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Deer Meat

Started by Kansas, January 16, 2011, 08:07:03 PM

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Kansas

The guy who hunts my farm for deer got me one on a landowners permit this year. He got me a younger doe. Maybe 50-60 lbs of meat total. Some is the summer sausage with cheese and jalapenos in it. Some is ground venison. The rest is loin steaks. I have two questions.
1) I put it all in a side by side refrigerator/freezer that is close to new.  How long do I have to use it up? (Put it in the freezer side, of course)

2) How do you like to use the loin steaks? I know what to do with the rest. A lotta chili is in my future.

isawlogs


Mine never seams to last long enough in the freezer to really worry about it. The lenght of time that it is good in the freezer is really determend by wich way it was packadged, in brown waxed paper it would last the least time , the longest being vaccum sealed ... ( 6 months to a year )  ;)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Jeff

That's a heck of a lot of meat from a young doe.

What is it you are calling loin steak?  The loin is the part of the body on either side of the spinal column usually referred to as backstrap. There is also the inner loins, or tender loins as we refer to them which come from inside the body cavity along the spine. Not very big. Loin meat is usually a low % of the total volume of the meat.

We fix it two ways, wither floured ans seasoned and fried, or marinated in ranch dressing then grilled. Make sure you never over cook it.

If you wrap in tightly in plastic wrap and then wrap in freezer paper, is should stay tasty a couple years. I don't know for sure as it would never ever last that long at our house.  As long as it stays frozen and never thaws, the quality of taste and texture may go down, but it will always be edible.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Kansas

I did a rough count. About 50 packages of summer sausage and ground venison total, I would guess about 1 lb each. Have about 8 smaller packages of loin. One says tenderloin, some are just marked loin, and a few are marked d loin. Think I will save those and do the marinating process and grill them.

A young doe ought to be big around here. They sure graze out on my soybean field.

Jeff

I'd bet they mixed in 50% pork or beef to get that much. They usually never make summer sausage out of pure venison because its to lean.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

ErikC

 I have found lost packages of vacuum sealed venison way back in the freezer that were in their third year, and they were fine. It definitely keeps the longest that way.
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

WildDog

Our favourite meal of venison is the back straps cut into rossettes lightly tenderised and fried up in a steak dianne sauce and served with french fries to mop it up.  :)
If you start feeling "Blue" ...breath    JD 5510 86hp 4WD loader Lucas 827, Pair of Husky's 372xp, 261 & Stihl 029

Norm

I like the loins either the inside loins which we would call tenderloins, if it was beef, or the backstrap loins marinated in italian dressing. Then grilled over lump charcoal that's really hot to just sear the outside. Either put in a preheated oven or off to the cool side of the grill and bring to 125°. Rest for 10 minutes and eat.

The last 2 deer I got this year one was a spike buck that boned out to 35lbs and a young doe that boned out to 25lbs. I'm not real fussy about getting all of the meat and leave anything has gristle or sinew with it. Any areas of meat where the slug went get tossed too.

In the freezer it's good for a couple of years.

WDH

I, too, usually average about 30 - 35 lbs or so.  It takes a big deer to get 40.  I grind the deer as is with no fat to keep the ground meat very lean.  We use if for spaghetti sauce, taco meat, etc., so low fat is fine.  If we grill burger, it has to be beef! 

Norm, that tenderloin on the beef would be filet mignon too!
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Kansas

You guys got me curious now how I got that much meat. I know the guy who processed the deer well, but I never talked to him. The deer hunter made all the arrangements. I gotta head that way today. Plan on stopping and finding out.



ErikC

 I have noticed that if I take a deer to the butcher here, I get a lot more than if I do it myself. I have seen the bones after he is done and they look like they have been scraped clean. All that stuff adds up. I always get about the same nice cuts as him doing it, but he gives me about an extra 20 lbs of ground meat or sausage. That may be all it is. :)
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

Kansas

I never made it to the guy that processed the deer due to a snowstorm, but I did talk with an avid deer hunter that is a customer of mine. Here is what he told me. A good sized doe in this area will average 50-60 lbs of actual meat. The summer sausage weight will probably be inflated by 10% to 15% due to the jalepenos, cheese, and maybe an addition of fat. He said bucks average more. He has seen some bucks yield 115-120 of actual meat after deboning, if not more. Not sure why the hunter said it was a young doe, but he does help the guy that processes a lot of deer. Maybe they can tell age, not sure.

