Ever noticed that all videos of cutting up deer meat refers to the shitt cuts as roasts. Lol tenderloins for me

I was lucky enough to start hunting when we thought that a neck roast or a front shoulder were delicious. I've eaten many of each and felt glad to have it. Then again, we usually ate pinto beans several times a week for supper.

Nothing went to waste. Blood shot meat was soaked in vinegar water and salt to draw it out. The individual buckshot were picked out. The hides we sold to taxidermists, the guts fed to dogs (or pigs) and the mostly clean bones put out for coons and other animals to scavenge.

Today, I debone the hind quarters into three roast, cut the meat from the front shoulders and ribs for for stew meat, cut the loins into halves for my mom or to give to people who are too old to hunt anymore but like deer meat. I even cut them in half for personal use, it makes a great meal for two. I still like a neck roast but no one will buy hides and I dump the guts and carcasses into a hole and lime them, before filling it after the season.

I get that. Times were hard. I just like the fish and tenderloins and all else is jerky

When I cut a hind quarter I get more than 3 roast our of it, plus the Eye of Round (looks like a small back strap). The muscle that looks like a football out of the hind quarter you can use as a roast or slice it to make streaks. The front shoulders stew meat or if you have a Bone saw, where the shoulder spine is you can cut to make Country Ribs like they do with pork shoulder. The neck I usually cook it in a Crockpot strip the meat, cut the long strands into short pieces and use for stew, venison and noodles, or Barbecue for sandwiches. The Barbecue is great for camp meals. It is amazing how much meat you can get off of a deer neck, even a young one, if you skin it out to the base of the skull. Some I have had to cut into two pieces just to get one piece to fit into a large crock pot. I am taking a deer neck to a friends house in a couple of weeks and smoke it, haven't done that before. I am anxious to see how that turns out. DANNY

“ Never tried the neck roast may have to google that.”

One year a buddy of mine shot an old swamp buck that dressed out at 230 or so, and the muscles in that dude‘s neck were as big as the back straps on a typical deer up here. I kid you not: the base of that buck’s neck was about 60 inches in girth.

Now, I am sure there are a lot of people thinking “Oh, HELL no! That neck meat would be all rutty and nasty and tough and disgusting!”…

But it wasn’t. Not at all. Neck meat is just a continuation of the back straps, at least so far as my taste buds can tell. Yes, I have been known to make jerky, but I do that because I like to eat jerky, not because the meat is unfit for anything else.

And really, I’m just not that big a fan of ground venison. I don’t much care for the idea of adding a whole bunch of lard to it so if it’s a choice between jerky and grinding… I prefer jerky.

I've never made burger or deer sausage by grinding up bacon with it. A western NY friend told me that's what they did. I have added beef and pork fat before. When I was hunting a 500 acre corn and bean farm, you didn't need extra fat.

I've ground many front shoulders and more than a few hindquarters. For a number of years the only burgers I ate were those that I shot. As a matter of fact I killed all the red meat that I ate for a number of years. After the first deer was in the freezer, the second was mostly ground up for burger, balogna, and deer sausage.

Inner loins and back straps, all else is burger and or summer sausage.

Man, I’ve shot a couple deer and cut up a pretty good number myself. The loin and tenderloin is of course great, but when my achy arthritic hands let me butcher one the grind bag is gonna be small. Neck roasts are as tender as anything but the shoulder and butt roasts and steaks aren’t far behind if you know how to cook ‘em.

When I don’t cut up my own I tell the butcher “I’m the guy who wants every single steak, chop and roast and as little burger as possible”. It’s unfortunate that when you hand a buck over the processor will often grind way too much up. That’s what every hunter but me wants.

I’ve shot deer 8+ years old as aged by the DNR and bucks dressing over 240 #. I’ve never had a bad eating deer.

