Plan Ahead for Processing Your Deer

Once you have made the shot and your deer is lying in the grass dead, it becomes food and ceases to be a game animal. The care you take from that moment on will make a big difference in the quality of the meat that you’ve harvested.

First you must field dress the deer. Take your time and try to keep everything clean. Get the deer opened up so it can begin to cool down. After registering it many take their deer to the locker and pick up boxes of frozen meat a few weeks later. But you can cut up a deer at home, saving the expense and wait time.

If you’re going to cut up your own deer it’s a good idea to remove the hide right away. It comes off much easier when the deer is fresh compared to a week later when it’s frozen solid. Then prepare a good sturdy table for cutting. It’s best to work directly on a table rather than putting down plastic or paper. Fresh venison is very sticky and you’ll spend as much time peeling paper off the meat as you do cutting it up. Then remove a quarter at a time from the carcass and cut it up.

Front quarters are mostly stew and hamburger meat. The rear quarters have large muscles that can be separated and cut into dandy steaks. Remove the tenderloins from the back and you’re done except for taking all scraps off the bones for hamburger or sausage.

When you finish you have several pounds of pure meat that you can freeze, can or make into sausage or hamburger. It takes about an hour and I guarantee you’ll have a sense of satisfaction the first time you fry up a nice steak from a deer that you hunted, dressed and cut up yourself.

post by: Dan Bomkamp
author and host of "How's Fishing"

Wisconsin Hunting Land For Sale