Free: Contests & Raffles.
Thanks for the tips folks!So some follow up questions:For the parts I do turn into burger, how do you like to grind it? 1x with coarse plate, 2x with course? 1 Course, one Med?- For my burger, I only grind it once on the course setting. Without any fat in it, it all cooks down and separates into tiny pieces anyway. Grinding when adding fat- I have always only ground once, mixing the fat in as I go and hand mixing, but I can see the benefit of mixing and then regrinding. I just haven't gone that far. Every once in a while I get a package that's pretty fat heavy, or fat shy. I have been using bacon ends and pieces for a long time as my fat, and I use nothing else, regardless of what I'm using that burger for. Some guys don't like that hint of bacon in their spaghetti, I think they're nuts. How about slicing for jerky or stir fry, any particular section of meat you find work best, or a recommended thickness to slice to?- I save the bottom round and sirloin for jerky most of the time. Have used various top round and sirloin tip cuts as well, they all make good jerky. One thing I started doing a few years ago is doing minimal processing/cutting on the front end, and leaving my cuts of meat as intact as possible. They freeze and keep better that way, and offer more flexibility down the road. Once you cut steaks, you can't uncut them into a roast. Same goes for the jerky cuts. Leave the bottom round as intact as possible, in case you don't get to it for a couple months, it will keep better, and if a different plan comes along in that time frame for that cut, you aren't left hanging because you already sliced it.
I grind once using a 1/8" plate, but I also remove 98% of silverskin and anything else that is not meat. If you don't want to be that meticulous, I would course grind then regrind with the finer plate. With the 1/8" gring, I doi not need to add fat to the meat to get my burgers to hold together on the grill.7mm, you can keep your bacon spaghetti....
Here is a decent video put together by a guy named Clay Hayes. He does a decent job of showing how to break the quarters apart by muscle group, and gives a brief description of what each piece can be used for. I found it helpful.
No video to recommend. I just start on the outside and work my way in layer by layer. I prefer to get as much "junk" off before removing muscle groups from bone and then separating the individual muscles.Anything can be made into steak, some will be tougher than others though. Most muscles in the hind quarter get labeled as some kind of steak. The round gets labeled as roast unless I am doing a bunch of canning, then it all gets separated and chunked to be used in tacos or stews later. I freeze all of my "steak" in whole muscle as I can then decide how to prepare it later and not have to deal with precut steaks. For something like the ackstrap, I will estimate how many steaks of what thickness and cut in those lengths.The lower shank I have started deboning and then removing the silver skin from the outside before freezing. When preparing this, cut into one inch pieces for a delicious Osso buco.Good luckOne of my son's favorite ways to eat venison (deer, elk, etc) is to do a rub, smoke it somewhat dry, and then cut into thin slices for French dip.
