Deer processing. What do y’all order.

I do not process myself. If you do, great for you.

I seem to panic at the last second and always mess up and never get what I want in the right quantity.

On a standard deer, what do y’all get?

So many pounds of what???? I’m Looking for a nice variety. What works for y’all?????

Processing is so expensive and cutting meat and wrapping in freezer paper is so easy. From a quartered animal I cut and package my own backstrap, some to all boneless round steak, and the tenderloins. I will grind my own hamburger and chili meat and package sometimes, either with a hand or electric grinder depending on quantity, but not always.

Trimmings and anything I don't package gets as much of the fat and silver skin removed as I can and taken to Kubys.

Rather than tell them how many pounds of each quantity I want, I have them divide the meat used into equal amounts of Jalapeno cheese sausage, Hot Smoked sausage, Salami/Summer Sausage, and Hot breakfast sausage. And add hamburger grind to that equal amounts list if not doing it on my own. I might add one of the minimum amount of hunter sticks and or Jerky if I have a lot of meat. But again the easiest is to choose the ones you know you and your family like to eat the most and just tell them to make it into equal quantities.

If they are doing the full processing and meat cuts for you I also recommend asking them if they can run the roundsteak through the tenderizer for you.

I hunt with one of the owners of the largest processor in these parts and the owner of the second largest is my running buddy, Rooster, another square headed compradre. Together their facilities easily process well in excess of 10,000 deer annually and that's a number from years ago. They are used to it now, but always an issue is the guy who shots a doe, picks it up with one arm, brings it to the facility and expects, back straps, jerky, dried sausage, jalapeno cheese sausage, summer sausage, smoked sausage, breakfast sausage and more.

Our first deer this year was doe, albeit a smaller one. I take great care when cutting up my meat. I boned her out pretty good, but must admit, I hurried and could have done better. Did not get as much off her scrawny neck as I should i should have. I got three packages of back straps (serves two) and 23 pounds of high quality, all red, lump meat which will later go into sausage. I can be picky because I will shoot a half dozen or more for personal consumption. Processors do not have the time to be as selective. You'll get more flesh from them than you will get from me. With this said, I would try to take in two deer at a time and if all possible. The meat from one, single carcass does not go a far as many people think. Minimum sausage order is typically 20 pounds. Of course half that can be pork. With the doe cited above I could have gotten the back strap steak order, 20 pounds of dried sausage (remember 10 of that is pork you pay additional for) leaving me another 11 pounds of flesh to go haywire with.

We always consume back strap steaks and that is exactly how we cook it - just like steak on the grill. We'll cut the back straps into 6 inch steaks, two per package. I can always cut later after thawing to chicken fry or whatever. I f additional fresh cuts are desired, we'll have them slice a ham into 3/4 inch steaks, tenderized and wrapped one to a package. These are great for fajita type uses, breakfast steaks or whatever.

Remembering my dried sausage requirements are larger than most as I personally make more than 200 rings annually (about a pound a piece)' I would take in my 1st two deer and order the back straps as described prior and dry sausage the remainder. With a third deer, I would do the back straps, bone out one of the hind quarters for soft jerky and dry sausage the remainder. Don't see soft jerky much and for the life of me I do not know why. It is the least expensive process and some people really enjoy it. Some even more than my own sausage and that is quite a compliment to the soft jerky. Lucky enough for a fourth tag and then you get anther round of the back straps and your hearts content with the rest - summer sausage, fresh links, ham steaks, more dried sausage and/or whatever.

Usins here like to get from the deer what cannot be replicated at the meat market. That's why we heavily rely on deer for back strap steak, soft jerky and the dried sausage. You can get god salami, breakfast sausage, jalapeno sausage, panas and other product where the deer meat flavor is overwhelmed anyway, every day at the market market.

Before I got my grinder and stuffer I would take the Tenderloins, Back Straps and Roast out and send everything else to the processor and have different kinds of Links, Summer Sausages and breakfast sausages made.

