# Question about grinding deer meat



## lennyluminum

Do you cut off all the fat and silver skin before you grind the deer meat? I want to use all the skirt meat and the rib meat but its all covered with fat and silver skin and would not be worth the time it would take to trim it all off.


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## mossymo

Remove all the fat and silver skin you can as with venison it adds a fowl taste and just binds up the grinder so it does not grind properly and emulsifies the meat making more of a mush than a nice grind. Personally I don't mess with the meat between the ribs, the work entailed is too tedious for the little bit of meat you end up with.


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## LanceR

How much silver skin you remove will be related to personal preference, how sharp your knives and grinder plates are, how cold the meat is, fineness of grind, what size the chunks are you put into the grinder and how well your grinder works.

In short, there is no firm rule.  I usually remove the thicker stuff and don't worry about the more transparent thinner stuff but we use a commercial grinder with sharp plates and knives, cold meat and chunks about 1 to 1-1/4"cube sized.  That works for us and results in cleanly cut and tender ground meat but your mileage may differ.

While opinions over what fat to remove are all over the place Utah State University research shows that not all fat is likely to taste gamey and that some is very beneficial to tenderness in the finished product, especially in roasts. 

Cod fat is found on the brisket.  Tallow fat is on the back, rump and somewhat less on the outer surface of the neck and the rear of the front shoulders.  Marbling fat is the fat in between muscles, attached to the skirt meat and includes stuff clinging to and between the ribs once any tallow fat is peeled off.  You will clearly see any tallow fat as a separate layer lying over the upper ribs and upper skirt meat.

The gaminess, if any, is generally limited to the tallow and cod fat with the most likely exception being deer 3-1/2 years old or older.  Also, diet can affect taste in any animal and deep woods deer are going to taste different from farm country deer so you may want to take that into account if you are hunting in an area with poor browse.

As a result of all this, and a lot of experience processing deer. I recommend the following:  For the significant majority of deer the fat in the rib area, the marbling and the skirt itself  is fine for grinding so just make an adjustment in the amount of fat you add to the meat when grinding.   If there is tallow fat on the upper outer surface of the skirt meat just pop it into the coldest part of the fridge for a while and it will peel right off.  The tallow fat at the top of the ribs will be easy to remove before cutting the loins (AKA backstraps) out or splitting the backbone to make bone in chops.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the results of your efforts.

Lance


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## jimalbert

X2.. I get off what I can and forget about the rest.  I use enough supplemental fat to compensate for any wild flavors from the natural fat.  I used to sit and clean all of the tallow around the muscles in the lower leg and now I don't mess with it cut it up and throw it in.  In my experience it seems a lot of that tallow gets caught up in the grinder anyway.  One other thing I started doing (and makes a huge difference in my opinion) is that I dont use pork anymore.  I use coarse ground beef that is 70/30.


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## lennyluminum

I try to get as much of the fat a tallow off as i can but the ribs and skirt meat seem to be covered with the stuff. I just got my grinder and stuffer so this is my first season prosessing my own deer meat. I just dont want to waste any of the meat


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## LanceR

It may be easiest to see the difference between tallow fat and the marbling fat over and between the ribs when working with a cold carcass.  The tallow fat is the layer over the top of the back and rump and it can be seen as a separate layer that can be worked off the carcass (or primal cut) buy peeling it back while running the tip of a knife under it to separate it,  The thicker parts especially will usually come off pretty easily.  The thinner parts may need a little more time to trim out but still usually come off cleanly.  Very cold meat is a lot easier to work with than warm meat.

What is between the ribs or backing the sheet of skirt meat is not tallow fat and in the big majority of cases it won't have any flavor issues.

I don't know if you are looking for any information on the process of butchering deer but there are a lot of good books and videos around on butchering your own deer.  One writer I particularly like is John Weiss.  His books on the subject can be found on online.  Over the years I've taught several folks how I butcher deer (there are a lot of ways to go about it) and Weiss' books (I have the 2002 edition of Butchering Deer) are particularly nice as they basically lead you through all the prep, meat cutting and storage steps while offering multiple ways to prepare and cut each major part.  I've found his books used online for a lot less than new and have given several copies away to folks I was helping out.

