deer processing cleanup questions

[beyondmyken]

I have previously used a commercial processor for deer but plan to do my own this year.  I do not believe the actual butching will be an issue.  However, my wife insists that the small building I will use be clean and odor free after the butchering.  What do people use to keep the floor clean?- plastic painting tarps, cardboard, etc?  Anything to take the odor out of the general building?  I would probably keep the bones and hide in plastic garbage bags until disposed, how do you discourage the neighborhood dogs from visiting?

[Dimeit]

Thoughts vary on when to butcher (age or not to age) and both have merit if conditions are right.  I like to process as soon as possible.  I do it in my garage which is clean to begin with.  

The deer is hung from the rafters and a tarp is placed below the animal.  I often put a pail under the head to catch any blood.  After that there is very little blood, mess, or smell.  There will be blood and clots around the wound/trauma area.  Trim these off liberally and discard.  Other than that we use a solution of hot bleach water to sanitize mu work areas.  I hose the tarp off with some soapt water.  

I use banana boxes from the grocery store lined with a sturdy garbage bag for disposal.  Once done I put the top on and duct tape shut.  Try and find someone to use the hides.  I have a friend who braintans.  Processors will often buy your hides for $5-10.  If you plan to use the hide, do not place it in a plastic bag as it accelerates the rotting process.  

In the beginning, it will take you forever to learn the process.  My first deer took me 7 hours.  I learned from a video.  Now it takes me 1.5 hours start through cleanup.  Do not get too picky about all of the meat on the bones.  Get as close as you can.  You could easily spend another hour or 2 picking off every scrap.  

I have a picture tutorial if you are interested.  email me if interested. [email protected]

Good Luck.

Glenn

[Blackhawk]

I have found just soap and water to be the best for cleanup, however, I recommend you do this immediately following the butchering and dispose of the tarps, plastic, boxes, etc.  It seems the foul odor appears fairly quickly if you do not clean up the blood and other remains.

[ChuckC]

Alan.  I do my butchering on my kitchen table.  I clean and sanitize the table surface before (and after), use a large cutting board and keep a good sized garbage pail with plastic liner right there.  I normally bone out my deer the day of kill or the next day, placing the chunks of meat etc into gallon size baggies, then into a cooler with plenty of ice.  That buys me several days and cools the meat right now.

The carcass is thrown away inside a large heavy gauge plastic bag.  I cut the spine just behind and in front of the rib cage and stuff the back half, the head and neck and the leg bones inside the body cavity so the parcel is smaller and more manageable.  I handle the hide seaparately. I keep the carcass cooled until garbage day.  Wow. learned this the hard way during a real early management hunt.

I take one baggie out of the cooler at a time and work the meat over.  In my home, about half gets ground, the rest are individual cuts or stew type meat.  Thats the way we eat it so getting fancy is not in the cards.

I clean every morsel using a sharp knife and throw scraps directly into the trash.

It takes a while but I know every piece was inspected and approved.. by me.

I wrap the meat by placing the item into another gallon baggie, wrapping it tight to remove air, then wrapping that in waxed freezer paper, label it (cut, species.... and date...) and into the freezer it goes.

To clean up, wash the table, cutting board and utensils with soap and water, as normal.  Use a mild chlorinated sanitizer on the table if you wish.  Check the floor (and walls and ceiling ?) for missed scraps or blood drips and throw out the trash.  I don't recall ever having a bad or lingering smell.

I would LOVE to hear some others so I can get ideas of different ways.  My way works well for me, but hey... other ideas may make it even easier.

ChuckC

[Jmatt1957]

I worked in a grocery store meat dept for 18 years. We used several different cleaners. How ever chlorox  and water with some dawn dish soap workes as good as anything. A regular bucket hot water, 1/4 cup dawn, 1/2 cup bleach.A small nylon brisseled brush works the best on the table you cut on.  Also make sure you have your wife wear rubber gloves when she cleans up.

[Eric Krewson]

I have a few acres about 5 miles out of town, lots of neighborhood dogs roam around my place night and day. Any butchering scraps I place in the field next to the house in the evening are gone in the morning. I think of the dogs as canine garbage collectors.

[JockC]

The best tips I can give you is to:
1) Buy a butcher paper dispenser with cutter off the internet.
2) Buy bulk rolls of butcher paper and plastic wrap (to wrap the meat with before butcher paper) from Costco or similar spot.  The plastic wrap usually comes with its own cutter.
3) Have someone else there, if possible, to wrap and label.

That frees up some significant time for butchering and clean-up.  As for speeding up trimming of fascia and fat...well, that's something I'm working on.

