Owning & Caring for a Personal Deer Processing Equipment

Posted by Professional Processor on August 19th, 2016

So you enjoy deer hunting or maybe, it is your first time. In either case, you will need a deer processing equipment to make the most out of that kill. Hunting not your thing? In that case you may still wish to bring home that raw meat and process it yourself. In every situation, the basic equipment will be necessary.

So here's what comprehensive deer processing equipment comprises of:

A sharp butcher knife and a meat saw

So if you are new to this deer processing routine, I'd suggest you hand it over to professionals to do the butchering and handle the roast and steaks. Whatever remains, you can start with trying your hands at a ground that yourself.

However, if you are someone who knows exactly how to work, get handy with the knife and meat saw. If you have enough practice, try taking off shanks as whole as that only leaves you with cutting off the shanks. Know when to use the saw. It is the tools you need to cut clean the bone and gristle.

Food grade plastic tubs

So while you are there butchering and cutting the deer, you will need the plastic tubs or lugs in decent size to place the cut portions of meat.

Ice cooler

The stuff isn't placed by itself. Instead, to keep the texture, form being altered, it is stored in ice. Hence the ice cooler!

Meat grinder

This is the part that everyone can do on their own - the grinding. For this, it is important that you have a personal, commercial grade grinder. It is the handy processing tool that you will need to process the scraps into something like hamburger. The following tips will come in handy in caring for this equipment:

• Process everything cold – This is the golden rule for grinding, keep the pre-processed stuffs cold before you put it to grind. Warm or hot tends to leek fat, leaving the processed meat pulp and dry, not really what you would want. Also, it leads to higher chances of smearing.

• Keep a check for smearing – For this you must trim the material well, rather than chopping it roughly. Doing so you will be able to prevent the thing from smashing through the holes to give you an undesirable chewed up texture.

As it is processed through the grinder, ensure you get discreet little pieces to be able to clearly identify fat and others. In that the opposite happens and you get a damp lump of required stuffs after processing, your tool is smeared. In this case using the reverse unction can help. If your equipment does not have this option, manually disassemble its parts, clean the blades, assemble it back and start over.

• Gradually reduce the size – Expect the finest grind when the blades are sharp. Once you start using them, they become less effective with every new lot of things you put in. Therefore, trimmed meat that you put in should be reduced in size with every new set of bits and pieces you put in. This will help you get a fine grind for longer.

• Other important factors - Using a clean and sharp blade, keeping the plate clean and salting it makes the process easier while each of these actions also help prevent smearing to increase the life of your deer processing equipment.

Additional equipment

These include equipment such as meat smokers, sausage making kits, jerky Dehydrators etc. that allow you to do more with the ground meat.

To store chopped bits and pieces, you can utilize vacuum sealers that keep your processed stuffs fresh for as long as two years!