Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance when it comes to processing
Speaker 1: and butchering wild game. If I think about it, I've
Speaker 1: literally cut up meat everywhere. I'm talking hotels, motels, back
Speaker 1: of the truck one time, in this multimillion dollar condo,
Speaker 1: which is kind of an interesting story, at a friend's house,
Speaker 1: on boats, various parking lots, and most of this for
Speaker 1: me is because I've been trapped, like just traveling to
Speaker 1: different places, out of state, hunts, what have you. So
Speaker 1: maybe you're traveling for a hunt this season, or maybe
Speaker 1: you're just not fully set up with a complete butcher
Speaker 1: station at your house. Not everybody how space to hang
Speaker 1: the whole elk or have a walk in freezer, but
Speaker 1: you do want to process the animal yourself. As a
Speaker 1: self proclaimed I would say small space butcher expert. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a tongue twister. I have a few trips
Speaker 1: to help you successfully manage the butchering task with limited
Speaker 1: room and how to make the job more simple with
Speaker 1: limited time. But first, I want to answer the question
Speaker 1: where's the strangest place I've processed gave meat. Now, for
Speaker 1: most people, that's if somebody said, what's the weirdest place
Speaker 1: you've processed gave meat, that would probably be like a
Speaker 1: strange question. But for me, that's a tough question to
Speaker 1: answer because there's been a lot of strange places that
Speaker 1: I've cut up and done some butchering. Uh Now, are
Speaker 1: we talking big game or just any wild meat? Because
Speaker 1: I know that off the top of my head, I
Speaker 1: can think of a few funny stories. The weirdest place
Speaker 1: I've cut up any meat would probably probably be, Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this one time in Alaska, we're fishing and just staying
Speaker 1: in this motel and we caught some salmon and and
Speaker 1: some other stuff. We we processed some of it down
Speaker 1: by the boat, but we came back and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we want to We're gonna do up like a good
Speaker 1: sushi like essentially sashimi feast. And caught an octopus on
Speaker 1: that trip, and so we had like no space, and
Speaker 1: I had a cutting board and I was were like
Speaker 1: literally cutting using the back of the toilet in this
Speaker 1: motel room like the as it was like the only
Speaker 1: flat spot in the hotel. It was like a fairly
Speaker 1: small room that didn't have anywhere to do anything. So
Speaker 1: we have the cooler in there, We pull out this octopus,
Speaker 1: were like slicing up sashimi on the cutting board on
Speaker 1: the back of the toilet in the motel room, and
Speaker 1: then went out back and had our ourselves a sashimi
Speaker 1: a sashimi dinner that was that was pretty strange. We
Speaker 1: called it toilet sushi and sounds disgusting, but it was
Speaker 1: really good and it was a long day. Uh, nothing
Speaker 1: better than a little bit of fresh, fresh sushi cut
Speaker 1: up on the back of a toilet. I don't know
Speaker 1: why that makes me laugh. Um, if we're talking big game.
Speaker 1: The whole story is kind of long, but we actually
Speaker 1: got invited on this hunt and kind of somehow lucked
Speaker 1: into getting this really nice condo to stay in that
Speaker 1: was kind of camped, so it was like they were Anyways,
Speaker 1: we got this condo and it was like this multimillion
Speaker 1: dollar mansion on the ocean, which you're like, sweet, this
Speaker 1: is really awesome, except for this place was just pure
Speaker 1: white and we're hunting in an area that's just like
Speaker 1: red dirt, and we happened to shoot quite a few
Speaker 1: deer and there's no place to put them. Um, so
Speaker 1: that like, honestly, that condo never looked the same and
Speaker 1: we never got the invite to stay in that condo
Speaker 1: again after the fact. I think another really random place
Speaker 1: that I butcher deer. It was actually in Mallie. It
Speaker 1: was my wife's first hunt, the first time she was
Speaker 1: successful harvesting a deer. But it just happened in the
Speaker 1: day that we could hunt was pretty much the day
Speaker 1: we had to leave. So we had like an evening
Speaker 1: flight out and we went hunting with my friend Robin,
Speaker 1: and she shoots her buck and we're like okay, We're
Speaker 1: like looking at the time, We're like we gotta dude,
Speaker 1: we gotta get to the airport. Because as things go,
Speaker 1: when you're hunting, it's like, oh, we'll do that one
Speaker 1: more stock, we'll do that one more whatever. So we
Speaker 1: shoot this day, we pack it back, we get it
Speaker 1: in the truck. He's got a big yetty in the back.
