as soon as i get the deer home and hung by the rear legs, it is skinned and brushed off of all the debris it collected on the way home....the front shoulder blades are cut off whole and both are placed in a plastic shopping bag together....
then starting in the front of each hindquarter just above the knee joint i cut 90 degrees to the bone....then turn knife blade to run with the bone all the way to the hip joint....set that aside then i start boning around the leg bone at the knee where i started first cut....once i get my fingers around the bone close as possible toward the hip as far as i can, i run my knife between the bone and main teindon starting at the knee joint and follow the teindon to hip area....
once there i start working my knife down to the pelvic as close to the bone and away from the meat untill i get it all loose and out as one big hunk....then those two pieces of hindquarter meat goes into a bag as well, then i do the same as the first side with second hindquarter....you should have just the leg bones hanging there from knee to hip minus any meat nicely cleaned off the bone....
from there i start on the back straps at the top from hip down to the neck....starting with my knife handle up blade down from above i work my knife in a circlar motion around the back strap as close to the bone/spine as i can and pull outward with the loose end of meat....then i as hold the back strap in one hand pulling away from the spine and rib area i keep circling my knife pointing downward bout 2" deep each cut untill i have the back strap hanging by itself....you can stop at the neck/shoulder area of go as far towards the neck as you like, then both back straps go into a bag together....
then i kinda do the same to the remaining neck meat on each side of the spine and bag then together....then i pick the rest of the little hunks of meat off the carcass to be stew or stir fry meat and it goes into the fridge for a day or too also to age....then all meat loosely bagged at this time goes on a towel to catch any drips on the very bottom of my fridge to sit in 35/40 degree's as one would in a walk in cooler for 5 to 7 days to age....
day 4/5 i start with the hunks of hindquarter meat they are seperated of all silver skin and cut into steaks, all of it gets wraped with cling wrap then butcher paper marked what it is and dated....then any little scraps are added to the other stew/stir fry meat to get wraped later....then starting with day 5/6 the front shoulders they are made into stew/stir fry, wraped tightly in cling wrap to remove any air off of the meat then in butcher paper marked with the date/type of cut....at that day one or both back straps are cut into jerky strips and into marinate for 2/3 days....the 4.5 year old rutting buck i took in 2004 done this way came out tender and not one taste of any gamey flavor at all....hope this helps anyone having troubles with strong tasting gamey venison
.........bob....
..........bob
