DevonRifle
Well-Known Member
If you want to improve your butchering skill YouTube is your friend. You’ll find skinning videos as well.
What pot size to boil bones?
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Looked at video on YouTube- gambrel is a new technique for me, people don’t use it in the country I came from, probably because we do everything on the ground. However, I can see how fast it is and definitely adopting new technique
Watched this video on deboning deer - is this how it should be done? . I leave less meat on bones. Then what do you do with the bones? This is where I want to boil them and eat the rest of the meat from the bones - unless I can go much tidier with the meat than the guy on the video (probably using a saw and then packing with bones), but then I will need a third fridge/freezer…
I watched these two videos and see that butcher simply throughs bones away, while I try taking out the last pieces of meat from them
Sorry for the topic, I see it was a cultural misunderstanding
And, thank you for the advice on the gambrel - I will use it from now on not only for gralloching, but also for skinning and butchering
Sorry for the topic, I see it was a cultural misunderstanding
And, thank you for the advice on the gambrel - I will use it from now on not only for gralloching, but also for skinning and butchering
DevonRifle
Well-Known Member
I watched these two videos and see that butcher simply throughs bones away, while I try taking out the last pieces of meat from them
Sorry for the topic, I see it was a cultural misunderstanding
And, thank you for the advice on the gambrel - I will use it from now on not only for gralloching, but also for skinning and butchering
In the first video he uses the saw a lot, I might use it for ribs if leaving them whole and cutting the shanks into pieces for osso buco but nothing else. The second video is certainly not the best butchering video I’ve seen. I only glanced though it but far more meat in the ribs, etc than I’d leave even if using the bones for stock. A butcher calling the loins fillets and I think he left the fillets in the discarded carcass (but I didn’t watch it all). I’ve never added water to burgers, surely that’ll create more spitting in the pan.
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I think you have to make a few choices here.
The first one is whether you really have to shoot more than one deer at a time. Your core problem seems to be that you’re bringing home more venison than you can process with the time and resources available. If you have to shoot more than one at a time, then probably worth finding a game dealer who will take the excess, leaving you with just one.
Second choice is the value you put on the residual meat on the bones. Given that you seem to have access to a good supply of deer, you’re not under pressure to get every last bit of meat. While it may seem wasteful, it’s also not worth the extra time and cost to try to completely clean the carcass if you have plenty of carcasses. Think of it this way: what are you paid per hour? Now work out how many hours you spend working on a carcass and how much meat you get. You can then work out what it costs you per kg of meat.
The fact is that roe deer are not a limited resource, and you’re not ‘wasting’ meat by throwing away the bones with some meat still on.
Summary: shoot fewer deer, find a game dealer or stop worrying. Maybe all 3.
The first one is whether you really have to shoot more than one deer at a time. Your core problem seems to be that you’re bringing home more venison than you can process with the time and resources available. If you have to shoot more than one at a time, then probably worth finding a game dealer who will take the excess, leaving you with just one.
Second choice is the value you put on the residual meat on the bones. Given that you seem to have access to a good supply of deer, you’re not under pressure to get every last bit of meat. While it may seem wasteful, it’s also not worth the extra time and cost to try to completely clean the carcass if you have plenty of carcasses. Think of it this way: what are you paid per hour? Now work out how many hours you spend working on a carcass and how much meat you get. You can then work out what it costs you per kg of meat.
The fact is that roe deer are not a limited resource, and you’re not ‘wasting’ meat by throwing away the bones with some meat still on.
Summary: shoot fewer deer, find a game dealer or stop worrying. Maybe all 3.
StephenToast
Well-Known Member
Yes, this is what I am looking at the moment on sale - sick and tired going through the ribs. Still,it won't help me with some bones as I want to make burgers and sausages
D
As VSS said don't get a hacksaw. Apart from anything else you'll leave paint off the blade on your meat/bones. Get a bone saw.
Take the shins off at their joints that way the whole leg will be half the length and cook separately.
Get a drinks chiller and do one deer at a time that way you have better control on the meat as if you find a sack of puss hidden in a joint then you can decide what to do with out having 2 more deer to cut up...
