The DVD in question is called Deer Masters Home Deer Processing, Copyrighted by ANKHoldings, Inc., www.homedeerprocessing.com, dewey decimal #641.691 Fie.
It is definitely a production by professional deer processors, not professional camera men. The field dressing section is a bit bumpy in places as it is obvious that a steady-cam was not in the budget. The information is quite helpful, and anyone just learning how to field dress a deer will definitely get the point that under no circumstances should the bladder be popped. Hubby commented that they do remove the bladder a bit differently than he does and he was concerned that if you didn't have a really good grip, it might be possible to get some leakage. In cold weather it can be a bit tricky when you can't feel your fingers very well. He usually removes the urethra intact with the rest of the guts.
The skinning section was very thorough, and also very long. They did three deer. It goes faster in 2x or 4x speed. As they were professionals who usually process lots of deer and need to be fast, they kept the thin section of skin meat attached to the hide. This is fine if your leather tanner is close to home and very forgiving of you. If not, it might be a better idea to carefully skin that section out while the hide is still attached to the deer, being very careful not to puncture the hide. I have never tried removing it once the hide is no longer attached to the animal, but I think that it would be more difficult that way. The tips for keeping hair off the meat are quite useful.
The butchering section first covered how a professional divides the carcass. It was quite informative, but since I do not have a commercial cooler and a deer sized table with a cutting surface on the whole thing, it is not the best suggestion for home use. It did provide a lot of helpful information on handling knives safely. Unless you are really patient, you might want to watch this section at 2x or 4x speed. They were basically showing off all their professional tools in this section. It gave hubby a serious case of knife envy.
The last section, which is more useful to the average hunter, covers butchering a deer by removing sections from the carcass while it is fresh and hanging. The tips for packaging the meat in plastic, then paper were good. Also the tip of putting ground pepper in parts of the carcass that would attract flies to prevent maggots was useful (for those who have to process deer in warm climates). The lighting was a bit dim in in this section of the DVD.
The people who produced the DVD are experts at handling knives, and process the deer with quick, efficient movements. I do not know the price of the dvd, because it was from the local library. You will have to judge for yourself if it is worth it.
I've got a photo of my last deer in the kitchen on clean, sterlized tarp, cleaned down to the bone with just the head remaining. It was VERY time consuming making sure I didn't get any connective tissue. Would definitely gross out the average reader but it was the first time I processed it myself. I have a video on processing elk and used that as my guide.
ReplyDeleteBrigid,
ReplyDeleteI would have to imagine that you did cut it apart at the joints. It would be very hard to handle otherwise. Is the picture a bit like an "exploded" view of a deer. You know - like those instruction pictures in packages of things that come with "some assembly required".
I agree, the sinews are a bear to remove. In order to grind the meat with my Kitchen Aid meat grinder attachment, I have to cut out as many as possible to avoid clogs. Wusthof makes a flexible boning knife which can be used much like a fillet knife. That little bit of spring makes a big difference when cutting out silver skin.
Was Barkley banished to another room while the kitchen floor was occupied?