meat processing cost

[10thmountainarcher]

Olson’s meats in enumclaw charged my buddy $300 for a spike whitetail that weighed maybe 60 pounds dressed.. I would suggest not using them for your elk. My brothers elk with a lot of snack sticks and breakfast sausage was $325 in Spokane.

Something if smelly here.  I've used Olson's before and that's extremely high.  Did he have them hang it for a long time?  Did he have sausage/jerky done?  Basic steaks/roasts/grind couldn't have come out to $300.  If it really did, I would recommend calling Adam Olson ASAP and getting this squared away.

That being said....   I started doing all my meat 3 years ago and haven't looked back.  I bought a $150 grinder my first year at Bass Pro and it's paid for itself and with dividends.  Even if you just make steaks out of the backstrap/loins and grind the rest, you're still getting a lot of great meat.  You'll learn how to carve out various other steaks and roasts as you go.

Last year we went all out and did 40lb of summer sausage as well - man that was good!

He had some pepperoni snack sticks with cheese made. He did not have them hang it for any amount of time. Not sure what the deal was.. even if he had the entire deer made into pepperoni I don’t think it should have been $300. This happened two years ago now so probably to late to address it.

Something stinks there man.  I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but something is wrong with that.  Olson's charges a bit more for their sausage products (which they can get away with because of all the awards they have) but they aren't scandalous by any means.  It's too bad your buddy didn't deal with it when the time popped up.  I hate to see a decent business take a black eye on the internet over incomplete information.

Looks like you're from Buckley - maybe they charged a Buckley residence fee??   

I hear ya, I thought it was a crazy price at the time, but neither of us knew any better. I’ve always done my own processing so I thought that was just the cost. It was only after my brother got his elk done that we realized how outrageous the price was. In their defense, the pepperoni sticks were the best I have ever had.

[ctwiggs1]

 

They are that good.  I've made it clear to my hunting partner that my next bear is going to be 100% breakfast sausage.  I'll either do it at my house with their mix or just have them do it. 

[hawks33]

Just had 215lbs of quartered elk done...steaks, burger, and roasts. $188

[CackleBird98]

Do it yourself.  Can pick up a hand grinder at Goodwill for around 10 bucks, and freezer paper and tape for around 20.  Then you don't have to trust some ying yang butcher with your hard earned meat

[Lady Grouse hunter]

I think its REALLY Important to HANG a carcass for at least 7 days to age it! I myself went up and Smelled how sweet it was after the meat shrunk and the membrain(just under the hide) had sealed to the muscle. Then they're's the price of  {cut &wrapped} IF one has no means of doing this (a meat saw, etc.) then pay for it, just shop BEFORE you drop!

[RockChuck]

Cost is to much! Do it yourself you will be much happier getting cuts and package sizes you want and the satisfaction of doing it from start to finish! pretty easy once you do it a coupon times. A Grinder can be had cheaper then having one done. It’s just time consuming.

[Lady Grouse hunter]

DO YOU have a MEAT LOCKER @ 41o to hang for 5-7 days? This IS part of one will pay for including Cut/wrap soo meat has NO air and does Not get freezer-burn. Most DO NOT how to do this... I'd say pay for it just shop and when on harvests an Animal be ready to take it in right away or the Beetles/flys will ruin it quicklY!

[Lady Grouse hunter]

Soo maybe I'm missing on something? Are those who get an animal processing it ON-THE-SPOT? NOT IT must be aged as it really makes a BIG difference in quality of the meat one worked SOO hard for/planned that yearly trip to go get it!

[ctwiggs1]

Sometimes I hang it, sometimes I don’t.

If you took my doe that was processed same day last year and put it side by side next to my old mans beef that he has professionally done, I’d take the doe every time.  You can’t beat the taste of victory.

There really isn’t a wrong way to do it.  It’s meat.  Don’t let someone else’s la-de-da personal standards hold you back from doing whatever you want to do. If you want to send it off, do it.  If you want to cut it up yourself, do it.

[KFhunter]

didn't Rinella do a big podcast on hanging meat or not?

Ya he did

https://www.themeateater.com/cook/butchering-and-processing/ask-meateater-is-hanging-meat-worth-it

[hal]

game is usually the same price as domestic meat. $.75 per lb hanging weight. I use two butchers and they are both the same.

[Hillbilly Zen]

I wonder where the pre columbian natives had their meat cut and wrapped and stored at 41 degrees?  It aint rocket science, it’s meat.  Cut the big chunks into smaller chunks and put it in your freezer! 

[doubletall]

To give you some perspective, I had a whitetail buck done by a guy up in the Methow and the total cost was about $240 as I recall. The deer was almost 150 pounds hanging. He did lots of cuts and roasts and the rest into burger and sausage. His cuts were exceptionally done and wrapped. The burger/sausage was cut with pork shoulder at about 20% I think.

My last Methow deer was done by Thompsons but as far as I know they closed up shop.  Who did your whitetail?

[goldenhtr]

basic cuts and grind you're better off buying yourself a decent grinder and doing it yourself.
if you want jerky and sausage made, just take some of the meat somewhere to have that made and save yourself a lot of money vs taking the whole animal in.
i purchased an LEM grinder and it's been great.  you also don't have to do it all at once.  i freeze 10 lb trim bags and throughout the year pull them out to make burger grind, bacon grind, breakfast suage, chorizo etc.  it's nice to have the flexibility 

 

[goldenhtr]

Soo maybe I'm missing on something? Are those who get an animal processing it ON-THE-SPOT? NOT IT must be aged as it really makes a BIG difference in quality of the meat one worked SOO hard for/planned that yearly trip to go get it!

We do NOT hang our deer/Elk, once back to camp and cooled down we cut it up into steaks,roasts whatever. Put into freezer bags and get it on ice if in camp or in the freezer if home. Never taking game to a butcher again, yes had one bad experience and was taught how to do it myself.