Once the deer was skinned and hung, Hubby and I stood back, took a good long look.......and panicked. WTH do we do now!? Some quick searches online and a few phone calls to my dad later, we decided not to let it hang for more than a day, the weather was just too warm. The back straps were easy, we knew what we wanted to do with them. We got them cut out, cut up and wrapped as breakfast steaks. Betcha can't guess what we are having for breakfast on Christmas morning!
But what to do with the rest of the meat? Back to the internet. We found some mildly useful information that of course was totally opposite of someone else's opinion. We got frustrated and just started cutting. A few hours later Hubby called his friend and he offered to come over and show us how to cut the roasts and steaks. Whew. Now all we have to do is buy some suet and grind up some deer burger.
Oh, yes. That's why after we get a deer, it's usually said, "now the work starts." It sure is nice to know how to do this. It will give you great confidence to know you can do this if you really need to. We've been doing this for many years. One thing I will say is that you do need to let the meat rest (preferably before cutting up) for at least a day and as many as 3 to 5. We actually have extra refrigerators in the garage and put the cut meat in bags (a lot like your picture) and let it rest before freezing. You were probably right not to let it hang on a day with a temp above 40F. Some people will put the meat in a large cooler with ice if you don't have the room in a fridge. The resting is important if you want more tender meat. I could get into the biochemistry of why, but I think I've taken enough of your comment space.
ReplyDelete45er, we dont have an extra fridge so we hung it in the garage for 24 hours before cutting it up. It was the best we could do. Since then, Hubby also got his deer and it hung for around three days. We are cutting it up today because he has to go back to work tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI got the gist of why hanging is important during my many frantic searches once I shot the deer.
It really IS a confidence builder knowing we can do this on our own.
Thanks for letting me know I was on the right track!