How much trimming is required…

[DKasprzak]

I just completed grinding a deer into deer burger for the first time and I am pretty certain I over trimmed in preparation for the grind process. I ground two hindquarters and two shoulders (this deer was shot through both shoulders so there was some meat loss there). After grinding I’ve ended up with 10 lbs of ground and bagged meat. I’m looking for guidance as to what is normal and to hear from guys who have experience doing the work themselves. I really enjoyed doing it and will continue but I feel I may have wasted a lot of meat. Any help will be appreciated…

 

[deermanok]

I trim off any fat, bloody meat or really visible gristle. Beyond that, it all gets ground up for burger.

 

[fishdfly]

I just completed grinding a deer into deer burger for the first time and I am pretty certain I over trimmed in preparation for the grind process. I ground two hindquarters and two shoulders (this deer was shot through both shoulders so there was some meat loss there). After grinding I’ve ended up with 10 lbs of ground and bagged meat. I’m looking for guidance as to what is normal and to hear from guys who have experience doing the work themselves. I really enjoyed doing it and will continue but I feel I may have wasted a lot of meat. Any help will be appreciated…

How much did the deer weigh before grinding, hanging weight?

10 lbs., sounds like you over trimmed to me.

 

[DKasprzak]

@fishdfly I only have the “on the hoof weight” prior to skinning…. 81 lbs, I didn’t weight the deer after dressing and skinning.

Basically if it wasn’t “red” meat I removed it, meaning all silver skin, fat, and the membrane that covers much of the meat.

 

[deermanok]

It probably weighed about 40 pounds dressed then.

 

[CatamountRob]

I remove all the fat and anything bloodshot but that’s it. The grinder pretty much takes care of anything else. I never really learned how to make burger so what I do is buy the cheapest ground beef I can get, like 73% stuff, and mix 2 pounds of ground venison with a pound of cheap ground beef, then I grind it a second time which mixes it.
I make breakfast sausage the same way but use bagged sausage instead of ground beef.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Ive mixed in a little cheap ground beef too. But i normally just trim the silver skin, tendons(fillet knife works so well), bloodshot meat, and any gristly stuff. I leave what little fat there is, and double grind it, coarse then medium.

 

[4stringdude]

l would agree, you over trimmed. That is a low yield from those portions. I remove the major fat deposits that I find. I don't get too nitty gritty about fat removal. I also remove the connective fibers and as much silver skin as possible. When I grind, I like to add a nice fat pork butt. The kind you would smoke for pulled pork. I prefer the taste of pork fat to beef. I used to get pork fat from a grocery butcher, but they don't have it anymore. Their meat comes pre-trimmed. They don't have fat to give away.

 

[MrTom]

A gutted, skinned, boned and trimmed deer will yield about 35% to 40% of its standing weight, depending largely on how much is lost to bloodshot/damaged meat.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

It always shocks me when i drag a big fat deer into a processor and then pick up a couple boxes a couple days later. When i do it my self i can see just how much weight there is in guts, bones, hide and head. Quite a bit.

 

[deermanok]

When I lived in Connecticut, I used to get beef fat for about 50 cents a pound at my neighborhood meat market.
I would mix about 10% or so with my venison. Run it through the grinder twice.
The fat added a little bit of flavor and helps to bind the meat better for burgers.
Now days, I just grind up the venison without adding any fat.

 

[brad502a]

I trim the fat and major tendons off, bloodshot meat, and anything that looks sketchy. I grind course, then mix with ground chuck at a 2 parts deer to 1 part beef. Mix it well in a tub and grind again using the course plate, pushing it into Lem burger bags that weigh about 1.25 to 1.5 lbs.

 

[reubj]

Trim the tendons, fat, gristle, and silver skin.
Grind with 25% beef fat for burgers, 20% for meatloaf, chili, etc.
Grind 50-50 with fat pork shoulder for sausage.

 

[derfhunter]

It takes a pretty good size doe to make 20# of boned out red meat

 

[CharlieTN]

@fishdfly I only have the “on the hoof weight” prior to skinning…. 81 lbs, I didn’t weight the deer after dressing and skinning.

Basically if it wasn’t “red” meat I removed it, meaning all silver skin, fat, and the membrane that covers much of the meat.

I’ve been processing my own for 10 years now. On a deer that size I will typically wind up with around 30-35 lbs of meat depending on shot placement as well as how much fat they have on them.

I trim all fat, major connective tissue and thick sliver skin. If I’m cutting roasts or backstraps then I’ll trim all silver skin and more of the connective tissue. For grind I don’t get quite as picky.

 

[DKasprzak]

It always shocks me when i drag a big fat deer into a processor and then pick up a couple boxes a couple days later. When i do it my self i can see just how much weight there is in guts, bones, hide and head. Quite a bit.

Exactly and… the last deer I had processed worked out to $6.50 per pound. Even with all the mistakes I made, I’m all in on this one for 3.50 per pound due to upfront costs of supplies to grind and bag. That cost will only go down as I process more deer.

I hate wasting any meat unnecessarily and will work on learning this process as I really enjoyed it.

 

[Jitterbug]

I hate wasting any meat unnecessarily and will work on learning this process as I really enjoyed it.

You’ll likely become more adept (and faster) with more experience. Doing it myself is part of the hunt, for me. It also gives me more control over the final product, prevents getting gut-shot or spoiled meat mixed in at the locker plant, etc.

I consider myself pretty picky about my processing, based on my experience processing deer with others. I used to fillet out the silverskin from the front quarters with a knife, then grind the meat. What a way to burn up a lot of time! Now I grind them, just stopping and pulling the grinder knife/plate periodically, to clean the silverskin, etc. off. SO much faster, and I end up with a beautiful bright red grind, with very little “white” or silverskin in the grind.

More people should do their own processing. It’s not difficult, if you have a decent place to work. I guess the “elephant in the room“ is the ambient temperature that you hunt in. If it’s eighty degrees out, you need to get cutting, and get cooling!

I typically hunt late season in MN. Warm weather that time of year is pretty rare. I usually have to THAW my deer, to butcher it. (Partially frozen makes for good grinding, though!)

 

[cook]

A gutted, skinned, boned and trimmed deer will yield about 35% to 40% of its standing weight, depending largely on how much is lost to bloodshot/damaged meat.

Based on very little personal experience, my guys have yielded roughly 20-25% of their field-dressed weight.

 

[HC]

If I take a deer, (with a well placed boiler room shot), to the processor and don’t get back 50% of the field dressed weight, then I’m not pleased. So far the processor we are using now , the yield is over 50% .

 

[Squint]

A gutted, skinned, boned and trimmed deer will yield about 35% to 40% of its standing weight, depending largely on how much is lost to bloodshot/damaged meat.

When I used to hunt does for the meat, I would just pick out a fat doe, should it through the lungs so that it would bleed internally, and generally could get 25 to 28 pounds of boned out meat. I'm not the best butcher, raised on a ranch and help many times with beef and sheep and I don't bone out the ribs for what little is there, but I think I do a fairly good job. In 1961 I shot a mule deer buck that field dressed 235 pounds and won a big Buck contest. When I boned it out, I got 56 pounds of meat. The deer had been shot more than once and there was some waste, I just don't remember how much.
Squint