Processing Day 2019

[chilerelleno]

9 deer and 3 hogs... take that to a processor and you're looking at $250 per animal minimum. I am saving them a LOT of money by helping them process their animals. The LEAST they can do is show up and help....

Believe me, I know which is why I do all my own too.
I spend enough money on hunting/fishing without paying someone else to do the butchering.
And I've my wife and son to help.

 

[indaswamp]

Well, add another deer to the tally, my cousin shot another one...a young buck. That makes 10 deer and 3 hogs.....

 

[indaswamp]

I feel fortunate that I learned how to butcher animals at a young age. Helping out with the boucherie's and taking care of wild game animals at the camps. It is an invaluable skill.

 

[crazymoon]

IDS, Keep building up that tally ,need full freezers! :)

 

[HalfSmoked]

Keep on and the man going to knock on your door and ask for license to run a butcher shop.

Warren

 

[DaveyCrockett]

9 deer and 3 hogs... take that to a processor and you're looking at $250 per animal minimum. I am saving them a LOT of money by helping them process their animals. The LEAST they can do is show up and help....

I know what you mean there. Ive been cleaning my own since 1987. Last year i heard some guys raving about a guy's jalopeno cheddar brats and summer sausage. So the Saturday of Thanksgiving i killed a 110# doe and had to be home by noon to help the wife. I ran it by this guy and got 10# of brats and 8# of summer sausage. The rest was the backstraps and ground into burger. It ended up like $275. I was shocked.
The worst part about it was i made some summer sausage that same year and froze it with his. 6 months later his was mushy and mine was perfect once thawed.

 

[indaswamp]

There is no way I could process deer commercially. The customer would have to bring the deer to me deboned and trimmed the way they want it ground. Processors charge that much for the time it takes trimming the fat off the meat-and most are not too careful about it trying to optimize the yield from a deer. AND- they charge on green weight that you bring it....

 

[indaswamp]

All in for supplies, seasonings, casings, NFDM powder, Bulk pork back fat, plastic 1# bags for ground meat, Propane for smoking, and wood...etc....it costs us $150~200 each year we do the processing day. We'll process anywhere from 300~500# of meat. I charge the guys $40 bucks each just to cover the cost of supplies....it's cheap really....

 

[indaswamp]

My B-I-L may have overbought on his pork butts. Might make a run of all pork andouille but stuff in large hog casings. But that will be after processing day is over.

 

[indaswamp]

Add another deer to the total for processing day...

Our buddy finally got a buck. That put the total @11 deer...

 

[indaswamp]

Rough estimate, we have 260# of venison to process and 120# of wild hog.....and we're not done yet.

 

[indaswamp]

Processing day has been set...Feb. 17th. I'll take lots of pics...

 

[indaswamp]

Alright, day is getting close....
I have the following seasonings all mixed up and ready to go:
175# of smoke sausage seasoning
150# sage breakfast sausage seasoning
100# fresh sausage seasoning
25# green onion fresh sausage seasoning

I need to pick up some steene's cane syrup for the breakfast sausage and some milk powder and we should be good to go. Also need to pick up the 45# order of pork fat from the butcher.

 

[indaswamp]

Wow...it was a loooong day sunday! We got started early; 6:30am... did not finish until 10pm that night. I apologize for the late post on this thread. I was dead dog tired and crashed.

We ended up with:

125# of smoke sausage
120# sage breakfast sausage
95# fresh sausage
25# green onion fresh sausage
105# 50/50 ground
10# chili meat 100% venison

We have 175# of pork left over...so tomorrow I am making 75# andouille pulled through 42mm hog casing (cousin has been begging me to make this in hog casing so here I go...), 52# regular pork smoke sausage, and 30# 100% all pork sage breakfast sausage.

Here are some pics. the guys snapped while I was running around keeping everything straight and flowing smoothly...
First grind on the smoke sausage, mixing in TSPP, salt and seasonings...

Had to swap out...it's a workout with a paddle!!

We put the smoke sausage meat paste back in bags and inda fridge to cure for 10 hours. Then we moved on to the fresh sausage.

Dad running the grinder....

One long coil off the stuffer. That one casing took all 10# inda stuffer at once...

Makin links..

Then the sage breakfast sausage and ground meat...packed in plastic bags...

Monday morning bright and early I loaded the smokehouse with 125# of sausage to smoke...

12 hours later...done!

Onda rack to shower with water to cool..

The 10# of green onion smoke sausage after blooming...

 

[indaswamp]

Smoked the sausages with hickory and pecan wood...

There was a scheduling conflict to use the building so we moved processing day inside the firehouse kitchen, that's why you see guys lounging in recliners in the background....

 

[HalfSmoked]

Great job there indaswamp glad to see pop being over seer.

Warren

 

[indaswamp]

Great job there indaswamp glad to see pop being over seer.

Warren

Thanks Warren.