1st home process experience bitter sweet

[carolinawoodsman88]

After watching a couple hours of processing tutorials online including JC's. I decided to dive into this head first. Boy was it a learning experience and I have a boat loads of questions. First off let me explain from the field to the freezer. Shot a young doe around 8:30 on game land air temp was right around 58 degrees. Found her right around 9:20. She has landed on a beaver chew stub and punctured her stomach. Talking about pissed right at the get go... Field dressed her out drug her out. Got 2 bags of ice into her cavity by 10:30. Drove 45 minutes home its pushing lunch time air temp is 74 degrees. Got her skinned out and quartered back straps and neck into a 120 quart cooler full of ice in a nice shaded area with the plug removed.The meat was really clean no hair or dirt on the skin. Had some things come up and I had read that people age there deer in a cooler in the south. Got up this morning went out still had ice on top of the meat. Pulled out a back strap and it had a discoloration of a light grey/brown on the bottom of the back strap. I aired on the side of caution and trimmed it of it wasn't deep about the width of a fillet blade down in the meat. Pulled out a front shoulder in some areas there was a light pink/brown on a couple spots once again same thing trimmed and removed as much silver skin as possible. The meat was cold through out all of the meat. Was this discoloration the starting of aging,freezer burn, tainted,or rotten. It didn't smell bad hell it all had a "nutty" smell. I just didn't feel comfortable with feeding my Wife and two toddlers anything that was questionable. Next question silver skin I trimmed everything that I saw it took forever. Especially on the fore legs there was so much sinew and silver skin between the layers of muscle. Some of the silver skin was thicker the other was more of a film. Do ya'll trim it all or just the thick stuff? The tallow fat is the big globs of fat that clung to the silver skin that pulled right off while the meat was cold? I read that it's what taints the meat with a game taste? Need less to say I ended up with and equal portion in the trim bucket as the keep tote. It was a small doe on the hoof I say she weighted a 110lbs. I got about 20 lbs of burger out of the whole deer. The rest I put into ziplock bags and the dog is loving life now. I chopped this up as a learning experience still have mixed emotions what little meat I got i'm thankful for but I feel I wasted a lot. I had 1 string of silver skin around the knife of the grinder and none on the plates. I'm going to post pics as soon as I figure out how to. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

[mdtreehugger]

I've got a couple things that will probably help you out going forward. I used to also have to chill all my meat in a cooler, now I have a walk in so I dont have to. But the most important thing is to keep the meat dry. This means Ice on bottom, some sort of rack to keep the meat off the ice, and the drain plug pulled with the opposite end elevated slightly. Water and red meat do not mix, I would suspect that is most likely the cause of the discoloration you saw. Air exposure can also cause some discoloration as well. 
Now, as for how much to trim for your burger meat. I remove large chunks of fat and just the really tough pieces of silver skin. The rest goes threw the grinder, once its done you will never know the difference. I will be butchering a deer in the next couple of days and if I remember I will take a picture of my grinder meat. I do spend a bit more time trimming big bucks, but again, I just worry about fat. Silver skin grinds right up and you never even know its there. Learning to butcher can be a very intimidating process, I was lucky enough that my dad had a butcher shop and I started helping him at a young age. Just keep doing it and you will get better, I promise

[carolinawoodsman88]

Thanks MD I put the deer right on the ice then covered with ice. So you wouldn't put ice on top of the meat?

[mdtreehugger]

No, I would not put ice on top. The whole idea is to keep the meat cool and dry. I just to ice on the bottom. I also make sure to check frequently that the meat in the middle of the pile is cold. Water is your enemy, try to avoid as much contact between the meat and water or ice as possible. 
I butchered that deer last night and took a couple pictures.  Those are my steaks, backstrap, and tenderloins from a 50is pound fawn. We prefere more burger so I tend to do more of that. A close up of my trim pile, ready to go in the grinder. I will not do anything else to the meat besides grind. It is already cut up into 2 inch cubes and trimmed as much as I find neccessary.

If you have more questions I am happy to help. I will probably be butchering another deer soon, and can take more pictures if you find that helpful.