One time I took deer that I had only pulled the backstraps and Tenderloins off to Cinnamon Creek and ordered all kinds of stuff, gave the lady my $100.00 deposit.
When I came back to pick up my meat she says that will be $327.00. and with that deer in the headlight look I mumbled, did you deduct the $100.00 I already gave y'all? She said yep.
I know $427.00 is not a lot of money to you high rollers, but it certainly surprised me. Cinnamon Creek is really very good and I enjoyed it.
Moral of the story, pay attention to what you are ordering, it adds up!

I would want all rib eyes for what they charge.

Our sausage making shop was out of commission one season. Bug man had sold the place and the new one wasn't ready. Cost me $1,100 that year and that was with a discount.

Our standard processor order starts with Backstrap - Whole (not sliced) and Steaks - Tenderized, one per pack. We almost never grind the hams unless it’s a deer we’re donating to ministry. I want as much frying meat as possible from the hams. After that, each deer goes either Hamburger, Chili grind, Breakfast sausage, some type of link, snack sticks, or summer sausage. We eat venison in some form nearly 1/3 of our meals.

When I do my own, like my pronghorn, I pull the straps and package them, then muscle out the hams and use the larger muscles for roasts. Smaller muscles are cut for either steaks or cubed for carne guisada. Shoulders are muscled or boned out, again for roasts, steaks, or grinding meat. This year I used 15lbs for chili. When I do my own I get rid of as much fat, silver skin, and other trash as possible.

While it is always a treat, venison is a staple around our house, not a once-in-a-while surprise. If you’re paying $3k for a lease, you should maximize your investment. I don’t understand people that take a single deer each year.

Nice summary

My wife was pretty good at cutting roasts into steak, so we asked them for mostly roasts with the anatomy labeled. Shoulders only make good steaks on younger deer.

We'd usually have them grind the neck on every deer and the shoulders on older deer. Sometimes we'd be in the mood to take the ribs as ribs, other times we just add them to the grind.

Sausage never seemed like a good deal.

We'd usually process our own unless we were squeezed for time - usually by killing a bunch of deer in a short span.

This year I told them to save back straps and tenderloins whole and do half and half summer sausage and breakfast sausage with the rest.

Dad usually gives me his deer so I told them to save back straps and tenderloins and do hamburger with the rest.

we keep it simple - back straps and tenderloins in steaks, half link sausage and other half hamburger with 30% fat added - use it all year round

I will add when I take in the trimmings from a deer or two, I usually take the opportunity to throw the backstraps and ham meat from a couple hogs into the same bags to get mixed in with the venison for sausage. I shoot so many and leave so many lay, I like to utilize at least a couple of them with the venison.

Backstraps and tenderloins whole on all my deer. We usually get most of our deer into burger along with pepperjack smoked sausage and jalapeno/chedder summer sausage.

At times I have gotten chili meat, some roasts and what is called pepper steaks.

Depends on what I need. I typically shoot 2 axis a year and 4 or 5 whitetail and dozens of hogs.
I keep all backstraps and cut thick to grill. Often I’ll leave the ribs attached on larger whitetail and axis to make a crown roast. Hogs get made into sausage. On deer, I get the hams steaked out and keep two or three roasts whole. The rest is ground and I’ll get pan sausage, link sausage and straight hamburger. About one deer a year will be made into summer sausage, dry rings and tamales.
The last two does I shot were ground into hamburger except for the straps. Buy a small grinder and a vac sealer and they will pay for themselves in about 3 deer.

what I would REALLY like is to find someone who makes tamales

Always have breakfast and jalapeño cheddar sausages made. My reg ground I have them add bacon and jalapeño. Boudin if i go to the right place

Find you an abuelita.

My grandmother makes tamales.

My children call my mom "abuelita", but my mom doesn't make tamales.

I have TD's in Strawn do mine. We eat a lot of breakfast sausage, backstrap cut for CFS and bacon hamburger with 15% beef fat. That's my usual order.

My order this year was backstraps as bacon wrapped filets, tenderloins whole, 10 lbs of jalapeño cheddar link, 10 lbs of snack sticks, and then the rest got divided evenly between 10% hamburger, breakfast sausage and spicy breakfast.

I think I came home with around 90-100 lbs of meat

I have never taken any of my deer to get processed, so I have a couple of questions If yall dont mind me asking. Do you drop off a whole deer, or quartered deer? What does it run if I just want roast, and ground?

