Friday, November 19, 2010

Cutting up a Deer

Phil brought home a deer from work that he got from one of the guys. The hard work had been done. It had been skinned and gutted. My job today was to cut it up.



I hadn't actually done a deer before so spent last night watching videos on Youtube on how to do it.
The body of my deer started like this:
I cut the other foreleg off and then set it upright to do the backstrap.

I cut straight down one side of the spine and then over the ribs. Then did the other side. Cut the excess off the backstrap and this is what I had; lots of dog bone, backstraps and a few other pieces.


I then moved on to one of the back legs. I cut the top round off, then proceeded to debone.

I cut a few butterfly steaks out of the larger portions, cut up some stew meat and a small roast. The second back leg I cut a large roast from and a few more steaks.

I did not take pictures of the cutting up of the front legs because they basically made stew meat and meat to grind for burger. 
In all I got two roasts, 4 packages of stew meat, two packages of the backstrap, the small tenderloin pieces, and a large bowl of meat that still has to be ground for hamburger and some of it made into jerky.

9 comments:

  1. Oooo...I have been moving towards eating more vegetarian dishes...I just stepped a little closer. Mind you I admire your use of an animal that has presumably been hunted and killed humanely rather than one from an animal factory.

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  2. Do you know what type of deer it was? Unlike Hazel, I'm pretty fond of a bit of venison. I like a roast venison loin with red cabbage and celeric+potato mash, perhaps served with some redcurrant jelly...

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  3. No I do not know what type of deer it was but if I had to guess I would say it was a small doe.
    Hazel, not only was it hunted and killed humanely but because we have basically killed off all their predators, the deer population would be completely out of control if there wasn't hunting here.
    I myself was quite proud of myself and so excited to learned something completely new to me and so useful.

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  4. Excellent Becky! I appreciate that you taught yourself, and used a natural resource to sustain yor family!

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  5. By the way, we had a package of backstrap and the little tenderlions for supper last night. I soaked them in buttermilk for a couple hours, then just brushed them with apple cider vinegar and the sprinkled with barbeque spice and baked them. IT WAS SO GOOD!! No gamey taste at all. I am quite pleased.

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  6. Hi Becky, I found your blog and enjoy the reading. I would like to comment on your venison post, I have found out that from my experience with venison, that if you take the meat off of the bone, and remove the fat, you will not have that gamey taste at all. I never soak mine in BM or vinegar.

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  7. Yes I have heard that too. I did take this all off the bone and took any bits fat off it as well. I still have been soaking it in buttermilk though, just because I wouldn't be able to stand it if I wasted it, so just in case, I am soaking it in the buttermilk, lol.

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  8. I have found that if you marinate any cut of venison over night the taste is truly wonderful and you have a hard time knowing it was venison. Also good...venison tacos, venison stroganoff and venison chili. The meat can be ground or roasted and shredded, then used in any manner you would use beef.

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  9. This is a fine piece of beginner work. It is on the surface too simplistic but I'm sure most will succeed quite well. You are wise to soak the meat unless you know where it was feeding. they love to huddle in cedar groves and swamp areas in cold weather--warmth, feed, and water. This makes the meat taste awful or worse. Too bad we have to worry about disease or those bones and fat could go into a large pot with seasoning and veg to make an excellent stock for later.
    Jelaine May 11, 2012

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