free download call of the wild beginner guide

These are popular to eat fresh, but can be packaged and thrown in the freezer as well. Similar to the backstraps are the tenderloins, which are found along the underside of the spine. I generally like to cut a backstrap into two or three pieces, which allows me to cook it whole or cut it into steaks at a later date. Once this is removed and trimmed it can be left whole, cut into smaller sections, or sliced into steaks right away. One of the most highly prized cuts of meat is the loin (or backstrap) that runs along each side of the spine from the hip all the way up to the neck. This has worked well for me, but there are definitely other ways to package them like a vacuum-sealer.

Trimming and cleaningįor packaging these cuts, I like to wrap them in a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of butcher paper. For this article, I am going to focus strictly on the processing part and assume that the animal has already been skinned, gutted and/or quartered. There is nothing wrong with bringing your meat to a commercial processor, but if you’ve never tried doing it yourself I highly recommend you give it a shot and see if it’s worth the extra effort for you. While I now think butchering an animal is hard to mess up, it can be a daunting and intimidating task if you’ve never done it before. The opportunity to be in control from scouting the animal to eating it-and not missing a single step in between-is a highly rewarding experience that I wouldn’t trade. But, now, I can’t imagine not doing it all myself. So while I was the one pulling the trigger and taking an animal’s life, the rest of the process was pretty hands off for me. As a matter of fact, it was tradition for my mom to gut any deer that my family harvested.

When I was growing up, the idea of processing my own deer never even occurred to me.

Free download call of the wild beginner guide