You can do both but most charge less for a quartered deer versus whole. We’ve got a cooler at the deer lease so most of the time I don’t mess with skinning and quartering. The processor I use is $100 standard cuts + specialities.

I always budget 2-300 and never have been shocked. I’m sure one day it’ll happen. I also don’t get any regular cuts, backstrap and loins then everything else is something that costs $. Items we annually get...pepper steak hamburgers, jerky, summer sausage and chorizo. Breakfast sausage, chili meat, snack sticks and sausage links have all been had in the past but not quite ate like the other stuff.

This year I’m trying to get my wife to replace all our burger consumption with deer. We’ve 100% replaced the burgers with the pepper steak burgers so I’m trying to parlay that into all burger. We’ll see how that goes.

I take quartered when I take them in. Just cuts and grind is $85. I've also taken bagged, cleaned meat and it is $1.95 a pound to make 50/50 sausage.

Never take backstrap and tenderloin in, we can cut backstrap into strips and pkg. for two. Always take ours in quartered . Usually have fresh garlic and Italian sausage made sometimes jalapeno and cheese sausage. One deer is usually made into hamburger with 10% tallow added and one deer into tenderized steaks. Much more can be had if you have the deer.

Jesus, my dad and I just put in 5 hours breaking two quartered deer down into a grind pile, and a jerky strip pile! I didn't even grind it yet.... Probably the last time we do it ourselves, my back is aches. Appreciate the info.

Mine was $300. Where I take it, everyone appreciates it when it isn't quartered -- certain hands make money off of doing that, and they get it done right. Also, it's nice to have it caped out perfectly rather than me messing it up. End of the day, everyone will have an opinion on what is right, and I'm good with that. We won't quibble over spending a couple hundred on processing meat once you realize what the bill is that went into it. It's about the experience, not a $ per pound

C'mon Buttercup, you get better as time goes on. Hang in there. Tall tables or the tailgate of a larger P/U can serve you well when deboning your meat. You did it yourselves and that should give you some pride. I am impressed.

Debone your own meat this year - what's next? A keeper red?

I have only used a processor the last 2 years(JT`s Deer Processing in Stephenville). I have all of mine ground so I can make jerky out of 10-15 lbs. of it and give the rest to family members who like deer meat. I have over 25 years experience as a meat cutter/ market manager and after cutting up and processing all of mine, my sons and grandsons deer since I started hunting I decided to try JT`s 2 years ago. It was a nice feeling to back up and have someone drag my deer out and me drive away and forget it. I read post every year about the high cost to process a deer and I shake my head. It was worth every penny to enjoy the hunting experience after killing a nice buck instead of dreading the cleaning, processing, packaging and cleaning up afterwards part.

The processor I use from time to time in Hempstead Arnold's, makes pretty good tamales and his price per dozen is cheaper than current street prices from someone's aunt.

I use the processor for a few things, we found he makes some really good stuff so I am wiling to pay for it. He is actually very affordable compared to other processors in a 50 mile radius of me.
Regular link sausage, jalapeno pepper jack cheese link sausage, tamales, jalapeno pepper jack cheese buck sticks, chorizo pan sausage, and breakfast links.

I always take and process the backstrap and tenderloins my self. When I cook it it's never the same way often enough to want to pay someone to cut it into steaks, etc. So I leave the tenderloins whole and cut the backstraps to feed my family of three.

I have already had 2 does processed by my guy this year so I am filled up on all our sausage etc. needs. So the next deer I shoot I will grind what I want for hamburger and I will make the traditional pan sausage we like. Also I will cut out the roasts for stew meat, making pastrami, and other various experiments of craft sausage.

Lol, I've processed all 15 deer from start to finish so far. It just takes tooooooo much time, and my time is limited. Paying to have it done makes more sense to me.

I appreciate the taller tables advice, my dads back wasn't hurting, but mine was killing me. Now that I think about it I'm 5 inches taller then him, so that does make sense.

As for the keeper red, that day will be glorious!

