finishing the job

now that the killing is done for another 8 months it's time to finish the processing. when I'm lucky enough to bring home a deer I'm in the habit of reducing them to boned out meat as fast as I can. I only steak the choice muscle from the hind quarters. I clean up the loins thoroughly and cut them into approximately 1 lb size pieces, which is typically 3 per loin for an adult deer. that way I can cook them whole or steak them when it's time to eat. tenderloins never seem to make it to the freezer. the rest of the meat from the hind quarters, front shoulders, neck and trimmings from the loins and rounds gets chunked up and put into 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags and frozen until it's time to grind for burger or making sausages. I keep the shanks all separate for canning or braising. I'm running low on ground venison, so I took 4 bags out of freezer yesterday and left them in the shop overnight, a total of 52lbs. this morning they were still well over half frozen, which is perfect for grinding, imo. the firmer the better. grinding is the easy part of this affair. the packaging takes some time and effort, but pays great dividends later when you are short on time. took me less than an hour to get set up and grind all of it. took me nearly three hours to package it all. this with the 5-10lbs I still have from last time I made burger will last until this time next year. each package is 1lb to 1lb 1oz. digital scale makes it easy to keep portions consistent. flattening the packages keeps me from wasting valuable storage space in freezer and thawing very fast.

next project will be making breakfast sausage. then sometime after that other sausages. by then it will be time to fish and make some money. here is the proceeds from today.

worse still, you are not getting your own meat back in the form of burger, perhaps not even steaks. seeing how irresponsible too many hunters are caring for their meat was enough to drive me away from commercial processing. I like knowing exactly what I'm eating. butchering is just one more portion of the entire hunting experience. for me, the processing is just as important as going hunting.

there is absolutely no danger in thawing and refreezing meat as far as consumption is concerned, assuming it was properly handled prior to being frozen. no more danger than cooking and eating fresh meat that has never seen a freezer, anyway. why would there be if you cook it before you eat it? I freeze and partially thaw meat specifically for grinding it. grinder blade cuts firm, partially frozen meat where it will rather smear/mash it more when going through the grinder completely thawed. this can have a considerable effect on texture of finished product. the more fat in the meat, the worse it is for the smearing effect.

the "danger" is that when meat is thawed at room temperature it tends to let go of its moisture. refreezing and thawing again only exacerbates that issue. is always best to thaw meat in refrigerator. takes four times as long, but is safer and meat will not lose as much moisture.

just so everyone understands, when canning meat or any low acid food, you CAN NOT use a water bath. it must be pressure canned so that it can reach 240 degrees to kill the bacteria that causes botulism. that is very serious matter as it can be lethal. water bath canning won't make it much over 212 degrees no matter how long you boil it.

Diane, I would not feed that water bath canned venison to your dogs. throw it out.