Trimming out venison for sausage

guywhofishes

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Thanks! Got the meat off the animal and on ice within a couple hours. Spent 6 to 7 hours today meticulously removing silver skin and dicing it up for grinding. 35# of lean, clean, and well-cared-for venison. This year’s sausage could be superb if other variables fall into place.

That sounds like me - I wonder if I'm not WAY too fastidious on the trimming. Seems like a hell of a lot of work we put into 35lb of sausage meat.

What's everybody else think?

I've never made sausage with those skilled at making good sausage but I often wonder if they put in that kind of labor. There's GOT to be a better way!
 


Mort

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There's a price to pay when you want good sausage\venison, yes, might be tedious to trim to your liken...but well worth it, IMO.
I don't like the slimy white tendon crap and go with ALL LEAN meat, Some guys just chuck everything in the grinder and let it rip..not this ole boy. There is NO better way, Guywhowantsabetterway.
 

Obi-Wan

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There is a lb of sausage to beer consumed ratio that must be strictly adhered to while making good sausage but like all recipes it is a family secret and cannot be shared.
 

Mort

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There is a lb of sausage to beer consumed ratio that must be strictly adhered to while making good sausage but like all recipes it is a family secret and cannot be shared.
Yep-everybody's sausage recipe is a secret...but if the beer consumption part isn't in check the recipe goes south;:;rofl
 

Kentucky Windage

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I’m to the point where certain parts of the animal (neck vs shoulders vs rear vs trim) are used for specific meats that I make. I spend a lot of time trimming up deer meat. My dad taught me this way and he is very particular. I’d rather do it myself than be in one of those “group deer processing” circles. I’ve seen way to many people cape and quarter deer where I would throw whatever the final product gifted to me in the garbage rather than consume it.
 


SDMF

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Thin blades, lots of flex, sharper than you believe a blade can be, let the blade do the work. Steel or ceramic sticks OFTEN.

Dale Howe or Rick Menefee "Catfish" knife specifically for this application.

https://www.howemtnknives.com/catfish-fillet-20.html

I believe that Rick pioneered the pattern and taught Dale how to make them as well. I paid a little extra and had mine made out of Elmax steel.
 
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Migrator Man

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How many of you get much meat off of the neck? Do you try to cut the silver skin out of the individual muscle or do you just toss the whole hunk of meat in the grinder. Same with the front shoulder but with more tendons. I pretty much just get the roast out of the shoulder. I don’t get that much meat off those parts but then again My sausage and sticks always turn out without any chewy pieces.
 

guywhofishes

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How many of you get much meat off of the neck? Do you try to cut the silver skin out of the individual muscle or do you just toss the whole hunk of meat in the grinder. Same with the front shoulder but with more tendons. I pretty much just get the roast out of the shoulder. I don’t get that much meat off those parts but then again My sausage and sticks always turn out without any chewy pieces.

Neck roasts go in my pressure cooker or braised long term in a dutch oven. Maybe my favorite part of the deer to be honest.

Then again - I've always been a connoisseur of the more flavorful (NOT gamier mind you) cuts of meat that take a little more time to pick apart to savor. Whole baked fish, brisket, osso buco, yadda.
 

Bed Wetter

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Thin blades, lots of flex, sharper than you believe a blade can be, let the blade do the work. Steel or ceramic sticks OFTEN.

Dale Howe or Rick Menefee "Catfish" knife specifically for this application.

https://www.howemtnknives.com/catfish-fillet-20.html

I believe that Rick pioneered the pattern and taught Dale how to make them as well. I paid a little extra and had mine made out of Elmax steel.

My Rapala fish-n-fillet is my meat cutter. Best $20 I ever spent. They make a 4” version and I’m damn tempted to make that my quartering knife but I suppose the extra sharp and pointy tip could lead to accidental “poop and piss and shit all over.”
 


slyfish77

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I overtrim too. Also clean my grinder blade quite often, silver skin collects on it. For me well trimmed meat is worth the effort. To each there own.
 

eseamands

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My father-in-law is pretty strict about what goes into the sausage we make. He once said, "If you wouldn't pepper it and put it in the pan, I don't think that I want it in my sausage."

