Meat Processing

A couple of weeks ago Michael took some friends and their family out to the ranch for prong horned antelope hunting.  They were interested in the hunt as a family adventure and in the mount.  This worked out perfectly as I was wanting to add variety to our freezer so we got to keep the meat.  They went out early in the morning and were successful in their hunt!  They did all of the dressing work (and I am not talking about dressing dolls) out in the field so all we had to do was process the meat how we wanted once it was cooled properly. 

This past weekend we got to finish that processing.  I am fairly familiar with the butchering process but I had never done anything with game meat.  Michael did all the major cutting and then we worked together to process the meat.  Antelope is a tasty meat but can be very dry as there is almost no fat.  We kept about 6 pounds of meat for stew and then kept the back strap and a few other pieces to have in their entirety.  The rest we ground for hamburger.  Because the meat can be so dry we made our own blend.  We bought pork fat and Boston Butt pork roast to add to the mix.  First we ground everything separately in a coarse grind.  Then, we mixed everything together and ground it again in a finer grind.  The ideal ratio for us turned to be about 50% antelope, 25% pork fat and 25% pork roast.  After grinding the meat we packaged it into 1 to 3 pound packages and vacuum sealed everything so it will stay fresh as long as possible.  With the cost of the sealer bags and the extra pork we added we figured it came out to less than $1.00/pound.  After all of that we ended with about 70 pounds of ground meat.

Some people are game meat purists and think mixing different meats isn’t necessary as the flavor can be great on its own and for some meats they are exactly right.  For us and our liking though mixing was what we wanted to do.  It would be crazy to do a blend that we knew we wouldn’t enjoy and let all that meat go to waste!  Anyways, this process was very time consuming but was worthwhile.  Call me crazy but there is something rewarding about knowing that I am consuming something that we processed and came off of our ranch.  We have already used some of the meat for burgers on the grill and they were delicious.  The biggest thing I learned from the experience was how much work it is.  It was a good sized antelope but after all the trimming and processing we really weren’t left with that much meat.  I know for sure I will appreciate the food I make with this a little more than normal after being a part of the process!

Just getting started - putting our meat grinder to work - coarse grind was the first step.

 

Michael was very excited to use the grinder attachment.  It worked fantastic!