Speaker 1: We throw the meat in there and we're just thinking, like, dude,
Speaker 1: we don't have time to run back to your house,
Speaker 1: get to the airport whatever. Generally, when I'm traveling, I
Speaker 1: bring everything i've got, like a yetti backflip soft side cooler,
Speaker 1: and then I generally like, will vacuum seal the meat
Speaker 1: or put it in bags, somehow freeze it, put it
Speaker 1: in that bag, and go home. But I did bring
Speaker 1: some of these yetty ice packs, so they actually colder
Speaker 1: than then I settle freeze stuff that's in there, but
Speaker 1: it will definitely keep it cool. So I had enough
Speaker 1: forethought to bring this with me. They were pre frozen.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, Okay, here's the plan. We're gonna cut
Speaker 1: this meat up, we're gonna put it in baggies, then
Speaker 1: we're gonna stuff it in the cooler, and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna use those ice packs to freeze. It's like okay,
Speaker 1: and we're thinking like, well, we're pretty dirty. Uh, probably
Speaker 1: should shower. So he's like, oh, there's a country club
Speaker 1: I remember too along the way, so we're like, sweet,
Speaker 1: this will be perfect, right, So we roll up to
Speaker 1: the country club and it's like we're parked in their
Speaker 1: dirty vehicle. There's all these like nice cars, golf course whatever.
Speaker 1: So he's like, okay, I can get you in. We
Speaker 1: go in shower up and I'm like, Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to butcher this thing like right here in the
Speaker 1: parking lot. So you've got the back of the car open,
Speaker 1: and I don't know why this is funny, but well,
Speaker 1: I know it's funny. It's just kind of funny. So
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, like somebody's gonna somebody's gonna get like, see
Speaker 1: what are we doing. We're getting like all these weird looks,
Speaker 1: like what are these guys doing. We've got like a
Speaker 1: butcher setup going slicing Dyson on the top of the cooler,
Speaker 1: and then we're like assembly line into bags and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna be stuffing it into this backpack Cooper to go.
Speaker 1: And we're like in the middle of like saying. People
Speaker 1: are like looking kind of like skirting around, and the
Speaker 1: one old guy goes up to my buddy Robin and
Speaker 1: he's like Meredith and where He's like, we're like covered
Speaker 1: in blood, uh in camo butchering a deer. And this
Speaker 1: guy like I think maybe he thought like we were
Speaker 1: where he was parked, or if he was just trying
Speaker 1: to like didn't notice us and looked past. So we're
Speaker 1: like laughing because it's like, here's two guys butchering a
Speaker 1: deer in a parking lot in a country club, and
Speaker 1: he thinks that one of us might be his wife.
Speaker 1: So we're like, oh, man, um, are you okay? Man, Like,
Speaker 1: are you confused? And I think he was slightly confused,
Speaker 1: but then he kind of was like, wait, this is
Speaker 1: obviously maybe he was trying to talk past us. We
Speaker 1: didn't know what was going on, but we're laughing because
Speaker 1: here we are butchering a deer and uh, Robin got
Speaker 1: mistaken for this guy's wife, which makes no sense. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it was just random. You know, of all
Speaker 1: the things that you think somebody's gonna say while you're
Speaker 1: butchering a deer, that was not one of them. So like, okay,
Speaker 1: so we got this deer butchered. Now like we run
Speaker 1: in shower real quick, come back out, make it to
Speaker 1: the airport just in time. And uh yeah, that was
Speaker 1: the processing the buck in the back of the truck
Speaker 1: at the country club. But I say that to say
Speaker 1: you can really butcher an animal wherever you are, whatever
Speaker 1: your space or limited availability. I get a lot of
Speaker 1: questions of guys like, hey, I live in an apartment,
Speaker 1: or I've got a small house not a lot of
Speaker 1: storage area. How do I get uh an animal process
Speaker 1: without just having to drop it off? I want to
Speaker 1: go through the process myself, So these tips are really
Speaker 1: good for that, or especially people traveling somewhere where you
Speaker 1: might be staying in a motel, staying in a tent camp,
Speaker 1: staying wherever, and you've got a long trip back. How
Speaker 1: to get that meat butcher and processed for the trip home?