In any case, think its time to start cooking. High of 18 today. Sounds like a good day for venison chili. Now where did I put those hablanaros.

Jeff

115-120  is greater than the total hanging weight of the average Michigan Whitetail Deer.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Kansas

There are some pretty good sized deer around here. My customer leases land he owns along the Kansas River for hunters coming in from the east coast for some serious dollars. The hunter that hunts my ground showed me pics of a buck he got off a game camera here. He didn't get that one this year. I got a chance to see it the other night coming home in the dark. About 7 deer crossed in front of me on my driveway. 2 smaller ones, maybe 4 big does, and a buck with a heck of a rack, in the same area as his game cam was set up. First time I saw that one. I suspect it only moves at night. They should grow big here. We sure as heck feed em well.

Texas Ranger

The first deer I killed in Missouri was a doe, feeding in a soybean field.  Had layers of fat under the hide.  Live weight was about 180, took two of us to haul it to the truck.  As it turned out, it is the single largest deer I have ever killed.  The bucks in Texas live weight is usually under 150 pounds, there are some efforts to increase size (say "horns") by importing breeder bucks from up north.  There appears to have been some success in horn size, dont know about weight..  there have been some large bucks killed, but I have no report on weight.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Norm

I always wondered if it was genetics or food sources that made the difference in size.

My area is hunted hard so older big bucks are rare which leaves us with tons of does and small bucks. The small buck I got that boned out 30#s was likely a 1 1/2 year old. I lost some meat from the slug that hit him and I am very loose on my boning. The doe was probably born in June so 6 months old and boned out 20#'s with a front shoulder and some loin lost to a poor slug shot.

I have some guys that drive from Alabama to hunt here and just gush over how big the deer are and nice the racks are. Me their just rats with hooves.

Burlkraft

We have the opposite problem here.
The (supposed) CWD scare has really depleted the doe population.
It was a free for all. Some farmers shot pickup loads of does on Ag tags for 3 years
Deer numbers are down significantly as are harvest numbers.

I started QDM at my farm and the guy I sold it to has continued. They have about 5000 acres in the management area.
They had been harvesting does at an alarming rate. Pretty soon all you see hunting was bucks!
This year they shot 2 bucks that were in the 7 1/2  year old range.
The others were at least 4 most were 5 and some nice racks were harvested.
They shot no does this year and probably will not for another couple of years
Why not just 1 pain free day?

SPIKER

Looks like Ohio has some of the best sized deer.  I been around the states a lot and seen a lot of deer while in Military.   Mid-west sure has biggest deer.  PA, Ohio Indiana, Lower Illinois and Norther Mo Eastern KS.  I was in TX during deer season and stopped in for some gas and there were a couple good ole boys sporting a deer in the pickup.   It was according to them a BIG deer, back home here in Ohio it would have been embarrassing to bring in bambi that size to check in. :o  It maybe weighed 80~100 live weight.   Closer to dressed weight here in Ohio. 

My nephew has gotten dressed doe 110 off my farm 3 times and a 2nd yr buck that dressed 120lbs (4 point)   His 7 point last years deer also was 120 dressed weight.   This years doe was his hunting buddy only a 80~90 dress weight.   The NEW neighbors out front of my place kept trespassing during hunting season and scared off the normal deer population.   When I confronted her,  She (new neighbor) things her grand kids should be able to drive around my place since she only has 1 acre of land!?  When I told her why my main complaint was them scaring the deer off he was hunting (I trade property work on my place for hunting rights.)   She complained about the shooting (they were sighting in the musket loaders.)  She said it was dangerous for them to do that and it was too noisy and disturbed her & her yappy dog.)   

She also said her dog would bite and attack any other dogs around it and would dig out of its fence to do so.   (It is a little yappy thing about 20 lbs maybe.)  I mentioned that my dog like to kill coons & wood chucks that size for fun and is very friendly until something comes after him...     I knew the first day I met her I wasnt going to get along.   She wanted to cut down my black cherry trees because they are dangerous to horses that she wanted on my lot!  they brush hogged into my  pines 20' past her line tearing up a lot of the lower branches and I had to set them straight that day and now again...   

She did give me hope as she said her daughter has to move and she is going to buy their place.  YEA  so maybe there is light at end of this tunnel..

Mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

Kansas

Quote from: Norm on January 23, 2011, 11:05:14 AM
I always wondered if it was genetics or food sources that made the difference in size.

My area is hunted hard so older big bucks are rare which leaves us with tons of does and small bucks. The small buck I got that boned out 30#s was likely a 1 1/2 year old. I lost some meat from the slug that hit him and I am very loose on my boning. The doe was probably born in June so 6 months old and boned out 20#'s with a front shoulder and some loin lost to a poor slug shot.

I have some guys that drive from Alabama to hunt here and just gush over how big the deer are and nice the racks are. Me their just rats with hooves.

I don't know either, but there are a couple of things I have noticed. One is that virtually all the farmers here in the valley (and upland too) have gone to no till farming operations. That leaves a lot of food source during the winter. I noticed coming down my driveway yesterday where a deer had pawed (hoofed?) out a spot in the soybean stubble through the snow to feed. I do know overpopulation leads to smaller deer. They had a big fight over a park near Kansas City that was way overpopulated by deer. They finally sent in people to thin them down. From the pics I saw, they looked pretty small.

IMO, we have too many deer here anyway. The state of Kansas has considered it a moneymaker to keep license prices high and restrict them.  After a county attorney in North-Central Kansas got fed up with seeing all the car-deer accidents several years ago, he declared that he would not prosecute poachers. That got the state government up in arms, but he stuck to his guns (pun intended). The state relented and started releasing a lot more permits. I still see a lot of road kill deer here, but they seem to be getting bigger. I have 140 acres here. I realize deer move, but its not unusual to see herds of 8-10 together here. That seems like a lot for that size of area.

Texas Ranger

Texas Parks and Wildlife have instigated a program where they come in and manage a tract, by invitation.  They dictate how many doe and bucks are killed, and on bucks horn size.  One ranch with several thousand acres has been under management for a number of years.  They have reduced the ratio to 2 does to 1 buck.   They control the population, and body weight and horns have show drastic improvement.  But it is hard to tell a Texas deer hunter to kill those does, "Shoot, kill all the does and we wont have no deer".  When in fact the hear is greatly improved.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

WH_Conley

I almost always bone my deer, Figure about 30-35 lbs meat for a good sized deer.
Bill

submarinesailor

About 35 years ago, I was hunting above an apple orchard located next to Skyline Drive (Shenandoah National Park) when a small doe walked out of a thicket.  I watched her for a minute and thought to myself there should be a buck coming along behind her.  Sure enough, here came a set of feet moving though the bush.  So, I pick my shot, waited until his shoulder cleared the tree, checked to be sure it had horns and touched the trigger.  And off he went.  Found him lying against a tree after about 30 yards.  Weighted in at 172 pounds with10 points that scored out at B&C of 164.25 points.  A huge deer by state of Virginia standards.  And he hangs proudly on the wall.

Burlkraft

Good hunt story Bruce  ;D
Why not just 1 pain free day?

Tom

I ate one of the best venison stews I've ever eaten, Sunday night, at a neighbor's house.  When he was trying to get another friend of theirs to try the meat, He explained:

Most people shoot a deer, admire it, take pictures, drag it to the truck, take pictures, drive home via their friend's house, take pictures, call their Daddy to come look, take pictures, and then, because it's getting to be midnight, they figure they better do something with butchering the carcass because they have to work the next day.   In the meantime, the venison has stewed in its own juices for 5-8 hours.  When we shoot one of these deer, it's on the way to the freezer in about 30 minutes.  It makes a lot of difference as to the gamey taste that everyone attributes to wild game.

D Hagens

Quote from: Tom on January 25, 2011, 12:39:30 PM
I ate one of the best venison stews I've ever eaten, Sunday night, at a neighbor's house.  When he was trying to get another friend of theirs to try the meat, He explained:

Most people shoot a deer, admire it, take pictures, drag it to the truck, take pictures, drive home via their friend's house, take pictures, call their Daddy to come look, take pictures, and then, because it's getting to be midnight, they figure they better do something with butchering the carcass because they have to work the next day.   In the meantime, the venison has stewed in its own juices for 5-8 hours.  When we shoot one of these deer, it's on the way to the freezer in about 30 minutes.  It makes a lot of difference as to the gamey taste that everyone attributes to wild game.

That's funny Tom. :D You just described my brother in-law to the T. :D

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