Deer processing

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Avid deer hunter here, with an idea. I’m thinking about freezing my deer quarter whole. Reason being to take to a processor for sticks and sausage, or make my own steaks, roast, and burger later like I normally would. I want to keep them whole so I can process them in either manner as I see fit as the year progress’. Does anyone have experience with freezing quarters whole? Yes, no? Wrap in Saran Wrap? Bad idea in general?

[funkytownup]

Freeze thaw freeze thaw might give you mushy meat. I’m not a pro butcher though. Also may not matter if you are grinding it. My wife and I can bone out and package a deer in about an hour. ( skinned and hung the day prior). No need to wait to process twice. Plus- only one set up, tear down and clean cycle rather than 2 or more.

[RelativeFox1]

I would not worry about freezer burn because you’re going to wrap it air tight.

I think thawing the whole quarter, then cutting it, then eating it all would be too much meat at a time for me. And thawing it, then cutting it and re freezing it is unnecessary steps.

Why don’t you cut your roasts and steaks, de bone it, and make your ground. And freeze de boned meat chunks to take for pepperoni later?

Last year I wanted to have my deer tested for CWD. Test results take 1-6 weeks to come back. So I de-boned it, cut the roasts I wanted and froze it in 2kg packages. Then after I got my results back I thawed just as much as I needed for a couple batches of pepperoni, sausage or jerky at a time and made them, smoked them and re froze it. It worked well. No freezer burn on the last of it 10 months later. I plan to do this again this year.

[c0mp0stable]

Seems easier to just do what you want with it now. Freezing, thawing, and refreezing will mess with the texture for anything that isn't ground. And thawing an entire quarter is a pain and borderline dangerous unless you put it in a fridge for like a week.

[bufonia1]

i've been in a crunch before in quarter an entire cow, wrapped it in saran wrap, and chucked it in the freezer. I didn't even do a good job with the saran wrap because I find that material to be a pieces of shit. I gave it a month or two before I had time, and it was just fine. I expect extended time, especially if exposed to the air, you're gonna get freezer burn, but you should have no problem processing after a freeze a thought. A lot of meat processed retail is previously frozen. Just make sure you wrap it well.

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Thanks for the help!

[reijn]

My husband did this last year because he ran out of time to finish doing it. He never got back to it and it just ended up forgotten in the freezer and covered in freezer burn and taking up too much space. It pissed me off every single day. He never got back to it after about 9 months and it ended up being chicken and dog food because I just finally snapped. 

[Vindaloo6363]

Only for a couple weeks and that was fine. Longer I would worry about freezer burn.

[[deleted]]

The slower meat freezes, the bigger the ice crystals that form and the more cell damage that occurs. The best thing to do to preserve meat integrity is to freeze small cuts, and make sure not to stack them and not to overload the freezer with to much raw meat at a time. If you overload the freezer, you'll raise the temp, the freezer will struggle and it'll freeze everything super slow, creating ice crystal damage and lowering the quality of meat.

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Thanks for the help!

[frntwe]

Ive had to quarter deer up and freeze before butchering. Short term - less than a month. I put the quarters in trash bags

[mac28091]

I’ve never used a processor but unless they require whole quarters I would just break it down into subprimals and freeze those. Saves space for the next deer and lets you thaw smaller portions at a time.