How to Butcher Deer

Last Updated: March 28, 2019 Approved

Once a deer has been field dressed and brought back to a lodge or house for further processing, the next step is learning to prepare chops, steaks, and roasts for nutritious meals to come. It can be overwhelming when you first look at all the work to be done, but once you break it down into a few simple tasks, you can do the work quickly and efficiently. Learn to remove the skin, age the meat properly, and prepare the most delicious cuts. See Step 1 for more information.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Skinning the Deer

1
Field dress your deer as soon as possible. After you shoot a deer, it's OK to take a moment to congratulate yourself, but then you need to get working. All of the organs need to be removed to avoid tainting the meat and increasing spoilage. The quicker you get the animal field dressed and cleaned, the safer the meat will be.
- Some people like to winch the carcass up to hang it by the antlers, while some prefer the feet when breaking down the carcass initially. Either works. If you want to save the antlers, you might hang the deer upside down and take special care in dealing with the skull.
2
Remove each of the hooves at the elbow. With the point of your knife, find the joint and make an incision. Then, move your knife around the joint with the flat of the blade, cutting the ligaments and carefully working your knife around the elbow joint as deeply as possible. Twist the joint firmly and snap it off.

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3
Begin cutting through the skin at the base of the animal's skull. Next, cut around it the base of the neck, then down towards the breastbone, and finally to the stomach, pelvis and the forelegs.
- Take care to cut only the skin, and not the muscles or abdominal tissues, as hair will contaminate the meat in these areas.
4
Begin pulling the skin off the shoulders and neck. Work your way downward toward the chest. If muscle tissue is pulling loose with the skin, scrape or slice through it so it doesn't tear loose as you go. Slicing the subcutaneous membranes will make the skin easier to pull free.
5
Pull the skin off the carcass. If skinning by hand, pull the skin down a bit, as if you were peeling paper off a wall, then slice the tissue that attaches it to the muscles underneath it, working a little at a time.
- If you want to save energy and use a four wheeler or even a truck, you can tie a golf ball or a similarly sized stone under the skin, looping your rope around it, then tie the free end to the vehicle. Drive slowly away from the carcass, pulling the remaining skin from the deer with very little effort.
6
Remove the head. Take the deer down and lay it out on a flat work surface. Just under the jaw, cut the ligaments to loosen the connective tissue around the neck. You'll need to twist the head sharply to break the neck and remove the head completely.
- If you want to save the antlers, but not the head, you'll need to use a saw to remove a portion of skull about an inch from the base of the antlers.
- If you want to save the entire head, keep it cool and skin it. Save any meat from the skull you wish to keep and boil the skull for several hours, removing the tissue and bleaching the skull. Clean it afterward with hydrogen peroxide to get it white.
7
Rinse the deer's carcass after the skin is removed. This will wash away any hair that has stuck to the meat and will also help cool the meat while you are completing the job. If you plan to have your deer commercially processed, it's ready to go to the processor after removing the organs. If you want to break it down yourself, let it cool thoroughly and take it indoors or to a clean cutting surface on which you can work.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Aging the Meat

1
Wash the venison with plenty of cold water, then transport it with ice. Do not wrap it with cling wrap or butcher paper at this point, which will trap heat in the meat and promote spoilage. Make sure the carcass is cool and dry. As soon as possible, the meat needs to be transported and stored at 34–38 °F (1–3 °C).
- Avoid freezing the meat right away, as freezing will inhibit the aging process and speed its spoiling after the meat is thawed.
2
Find a suitable location for aging. The most difficult part of the process is finding a space big enough for your deer that can be temperature controlled. The most popular location is generally a garage, shed, or an outbuilding. Places that receive some heat seepage from the house, like a garage, tend to be particularly effective.
- If you don't have a garage, talk to friends and other hunting acquaintances to find a suitable location. Or follow the first few steps of the breaking down process to quarter the meat and age it in a spare refrigerator. The quarters from an average deer should fit in a standard fridge.^{[1]
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- Err on the side of too cold. Generally, you'll freeze at least some of the meat after breaking it down anyway. Be very careful not do let your venison spoil by aging it above 40 °F (4 °C). Make sure to keep a thermometer in your aging space.
3
Hang the carcass. Use a meat hook and chain or rope to affix the meat to a sturdy rafter in your aging location.
- If you don't have a meat hook, try using an old wire hanger inside the carcass to hang the deer.
4
Age the meat for at least a week.^{[2]
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Research source} Like beef, aging the meat causes the collagen in the muscle cells to break down. The quality and flavor of the venison is greatly improved by letting the meat sit for a week in a cool space with good air circulation.
- This causes the surface of the meat to dry, but don't worry--this can be trimmed off during the butchering process.
- The meat will continue to grow more tender for 16-21 days.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Breaking Down the Deer

