Sharing stories of home processing

[tjhughes]

My dad passed away November of 2019 I tried a couple of time to get my son to hunt before that he just wasn’t interested after my dad passed away my son come to me and asked if we could go hunting at the time muzzleloader was in season we went seen nothing g that morning went back that afternoon and right before dark he was able to harvest his first doe a friend showed us how to process the deer ourselves after all the vacuum packing and cleaning up we cooked the backstraps on a grill wrapped in bacon with potatoes with onions and peppers we have hunted every year since this year we tried snack sticks and summer sausage which turned out good by the way

[Stanct58]

For years we sheephead fished every winter in NW Florida.
A local food pantry got all we wanted to donate, and sometimes we just went for them.
When my wife and I were dating her mom told her “well at least I know you will never go hungry. He knows how to fish!” Couldn’t have given me a better compliment!

[Bjmarrin]

Every year my Dad and I spend multiple weekends making homemade sausage. I grew up with a passion around hunting with my dad. We would spend months preparing for a hunt that always seemed to end so fast. As I got older, I started studying meat science and asked my Dad if he wanted to try and make homemade sausage with me and he jumped right in. I remember the 1st time we tried making links… I busted about half of them! Over the past few years we have improved our process through lots of research and testing. We started out with basic breakfast sausage and now we are into dry aging. We live about 6 hours away from each other and most of our conversations are around what equipment we need to upgrade or what recipes we want to try. Time spent out harvesting game with my dad is amazing but being able to spend time grinding, mixing, stuffing, and eating the wild game we take makes it even more special. This is our thing. I would never trade one minute of processing in the garage for anything.

[rescuefoot]

Here are some Apple Wood Bratwurst I made from venison and pork. I purchased the seasoning from Butcher BBQ before I found this site. The sausage turned out great. I did purchase the casing from Walton’s Inc. I didn’t add any Sure Gel to this batch, but plan to do that next time.
This is what they look like when I cooked them on my smoker.

Here is the seasoning I used. I hope to find some seasoning similar to this on Walton’s Inc’s website.

[glen]

Not in the brat seasoning, but may work https://www.waltonsinc.com/applewood-rub

[YooperDog]

Jonathon that is a very useful book. Like yours mine has the character of being used. Sorry to hear that it is discontinued, a lot of knowledge is in there.

[Jonathon]

rescuefoot For Brats I wouyld say use carrot fiber instead of sure gel. Sure gel is better for cured sausage, carrot fiber is better for fresh sausage like brats or breakfast.

[rescuefoot]

glen I did order the Apple Bratwurst Seasoning from Walton’s. The reviews indicate the seasoning should be either reduced or used with more meat. I’m interested in trying it with the prices of Apple in it and mixing in the high temperature cheese.

Will I need to add the carrot fiber to this seasoning also? I’m guessing there is a ratio for how much carrot fiber to add per pound of meat.

[rescuefoot]

Jonathon This book is available through Amazon, eBay, and other online sellers. I had no trouble finding it!

[Jonathon]

rescuefoot Yeah, sorry if I wasn’t clear, WE are discontinuing it because it doesn’t sell enough. We are at a point now where space in our warehouse is at an absolute premium.

[DeerSlayer]

One morning I was taking out the garbage. Ot was very foggy looked across the field and saw 4 deer disappear into the fog bank.
Knowing their direction I quickly went to the house got the son up and sent him ( with his 243) down a fence line to cut them off and hopefully get a good shot. Which he did. The rest reversed course and ran directly into my sights. A few hrs later we were packing 2 deer in the cooler. Plenty of meals were had that winter and spring from that harvest

[jlongiii]

In the Northeast PA we had 27" of snow. After cleaning up and getting some rest, we decided to have a little back yard BBQ over an open fire. Adult beverages were cold and the venison sausage and butterfly steaks turned out great. I think we just found a new snow day activity!

[jlongiii]

jlongiii

[irene]

I made sausages by grinding the meat and then stuffed the meat in the casing. Delicious!

[topdawg11]

My favorite memory of sharing venison, was having my daughter pick “deer meat” for her birthday dinner. I was happy that harvesting that deer my daughter helped give it’s life worth with her celebration meal.

[calldoctoday]

Well, I do not have any photos because it was to long ago. For the most part, we used to eat the vegetables out of a very good, all year long garden we grew, harvest deer from the property & beyond, harvest rabbits & chickens, & catch fish to eat. That was pretty well how we did it & it was real simple for the most part. I used to harvest deer on our property during December & January when it was very cold for the area, hang them in our barn or shed for about three days, then debone them. I tried making soup out of the horns, but that did not work very well. I tried making those nice fancy cuts with my meat saw, & that did not work real well either. But, deboning them & making sausage & ground meat, except for the back strap allowed us to primarily eat only venison for our red meat, with little exception. We were probably much healthier then too. I would stay up half the night at the kitchen table grinding venison for burger or sausage with my old manual (USA Made) #8 grinder. Then I would grind up pork jowls or butts & also tried some other things occasionally. Throw in a few spices & keep it on the spicy side, then mix it all together by hand, then hand stuff the Hog Casings with the venison & pork (sometimes beef or poultry as experiments) & freeze it all up. It was simple & we liked it & we were happy. Those were the good old days!

[Jonathon]

We will be selecting a winner from these submissions today at the the live stream. Winner does not need to be present.

[melarvie]

I live on a hobby farm and process all my own animals. Last fall a friend was complaining about her dog getting sick from eating the apples that fell from her apple tree. I said I’d take the apples for my pigs. Well my pigs never had apples and wouldn’t touch them! But the turkeys loved the apples. I ended up finishing my turkeys on the apples. Nothing like “apple” turkey smoked on apple wood. Best turkey I ever had.

[smokinbubba]

The Outhouse grouse
Back in the 80’s My late grand parents owned a farm in southern Ohio. Ruffed grouse was a meal we were fortunate to have a couple times a year. My grandfather was hankering for a grouse dinner and it was in season so he gathered up myself, my sister and grandmother to hunt down these delicious birds for dinner. Shotguns in hand, we split up. Grandpa (Pop) and I took off in a clockwise direction from the house and grandma and sis went counter clockwise. Pop and I ha nott walked a hundred yards when we heard the report of a shotgun. We couldn’t believe the ladies had out hunted us! We met back up at the house after circling the property and saw my sister holding a dead grouse by the neck. I will never forget the smile on her face and the tears of laughter on my grandmothers. Pop asked what was so funny and grandma explained that soon after the hunt began, they jumped a grouse not far from the backdoor of the house. She stated that my sister raised the shotgun and fired. Being a novice hunter in her early teens, she missed the grouse all together and in its panic, the bird flew directly into the side of the outhouse breaking its neck. We all shared a good laugh and grandmother prepared a fine and pelletless bird for the evening meal. I owe my outdoor passion to my grandparents and miss them everyday. And yes this is a true story, Bubba

[Shawna Fyffe]

Recently we, myself,husband,daughter and son in law, butcher this HUGE hog we raised for 2 1/2 years. She was more than what the tractor wanted, we had to weigh the back down even gutted with the head off it was hard to lift. Took us a few days total to get everything cut up and salted. While working my daughter cooked up some of the ribs and they were great. There was less fat on her than what I expected. It was a learning and memory for the kids and us all! Tried to post photo, unsuccessful.