Home process deer or freeze for later?

[Thumper07]

My family goes thru a lot of ground meat so I usually grind most of my deer meat. I usually grind as I get them but thinking about freezing to do them all at once. My question is how many of you process your deer as you get them and who freezes their deer to process all your deer at once? If you do freeze your deer do you freeze whole quarters or debone?


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[DapperDan]

Good question. Following to see responses


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[Ishi&Elvis]

I process mine at home as I kill them. I grind up the shoulders and other scrap meat and then thaw and mix with pork later in the year to make bratwurst.

[88 Bound]

I debone and then freeze. It’s easier to do all of my grinding at once once I dedicate time for it. I don’t recommend freezing whole quarters.

[texan16]

I killed a buck back at the end of October and didnt want to go through all the processing stuff for just one deer so I went ahead and cubed up the hams, front quarters, neck etc and got it ready to be ground and then put it all in Food Saver bags and put em in the freezer. Went ahead and fully processed the backstraps and tenderloins. Then I shot two doe week before Thanksgiving and my son shot a buck day after Thanksgiving. We did the same to those three deer as I did the first one. Now I have 4 deer to grind and make sausage, hamburger, jerky etc. Will probably do them all this Saturday and/or Sunday. Get it all done in one shot.......

[chris1911]

just do them as i get them.....got 2 to do tonight....really looking forward to it to...

[Stoof]

I go both ways. It depends on the time I have available. I prefer to do it myself but I also don't have the space to keep unprocessed meat for very long and I don't like to leave it soaking on ice.

[kd350]

Debone, cube it so it’s ready to grind, then freeze in 8-10 lb bags until the end of season. Then we make a day out of it and make sausage/grind for burger

[BowOnly81]

I’ve always heard that freezing meat then defrosting than freezing again wasn’t good so I’ve always let it sit on ice for a day, debone, another 2 days on ice, then grind and freeze. I like doing it that way anyway so I don’t have to worry about it later.

[Balcones_Walker]

I debone, trim, then freeze. Then later cube it out and mix with seasoning and 50/50 wild hog meat, weigh it out and re-freeze. Finally I grind that mixture straight into casings for sausage while still half frozen.

[ultralite09]

Debone, cube, vacuum seal and do it all in one big batch at the end.

Cleaning a grinder, prep equipment, tools, etc multiple times a season gets old, quick.

[PondPopper]

I do my own and this is how.. I keep it simple.

1. I steak out as much as possible. Done
2. I make as much stew meat as possible out of what want steak out. Done
3. Everything else is bagged up and frozen in bigger bags. Once I've accumulated all of my grinding meat(after season)I thaw it all out and grind it all at once. From here it's either burger or sausage.

[JeffK]

cut steaks and tenderized and grind hb before freezing. Debone, cube and vacuum pack meat to be made into sausage at later date.

[El Viejo]

I debone first and then freeze, thawing out for later when I’ll defrost everything to make sausage, hbgr, etc. That’s when I feel like I’ll have the opportunity to take more than one deer during the season.