Speaker 1: Or if you've got limited space. I'm gonna set this
Speaker 1: up with three scenarios that I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people will encounter at some point. So the first scenario
Speaker 1: would be, maybe you're that traveling hunter. You shot a deer.
Speaker 1: Maybe say hey, drew Wyoming gear tag went out to
Speaker 1: Wyoming staying at a local motel, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: what do I do? I've got a deer, but I've
Speaker 1: got a long drive home, or I've got extra time.
Speaker 1: Maybe your buddy's got a tag, or you guys have
Speaker 1: a couple of days before you got a head home,
Speaker 1: Well what do you do now? Another scenario would be
Speaker 1: you shot an elk and maybe you live in a
Speaker 1: small house or apartment with no yard. Um, I get
Speaker 1: that question a lot. And then the third scenario would be,
Speaker 1: let's say you had what it doesn't even matter, but
Speaker 1: it Let's say it's a cow wok tag. Right, you
Speaker 1: go out the last day your hunt, you're hunting weekend, Sunday,
Speaker 1: you shoot a cow o, You're like sweet, you get
Speaker 1: home late, but Monday morning you have to go to work.
Speaker 1: Now what? So this series is gonna be breaking down
Speaker 1: and answering the questions on a good way to cross
Speaker 1: us with small space and what to do or kind
Speaker 1: of this methodology of setting up your processing when maybe
Speaker 1: you've got a limited amount of time or you've got
Speaker 1: to be back and doing something the next day, but
Speaker 1: you want to you don't want to have to drop
Speaker 1: it off at a butcher. You just want to do
Speaker 1: it yourself. So the first thing we'll do, we'll kind
Speaker 1: of touch on those first two questions, starting off the
Speaker 1: limited space thing, the motel, whether you're traveling, maybe flew whatever,
Speaker 1: or you've just got a small area. So here's the gear.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the gear that I kind of recommend.
Speaker 1: I always travel with these items. So I'm going on
Speaker 1: a hunt, let's say, flying to a recent one I
Speaker 1: just flew to Hawaii Hunting Access dere Um. That recent
Speaker 1: hunt was a little bit different because I had access
Speaker 1: to a lot of different processing equipment. But here's some
Speaker 1: items that I always bring with me wherever I'm going
Speaker 1: cutting matt A filet knife, so I really like the
Speaker 1: Gerber Controller file a knife. It's made for fish, but
Speaker 1: it's incredible for processing, cutting up big game, small game whatever.
Speaker 1: I use it as a butcher knife. And there's a
Speaker 1: folding version as well as just like I like the
Speaker 1: one that goes into the hard sheet that has a
Speaker 1: sharpener on it. Just a six inch file at knife.
Speaker 1: And then some sort of cooler, So even if I'm traveled,
Speaker 1: like flying somewhere, I use a cooler that I could pack,
Speaker 1: a soft sided cooler, you know, if I'm driving or whatever,
Speaker 1: I always have, you know, a big cooler full I
Speaker 1: somewhere to keep the meat cold. And then I've got
Speaker 1: bags of some kind, whether they're vacuum sealed bags or
Speaker 1: the big ziplocks. And then a marker to label stuff.
Speaker 1: And then generally I will bring some form of vacuum sealers,
Speaker 1: so there's smaller vacuum seelers. I use the meat brand
Speaker 1: vacuum steelers found it meet your Maker dot com, so
Speaker 1: they've got a small one and then they've got more
Speaker 1: of the pro version. It depends on the type of trip,
Speaker 1: how I'm going, where I'm going, I don't generally bring
Speaker 1: like a chamber back with me. Which is absolutely the
Speaker 1: best kind of vacuum s heeler. We can talk about
Speaker 1: all the processing equipment later. It um some kind of
Speaker 1: vacuum heiler because it's actually a really good way, especially
Speaker 1: if you're traveling or if you have limited space, because
Speaker 1: when you vacuum see it, you can store it in
Speaker 1: a different way. And we'll talk about that here in
Speaker 1: a minute. To give yourself to provide more space while
Speaker 1: you're butchering and between putting things in the like, if
Speaker 1: you need time for things to age, you can age
Speaker 1: them in the fridge in the vacuum sei there by
Speaker 1: um wet aging them. Or you can also use it
Speaker 1: if you're traveling because it doesn't leak as much. Now
Speaker 1: the vacuum seiler, I would say it can be faster
Speaker 1: to wrap stuff. If you are going to wrap, I
Speaker 1: always would double wrap, so I use saran wrap and
Speaker 1: then wrap it butcher paper. But for stuff like traveling.
