Processing Game

This past week we spent most of our time processing our game from this year’s hunting season. We get together with family and friends and do what we can to make the process fun. I feel like this is an important part of hunting. If you haven’t processed an animal before, or haven’t been around the procedure, I really recommend you do! It’s an admirable learning experience. Sure it’s effortless to get it processed by someone else, but it makes you appreciate it more if you get the opportunity to see the work that goes into it.

We had a total of seven tagged bucks hanging in cold storage to be skinned and deboned. Each day we brought in a new deer to be worked on. Taking them one by one allowed us to take pleasure in the process more than being pushed to finish. After we skinned the deer and got as much meat out as we could, we sat down and separated fat from venison. The good quality meat would be then sent through a grinder; half pork butt, and half venison. When it had all been through the grinder, we put it in the mixer with a seasoning. The seasoning really depends on what type of sausage we’re making, or our personal preference from the year before.

We made bulk sausage, summer sausage, snack sticks, sausage links, and salami. We would fry up and taste test every batch we made , which was by far the most appetizing part. If the recipe is approved the meat was loaded into one of the three smokers and slowly brought up to temperature. Hour of work went into each station: skinning, deboning, grinding, stuffing, smoking, slicing, and packaging. Lastly the product and expenses were split up evenly. We all left with amusing memories and enough meat to last us until next season. Hey, there’s nothing like cooking up some sausage the morning before a big hunt, or packing a bag of jerky to share with your friends!