I am looking for a reference book on butchering venison or pertaining to it at least, as I don't even know if it would have to be venison specifically? Initially, I went on amazon and tried to sort through reviews, but lots of the reviewers on amazon... well, aren't really hunters or are beginning hunters. I don't need a how to hunt, how to field dress, recipes, etc. I want a how to "butcher" sort of guide. How to butcher each portion of the deer properly into its best individual cuts with pictures/drawings and then maybe at most recommendation on best cooking methods. Does such a thing exist?
Last year I tried butchering my first deer. In the past (35 years) we just took them to commercial processors and you got ground meat products like sausage, burger, etc and then you got your "backstraps", your tenderloin, and then several packages of lumps of meat labelled "roast" or "steak". The roasts were just hunks of muscle and not very good. They were taking the hind quarter and just cutting through it and giving us "round steak" too I guess which was also not really good. Anyway, last year I actually dissected out the hind quarters and butchered it into individual muscles. I googled here and there trying to figure out what each muscle was and appropriate cooking methods. My results were amazing. Each one of those muscles needs to be prepared differently, be it a tough braising cut, or a more tender grilling cut and if you do it right, they are all excellent. I couldn't believe how much we had missed out on in the past. The little triangle of muscle along the femur bone was more tender and flavorful than the tenderloin even. The football shaped roast was perfect roasted to medium rare. It got me thinking maybe the skirt steak or the hanger steaks on venison would be good too...? What else have we been missing?
Any help?
Last year I tried butchering my first deer. In the past (35 years) we just took them to commercial processors and you got ground meat products like sausage, burger, etc and then you got your "backstraps", your tenderloin, and then several packages of lumps of meat labelled "roast" or "steak". The roasts were just hunks of muscle and not very good. They were taking the hind quarter and just cutting through it and giving us "round steak" too I guess which was also not really good. Anyway, last year I actually dissected out the hind quarters and butchered it into individual muscles. I googled here and there trying to figure out what each muscle was and appropriate cooking methods. My results were amazing. Each one of those muscles needs to be prepared differently, be it a tough braising cut, or a more tender grilling cut and if you do it right, they are all excellent. I couldn't believe how much we had missed out on in the past. The little triangle of muscle along the femur bone was more tender and flavorful than the tenderloin even. The football shaped roast was perfect roasted to medium rare. It got me thinking maybe the skirt steak or the hanger steaks on venison would be good too...? What else have we been missing?
Any help?