Speaker 1: I like that extra assurance um of having it in
Speaker 1: the vacuum sealed plastic. And it's also like a really
Speaker 1: good preservation preservation method that works really well. Now I
Speaker 1: will say this to you, we're kind of I'm talking
Speaker 1: about two different things. Small space while you're traveling, in
Speaker 1: small space where you live. Small space while you're traveling,
Speaker 1: you can always do like just get everything broken down
Speaker 1: and use ziplock bags. I use that a lot. But
Speaker 1: the key about butchering in small space is kind of compartmentalizing.
Speaker 1: So what we're doing is we're taking a big animal
Speaker 1: and we're breaking it down into pieces of work that
Speaker 1: can be managed in an area that doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: where it's at. So I broke this down into a
Speaker 1: few different steps. So step one is going to be
Speaker 1: the field breakdown. So I think about it. We're going
Speaker 1: big too small. Um, it's really great if you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of room. You know, when where a guide
Speaker 1: out of In Montana, we've got a walk and chiller.
Speaker 1: We can put everything in there. If somebody wants to butcher,
Speaker 1: we can pull out pieces at a time from the chiller.
Speaker 1: We've got plenty a room, big table, all the processing
Speaker 1: gear in essentially a giant shop warehouse, plenty of room
Speaker 1: for that. But that's not the case all the time.
Speaker 1: That's a very rare case. So what we need to
Speaker 1: think about is, well, we don't have room to take
Speaker 1: care of an entire animal. We need to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out the steps along the way and where to
Speaker 1: do these steps to make it super manageable in an
Speaker 1: area the size of your tailgate. So step one is
Speaker 1: going to be the field breakdown. What the field breakdown
Speaker 1: is going to be a skinning and quartering the animal
Speaker 1: in the field. This is the this is I always
Speaker 1: pack everything out. I use the gutless methods, so I
Speaker 1: always skin and quarter in the field anyways. But I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of people that do the gut
Speaker 1: and drag method. If you've got limited space and you're
Speaker 1: saying like, hey, I gotta come come home and I
Speaker 1: gotta process this in an apartment building and you've got
Speaker 1: an entire hole deer in your truck, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: really hard. I mean, I guess you could do it
Speaker 1: in your bathtub or whatever, but um, it's probably not
Speaker 1: not recommended. So what I would do is I would
Speaker 1: essentially break the animal down in the field somewhere you
Speaker 1: know it's it's a great place because you've got the room,
Speaker 1: you've got the space, and you're gonna have you're cooler
Speaker 1: with you, one of those essential pieces of year, so
Speaker 1: you can start breaking down the pieces. Breaking down the quarters.
Speaker 1: I removed the hind quarter and front shoulder. I then
Speaker 1: can remove the backstrap, either off the rib or leave
Speaker 1: it on and use a saw cut it in half.
Speaker 1: Doesn't really matter. You're just breaking it down into manageable
Speaker 1: pieces that you can fit in your cooler to take home.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be your first stage of like where
Speaker 1: do I keep this stuff? How's it all gonna work out?
Speaker 1: You're gonna use your cooler as the storage space while
Speaker 1: you're processing those individual pieces. Now, let's say we get
Speaker 1: back to our motel, our hotel, the back of the
Speaker 1: truck wherever, and it's time to break down. So step
Speaker 1: two is gonna be breaking down those pieces into the
Speaker 1: butcher portion. So while you're butchering one piece, everything else
Speaker 1: is gonna be chilled in your cooler to Step two
Speaker 1: is gonna be the de boning process. And I generally
Speaker 1: do this once I get like unless it's a super
Speaker 1: far pack out. I'll actually start the de boning process
Speaker 1: right at the kill site, like if it's an elk
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, I'm way back here. Is heavy.
