every last morsle and give that which is inedible to the dog. Nothing goe's to waste....

 

[ktc]

I always raised and slaughtered my own beef. The deer and elk was not getting used as efficiently as it should. I always ground the entire elk and gave away the deer to grateful recipients.

Now, I have found ways to utilize the meat. Elk, I bottle it. The whole damn thing. The meat is great. You can't tell the difference between loin and front shoulder.

I started to jerky my deer this year. It was a success. In fact it is all gone already.