The Deer Camp Butcher Shop

By Jacob Robinson

The hunt doesn’t end when the deer hits the ground.

For generations of deer hunters, what happened next was simply part of the process.

A deer came back to camp. Knives came out. Somebody found a gambrel. A tailgate became a workbench. Before long, everyone had a job.

Somewhere along the way, a lot of hunters stopped doing that part themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a deer to a processor. A good processor can turn out excellent meat, save a hunter a tremendous amount of time and make cuts and products that aren’t practical for everyone to make at home.

But there is something worth knowing about how to turn a deer into food yourself.

And it isn’t nearly as complicated as it looks.

It Starts in the Field

Good venison starts before the first cut is made.

Once you’ve recovered a deer, the priority is simple:

Take care of the meat.

Heat is the enemy.

Exactly how quickly you need to work depends on the temperature, but warm weather doesn’t leave much room for procrastination. Get the deer field dressed when appropriate, get air moving around the carcass and get the meat cooled.

Don’t drive around for half the afternoon with a deer baking in the bed of the truck because you want everybody in town to see it.

Take the pictures.

Tell the story.

Then take care of the animal.

A clean shot, quick recovery and proper handling will do more for the quality of your venison than almost anything you can do in the kitchen later.

The Question of Hanging

Ask five deer hunters how long a deer should hang and you’ll probably get six answers.

Some start cutting immediately.

Others prefer several days.

Some swear by a particular temperature and number of days as if it were written into the game laws.

The basic idea behind aging is straightforward. Under properly controlled temperatures, enzymes naturally begin breaking down muscle tissue, which can improve tenderness.

But the important words are properly controlled temperatures.

A cool November afternoon isn’t a walk-in cooler.

Temperatures can rise during the day, and a carcass hanging in unsafe conditions isn’t becoming better simply because someone calls it aging.

If you have reliable refrigeration and know how to age meat safely, that’s one thing.

If you don’t, getting the meat cooled and processed is the better move.

Tradition doesn’t beat food safety.

You Don’t Need a Butcher Shop

Processing a deer at home can look intimidating when you’ve never done it.

Then you actually do it.

You don’t need a room full of commercial equipment.

A few sharp knives, a clean work surface, cutting boards, freezer bags or a vacuum sealer and enough space to keep everything organized will handle most of the job.

A grinder expands your options considerably, but even that isn’t necessary for basic processing.

The biggest requirement is time.

Trying to rush through an entire deer usually creates sloppy cuts and wasted meat.

Slow down.

Follow the natural seams between muscle groups.

Keep the meat clean.

Trim as you go.

You’ll start recognizing the anatomy surprisingly quickly.

Stop Turning Everything Into Burger

This may be the greatest crime committed in deer camps across America.

A hunter brings home a deer.

And somehow almost all of it becomes ground venison.

There’s nothing wrong with burger. It’s versatile, freezes well and belongs in everything from chili to tacos.

But a whitetail has a lot more to offer.

The backstraps are obvious.

So are the tenderloins.

The hindquarters are where many hunters leave good meals on the table.

Instead of treating an entire hindquarter as an anonymous chunk of meat, separate the individual muscle groups along their natural seams.

Now you have options.

Some pieces make excellent steaks.

Others can become roasts.

Larger cuts can be smoked or braised.

Thin slices can become jerky.

Trim can still go into the grinder.

The point isn’t to memorize a professional butcher’s chart.

It’s to stop looking at a deer as backstrap and everything else.

The Front Shoulders

Front shoulders don’t get the same attention as hindquarters.

They should.

They’re worked hard throughout the animal’s life, which means the meat contains more connective tissue and generally isn’t where you’re going to find your best quick-cooking steaks.

But tough doesn’t mean bad.

It means cook it differently.

Low heat and time can turn those shoulders into some of the best meat on the deer.

Braised venison.

Pulled venison.

Stew.

Barbacoa.

Pot roast.

Smoke the shoulder and finish it slowly until it pulls apart.

This is where understanding the animal makes you a better wild-game cook.

You don’t force every cut into the same recipe.

You cook the cut the way it wants to be cooked.

Don’t Forget the Neck

The neck is another place where hunters can waste a surprising amount of meat.

It takes some work to remove cleanly, especially around the vertebrae, but it’s worth the effort.

Neck meat is excellent for slow cooking.

A whole neck roast can become an impressive camp meal. Deboned neck meat works beautifully in stews, braises and anything else that benefits from hours of low heat.

And yes, anything you don’t want to keep whole can go into the grind pile.

The grinder should be where useful trim ends up.

Not where imagination ends.

Trim With a Purpose

Venison is extremely lean.

That makes trimming different from working with heavily marbled domestic beef.

Remove hair, dirt, bloodshot tissue and anything contaminated during recovery or processing.

Heavy connective tissue and silver skin should also be removed where they’ll negatively affect the final dish, particularly on steaks and other quick-cooking cuts.

But don’t spend an hour turning every piece of venison into a perfectly shaped red cube because you saw somebody do it on the internet.

Know what you’re cooking.

A piece destined for the grinder doesn’t need the same treatment as a backstrap headed for a cast-iron skillet.

Process with a purpose.

Label Everything

This sounds painfully obvious.

It stops being obvious three months later when you’re holding a frozen brown package wondering what in the hell is inside it.

Write it down.

Hindquarter roast.

Backstrap.

Stew meat.

Burger.

Add the date.

If you harvest multiple deer, identifying the animal isn’t a bad idea either.

A vacuum sealer is excellent if you have one. Properly wrapped freezer paper works too. Whatever method you use, remove as much air as practical and package portions in sizes you’ll actually cook.

Future you will appreciate it.

The Work After the Hunt

There is something satisfying about seeing an entire deer laid out on the table and knowing where every piece is going.

Steaks here.

Roasts there.

Shoulder for a slow Sunday cook.

Trim for burger.

A package set aside for jerky.

Maybe something you’ve never tried cooking before.

Processing your own deer also makes waste harder to ignore.

When you’re the person cutting around the shoulder blade and following the seams of a hindquarter, you see exactly how much food that animal provides.

You become less willing to throw good meat into the trash because removing it takes another five minutes.

That’s a good thing.

Know Where Your Venison Came From

Not every hunter needs to process every deer.

Sometimes it’s hot.

Sometimes you’re traveling.

Sometimes work is waiting Monday morning and there’s simply no time.

That’s why good wild-game processors exist.

Use them.

But even if you never become the person who breaks down every deer at camp, every hunter should understand the process.

Know the cuts.

Know how the meat should be handled.

Know what you’re bringing home.

Because eventually the antlers go on the wall.

The pictures disappear into your phone.

The story gets told enough times that everybody at camp already knows the ending.

But the deer still has one more thing to give.

Dinner.

And taking it from the woods to the table yourself is one of the oldest parts of deer hunting.