Speaker 1: I don't want to carry these bones. But most of
Speaker 1: the time, honestly, it's a little easier to just manage
Speaker 1: things with bone in. So i'd say eight time, I
Speaker 1: don't really bone stuff out in the field unless I
Speaker 1: need that, and it's more of a space saving thing
Speaker 1: for me. Honestly, I was opposed to wait. But once
Speaker 1: I get back to wherever I'm gonna start cutting up,
Speaker 1: then I bring out that filet knife, that butcher knife.
Speaker 1: I've got my cutting matt, and I'm going to start
Speaker 1: deboning those quarters. Wherever I'm at this is. This can
Speaker 1: be all the tailgate. This could be in the kitchen
Speaker 1: of your motel room, hotel room, condo, house, apartment, whatever.
Speaker 1: So you've got all your other piece in there, You've
Speaker 1: got you pull out one quarter and now you're gonna
Speaker 1: start breaking down deboning. You're removing the muscle groups and
Speaker 1: you're like, sweet, this is the first stage of the
Speaker 1: butchering process. And just as a little like hint tip
Speaker 1: the way the muscles grow. You know the thing that
Speaker 1: I do. If I got a front shoulder of hind quarter,
Speaker 1: let's start with the hind quarter. You just start separating
Speaker 1: those muscle groups out. You'll see there's a fascion that
Speaker 1: kind of holds everything together. You'll go in there, you'll
Speaker 1: take your knife and you'll just start laying out and
Speaker 1: separating out the different cuts and the different pieces of
Speaker 1: meat from there. Once it's separated, we go to step
Speaker 1: three and this is the cut and separate. So I'll
Speaker 1: take that one piece that I'm working on. Obviously, i'll
Speaker 1: separate it out. I'll say, okay, these are steaks. I
Speaker 1: cut that bag it tag it right on the bag,
Speaker 1: this is what it is. And then I have a
Speaker 1: separate bag set aside for the grind, because that's one thing.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of grind off these animals, and that's
Speaker 1: the thing that starts piling up. So I start one
Speaker 1: bag for grind, and then I start bagging out my
Speaker 1: individual butcher cuts. So I've got those cuts, and then
Speaker 1: I start to store and put away the grind and
Speaker 1: the freezer. So if it's in a zip lock or
Speaker 1: a vacuum seal bag, I'll close that bag, seal it
Speaker 1: stick that in the freezer. One thing that you want
Speaker 1: to think about is, you know, I get the question
Speaker 1: a lot. Okay, I don't have a lot of space.
Speaker 1: How do I age the animal? So there's a couple
Speaker 1: of ways that I do that in the storage process,
Speaker 1: before I cut it or after I cut it, depending
Speaker 1: on how much time you have and how much space
Speaker 1: you have. So that's where the keep seiler comes in.
Speaker 1: One thing you'll find like, so the aging process. What
Speaker 1: it does is it breaks down that rig of mortis
Speaker 1: and makes the meat more tender. You know, people ask like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I freeze, if I freeze it right away, if
Speaker 1: I shoot it, I cut it up and I freeze
Speaker 1: it right away, will it be tough? The answer is
Speaker 1: probably yes, because what you're gonna get is a term
Speaker 1: called cold shortening, where you freeze the meat before the
Speaker 1: rigor has time to break down, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: gonna always be tough. So here's your options. You can
Speaker 1: either dry age it or wet age it. Dry aging
Speaker 1: is kind of keeping it in a climate controlled environment
Speaker 1: and giving it a little bit of time to break down.
Speaker 1: The way that I do this in my house, um,
Speaker 1: I use plastic meat totes. I clear out my fridge
Speaker 1: and I try to stack everything on one thing shelf
Speaker 1: and then I keep the meat in the fridge for
Speaker 1: a little bit, but I try. You want it to
Speaker 1: be like spread out enough where it's got room to breathe.
Speaker 1: If you don't have that space, you could do it
Speaker 1: in the cooler. You just want to make sure that
Speaker 1: it's not sitting in water. Um, it's not gonna dry
Speaker 1: age where it's going to develop a crust, but it
Speaker 1: will be allowed to age in that cold um in
Speaker 1: that cold storage. I don't suggest aging things in the
Speaker 1: cooler though, I think that they turn out not as well.
