As an avid hunter, you play a hands-on role in the act of bringing food from the field to the table. This starts with scouting the animal and ends—of course—with eating it. There are a few additional steps that must take place in between before you can enjoy your burger or backstrap. The most important step, of course, is that the meat needs to be processed. While there is nothing wrong with taking your game to a commercial butcher to be processed, the act of processing your own meat is highly rewarding. It also comes with added benefits that you will experience firsthand if you choose to take this on. Many hunters who start processing their meat can’t imagine going back to the way they did it before. Let’s explore some of these benefits.
Whether hunting is a hobby or a way of life, you probably spend plenty of money on it. Even if money is not an object, you can hopefully appreciate the savings that come with processing your meat. While there is an initial investment in some professional butcher supplies, we recommend that you start small with just the basics. Once you know that processing your own meat is for you, then you can get fancy with some of the more advanced equipment like a professional meat grinder. Over time, the investment will pay for itself, and the results will be priceless.
You very likely eat meat that did not start out at yours, whether you are picking up some store-bought bacon or going through a drive-thru. You’ve spent the time to track and kill an animal, you want to know that the processed meat that you receive is from that animal. But the reality is that you don’t know what happens behind the scenes. You quite literally do not know how the sausage gets made. When you process yourself or with family and friends, you do. Consider it added peace of mind. Furthermore, by processing your meat you are in control of the quality of the meat. This allows you to be as meticulous as you would like because you are the one doing it. You get to determine how much fat you want to leave on or be trimmed. Need a cut or more or less silver skin, you decide.
Getting the meat from the field to your table, or the freezer takes time no matter which way you slice it. Once you have honed your meat processing skills, you will be able to hang an animal in the morning and have it fully processed before the day is through.
Turn to LEM for the tools you need to process your own game. We carry everything including:
We even have storage supplies for vacuum sealing and freezing. Explore LEMProducts.com to see all the butchering solutions we carry so you can get started processing your own game.
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