Root beer and maple syrup injected turkey. Smoked about 7 hours. Turned out awesome. Definitely recommend injecting and smoking whole turkey.

Venison backstrap

Butcher. Specifically, production supervisor of a USDA cut and wrap facility. We do slaughter, curing and smoking as well as sausage making.

Braised pork hocks with apples and veggies

Dr_Pain Ribeye comes from the rib primal or plate which is connected to the loin primal. Because of the size difference, the loin and ribeye are usually left connected on deer. Therefore, backstrap is both loin and ribeye. Ribeye being the portion along the ribs and loin being after the ribs and before the hip bone.

Jonathon live and work in central Michigan. We are a small startup USDA plant, but I’ve been in the industry almost 10 years. Everyone has convincing arguments about which team to join… Lol

This is why there needs to be more information about the differences between butchers and meat cutters. Meat cutters (which I was for almost 7 years) open boxes and cut mostly pre-trimmed, subprimals into roasts and steaks. They mostly work with pre-ground products for burger and only the little bit of trim they produce from steaks and roasts is truly ground fresh in store. (I’m only commenting on things in the USA by the way, other countries can be very different.) These hardworking guys and gals make up the vast majority of what people mean when they say “butchers”. While the amount of knowledge they may have varies on the individual, they just don’t work with the same products or produce the same materials. Butchers (which I am now) on the other hand, work with primals, whole carcasses and even the living animals. Because they work at the beginning of the process, they often have access to all of the animal (in cases of plants where slaughtering is also done) or at least more bones, fat, offal and specialty cuts (like hanger steak ect.) then a meat cutter would. Often shops focused on retail direct to customers, do not have butchers, but meat cutters. If you are looking for fat (or anything else your local meat cutter can’t get for you) look for a USDA inspected butcher. Call and see if they can put some aside for you or even ask them which of their customers sell it. Especially, with smaller plants who do a lot of butchering for people that buy whole, 1/2, or 1/4 animals, there is usually a surplus of “by-products” like fat.

If you’re getting more then 30 pounds of clean boneless meat off of an average whitetail doe, your doing well. I think a 50% yeild is on the high end (almost unrealistic) of what to expect. Take into account that most fat and silverskin is removed and all shot damage and contamination is trimmed out. Most commercial processors won’t bone out the ribs at all because of possible contamination. You can never be sure how things were handled in the field. The same applies to the flank meat. These areas are easily contaminated by digesta and external debris and if dirty will be trimmed off and discarded. A professional butcher is always concerned with the quality of an end product and proper food safety. Even processing your own deer 40% of hanging weight (head, guts, hide and legs removed) is a much more realistic goal. Also bear in mind the longer it hangs, the more weight/ moisture it looses. Commercially, you can expect your deer to hang about 7 days without the hide on and thus effects the weight. Education is important so you know what to expect. If you can’t trust your butcher to do a good job, find a new one. Neither of you will be happy working together without mutual respect/ trust.

Beef fat for burger and pork fat for sausage making.

Second grind always takes longer. As everyone has said, temperature is very important. Feed the grinder slowly and avoid using the pusher. This will help keep it cool. Make sure your knife and plate are on good shape. They should be paired together, don’t use one knife with various plates. This will keep the parts in better condition. Most importantly, be patient and let the grinder do the work.

IVERYAN He really is. I love his videos.

IVERYAN check out Eckkhard The German Butcher on YouTube. Lots of emulsified sausage making videos using a chopper or food processor. He has some interesting old school techniques.

wvhunter1965 I have made corned venison from the hind before and it’s awesome. I have only made it from my own recipe, but it turned out great.

Always used 6x12 or 6x15 depending on the width of the particular slab. This was for retail presentation and looks great when done. If you want to make it easier to package, go with 8 inch wide bags.

kyle Good point. It could work

Dice it up and fry it with potatoes. Potatoes absorb salt and will help balance it out. Add eggs and it’s breakfast! I have thrown a raw potato into a pot of chili that was inadvertently over salted. The potato pulled enough salt from the pot that the meal was saved. I agree with others that mention not vacuum sealing. I made bacon commercially for awhile. We wet brined and vacuum tumbled them in order to smoke them that same day. If you do vacuum, dramatically reduce the time you are brining. Don’t give up! The homemade stuff will be so worth it.

Recipe I’ve used calls for .06% dehydrated jalapeños. I’ve never tried removing the seeds. I have rehydrated them, but have also skipped doing so. I don’t see much difference either way.

I always save deer fat. It’s great for the chickens, the dogs like it and the wild birds are more then happy to eat it up. As for eating it ourselves, beef fat and pork fat are both better to most peoples taste nowadays and is easy enough to come by that I use that instead.

Tough to choose. Going with mfrievalt and MCURRAN Great posts to all!

Braised pork hocks with apples and veggies