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Tips, Equipment for Processing your Harvest

Rudd

Rudd

Life Member
There is a post in another forum that is asking for different recipes to try. I thought a post that contained some tricks or processes that some use would be advantageous to a lot of people. It can be a piece of equipment, a marinade, a knife steel or whatever floats your boat. You may also post a question and I am confident someone will have a answer.
 
Dehydrator: I am a complete novice when it comes to alot of things. Making jerky is another one. What would you recommend as a good entry level dehydrator and what components would be a good base line to start with. I have heard of guys just doing it in the oven but came to the experts to see what they do.
 
I have made alot of jerky over the years and have also found out that you will be way ahed to spend a little more money on a good dehydrator upfront instead of buying one of the cheap ones. My first one was a cheap one and took forever to make. I have since then bit the bullet and spent the money for a good one that moves the air with a fan like tracker said and will never go back. Cuts the curing time in half and cures way more evenly. I can get about 6 lbs. of uncured whole muscle meat in mine.
 
A good dehydrator makes things go smoother. A crappy one will take 5-6 hours to do what a good one can do in 3. WHen I get home I'll post the name of mine, it works awesome.
 
I have a Nesco, also, and they work great. I can do a 2 lb. batch of jerky in 3 1/2 hours with it. Others without a fan take a lot longer.
 
WOW 3 1/2 hours. I have three different dehydrator and the best one has an adjustable termostat, I leave the temp down as I like to time it to finish over night or over the work day. I have considered buying a meat slicer, as anybody ever used one for cutting jerky meat?

An easy way to justify a meat grinder is to get the MRS a Kithen Aid Mixer with a grinder attachment for Xmas.

For wrapping your meat stop by your local Fareway and buy a large role of their wrapping paper and a role of their plastic. Last forever and keeps everything very well.

I bought one of those plastic six foot folding tables that are offered everywhere and put a 6x6 block under the leg to inprove the working level. I think they are about as good as it gets for meat and you can setup in the garage to keep the butchering conditions cool.

If your garage is finished an I bolt rated over 350lbs into a rafter and a $12 pully/gambril from Walmart is just what you need.

I am sure many of you guys have a boat load of addition helpful ideas, lets hear em.
 
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Muddy, Walmart also??

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I try to boycott Wal Mart as much as possible... I used my old scheel's discount and bought it.
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I have considered buying a meat slicer, as anybody ever used one for cutting jerky meat?


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yup, we have one. its an old commercial slicer, identical to the one i used back in the day, when i worked at the ankeny fareway. almost all of our deer roasts end up in my hands going through the slicer for jerky and stir-fry. works the slickest if the meat is partially frozen, but works fine if not. i've seen some of the cheapies in cabelas, and i would think a good knife and a semi frozen roast would be just as easy.
 
I've had a vacuum sealer on my Christmas list the past couple of year's so hopefully it will be under the tree this year. My brother-in-law has one and there's no better way to make sure those loins stay in primo shape for grilling next summer!!!

Sam's Club has commercial level plastic and paper for wrapping meat as well as plastic meat lugs for holding ground meat.
 
Vacuum sealers work great! We got one last year at an after Christmas sale. We just buy the long roles and cut and seal the bags so we can make them any size we want.
 
Semi frozen meat and a good knife is the way I go. Works great.

Food saver vacume packer.... worth it's weight in gold.
 
Like Ironwood said, I installed an eyebolt in the ceiling of my garage. It is bolted to a 4x4 that spans 3 or 4 rafters. Rock solid.

For raising and lowering the deer I bolted a boat winch to the wall that runs cable to a pully on the eyebolt. That system is really slick. No tying knots and you can easily raise and lower the deer at any time to keep it at the proper working height as you work down the carcass.

The meat tubs that Cabelas sells are pretty handy for ginding, we have 4 of them now and they hold a bunch of burger.

The wife wanted a scale to monitor the baby's weight as she grew (mommy is a little anal!). Naturally this was a great excuse for me to order the 44lb meat scale from Cabelas. You dont really need a scale but they are kind of nice to determine how much you end up with.

Oh, and on the dehydrator, definately get one that has adjustable temp. The aforementioned wife complains about the odor, which I like (the odor, not the complaining
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) so I set it on the porch when making jerky. If its not fairly warm outside it takes forever and a day with my non-adjustable model. You might as well get a couple extra trays too so you can make a mega batch all at once.
 
I second the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment and the Food Saver vaccum sealer.

Unless you grind an insane amout of meat and need a commercial model, the Kitchen Aid is great. No kitchen should be without one. I think the grinder attachment is around 50 bucks.
 
I asked for a meat grinder with a sausage adapter this year for christmas, would like to try making my own summer sausage and ring bologna in the smoker. Thats a good idea with the plastic table ironwood, clean up would be easy. As far as equipment I can suggest I love my outdoor edge knife set, it has any knife you would ever want for butchering/skinning and they are all in a nice plastic case. Not really expensive either I think mine was around $60 last year.
 
if you are like our group, and hang your skinned deer outside for a week (weather permitting), cut out those inside loins ASAP! within a few hours they are dried out, and worthless
 
teeroy - I just picked up an old Hobart 410 slicer that is in great shape to slice whole muscle jerky. My thoughts were to take the top and bottom rounds along with the knuckle roasts from the rear quarters to slice for jerky. What have you found to be the best width to use? I tried last year with a knife and wasn't very consistent.
 
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