A rutting deer only smell bad on the outside. NEVER use the same knives to butcher a deer as you did to skin or gut them with. Unless you have thoroughly washed them with hot soap and water, handles and all. Don't forget your hands also. You do not want the bacteria or possible parasites from the hide, stomach or intestines if ruptured, or the urine soaked tarsal glands in your meat. DANNY

I like turning the inner rounds into dried venison, fairly easy to do, doesn't cost much and is delicious. Canning is another easy thing to do. I've seen too many hunters that think the only meat is in the back quarters and the backstraps. Sad.

Line cutter is correct any rutty buck or bull smell and taste is from hair or glands. If any hair gets on the meat. Immediately remove it or singe it off with a propane torch. I also agree the neck and shoulders make great roasts or corned beef.

To each his own, but for me, the rear quarters are what a crock pot was made for. Either as roast cuts, or thick cut round steak for pot roast. One thing I always do before putting meat in a crock pot is to braise/brown it first in a skillet or on the grill.

Now I'm getting hungry!!!

One thing I always hated messing with when I was younger was the shank or lower part of the leg. We used to clean it up and throw that tough meat in the grind pile. 2 years ago I seasoned, braised and then through one in a slow cooker. Wow was that thing ever good. Got the idea from watching Meateater. Probably do that a few times a year now.

I don’t care what anyone calls anything but jmdavis brought up shoulder meat. As a kid I personally wasn’t a fan of it. Just couldn’t find anything I personally was super fond of. My girl makes a Mongolian beef out of it now. Gotta be one of my favorite recipes. We’ve tried with other cuts and the texture just wasn’t right imo. If anyone needs that recipe let me know. Every cut has a way I like preparing it but I’ve eaten one beef steak in many many years. We eat almost all wild game

x2 What Smokedinpa said, Thats what i do with the shanks also. I got the cook book of steven rinella the meateater. I ussally will cure and smoke both hindquarters, venison ham and vac seal and freeze of my first deer. Grind, cure, and smoke 25# venison bacon then slice vac and freeze.

Neck roast in the crockpot is hard to beat. Hind quarters are for cube steak and ground meats. The ribs are good if you have time to cut away the fat-deer fat is nasty stuff. Shoulders are also candidates for my crockpot. I’m so ready for this season to start. I’m salivating at the thought of venison.

Some can cook - other's obviously can't. ;^)

Heres 25# deer bacon thats been cured, smoked, and sliced ready to get vacuum packed and froze.

SteveBNY has a very good point. Lots are about the cooking. Preparing deer meat is very foreign to even many hunters. How many people you know can’t cook beef, pork or chicken the way suits you? I hate dried out, burnt stuff. My girl is from DR, imo they overcook everything. Took her a bit to overcome that. She’s a dif cook now. When I mentioned that Mongolian beef the Dr she works for has a family building. All Chinese brothers/sisters. All Drs or dentists. She brought in the Mongolian recipe for them to try. They went nuts for it and it was with deer shoulder. Cooking is key and very different than beef preparation

The older I get the more I like shanks,ribs,neck and other"shitty" cuts,, I almost prefer them actually.

Some of you all might yell at me to "Get off your lawn" when I say this but to me, the single best thing that has happened to wild game butchering and preparing has been the sharing of information and recipes on the internet.

I've always grown up eating wild game but I've picked up a lot of butchering and especially cooking techniques and recipes over the last 15 or so years by just Google searching on the internet. Give it a try, you might be surprised.

Happy hunting and good eating to all!

Jerky is the last thing I would want, I don't even care for beef jerky...never have. If you have a crockpot/slow cooker, you can make any roast tender and awesome. You know they've only been around for about six or seven decades now. LOL. Tenderloin (underside of back strap) are skillet fried, as are most of the back straps themselves. Put you a rump or shoulder roast in the crockpot and let it all day...easy and the meat will be tender.