Joshua Deer Processing makes tamales

Yep, my dad has never processed his own deer before yesterday..... I told him that he should think twice about taking another deer. He said he's gonna have the next one processed! Lol

I usually get 12 lbs of jerky, about 4 rolls of summer sausage, some breakfast/german sausage links, the backstraps and tenderloins whole, and the rest I give to the processor.

From now on I'm gonna get more jerky...I like it the best.

What does it cost to have that much jerky made? My son had some made and they charged him over 30 bucks per pound and it wasn`t good at all. He said he couldn`t eat it.

Hell you can go to Bucees and buy beef jerky for less than that.

Most processors charge 6$/lb raw weight for jerky.

Few times do you start out doing something the best way. I have been skinning and deboning deer since i was in the first grade and every year it seems I figure something out that improves my process a little more. To me a big thing is cutting them up when it is convenient. Brought my wife's doe from the weekend home last week quartered on ice, I didn't cut it up till Thursday. With a good cooler and favorable outside temps I never had to add ice. I muscled out the quarters and trimmed the flank/ribs straps and tenderloins vacuum packed the steaks/roasts and froze the ready to grind sausage meat spread over 2 nights just in between when I made dinner and got the kids in bead. If you keep at it you will get a lot faster.

I pay $12 per pound for the jerky. It is excellent. I don't like jerky to taste like boot leather so he cuts mine slightly thicker and the flavor is really good.

Damn right...hell my buddy doesn't even gut his. Loads it up in the truck and drops off at processor....costs extra $50 to have them gut it but worth it to not have to screw with it. I've killed a couple in the evening and needed to get back home so did not gut mine either and just dropped off whole.

To me there is no work that begins. I have always enjoyed the fruits of hunting/fishing never minded skinning gutting or filleting deer/fish. I like knowing exactly how my food was handled, and it is carrying on a tradition. My kids and nephews take turns standing on a chair and turning the sausage stuffer and well supervised feeding meat into the grinder. Man miss my Opie after typing that.

I like jerky but it would probably break, extract my teeth

I get a lot of breakfast sausage, patty and link. Some jalapeno/cheese summer sausage. Backstrap steaks, steaks and roasts from hindquarters. The rest for stew meat and ground.

I've been tempted to do this. I always field dress with the thought process of getting the insides out faster so the meat cools down quicker. In hindsight, the time it takes to get it to the field dressing area, rope it up, get out the knives, field dress it, and then clean-up... I only save maybe 10 minutes compared to driving it straight to the processor. That is assuming they field dress it as soon as I drop it off.

Should've done this last weekend. Had a buddy out at my property - passed on a lot of does waiting on a specific buck to come. Naturally, the buck hit the areas we didn't hunt. Ended up staying Sunday afternoon for another hunt so my buddy would get at least get a doe. Since he field dressed it... the process took a bit longer and we didn't get back to DFW until 10pm. The extra $50 might have saved some grief from the wife for coming home later than expected

Does, everything that can be cut up in tenderized cutlets as possible, butterfly cut backstrap rest bacon burger. Bucks, butterfly cut backstrap, rest smoke sausage and bacon burger.

I came back from our doe management hunt and processed 2 and dropped 3 at the processor. Boudin, summer sausage (jalapeno cheese) and pan sausage, the rest is chili meat. I steak out the others and ran them through the tenderizer. All the back straps are ready for chicken fried steak.

we processed all our own for the first 40+ years of my life until my parents got up in age and just weren't able to do it any more, it was a family time together and process that we did everything including hamburger & varieties of sausage ... but it's a lot of work for a single person.

I normally drop off a field dressed deer at several different processors and most of the time it is just basic processing with backstrap & tenders pulled whole OR into tenderized steaks (for CFS or fajitas) and the rest into hamburger. Occasionally I will get a variety of link or pan sausage depending on freezer space.

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My family & I make 50-100 dozen a year, making a bunch this weekend.

They're just for personal consumption though, not for hire.

I'm the meat, tamale sauce, & salsa guy. I hate spreading masa. I suck at it.

My first deer this year I just had processed regularly. Steaks, backstraps, tenderloins, and all the trim in ground.

My second deer I had all the trim go into bratwurst, german sausage, and breakfast sausage.