Butchery: How much venison from one roe?

Erik Hamburger

Well-Known Member
I shot an average seized roe doe yesterday afternoon, it has been hanging in the garage overnight, and I just skinned and butchered it, broke it up and bagged it up for the fridge and freezer. These figures may interest some:

TOTAL CLEAN meat, boneless, skinless, all the sinews and some blood damaged tissue removed and seem-butchered, these are the results:
  • Leg muscles for steaks: 3Kg.
  • Strip-loin and Tenderloin/fillet: 1.2Kg
  • Diced casserole meat: 2Kg
  • Minced meat: 1.9Kg

So a total weight of of just over 8Kg of clean useable meat.
So this does not include the bones, currently in the stock pot, and the liver and kidneys, which went for breakfast this morning.
Note some confusion may arise as some people refer to the strip-loin as 'fillet'.
In my own opinion the steaks cut from the leg-muscles are actually finer (tastier) than the steaks cut from the strip-loin and fillet.

It would be interesting to work out the retail meat value of a whole roe doe and than compare that to what your butcher or Game dealer gives you. But I leave that to someone else.

What I do know is that the average protein portion in a fine restaurant is set at 110-120Gr per person. Even being generous, and allowing 150Gr per person, this carcass would give a decent Chef 50+ portions to play with.
 
I normally get 50% of the deer weight on a small or young deer. On a bigger beast we get more 60% +.
 
What I do know is that the average protein portion in a fine restaurant is set at 110-120Gr per person. Even being generous, and allowing 150Gr per person, this carcass would give a decent Chef 50+ portions to play with.

That sounds plausible. In the following article the chef reckons to get over 20 meals (£42 each in 2002 prices) from the haunches alone.

Venison butchery - 2/18/2002 - Caterer and Hotelkeeper

With muntjac I get about 30% yield, but I've always lost a fair amount of one shoulder from damage.

Fallow can be as much as 70%, a bit lower when they are very fat.

I've only had one roebuck, ISTR I got about 40%.
 
Good thread mate.
You got about 17.5lb of venison form one roe doe, that seems like pretty good going to me.
Your figuring out of the nett worth of that amount of venison kinda puts into perspective exactly what I have been giving away for free to friends and colleagues over the years......
Thanks Erik, good thinking
Geo
 
I sold 6 roe haunches and 6 loin fillets (cannons) to a butcher this morning for £162.70. That leaves me with the front ends plus trim of 3 deer.
Puts game dealer prices into perspective eh?
MS.
 
The game dealer is just the middle man trying to make money, as in any business, cut out the middle man and you can make a healthier profit out of your venison.
 
I break my roe down similarly with haunches split down into the 2 rear splits (roasting/steaks) and the front part (stewing), striploin (roasting) and shoulder and anything else i can get is stewing.

I reckon selling the doe to the dealer at roughly £1 per lb is going to get me £36.

I sell roasting at £5 a lb and stewing at £3.50 a lb. I tend to achieve the £36 i would have done and my children get the fillets for tea and the neighbours get the bones for stock. I also tend to be cautious leaving out anything thats 50:50 near a shot shoulder as one bad experience will put people off for life and it is not work the extra few pennies.

Everyone is happy as it's cheaper than the supermarket or butcher. I tested this with a butcher who reckoned i was about right - I think he was £6 and £5 a lb respecively.
 
Last November Lidl was selling frozen NZ venison. I presume this is as cheap as it gets, for anonymous frozen meat.

"loin steaks" were £33.30 per kg.

"leg steaks" were £20 per kg.

"diced shoulder ideal for goulash or stews " was £14 per kg.

What can I say :(
 
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