I keep the round & 2 flat roast from each hind quarter the inner loins are usually dinner that night & the backstraps. the ribs from deer killed early in the season are awesome later on in the season they get layered with too much fat. We cook down shoulders & necks & make big batches of pulled meat BBQ & vacuum seal.the majority of necks shoulders & all other scraps are used for burger. We use pork shoulder at roughly 10lbs pork to 40lbs venison or a 20% pork to venison ratio. We eat a lot of venison in my house. Between myself & my sons We use around 15+ deer a season.

In my experience, anytime I had venison that was bad (take your pic at the adjective - tough, "gamey", whatever) it was the fault of the preparer, not the venison.

I do much like George - I love to fry or grill the tenderloins and the backstraps as steaks. The hinds have some awesome roasts and steak cuts as well. The larger shoulder pieces make a great bag or roast meat, and I trim everything else for burger.

I do wonder why do so many think you need to add fat to deer burger? If you know it's deer burger, then you cook it accordingly. I don't add anything to mine and have never had that be any kind of negative? That's not a criticism, as I'm sure some of you have a really good reason - I've just personally never found a need to add fat to it for the ways we use it.

I LOVE jerky, but HATE the prep and time it takes. I eat it so fast once I've made it, I can't think of much more of a poor investment of my time. LOL

Too many great uses for ground meat to make that much jerky......... :-)

As far as cooking venison goes there's basically 2 options. Seared in a HOT iron skillet or on the grill no more than medium. Myself personally prefer rare. Or cooked in some form of sauce stew or broth until falling apart. Another excellent option is canned venison. It's been pressure canned at 11 psi for 90 minutes & is falling apart right out of the jar one of our favorite quick meals is a can of cream of mushroom soup a bag of mixed frozen vegetables & a gar of canned venison it takes 30 minutes is delicious & costs less than $5.00 for a big pot of instant venison stew.

I even do the ribs. Par boil until fat is skimmed off top of water and clear. Tin foil in oven 4-5 hours or crockpot. Then your favorite rib sauce or plain.

I discovered corned venison a couple years ago and now it is my go to for tough cuts. It's very easy and cheap. I have a smoker so I go on to make pastrami from some of it. Even venison haters love it.

Everybody has their favorites and I agree with much of what has been posted above. Either cook tender cuts to the most medium rare or slow cook other cuts low and slow in braising liquid (usually beef broth and red wine) until it is falling apart. One our favorites is cubing many of the hind quarter cuts and either seasoning, flour dredge and pan fry or fry then transfer to a slow cooker with onions and mushrooms in red wine and broth, cook a couple of hours then serve over rice or noodles. Braised shanks are also absolutely delicious

We use backstraps (chops), tender hind muscles for steak, and the tougher ones for steak but use this steak for fajitas, inners whole and trimmings for bologna/hotdogs/sausage or hamburger if I get more than one deer. for the most part we grill all the chops and steaks medium rare. My wife and I prefer venison over beef.

DON'T FORGET THE HEART, DON'T CARE SO MUCH FOR THE LIVER. BUT HEART ON THE OTHER HAND IS DELICIOUS. I CUT RELATIVELY THIN AND COOK IN BUTTER WITH WHATEVER SEASONINGS YOU LIKE.

When I was young, we mixed some pork into the ground meat. Then butcher told me not to do that anymore. The venison can last frozen a long time, but pork doesnt have a long frozen shelf life.

Last time I cut one up, I boned out the hind quarters, cut some big round roasts, couple smaller roasts, and ground the remainder. I was shown how to cut all the different steaks, but didnt do it for long.

A buddy gave me this knife from a butcher shop he worked at, nice for cutting those big round roasts

doggone it you'se guys are making me hungry! lol

We use the slow cooker for all kinds of venison, heck, we even raise meat rabbits. Today is leftover rabbit stew. Used about 3 lbs rabbit, 2 carrots sliced, plum wine and cream of celery soup, dried cranberries, a few new potatoes microwaved then tossed in, then made a roux, which I added at the end of cooking to thicken the liquid into a cream sauce. No salt, no pepper, no garlic, no dill. Didn't need anything for seasoning. Toasted some 2 inch thick home made bread and buttered the beejinkies out of it, ate it onna side. Slow cookers RULE!