Speaker 1: Um they can kind of sometimes because it's really hard
Speaker 1: to keep them out of the water. So that's your
Speaker 1: last case scenario. The next scenario would be you could
Speaker 1: do it one of two ways, which would be a
Speaker 1: wet age. And what that is is you're using your
Speaker 1: vacuum seal to remove any oxygen that could cause the
Speaker 1: meat to go bad, so you're kind of preserving it,
Speaker 1: and then you're keeping it under cool temperature, which could
Speaker 1: be a refrigerator. But the nice thing about this is
Speaker 1: it doesn't leak, it doesn't cause a mess, and you
Speaker 1: can stack things on top of each other um in
Speaker 1: the fridge, so you've got limited space. I go with
Speaker 1: this wet age process almost of the time because I
Speaker 1: can start to butcher if I need to right away,
Speaker 1: and then I can use the refrigerator to let the
Speaker 1: rig and more to break down without letting oxygen get
Speaker 1: to it where it's gonna start crusting over. You don't
Speaker 1: have as much meat loss or whatever after the fact,
Speaker 1: and it still comes out extremely tender. So you can
Speaker 1: do this wet aging process in one of two ways.
Speaker 1: You can butcher it, vacuum seal it stored in the
Speaker 1: fridge for a week and then freeze it, or even
Speaker 1: you can go up to two months like this um
Speaker 1: I've had I've done it where I've actually just like
Speaker 1: vacuum seal the whole hind quarter wet aged it. UM
Speaker 1: let us sit in the fridge for about a month
Speaker 1: three to four weeks and then taking it out, butchered it,
Speaker 1: sealed it back up, and put it in the freezer.
Speaker 1: But you can do it either way. That's where that
Speaker 1: vacuum sealer comes in handy for this process. Like let's
Speaker 1: say you need a little bit of more aging to go. Um,
Speaker 1: you've got like enough time where you're like, hey, I
Speaker 1: can butcher it in a few days. I can butcher
Speaker 1: it next weekend. Then you would probably get the vacuum seal,
Speaker 1: create a long bag, vacuum seal each individual broken down piece,
Speaker 1: or maybe a big block of boned out pieces, vacuum
Speaker 1: seal it and then pull those out and start to process. Now,
Speaker 1: let's answer that question. Maybe you were on a hunt
Speaker 1: and you you got something the last day and you
Speaker 1: don't have time to butcher it right away because you've
Speaker 1: gotta go to work or whatever. This is a this
Speaker 1: is a real life scenario. I run into this more
Speaker 1: times than not a lot of friends. I know this
Speaker 1: is the problem. You get home, you're like, man, I
Speaker 1: want to process this myself. But I just I was like,
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't have the time. What do
Speaker 1: I do? How long can it last? How do I
Speaker 1: take care of it? I don't want it to go bad?
Speaker 1: Like this is the whole reason I went out struggle
Speaker 1: all weak. You know, I finally am successful. I want
Speaker 1: the meat to be really good. Do I just drop
Speaker 1: it off at the butcher or do I do it
Speaker 1: myself and that's that's a really good question to ask.
Speaker 1: But it is definitely doable to do yourself. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of on some of these things that we started
Speaker 1: to touch on. What I like to do is I
Speaker 1: like to kind of stagger the time. So we come home,
Speaker 1: we got the elk, and you're like, man, I don't
Speaker 1: have room to hang this oult. What do I do?
Speaker 1: So the first thing that I do this is just
Speaker 1: me the way they're like, what my scenario would be.
Speaker 1: Let's say I've got room for one or two quarters
Speaker 1: in the fridge, or if I could hang in my
Speaker 1: garage and the temperatures right awesome, That's what I would do.
Speaker 1: You know, I like to keep it around. I mean
Speaker 1: I kind of I kind of play with it a
Speaker 1: little bit. You want to kind of keep it around
Speaker 1: that forty degrees if you can, you know, as long
Speaker 1: as you get cool air running over it, it's okay.
Speaker 1: So what I do if it's a little bit warmer,
Speaker 1: if I've got room in the garage, I hang up
Speaker 1: the meat in the garage and then I have a
Speaker 1: little fan and I just turned that fan on and
Speaker 1: let it blow and keep circulating air pass the meat.
