How do breakdown your deer meat at processor.

How many pounds or what percentage do you get of breakfast sausage?
Summer sausage?
Links?
Chili meat?

Do y'all keep the back straps or give them the whole deer?

I'm gonna try a new Amish place and want to be clear.....

Probably will shoot a doe this weekend...

My first deer I get a few lbs each specialty meat. “Sausages”. My back straps I have cut into tenderized steaks. The rest I get all hamburger meat with 15% added. I get anymore deer after that I just get steaks out of the straps and rest hamburger meat. If I shoot 2 deer the hamburger will usually last me 6months without buying burger at the store.

I usually keep it pretty simple.

I usually do 50/50 smoke sausage and breakfast sausage. Save back straps and tenderloins whole.

This year I just told them to do all smoke sausage while saving back strap and tenderloins whole. Shot a pig and having that all done into breakfast sausage.

Hamburger
occasionally chili meat
Whole backstraps/tenderloins
Summer sausage (usually jalapeno/cheese)
smoked sausage.

Hogs - breakfast sausage.

Tenderized steaks
Marinated fajitas
Hamburger and chili meat

Smoked sausage with garlic
Summer sausage
Sausage with jalapeno & cheese

Before we learned that many processors do not give you your deer, I would mess with my local processor guy.
I would ask for pork chops and as many chicken fingers as I could get.
The first time he looked at me like I was nuts. He soon learned I was kidding when I said that I wanted ground beef and cabrito.
We do it all ourselves now.

Straps whole
Steaks tenderized
Trash meat into chili, burger, various sausages, typically each deer goes one way

Ensure you get you deer back only, otherwise you may lose part of a tooth!

50/50 link, backstraps to my freezer

For myself I retain the backstrap and tenders. The quarters and neck meat will yield 66% so if the bone in quarters and trimming weight is 75 lb you will get 50 to 55 lbs of venison. I personally like to mix my grind 50/50 with pork. So I will take home somewhere in the 100 to 120 lbs of sausage. Summer sausage, German ring, sweet Italian, and Jägerworste are my favorites. If I shoot a hog or two, I have it made into Breakfast sausage.

I process my deer my self. Neck and front quarters are ground, back straps are cut into steaks. Hindquarters are broken down into ball roasts, rump roast, eye and the rest is ground. Shanks are boiled bone in and given to the dog.

straps & tenderloins whole
sirloins
backend full roasts
front shoulders jerky sliced
rest bacon jalapeno burger

First deer is all ground breakfast sausage. It doubles as hamburger meat, chili meat, pasta sauce, or whatever.

Second deer is usually cut basic style, with steaks and hams.

Third, if I keep it will become the fancy stuff, link, hunter sticks and whatever else strikes my fancy. If I don’t keep it, it’s given to sombebody at work that can use it.

Where are you getting the fajitas? I'm having to venture out to new processors this year since ours shutdown.


To the OP, I keep the straps and tenders to fry or make jerky. We keep some of the hams to make jerky and grind hamburger. I let the processors make link sausage, breakfast sausage and chop steaks. Found a local processor doing dried venison sausage. Just got my deer back and it is amazing.

Pretty close to what we do too! Used to grind, but found a processor who would do it cheap and I added bacon or smoked pork butt to the mix to make real good burger patties. I always weighed my meat and put it in zip locks with the #'s written on it in sharpie. He has never shorted me and I always got back the approximate weight I took in. I think he knew I was watching what I got back, but he had never shorted me

Hudson's on south congress in Austin does the marinated fajita. I think Shannon's in Cherokee does them also.

Yea I knew about Hudson's, those fajitas are good but they ran me off a few years ago. I'll talk to Shannon's as well. Thanks.

we processed all our own for the first 45 years of my life ... when mom & dad got to their mid 80s, decided to take in to a processor I trusted and knew I got all my meat and only mine. And how I have processed now mainly depends on if there is anything left in the freezer.

Usually first deer has backstraps & tender loins pulled out whole, rest goes into hamburger. Second deer backstraps & tender loins out whole, rest into split evenly into polish, german and garlic links. Third deer tender loins whole, backstraps and hams into tenderized steaks, rest into dried smoked sausage. Fourth - X tender loins whole, backstraps and hams into tenderized steaks, rest into hamburger but might get buck sticks and/or summer sausage.

we basically use only venison hamburger year around (if we have any left over) and I do a variety of things with the whole backstraps in the smoker. Likewise with the tenderized steaks are used for chicken frying or marinaded for fajitas or marinaded & wrapped in bacon with a slice of onion & jalapeno over hot charcoal ... We don't do many roasts ...

Recommended deer processor in Jacksboro or Jack county area ?