[Don Stokes]

I hang the deer head-first from a tree in the yard, and skin it. I have a water hose handy, and wash everything thoroughly as I go. First I get the tenderloin from inside the body cavity. Then I fillet out the backstraps, full length. Next I remove the front quarters, and then the back quarters. All goes into a large cooler on a bed of ice, including any trimmings. The legs are cut off at the "knee" joint, which is actually the ankle, before I remove them so they will fit in the cooler. Getting the hind quarters takes a little work, finding the ball joint and dismembering it. The ribs are sawed off, and the rest is scrapped, after taking any lean trimmings. I use a knife for everything but the ribs.

If I have to do it in the shed, I put an old tarp or shower curtain under the deer to catch drips. It can be washed off, but it's best to spread it in the sun to dry afterwards.

I live in the country, so getting rid of the carcass is no problem- I put it somewhere out on my property and sometimes set a game camera to see what comes.

I cover the meat with ice, and leave it in the cooler for a week or so, propped so the melt will drain, and add more ice as needed. When I'm ready to process, I take each section into the house and work it down at the kitchen sink. I cut steaks, roasts, and burger scraps as appropriate, and wrap the steaks and roasts tightly in two layers of freezer paper. I save the lean scraps until the end, and grind them all up into burger. I trim and discard all of the fat and most of the sinew from the burger, although my grinder will handle about anything. I normally don't add any fat, but I may next time for variety. It gets double wrapped like the rest. Double wrapping with freezer paper will keep it good for a year or more.

Cleanup in the house is with soap and water, followed by Clorox wipes, at my wife's insistence.

[MikeC]

Invest in a good vacuum sealer.  Best investment you will make if your going to butcher all your deer yourself and you do a few a season.

[Deadsmple]

Since this thread was really about clean up and not butchering technigue I will not bore you with what I've learned from many years as an owner of a full service butcher store. What I will say is all you really need is a clean uncluttered area to work in and plenty of hot water mixed to a 10% bleach solution. Use a good bristle brush to clean counter tops and cutting surfaces, and a good push broom for the floors. Scrub all your surfaces   before     and after with your bleach solution and  you won't have any unpleasant smells left behind.

If you don't have a property like Eric to simply let the local critters dispose of the carcass for you. Then stuff everything into the ribcage to make it as small a package as you can and at least double bag with heavy duty trash liner and stick it in the trash. If something is gonna get to it before the trash man comes, you already live somewhere where the local critters can do the clean up for you. So go and find a back corner of your lot to feed them.

[rg176bnc]

Vacuum sealer for sure.  Meat will last 1.5 years minimum.  I quarter mine up asap and put them in coolers.  One per cooler if their small(I dont discriminate if your shooting deer to eat your lying to yourself if the fawns are not on the menu!!) Or put half in 2 coolers if their bigger.  I keep plenty of ice on them for up to 5 days.  If its really hot not quite as long.  This will get most of the blood out of the meat.  Thats what makes it taste like liver or wild.  Also helps age the meat some.  You can also pick when you finish up at your leisure.  

Take the carcuss down the road to a friends house where the "coyote" pile is.  I personally dont like the ribs, if I get that hungry I'll go shoot another.  Clean up w/ dish soap and clorox on anything you process on.

[Shawn Leonard]

I do it kind of like Don, but I never wash the meat. It is not necessary if ya do it right or unless ya have a gut shot. It stays nice and clean. I would use a little bleach in a pail of waater for clean up, ya can wipe everything down with it. I do mine at the kitchen table and have no problems. I dispose of the bones and leftovers in an area where I know coyotes abound and maybe shoot a few. Shawn

[frassettor]

I have a small processing business where we do the whole thing from start to finish. We not only process the deer but make brats, summersausage, hot sticks ect... after each time, or between animals we just used Very Hot bleech water, and if needed did it twice. That seems to take care of any odor, as well as disenfecting.  I get rolls of paper where I can walk on, and simply after each use, roll it up and throw it away, the floors are sealed but this makes it easier to clean up.

 

 

[panhandleokie]

As stated earlier your question concerns sanitation and cleanup. One of the new techniques to clean up equipment and surface area in the packing industry is to use a weak 10% solution of acetic acid. This better know as vinegar. It is also used on the carcass. This solution inhibits ecoli growth and thus and chance of infection from this sourse. No matter how careful you are in the field dressing your game, you will contaminate the meat in some way. If a gut/bladder is puntured do not try and wash it off. You just spread the contamination to the rest of your harvest. Where you see contamination just cut it out. That is the best thing to do. Hope this helps. This is 32 yrs of experience in this feild and I have never had a problem.

[Killdeer]

"Also make sure you have your wife wear rubber gloves when she cleans up."

Jmatt1957, you know how many wives saw that and thought about what they wanted to clean up after butchering whom?    

The ideal place for me to butcher is in camp, but sometimes a last-minute deer precludes that. My husband and I have done the cutting and bagging in the kitchen, just like any food brought home from the market.

It is getting bags of body parts up into the apartment without raising eyebrows that is the hard part!

Killdeer  

[JEFF B]

so thats whats happend to clark        hows it going killie?