Re the size of the pot....it is like this if you were boiling 2 eggs for your breakfast to would use the small saucepan
Honestly , take a course ( there are quite a few who offer this ) BDS regionally often run these , or find someone around you who can show you how to do the butchery side of things one to one, check out online videos on u-tube etc Nine hours for three roe is a crazy long time. If you could skin it a small independent butcher might turn the carcass into the cuts you require ? Though by rights they shouldn't really many will for cash or a half share
I think that 3 hours for a total novice to fully butcher a roe deer is actually pretty good. Any fool can chop up a deer into random bits in double quick time, but the OP is clearly aiming for a high standard of butchery with minimal waste. I bet there aren't many members of this site who are capable of butchering a deer in under 3 hours, if that includes skinning it, vac-packing and labelling all the meat, and cleaning up afterwards.
The mistake the OP made was to attempt to tackle 3 deer in one push with limited experience and inadequate equipment. He's had some good advice on this thread, and his subsequent attempts will be better.
As for removing meat from the bones, unless you actually want to boil them up for stock then all you need is a flexible boning knife. In fact, that's all you need to butcher a whole roe, full stop.
A tip that I always remember, which I think came from @Freeforester originally, is "keep the red bits and bin the white bits". In other words, only clean bone should be going in your waste pile, and it can be got plenty clean enough with a knife.
Didn't get beyond 1m30s on that first US video. Dear oh dear - that's bloody awful. To the OP - don't do it like that!! Scott Rae videos are a much better place to start. And skin them hanging from the front legs on a gambrel: Skinning: hanging by rear legs or front legs
Well tbf you have not been in the larder with me to be able to judge ! I have worked with folks a lot faster and better than me that's for sure but then i have also been at this a fair while and can keep pace with most . One thing i dont try to do is go between ribs etc its not time effective for the result . Many dealers will tell that once your past the saddle and haunches your just saving on the waste disposal costs . I do however do the shoulders and neck so long as they aint got bullet damage.
I do not sell butchered venison though , i give it away ! If i dont need it for the dogs or house
Well that's a clear difference for a start: You're not trying to minimise waste or get as much value off a carcass as possible. Your just cutting it up. Anyone can do that quickly, with minimal skill.
What I tend to do now is butcher off the main joints. Saddle , Haunches, Shoulders and Neck (which I swap for Port, Wine or Cigars) the rest gets cut up with a bone saw and thrown in the my large slow cook pot. Left on overnight and fed to the dogs, easy and quick
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Come off it you have no idea of my skill level at all . Just cutting it up ? Yeah that's what everyone does master butcher to rank beginner. What i am doing is looking towards the Value and quality . To be honest i chuck wood on the fire i dont like the look of in the workshop , nobody wants sending rubbish . Time is mans most valuable possession . Some might serve up the ribs of a squirrel but that's sure as heck not me.
My local butchers are very successful but they didn't get there throwing any old junk in the mincer . When folks want venison they want the quality not the quantity not a few extra ounces of tarted up rubbish . Commercial venison processors often enough only really look at the saddle and haunches if there is any damage or when there is a lot of beasts hung up ! If i was a buyer i would be in there with my chequebook at that time not when they are down to the dogmeat bits and taking a few once from between the ribs
Quality over quantity & time efficiency imo.
Sounds to me like your just going for the easy option, and to hell with the rest. That's not butchery. That's hacking it apart.
Why wouldn't you want to maximise the output of a carcass? It seems pretty dumb not to.
Recently, I spent a week dealing with seven carcasses. No doubt you consider that a ridiculous waste of time.
It was 3 days butchering (and not much went in the bin, believe me!), one day doing burgers & sausages, one day packing and labelling, and two days stood behind a market stall selling it. I took over £2,600 for those seven deer, and a significant proportion of that revenue came from the bits that you'd have chucked to the dogs.
gelert
Well-Known Member
Nisbets do great pots and commercial grade tins but not cheap.
Mixing up your gross sales with net / net profit there obviously but then you are a farmer so its totally forgivable . That's a heck of a lot of rib bottoms and blood shot trimmed up shoulders !
My local store in town sells de- hydrated deer slots at near a tenner each , do i think doing likewise a great idea ? Nope ! Folks will buy good deerskins to hang on the wall , might that make me a fortune ? Nope !
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