Threads like this need a "drool warning" in the header!

I no longer cut anything from the neck or lower legs. it wasnt the best meat anyway and with CWD its a no brainer.

I butcher and cut my meat myself.

As for gamey taste - some deer have it to a degree regardless of procedure and some dont. Removing all the fat as well as avoiding glands and not cutting the meat with the same tools you skin it with helps limit it though.

that deer bacon is good stuff. I made 10 pounds a couple years ago and it was awesome. Going to make some again this year along with snack sticks, burger, jerky, salami, steaks etc. Have one doe in freezer now and waiting to get one or two more. Also still have a couple quarts of canned venison left I need to eat up.

Love the taste of venison, but can no longer eat it. Cheers to you guys that can. Made my stomach gurgle,and gassy. Those farts smelled so bad they would knock a buzzard off a shit wagon.

With CWD being an issue, we just bone-out everything. CWD, if present, will be in the spinal fluid or brain...or in the bone marrow, not the meat. Even though we are in a CWD hotbed, so to speak, I have yet to see a sick deer in the woods where I hunt and haven't talked to anyone who has. I'm sure there are a few but my guess is it will run it's course like most things that affect wildlife....and even people.

Dartwick,

The gamey many seem to notice is a Livery type taste. That taste is from excess blood in the meat. I have found by freezing the meat and then letting the meat thaw a few days in the refrigerator so that the blood drains out (so be sure to place the meat package on a plate or in a bowl), even if vacuum sealed. Freezing ruptures the cells and thawing allows the fluid to drain out. Same thing happens with beef if frozen then thawed. Doing this I have never had that "gamey" taste. Now if I rushed the process, which I did early on hunting deer, then I would get a slight Livery taste. DANNY

Thanx for the tip Linecutter!

Fully agree that people don't know how to properly cook venison if they're grinding anything on 90% of the hindquarters!

Two chefs taught me how to butcher and cook venison.

I bone everything and make small roasts from individual muscle groups. Shanks and neck I braise. Tougher cuts in the front get braised as well.

Most everything else gets seared in a frypan after salt, pepper and oil and then cooked in the range to no more than 130 degrees centre temperature. Should be red in the centre.

I have always butchered my own game. But, it is a lot of work and I am not a trophy hunter...I just pass these days on a lot of deer that are not trophies. Mainly because I am too sorry to do all the butchering. That all changed when I got a Kamado Joe Japanese grill. It takes cooking meat to a whole other level and you cannot miss. They are pricey and in my experience better than a big green egg. You cannot miss with meat...get a good rub, inject or marinade depending on the cut and run it, you will not be disappointed!!!! I previously made jerky out of everything but the tenderloins and the back strap. but with this grill I now smoke all the meat!!!

Linecutter

Thats not what Im referring to by "gamey." Im talking about glandular flavor thats especially found in the fat. Its more often found in bucks but sometimes its there a bit in older does.

I essentially never get liver taste in my deer, but I get it occasionally in pork or beef that I buy. Ive looked into the science of liver taste - and there's substantial disagreement - some attributing it do a a specific type of fat oxidation others to blood iron - and the most persuasive case is that ionic iron is the blood catalyzes lipid oxidation. All I can say about liver flavor personally is I get my deer quartered and in cold cooler as as I can and remove all the fat - and I never get liver flavor - but I have no idea why.

George D. Stout

The prions also collect in lymphoid tissue. Thats why people are avoiding neck meat now.

Thanks for that tip George.

Where I hunt is in the deep south, Alabama. CWD at the moment as reported by our DNR has not spread in our state. I'm sure it has in the north on the Tenn line but where I am no reports. I process all my meat and am very careful with the handling. Our whitetails are not large like I've hunted in the North so neck meat is not a choice and like George mentions if there were CWD concerns it would be here. I do like to use the bones from the shanks (ours are very small) and slow simmer them for stock and use it in various dishes. We also pressure cook entire shoulders slow and low and oh so good with the all the juices from the connective tissue and such. In my opinion the shoulder is overlooked as a prime cut. Just my 2 cents and you know what that is worth!!!

