Venison Processing Day!!! Pics. added-pic. heavy

[motocrash]

Takin' a bayou breather:cool:

 

[indaswamp]

Back at it in the am...got another round of sausage to smoke. 60 pounds. Buddy cut it to 60# so he could get 40# of fresh sausage.

 

[tallbm]

What sausage are we looking at?
What wood did you smoke with and how long did you apply smoke? :)

 

[indaswamp]

What sausage are we looking at?
What wood did you smoke with and how long did you apply smoke? :)

This is 60/40 venison and pork smoke sausage we processed on tuesday. I smoked it with pecan dust and hickory pellets. It was very foggy this morning so it took a little bit longer than normal to dry the casings. I had to put heat to them, about 90~100* for an hour. Then I added wood and stepped the temp up to 120* for about 3 hours until the INT hit 100*. At that point, I added wood and then stepped the temp 10* about every hour keeping the smokehouse temp 25~30* above INT. When I bumped the smokehouse up to 170*, the INT was right at 140* so it only took a little bit longer to reach 154*. I pulled the links, put on rack for ~10 minutes then put them in an ice chest with cold water to cool the temp down for packaging.
I kept 50# of this sausage, 5# went to Dad, 33# went to a buddy at the firehouse.

 

[motocrash]

Back at it in the am...got another round of sausage to smoke. 60 pounds. Buddy cut it to 60# so he could get 40# of fresh sausage.

:D

 

[crazymoon]

IDS, Great post and pics of a labor intensive process. There will lots of goodies after all that hard work! LIKES!

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks Crazy....

 

[indaswamp]

View attachment 354176
:D

Today I slept in...LOL!
Round 2 in the smokehouse from yesterday...
Pic. when I reloaded more wood.

Done...

 

[noble captain]

That is incredible, awesome

 

[indaswamp]

That is incredible, awesome

Thanks Noble...
I'd hate to think what it would cost to pay a butcher to process that much meat.All the money I save I spend on equipment. I end up coming out ahead...

 

[jimmyinsd]

Thanks Noble...
I'd hate to think what it would cost to pay a butcher to process that much meat.All the money I save I spend on equipment. I end up coming out ahead...

That is what got me into this game to begin with. I really liked my butcher, they do a great job, but it always seemed wrong to pay for my own meat. And it gives me something to do besides watch TV all winter.

 

[tallbm]

That is what got me into this game to begin with. I really liked my butcher, they do a great job, but it always seemed wrong to pay for my own meat. And it gives me something to do besides watch TV all winter.

I also like the fact that you produce the BEST quality meat from your animals. It seems that most processors are about getting your animal(s) turned around as quickly as possible so they leave a lot of stuff/tissue on the meat that should be removed. I take the care to remove anything that needs to be removed even though it takes time. My end product is superior to what get's quickly turned around.

Can't beat that!

 

[jimmyinsd]

I also like the fact that you produce the BEST quality meat from your animals. It seems that most processors are about getting your animal(s) turned around as quickly as possible so they leave a lot of stuff/tissue on the meat that should be removed. I take the care to remove anything that needs to be removed even though it takes time. My end product is superior to what get's quickly turned around.

Can't beat that!

I always took my meat in boned out and trimmed. I also waited until several months after the big rush was over so I would be more likely to be sure to get my own meat back. I also rarely ordered any small batches. we just picked 2 or 3 items at the most and had our meat made into those products figuring that small batches would likely end up being a mixture of other peoples stuff as a commercial locker isnt likely to do 10# of anything.

 

[indaswamp]

Processing it ourselves, I get to inspect the quality of the meat prior to grinding. We mixed the meats together only because the meat passed the thorough inspection. One of the guys had never done this before and we looked his deer meat over good. We had to trim a few pieces, but overall it was clean.
Best reason to process it yourself is you know what you are getting.

 

[indaswamp]

Great operation.

Thanks myownidaho. Sorry I did not see this sooner. It's been fun dialing in my new vertical outhouse smoker. I have some tweeks I need to make to it now that I've run a bunch of cooks through it. Larger flue vents...going from (2) 2" to (2) 3" for more and better draft. I need to install a triangle corner brace to help support the weight of the door. I measured the diagonals on the opening and it is out 1/4". The brace will fix that issue. I want to fab up an aluminum plate baffle with holes to even out the heat and smoke. I'm also going to lower the burner when I install my tejas burner with external venturi. This will put the burner 10" below the baffle and 14" below the bottom rack, 28" below the next rack. I might be able to fit 180# of sausage if I do this.....maybe....

 

[noble captain]

That is what got me into this game to begin with. I really liked my butcher, they do a great job, but it always seemed wrong to pay for my own meat. And it gives me something to do besides watch TV all winter.

My husband and I both hunt and fish. We haven't gotten in to the sausage yet but will this year. We do however prepare and process our own meat that we harvest pig, deer, fish and everything else. I started hunting because of him. I all so like that we clean all the tougher stuff out and are picky about it. We do bacon burger meat that's what we call it it's 5lb deer with 2lb bacon (ends and Peace's , it's cheaper and comes in a 5lb bag) . The wild pig we all so mix with deer. Thanks for sharing.

 

[indaswamp]

I debone and process 5-7 animals (about 6 deer and 1 feral hog) each year all after my big yearly hunting trip.

Post some Pics. of your next processing day!!!!:p

 

[tallbm]

Post some Pics. of your next processing day!!!!:p

Hahahaha I'll try.

It is more of a processing week as mostly a 1 man operation :)
My hunting situation may be changing so we'll see if I can keep the streak going where I can take a 2 week vacation, get all the meat I need, and process it all in that time. I hope I can keep the streak going :)