Speaker 1: You will notice that it's gonna dry it out pretty good,
Speaker 1: create this crust around it, but it's gonna protect the meat.
Speaker 1: It's gonna break down. I try not to do that
Speaker 1: for more than four or five days, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: shorter is better if you've got three days or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it gives you a little bit of time to
Speaker 1: then mess with the meat. So you come back from
Speaker 1: work every day that week and you just grab a quarter,
Speaker 1: process that quarter, and then you save your grind up.
Speaker 1: So you'll put all your grind into the freezer or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then as you're processing, and then you'll do all
Speaker 1: your grind at once. One reason that I like to
Speaker 1: put the grind and the freezer is because it actually
Speaker 1: grinds up better when it's semi frozen. So I'll just
Speaker 1: start to dethaw that in the fridge when it's grind day,
Speaker 1: so I get all my everything done, process done, and
Speaker 1: then I do grind day one day after I've done
Speaker 1: all the other butchering separates it out a little bit
Speaker 1: and also makes it easier because it's like semi frozen.
Speaker 1: You want you don't want it frozen, but you want
Speaker 1: to like fairly cold for your grind process. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna go into um, we've got that that limited time.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've got the garage set up sweet, you can
Speaker 1: use the fan. That'll buy you a little bit of
Speaker 1: time that you can pull a quarter in once a
Speaker 1: night or whatever whenever you've got time that week and
Speaker 1: start processing and do it the same way, cut it up,
Speaker 1: vacuum seal that, put your grind in the freezer. You're
Speaker 1: good to go. Next day. You maybe grab another quarter
Speaker 1: or however much you can do within that time that
Speaker 1: you've got. Now, if you don't have that hanging space,
Speaker 1: or it's too hot, or it's like, hey, I'm in Arizona,
Speaker 1: my garage is way too hot for this doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: If i've got the got the fan on it. Then
Speaker 1: you can use a combination of the cooler refrigerator or
Speaker 1: that vacuum ceiling method and in the refrigerator. So I'll
Speaker 1: do a couple of different ways. You know, when you've
Speaker 1: got an elk and a cooler, it doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: big you're it will they're are giant coolers. But what
Speaker 1: I like to do is keep it out of the
Speaker 1: ice but still definitely cold. Continually check the temperature of
Speaker 1: it and make sure that it's not in water. That's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing. So I'll probably pull a couple quarters
Speaker 1: out and try to make room in my refrigerator, putting
Speaker 1: them in the toates where they're separated, where Eric can
Speaker 1: get around them. Or I'll do that technique of getting
Speaker 1: a really long vacuum seal bag out, sealing the bottom
Speaker 1: of it, putting quarter in vacuum sealing it and storing
Speaker 1: it in the fridge. That way, I can actually stack them.
Speaker 1: They won't go bad that way, and they give me.
Speaker 1: They buy me a little bit of time to actually
Speaker 1: get to the butchering process. Then I'll pull it out,
Speaker 1: cut it up when I can same thing, put the
Speaker 1: grind in the freezer, and then put my process steaks
Speaker 1: in the freezer, and it's ready to go. Now when
Speaker 1: it comes to grind day or you know, if you
Speaker 1: got the time you come back, you've got plenty of time.
Speaker 1: You can do it all at once. That's great. But
Speaker 1: even while I'm processing the entire year, I stick or
Speaker 1: elk or whatever, I stick whatever grind. Once I get
Speaker 1: a good sized bag, then put that grind in the freezer,
Speaker 1: even if i'm doing it that day to start cooling
Speaker 1: it down to temperature, and then I'll pull out the
Speaker 1: grinder and then do it that way. I will say, like,
Speaker 1: when it comes to grinding your own meat, that's one
Speaker 1: thing where you probably you want the better version of
Speaker 1: whatever you can get. So I like at least the
Speaker 1: half horse grinder. If I'm doing an elk or whatever,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a better process. I've owned some
Speaker 1: pretty crappy grinders in the past, So I will say, like,
Speaker 1: if you're butchering yourself, the two things you want to
Speaker 1: invest in, I'd say the first thing you'd want to
Speaker 1: invest in is a good grinder, and then the second
Speaker 1: thing would be that vacuum sealer or maybe simultaneously at
Speaker 1: the same time, those two pieces of kit, because it's
Speaker 1: gonna make the entire butchering process so much easier when
Speaker 1: you do it at home if you have those two things,
Speaker 1: because it gives you the flexibility to wet age, it
Speaker 1: gives you a flexibility to to get a good seal.
