Well, I got a lot done today and had an interesting evening.
My son had gone to his aunts house today and I told him when he got home we need to skin the doe that he shot yesterday. We skun it out and on the way to the butcher, my friend called and said that she had hit a deer and it was still alive in the ditch. Now mind you this is about 3 miles away from where the butcher is. I said call 911 and ask them if they want to send a trooper out to dispatch or if they want me to take care of it. The warden called her back and said I am clear to dispatch it, and gave me a possession code so I can salvage meat. Went out and gave that deer it’s last rites and loaded in the truck. Skun it out and three of the quarters were good. My butcher charges the same regardless of the size of the deer so I’m not going to have him butcher this one because it’s a small deer with one hindquarter missing. I’m not great at butchering and that’s why I usually let somebody else do it but this will give my son an idea what needs to be done.
Skinning is the hard part!
Once you have the skin off and legs cut, hang the deer from the neck. Grab a front leg and pull it from the body and let your knife follow the fold (crease), each shoulder will easily come off. I put them in a cooler on ICE.
Now get the best part, the backstrap. It is like filleting a fish! Run you knife along each side of the backbone from shoulder to hip. Pull with one hand and cut with the other and go along the backbone and ribs taking out all the meat. Each side will be a couple of feet long, I later cut them to 3" lengths for the grill.
The rumps are the hardest part. Raise the deer up and do similar to the shoulder. You will find the joint in the bone, cut the ligaments with your knife and you will not have to saw anything. When cutting past the privates, just give a little room so you don't contaminate the meat.
Strip the neck for burger, etc.
The shoulders have a flat bone with a ridge in the center. On a large deer you can make a steak or two, on smaller ones it is stew meat.
With the rump, just separate the muscle groups and butcher it as you like. I try to make as many steaks as possible, and make the rest stew meat.
When cutting the backstrap, put the large membrane on the bottom. Cut through the meat to it, then fillet across to remove that tough membrane. You will end up with some very clear meat that is very tender, like fillet mignon!
Best of luck!