We loosely followed that rule and got six, fully packed, gallon freezer bags out of my wife's whitetail buck that she shot Saturday (as well as a big piece of backstrap and the tenderloins that we ate last night). Maybe 40-45 lbs? I didn't put it all on the scale yet. She cleaned it all up when we got home using a boning knife we bought from Capital City Restaurant Supply. Of note- we didn't use any neck meat, as she shot it right in the neck and it was a lot of blood/destruction in that area.
 

Retired Educator

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Agree that as much tendon as possible needs to go. If for no other reason than tendon's eventually wrap-un in my 1.5hp grinder. That then leads to pushing mush through the blades. Someone mentioned dicing. why dice? I find longer strips of meat that will fit though the feed of the grinder is faster. I'm fussy but not fanatical about trimming. A little fat or other thing may find their way in the grinder but not much. Also don't like hair in my sausage. Also like my meat as cold as possible while grinding, Not frozen hard but pretty stiff. Just grinds easier in my opinion.

Definitely agree that a certain beer ratio is needed but that is up to everyone's personal taste. And then when it's all on the smoker it's usually time to open a bottle of blackberry whiskey and sit down to solve the problems of the world. And my wife wonders why we like doing all that work to make sausage.
 

wildeyes

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Taking the time to clean up the meat before grinding/sausage making is the reason i only eat the sausage i make. I learned a long time ago that not everyone cleans the meat the way I do and it only takes hair and chewy tendon to ruin it for me.
 

Duckslayer100

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I used to be super, duper meticiulous with trimming, to the point where it would take me all dang day to bone out and package a deer.

I'm a dad now. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

I've found I don't have to be too picky, and the ground product still tastes fantastic. And mind you, we pretty much eat 100 percent straight ground venison in my family and I've yet to have a kid or wife turn up their nose at it.

Used to be I'd get off all silver skin and fat off. Now a bit of that in the mix doesn't seem to impact the flavor.
 


SDMF

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My Rapala fish-n-fillet is my meat cutter. Best $20 I ever spent. They make a 4” version and I’m damn tempted to make that my quartering knife but I suppose the extra sharp and pointy tip could lead to accidental “poop and piss and shit all over.”

Fillet knives are thin and flexible enough, however less point and more curve gives a long cut and stays under the silver-skin better than the pointy type fillet knife.

B5ED0AC9-189F-415F-8134-4D5175BB3A13.jpg
 

Bed Wetter

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I used to be super, duper meticiulous with trimming, to the point where it would take me all dang day to bone out and package a deer.

I'm a dad now. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

I've found I don't have to be too picky, and the ground product still tastes fantastic. And mind you, we pretty much eat 100 percent straight ground venison in my family and I've yet to have a kid or wife turn up their nose at it.

Used to be I'd get off all silver skin and fat off. Now a bit of that in the mix doesn't seem to impact the flavor.

People who don’t meticulously spend an entire day deboning and packaging a single deer aren’t people. Pretty sure Duckslayer100 is a Russian bot.
 

Whisky

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Same here. I was very particular, now I'm just particular. Doing one deer is nothing. But when you're staring at a pile of elk meat and/or multiple animals, at least my standards tend to decrease a bit. And I have never noticed any decline in the finished product. Steaks and roasts still get the fine tooth comb though.

- - - Updated - - -

People who don’t meticulously spend an entire day deboning and packaging a single deer aren’t people. Pretty sure Duckslayer100 is a Russian bot.

Go shoot an elk and spend 7 hours to yield 35# of trimmed meat. No sane person would do a full elk like that either :D
 

Rowdie

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That sounds like me - I wonder if I'm not WAY too fastidious on the trimming. Seems like a hell of a lot of work we put into 35lb of sausage meat.

What's everybody else think?

I've never made sausage with those skilled at making good sausage but I often wonder if they put in that kind of labor. There's GOT to be a better way!

I've done it by myself since college....sound like exactly the right amount of time that it takes and the right amount of pounds! You've done it right by those two measures. Personally, I don't make sausage...I steak out the best cuts, and or Jerky them. The small and stuff I cook as stir fry, man is it the best stir fry a guy can cook!
 


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