Speaker 1: And whether you use it just for preserving things between
Speaker 1: the breakdown process or whether you use it for the
Speaker 1: final seal up set in the freezer, doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: It's just gives you that extra ability to move things
Speaker 1: around and storm different places with a lot of ease.
Speaker 1: And it's definitely great if you're traveling because you can
Speaker 1: um they don't leak as well, So especially if you've
Speaker 1: got something A lot of times, what I'll do if
Speaker 1: I'm traveling, I'll butcher it. I'll cut it up, I'll
Speaker 1: use big pieces, vacuum seal, freeze it sticking to my
Speaker 1: cooler bag and just take it his carry on, pretend
Speaker 1: like it's just like walk around like it's super light.
Speaker 1: I'll have about fifty pounds and that thing stuffing in
Speaker 1: the overhead bin. Um. So that's that's a good way
Speaker 1: to do things if you're traveling, if you have limited
Speaker 1: space or a limited amount of time. I want to
Speaker 1: address that way of butchering because I've been getting a
Speaker 1: lot of questions as guys are planning for their season.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know it's it's a question that comes up
Speaker 1: every year, and I figured, Okay, it's definitely worth talking
Speaker 1: about if so many people are asking about it for
Speaker 1: a little bit more in depth, like how to butcher
Speaker 1: If you're like, okay, that tells me, gives me an
Speaker 1: idea of the strategy. If I don't have enough space
Speaker 1: where to store things, how to move things from stage
Speaker 1: one to stage two, or some ways of you know,
Speaker 1: keeping the meat safe for a little bit longer period
Speaker 1: of time. But if you want more in depth processing
Speaker 1: butchering field care, you can always go to my YouTube
Speaker 1: channel subscribe to that because leading up to the season,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be releasing videos on pretty much every stage
Speaker 1: of breaking it down in the field highd court or
Speaker 1: backcourt or backstrap whatever, like every piece of it, and
Speaker 1: then the kind of the butchering process along the way,
Speaker 1: So feel free to check that out and it will
Speaker 1: kind of be a good like visual aid Q too,
Speaker 1: kind of figuring out this in the field breakdown because
Speaker 1: it's really hard to explain everything just via podcast, So
Speaker 1: a little bit of an ancillary content if you will. Now,
Speaker 1: um oh, actually I forgot. I tried to work out
Speaker 1: a deal, so if you listen to the podcast, if
Speaker 1: you do need some butchering stuff I work with meat,
Speaker 1: it's meet your Maker dot com. They sell all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff, high quality grinders, vacuum steelers up to professional grade,
Speaker 1: pretty good prices. But if you put my name in there, Remy,
Speaker 1: you'll get a discount. So that's cool. Um, just if
Speaker 1: it's something that you you're like, Hey, I want to
Speaker 1: start butchering processing my own stuff. There's plenty of stuff
Speaker 1: on there. So something that I worked out for listeners
Speaker 1: of the show. I thought I might be sweet get
Speaker 1: a little bit of a discount. But anyways, thank you
Speaker 1: guys for listening. Keep the messages coming. Next week is
Speaker 1: our hundred episode. Is crazy man, hundred weeks of doing this. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty nuts. It just seems like yesterday I was
Speaker 1: talking about the biggest buck in my life. So gearing
Speaker 1: up for the hundredth episode, I've got some cool I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do a little bit of a cool giveaway something
Speaker 1: is a thank you for everyone that listens, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about some of my favorite tactics and go over
Speaker 1: some solid tips, maybe even a little bit of flashback session,
Speaker 1: and maybe figure out the total sign off, the final
Speaker 1: sign off. So until next week, keep cutting. Well that
Speaker 1: works good. That was good because it's like, keep cutting
Speaker 1: the distance. But I was talking about meat. It could
Speaker 1: be that that could be in the great that could
Speaker 1: be the goat of sign offs. I like that one.
Speaker 1: All right, keep cutting, guys. H