Thank you for all the advice! The tips about making it edible are great. I guess a friend of the family on my wife's side processes deer and cows so he is going to process. I have no idea what he offers in terms of a summer sausage or jerky but we will be sure to get some of each. I don't mind mixing ground venison with ground beef. I think my wife has to get the image of eating deer meat that was hanging in the side yard out of her head and get used to it!!
Anyone have an opinion on hanging deer head up vs head down?
We hang deer and pigs head down. First we don’t field dress, skin all the way past the shoulders. Then remove front legs at the joint. Next remove legs and shoulder from carcass. We wash it and paper towel it dry and bag it pressing out the air and refrigerate it. Next take back straps off and do the same. Nextmake incisions into gut area to expose loin steaks (we call them gut steaks)and remove them . Next cut out around the anus and pull all that out from inside. Oops do that before removing gut steaks ….. since we don’t mess with the ribs that’s why we don’t field dress… saw the backbone and drop all the guts which you don’t touch much except to pull anus out. Wash the hindquarters out while hanging. We use a sawzall to separate the hindquarters. Wash again to remove bone dust. I wrap a bag around each leg and hold it in one arm then with a knife cut at knee joint and bag it the rest of the way and into fridge for a week….. then spend 6-8 hours separating the meat from bone. Big chore but worth it
