Freezing deer before processing

[XX78]

Sunday evening hunting kinda sucks.

Long story short, I had no where to take my doe last night, so after checkin and complete hose down, I iced down her cavity, wrapped her in a tarp, and she is currently my mom's deep freezer lol. Will she still be okay to process? Just wasnt sure about her being froze whole before the processing.

She went an hour before I could ice her down last nite. Temps were in the low 50's and she rode home in a pickup bed. Is that too long for the temp? I usually have my deer at the butcher way befor that.

[OHBOW76]

It sounds liek you did what you could, I think the meat will be fine. As far as freezing it, I would have kept it cool , but i dont think I would have froze it. I am with you though, I dont hunt Sunday nights if its warm because there is no place to take it.

[Buckmaster]

I shot one Sat morning at deer camp. I had her back to camp around noon. By 4 pm I was back in the treestand again. I had her permently tagged, quartered and bagged in garbage bags over ice in my 130 quart coooler. Last night I cleaned and packaged the ribs, tenderloins, and to-be ground scraps. Tonight I'm cleaning the front shoulders and front legs, tomorrow the hind quarters and doing all the grinding.

Tonight I'm having grilled backstap burritos.

You need to be prepared for the worst case scenerio in terms of Sunday hunting and Sunday meat processing. Your deer should be fine for one hour in 50 degree temps. As for being frozen, I hope you skinned it first otherwise that will be an interesting removal process. Let me know how things work out.

[XX78]

I guess I do need to be better prepared, but like I said, I had no choice.

Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to skin it. I should be able to get around it.

[Thunderflight]

I've heard that meat that is frozen, unfrozen, and frozen again doesn't taste as good.

Here's what I do.

If I don't have access to a cooler I'll skin out the deer and put it on ice in my 120 qt cooler. A deer will last several days like this.

[Buckmaster]

TF is correct. It will last several days in a cooler. I moved my quarters into my "deer and beer" frige last night.

I'm not sure about the taste factor with the freeze, thaw, and refreeze method. I'm guessing you'll be fine.

[XX78]

Thanks for the replys

Unfortunately I didnt have a mondo cooler to stuff her in.

I almost certain that some places will do as I did, and freeze em. But then again I could be wrong. Im sure the meat we get at the store follows a few freeze thaw cycles before it gets to our mouths.

[M.Magis]

The meat should be fine, but I'm afraid you'll run into a problem when trying to thaw it out. Some areas will thaw faster than others, much faster. These areas still need to be kept cool as the other areas thaw. So, you really need constant 40 degree temps for about a week for everything to thaw, yet still keep everything good. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Your best option now is to get it out of the freezer NOW and get it butchered. The big areas should not yet be frozen. If you didn't skin her, that will be interesting.:D I suspect you'll wish you had taken the 10 minutes up front by the time your done.;)

[brian]

I wouldn't worry at all about leaving a deer hang overnight in 50 degree weather. Skin it right away, you will be fine. IMO you NEED to let them hang for a period of time, and that depends on the temp. My guidelines are...below 32 deg 4-5 days, 32-40 degrees 2-3 days, 40-50 degrees 1-2 days. If you do quarter and put in a cooler, dont let the meat touch the ice or water, after a day it will turn whitish-gray colored, doesn't affect the taste, just not very nice looking. Just like the "aged beef" you get in the store, its best eaten or frozen 1 day before it spoils, the trick is figuring out when that is, and not pushing it one minute more. ;)

[MUZZY MAN]

Ok, Iv'e got to ask this. How do you quarter a deer. I'm assuming you cut the shoulders off? Remove the leg at the joint. What about the main body? Would some one educate me here. I've wondered what I would do in XX78s situation. Iv'e skipped evening hunt's for this reason.

[Buckmaster]

Skin deer hanging from back legs.
Remove head and front legs south of the front knee joints sharp knife, hacksaw, bonesaw or carpenters saw.
Remove tenderloin with fingers and a flick of the knife on the ends.
Remove backstraps along the spine. Be sure to follow muscle contour.
Remove shoulder and front legs together by slipping the knife behind the shoulder blade and cut through the muscle. You'll be surprised to find there's not much holding the front legs onto the deer.
Ribs I typically cut off with the bonesaw.
Now you're left with the hind quarters and a spine.
You can separate both with your bonesaw.

Now you have quartered your deer. You de-bone, separate, clean, and bag into portions.

Some guys can go through this process without the need to cut through bone but I haven't mastered those techniques yet.

An saw zaw also works with ease for removing limbs.

[MUZZY MAN]

Thanks BuckMaster, This is usefull info.

[MUZZY MAN]

I'll put away my Poulan:D

[Fishin 2]

XX,
Sounds like you should bone out all the meat and take it to someone that will cook the meat after it's thawed out and boned out. Get a bunch of deer bologna or make some jerky or some kind of sausage out of it !! You should not freeze,thaw then re-freeze meat ( what my butcher say's ) he says if you have to freeze it ,in big uncooked chunks that if you have to re-freeze the meat, cook it first ! Sounds like a good time to get a bunch of venison sticks or something like that goin on !!

;) Hope this helps, next time, skin it first, then bag the quarters if you have to freeze it on sunday, but you done the right thing, at least your eatin venison, not CROW !!!!!

Best of Luck and Congrats !! Mike:D

[OHBOW76]

If the weather wasn't coopoerating and I couldn't get the deer to cold storage, I would either gut it and then skin it, or do what they do with big game like mosse and such, dont even gut it, just quater the damm thing and then skin it. I would gut the thing, get it up on a gambrel and skin the thing as soon as possible. You have to get it cool. I would then freeze the quarters or wrap them in plastic and put them on ice.

[XX78]

I took her out of the freeze just long enuf for skin to soften. It was great. I used the game processing kit my dad gave to me a few years ago, and it worked like a charm. I skinned her no problem and had her back in pronto. She will be summer sausage in no time. Thanks for the replys.

I have learned a few lessons from this. In hindsight I was about 90% prepared to harvest this animal. Going in to the day, I thought I was more like 99%, but when the butcher doesnt answer his phone, and ur friends newborn develops some problems and has to leave, things can quickly go south.

Things are going to work out, but I will now learn how to do it myself. I got the kit, just lack experience.

[Buckmaster]

Glad to hear its all working out. Grab a how-to video so next time you can try it yourself. Plan on a 6 hour day from start to finish if you wrap in portion sized quantities. The alternative is having a long list of processors before the season starts then you can work your way down the list on that Sunday afternoon.