1
Prepare a clean work surface and assemble your tools. It's helpful to have a large cleaver and a boning knife for this task. Make sure your tools are sharp and clean and that you've got a sterile work surface large enough to handle big pieces of meat.^{[3]
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- Try setting up a portable card table or picnic table and cleaning it with food-safe sanitizer before you begin.
2
Split the backbone in half. To separate the chuck meat (front quarters) from the round (hind quarters), use a saw or a meat cleaver and find the point at which the rib cage meets the backbone (it should be between the 12th and 13th rib). Cut through the spine using firm pressure with the cleaver.
- After you've made an incision, you may need to put one hand on the hind quarters and one hand on the for legs or neck area and bend them toward each other to break the back in half.
3
Remove the backstraps and tenderloins. Probably the most tender and tasty cut of venison, the tenderloins are the dark, lean, red meat found inside the cavity, running alongside the backbone. The backstraps or ribeye are also called the "outside tenderloins," and are found opposite the tenderloin, along the backbone on the other side of the ribs.
- To remove them, run your knife along the inside of the backbone (for the tenderloin) or the outside of the backbone (for the backstraps), and work the meat loose of the ribs and keeping the edge of your knife as close as possible to the bone, to get as much of the meat as possible. Use long even cuts as you pull the meat away from the bone.
- You'll find these in both the hind quarters and rib section of the carcass. This is the best cut for steaks or roasts.
4
Saw through the ribs near the spine. Cutting them all the way down the backbone, you can either separate the ribs, or leave them intact as whole side of ribs. The brisket can be found on the outside of the ribs, near where you've opened the belly for removing the organs.
- Alternatively, you can leave the entire backbone area intact for cutting into chops with a meat saw later. To do this, leave the tenderloins and backstraps in place, and remove the upper shoulders by cutting the muscles that attach them to the chest, working from the bottom (the armpit) up, lifting on the leg as you do so. Since there are not joints in the bones connecting the front shoulders to the chest, a good, sharp knife is all you will need.
5
Remove the shoulder and neck meat. Many people do not realize how much meat a deer's neck has in it. This meat isn't as good for steaks, but is ideal for grinding into sausage or cubing for stew meat. Work your knife around the shoulder joint, twisting the arm away from the body as you loosen it.
6
Separate the hams from the hock joints. The hams of the deer are the fatty meat found around the back hips or the rump of the deer, and the hocks are the remaining leg meat above the joint where you removed the hooves. Hams make decent steaks and hocks are good for stewing.
- If you want to leave the bone in, cut the hindquarters from the deer by sawing through the pelvic bone on either side of the spine, then separate the ham from the hock by cutting through the joint.
- If you want to remove the hams from the bone completely, work the hind legs off the hip by working your knife into the ball and socket joint, lifting the leg away from the carcass as you work. Next, position the ham at a perpendicular angel and about ¹⁄₂ inch (1.3 cm) from the top, perpendicular to the leg bone, and cut straight down through the ham. Cut the meat from the leg bone by shifting your knife parallel to the bone. You can immediately cut this meat into steaks or leave it whole for stewing or roasts.
7
Prepare steaks and chops as you work. It's usually more effective to cut the meat into the cuts you'll want to eat before you freeze the meat. That way, you'll be able to defrost a little at a time, rather than having to worry about defrosting a whole side of ribs that will be difficult to use all at once.^{[4]
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- Use the lower half of the hams for stews and pot roasts.
- Cut round steaks from the top half of the hams.
- Leave the backstraps as long tenderloin cuts or consider cutting into loin chops.
- Cut chunks of soup meat form the lower ribs, belly meat, and the neck meat. If you've got a meat grinder, this also makes excellent ground venison or venison sausage.
- Use the front legs for pot roast or consider cutting into chops if you like.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Storing the Meat

1
Prepare it for freezing. With a very sharp boning knife, remove fat, cartilage, and any bruising, discoloration and dry spots that result from the aging process. Much of the toughness or undesirable gaminess negatively associated with venison can be lessened by removing these parts.
2
Freeze the meat. In labeled meal-sized portions, pack the meat into plastic freezer bags. Squeeze as much of the air as possible out of the bags and that the bags are sealed tightly before placing them in the freezer.
- Don't forget to date the meat. Meat prepared this way should remain good for at least a year. Ground venison and sausage might lose their flavor more quickly. For the best quality, try to use the ground meats first.
3
Consider curing or smoking some of your venison. If you want to prepare and keep some of your meat without freezing it and you have the equipment to smoke meat, venison makes for great cured summer sausage.
- You can use a corning brine to create your own venison version of corned beef.
4
Make venison jerky. One of the most popular preparations among hunters, venison jerky is a chewy and delicious way of preparing venison and keeping it for a long time on the shelf. Use a commercial food dehydrator to remove the moisture from the meat, flavoring it to your taste.

Community Q&A

Question

When cutting steaks, do I cut with the grain or against the grain?

Community Answer

You cut with the grain to remove the muscle from the carcass of the deer and cut against the grain to cut individual steaks.
Question

Is the flank meat generally suitable to be used for grinding, or is it to be discarded?

Community Answer

I grind it, unless it has too much connective tissue in it; this plugs the grinder.