Lance


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## smoke happens

lennyluminun: I think the little bit of meat you may not be able to use from the ribs/skirt will be a worthy sacrifice this go around. This is your first time processing your own meat, make it as easy on yourself as you can to get the most enjoyment out of it. Once your comfort level rises, then you can decide if dedicating the extra time/effort to the rib/skirt meat prep is worthwhile. It's not like your talking about not using a huge part of the animal or just being too lazy to work it, some experienced folks that do deer a lot are even saying it's not worth it.


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## boykjo

LanceR said:


> How much silver skin you remove will be related to personal preference, how sharp your knives and grinder plates are, how cold the meat is, fineness of grind, what size the chunks are you put into the grinder and how well your grinder works.
> 
> In short, there is no firm rule.  I usually remove the thicker stuff and don't worry about the more transparent thinner stuff but we use a commercial grinder with sharp plates and knives, cold meat and chunks about 1 to 1-1/4"cube sized.  That works for us and results in cleanly cut and tender ground meat but your mileage may differ.
> 
> While opinions over what fat to remove are all over the place Utah State University research shows that not all fat is likely to taste gamey and that some is very beneficial to tenderness in the finished product, especially in roasts.
> 
> Cod fat is found on the brisket.  Tallow fat is on the back, rump and somewhat less on the outer surface of the neck and the rear of the front shoulders.  Marbling fat is the fat in between muscles, attached to the skirt meat and includes stuff clinging to and between the ribs once any tallow fat is peeled off.  You will clearly see any tallow fat as a separate layer lying over the upper ribs and upper skirt meat.
> 
> The gaminess, if any, is generally limited to the tallow and cod fat with the most likely exception being deer 3-1/2 years old or older.  Also, diet can affect taste in any animal and deep woods deer are going to taste different from farm country deer so you may want to take that into account if you are hunting in an area with poor browse.
> 
> As a result of all this, and a lot of experience processing deer. I recommend the following:  For the significant majority of deer the fat in the rib area, the marbling and the skirt itself  is fine for grinding so just make an adjustment in the amount of fat you add to the meat when grinding.   If there is tallow fat on the upper outer surface of the skirt meat just pop it into the coldest part of the fridge for a while and it will peel right off.  The tallow fat at the top of the ribs will be easy to remove before cutting the loins (AKA backstraps) out or splitting the backbone to make bone in chops.
> 
> Good luck and I hope you enjoy the results of your efforts.
> 
> Lance





LanceR said:


> It may be easiest to see the difference between tallow fat and the marbling fat over and between the ribs when working with a cold carcass.  The tallow fat is the layer over the top of the back and rump and it can be seen as a separate layer that can be worked off the carcass (or primal cut) buy peeling it back while running the tip of a knife under it to separate it,  The thicker parts especially will usually come off pretty easily.  The thinner parts may need a little more time to trim out but still usually come off cleanly.  Very cold meat is a lot easier to work with than warm meat.
> 
> What is between the ribs or backing the sheet of skirt meat is not tallow fat and in the big majority of cases it won't have any flavor issues.
> 
> I don't know if you are looking for any information on the process of butchering deer but there are a lot of good books and videos around on butchering your own deer.  One writer I particularly like is John Weiss.  His books on the subject can be found on online.  Over the years I've taught several folks how I butcher deer (there are a lot of ways to go about it) and Weiss' books (I have the 2002 edition of Butchering Deer) are particularly nice as they basically lead you through all the prep, meat cutting and storage steps while offering multiple ways to prepare and cut each major part.  I've found his books used online for a lot less than new and have given several copies away to folks I was helping out.
> 
> Lance


I agree with a lot of this from lance..... Some really good info about  the deer's diet and age. I remove the silver but I leave the small stuff.


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## gator1

If I'm going to use the meat for items such as spaghetti sauce or just plain ham burger I'm to to concerned about a little silver skin . If I'm making jerky with ground and.my jerky canon I trim off all the silver skin .  Remove the tallow for sure and never run a saw through it . Gets on the blade and leaves a wax like film on the meat that taste terrible .


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