Winter is for Meat Processing

It's January. Snow is on the ground (Yay!) and the air is crisp.  Football season is over in our house, and basketball is just starting to get good.  Big game hunting season has long been out of our minds.  Time to hunker down and enjoy the solitude of winter.



Mmmm... summer sausage!

Big game hunting season my be out of our minds, but now is the time to process the meat into tasty, tasty treats.  After several years of processing his own animals, Jeff has really become quite proficient in the art and science of home-butchering and meat processing. One thing I can say about it is that it is A LOT of work- the perfect type of work for a deep winter day.

This year, another young couple we are friends with came over for a long weekend and the four of us worked together at processing autumn's game harvest into manageably eatable portions. They had been out earlier in the fall and took a very large deer while they were here. We all agreed at the time to get together again for the processing.



Summer sausage and assorted snack sticks.

Jeff and I are not ones to enjoy a wild game steak or roast, but quite enjoy encased meats and sausages of wide variety. Of course, this means a lot more work on our part to process the meat, but we think it is worth it in the end. Fortunately, our friends agreed, and with four people processing the meat instead of two, it went smoothly. Not to mention, it was a lot more fun! Between the two couples, there was meat from two deer, one antelope, and some leftover meat from an elk-- well over one hundred pounds. In the end, we had snack sticks, summer sausage, cheddar polish brats, regular brats, loose breakfast sausage, loose Italian sausage, and plenty of jerky. We spent three days grinding, smoking, and cooking the various meat products.

These are either the regular or cheddar Polish brats...

Jeff received a very nice new meat grinder this year for Christmas, along with some very useful accessories such as a very large metal industrial mixing bowl, and some sausage seasoning mixes. These greatly aided the process- definitely were put to good use right away.  We used these with some of the other supplies we already had- jerky guns, a smoker, and a food dehydrator, among other small items. I think we also used nearly every metal tray and wire cooling rack that I own, and also managed to dirty nearly every rag or towel as the house and shop were consumed with meat-making.

Breakfast sausage on the right, Italian sausage on the left.
Approximately eight pounds of each.

 I don't think any of us are planning on quitting our day jobs to become butchers any time soon, but there is a great sense of pride in processing the meat all on one's own. To me, the next step in our process would be to create our own seasoning blends from scratch as well.  Right now, we primarily use pre-packaged mixes from Hi Country, which is a Montana-based company, located near Lincoln, MT.  Check them out at http://www.hicountry.com/ or if you're in Lincoln, stop by their store. Their jerky and meat products are also found in convenience stores and food stores throughout Montana, if not further afield. The seasoning mixes from Hi Country are really good, and as the saying goes, why mess with success? We may never stray from buying their packages, but the experimental cook in me loves the challenge behind creating delightful or unexpected flavor combinations on our own. Something to think about for next year, anyway.

Some finished product, packaged and ready for the deep freezer.

One thing that greatly appeals to me is that hunting, processing, and eating game couldn't be more "local." The animals used were taken within a few miles of our house, were processed at our house, and will be eaten at our house. Beef or pork that we added to some of the products also came from nearby sources. The only non-local ingredients would be the seasonings. To take it further, wild game is also grass-fed and free range.

We have sampled all of the products we made this year except the cheddar Polish brats, which I am very excited about. Everything so far has been excellent, and an improvement over last year. That is the best we can hope for, anyway- improvement over last year. So far, I think we nailed it.