About 30 years ago, I was visiting a friend at his taxidermy shop. Two guys came in inquiring about the price of a shoulder mount. The deer was a monster buck their elderly dad had killed that morning while squirrel hunting,and they were going to have it mounted for him. They had caped it out, and had taken a good portion of the neck. The old man came in a few minutes later, wanting his deer head and no part of a wall mount. All he would say on the way out, “ still lotta meat on that neck”.

You do not need the neck meat in the animal to do a shoulder mount. You can take measurements needed from just the cape.

Our elderly, 91 yr. old neighbor here in Maine, always uses neck meat for her mince meat. Don't know if it's because that's all she can get donated to her or what but her mince meat is the best I've ever had! Of course you have to like mince meat :). Wolf

The bad cuts aren't roasts, they're ground up to make burger or jerky meat.

what does the kamada joe do that the big green egg doesn't? or any other smoker for that matter.

Yessir, if you haven't had shanks braised low and slow or even a whole front shoulder you're missing out. I use leftovers for tacos, bbq sandwiches and anything else I can think of til it's gone. Rarely grind much, but I just picked up a nice electric grinder so I wanna use that if I score this season.

We can jars and jars of what some folks grind up and use it all year long.

My family has always eaten more fish & game than any other I've known. Not disagreeing with anything said & especially the last few posts about shanks & shoulders as we do the same. But we use a lot of venison burger. Spaghetti meat sauce & meatballs, chili, lasagna, tacos, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, burgers, sausage on & on & on I honestly can't remember the last pack of ground beef I bought perhaps 20 years ago or longer.

I'd really like to try that soon, too. A pressure canner may be my next processing purchase.

Damon there is sooooooo much that you can do with a pressure canner if you have the inclination.

We don't grind anything until we need ground meat. Then we partially thaw whatever we want to grind, or open a jar of whatever we want to grind and run it through the grinder.

My mom and aunts used to can a bunch of stuff from the gardens when I was young, I'm gravitating towards a lot of those things now myself. I'll definitely jump on a good deal if I happen across one. Great idea waiting to grind until you're going to use it, I've always heard it grinds best partially frozen.

That's 25 roughly 2# packs of venison burger we use pork shoulder 10# pork to 40# venison or roughly 20% pork to venison. Been doing this a long time when pork shoulder is on sale usually around .90 per lb. We buy several. This mixture makes an excellent ground beef substitute & a good base for lean sausage as well. The grinding as needed is ok I guess but I have a large grinder & setting up & then cleaning for one meal is not practical. Plus packs of ground meat stack tightly & take up much less room in the freezer. We usually vacuum seal all meat & fish & in this pic were out of bags so used ziplock bags

It's a case of whatever works. And everyone has a different twist, as well as different needs for what types of meals they prepare.

I would never consider adding pork to ground venison unless I was making sausage. And we just don't eat that much ground meat.

We haven't fired up our big grinder for a deer in years, although we do still use it for beef and hogs.

I make whatever I want, whenever I feel like it, depending on my need, mood, or intentions at the time, the same chunk of deer meat could go any one of several directions.

Sometimes I make 'perfect' jerky out of prime cuts, other times I make jerky with pieces I really have to work on. I like it tougher sometimes. I grind some burger, but don't generally grind up the cuts that are better for other stuff. There's enough burger in the end as it is. I use a lot of ground venison for smoked chili. Love it. Hot sausage, maple breakfast sausage, canned with some savory goodies, plain steaks or butterflied backstraps on the grill with some wild mushrooms and onions on top. Yum! Getting hungry here....

Like Frank said, all depends on how each of us is gonna use it. Cut it how ya need it.

Made some deer hot sausage for lunch today with peppers, onions, and chanterelles.

Gonna do chili in the next few days.

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