Home Venison Processing Gets Easier
By DAVID RAINER
They say you are what you eat. If that was the case, then I should be sporting a trophy rack of whitetail antlers.
In fact, I really can’t remember not eating venison on a regular basis. My father is many things including stoic, cantankerous and a fixer of all things broken. He also loves the outdoors and was an avid bowhunter until age took its toll. During my formative years, there was always plenty of venison in the freezer and ultimately on the dinner table.
If I had to define my 75-year-old father in one way, the term “self-sufficient” would probably fit the best. And that includes processing the many deer harvested during his hunting career, which continues today albeit limited to firearms instead of bow and arrow.
 His ability to take something broken apart, fix it and put it back together has allowed him to assemble the tools necessary for a home venison-processing operation for family and friends in the confines of his shop. At one time those tools included a professional grinder, band saw, motorized tenderizer and dehydrator for jerky. He’s even got a walk-in cooler large enough to hold a half-dozen deer with a refrigeration unit salvaged from an old milk truck.
Since then, he’s gotten rid of the band saw because he didn’t use it enough to justify taking up the space. The professional tenderizer has been replaced by a hand-crank version that suits his needs perfectly.
For him, ground venison (straight up or mixed with a combination of beef or pork fat), venison jerky, cubed steaks and patty sausage are regular edibles that come out of his shop. He experimented with smoking link sausages, but – for once – decided that was best left to the professionals.
Whenever possible, I take any deer I’ve harvested to his shop and do the processing there. Unfortunately, my folks live about 170 miles away, so that’s not always feasible.
Some of that “self-sufficient” genetic material definitely got passed along, so I’ve started to assemble the tools necessary to do some venison processing at home. I’m sure I’ll never achieve the level of processing of my father, but I do like being able to take care of the harvested meat at home. And I know I’m not having an impact on the professional meat processors, who have more business than they can stand because of Alabama’s liberal deer season.
If the main items consumed are ground venison, cubed steaks and backstraps, it will be a breeze to outfit your home processing area. Some of the items can be found at home stores and larger sporting goods stores, while Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s have a variety of home-processing products available.
The most basic necessities for home processing are a clean place to work and sharp boning knives. Next is a meat grinder, which is readily available in either hand-crank versions or with electric motors. I opted for a middle-of-the-line electric version with a fairly heavy-duty motor because there’s too much Tim the Toolman in me to be comfortable with the basic model. The grinder will come with a couple of cutting disks for coarse or medium grinds. I prefer medium for most uses, while the coarse works well for jerky.
Although you can buy meat cuber/tenderizer attachments for the grinder, I think the hand-crank cubers work very well for the average hunter. Drop the venison steak, up to an inch thick, into the slot, rotate the crank and out drops the cubed steak. I do recommend making two passes through the cuber, to cut through the meat from two directions.
The grinder and cuber will meet the needs for most home processors, although you can add a dehydrator to make jerky. Just be careful with the drying process because it’s a fine line between too dry and not dry enough, which allows spoilage.
Speaking of spoilage, the best way to ensure top-quality venison is prompt action in the field, whether the deer ends up at home or at the professional processor.
The failure to properly care for the meat after the deer is taken is the main problem seen by Rick Comstock of Farm Fresh Meats in Robertsdale.
“Right after you shoot the deer, get it cleaned and gutted as fast as you can,” Comstock said. “After you skin the deer, get a knife and cut out the whole area where the deer was shot, usually the shoulder. Go at least an inch around and get rid of all the bloodshot stuff. It’s not going to do any good and it could contaminate the rest of the meat. Rinse it down and get the grass and all the hair off you can.”
Then it's time for the ice chest, but it’s not as simple as just throwing the deer quarters into the ice chest with a little ice. It takes a lot more effort to do it right, according to Comstock.
“That’s the biggest mistake people make,” he said. “They throw a bag of ice in the ice chest with the deer and not even on top of it. That leaves the meat exposed and it doesn’t take long to ruin, especially as warm as it’s been so far this season.
Within two days, you’ve got so much bacteria growing that the meat won’t be worth processing.
“You want to start with a layer of ice on the bottom of the ice chest. Then you add a layer of deer meat, then a layer of ice and so on. Then you cover the top layer in ice. That way the deer meat is not all together. It’s hard to keep it cool if you’ve got hind quarters lying on top of everything else. An ice chest is not a cooler. The only reason it’s a cooler is because of the ice.”
Aging venison helps tenderize the meat when done correctly.
“Most people who have a walk-in cooler can age their deer pretty easily,” Comstock said. “Some leave the hide on and some don’t. I don’t think it really matters. The key is not to leave it too long – seven days at the most. Venison doesn’t age like beef, because deer doesn’t have the fat content.”
The average hunter, however, doesn’t have access to a walk-in cooler and must rely on ice and an ice chest.
“If you can keep it covered in ice where it does not expose meat, you can keep it in an ice chest for a week as long as it’s drained,” Comstock said. “But it’s got to be in the ice. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand how to cover deer meat in an ice chest. If it comes out of the ice and gets to 40-42 degrees, it starts growing bacteria.”
Comstock also said it’s a myth that once frozen that meat can’t be frozen again, as long as the meat temperature remains below the bacteria threshold.
“When you freeze it, the biggest thing is to bone it out,” he said. “Sharp bones poke holes in whatever you put it in. Then three months later you take it out and it’s freezer burned. Boning it out is the best thing you can do.
“And refreezing doesn’t hurt it in the least. There are a lot of old sayings that don’t apply today. One of them is if you soak venison in vinegar it will tenderize it. I think that’s a myth, too. Deer today, compared to 20 years ago, are well fed and the venison is much easier to prepare.”
And, to quote Lucy from one of my favorite classic TV shows: “It’s so tasty, too.”
PHOTO: A cubed steak falls out of this hand-cranked unit from LEM that was ordered from Bass Pro Shops. For the home processor, a manual cuber is all that is needed.
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