To bone.....or not.

[captn-tin]

Just bone it out!

[high standard 40]

In regards to processing deer, bones never go into my freezer.

[Tatume]

I believe boneless meat that has been vacuum bagged keeps better. Also, it takes up less freezer volume.

[MrWolf]

Boneless. I think they last much longer that way. No science to back it.

[redriverhunter]

I bone out every thing but the shoulders and the neck.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I bone out most of our meat. Shrinks it down and keeps the bones from punching holes in the vacuum bags. I do bag the bones in ziplocks and freeze them. We then make broth for soup/stew/beans in a pressure cooker. We have a few friends and family that do as well, so we give them some. They take up a lot of space in the freezer and don’t keep long before they freezer burn, so we binge soup a bit in the fall when the meat is coming in. Not a bad thing.

[GhostHawk]

Deboned = less freezer space, longer freezer life, and the meat tastes better.

Bones have their place, mom used to take a whole neck from a deer, boil it until the meat starts falling off the bone. Season it, dump in a pan full of her homemade egg noodles. We called it goulash as we did not have a better word for it. The noodles would soak up a lot of the water. Essentially making its own gravy as part of the cooking process. Rich flavorfull venison and egg noodles left a little thick and not overcooked. They had some chew to them. Meal fit for a king.

Everything else got deboned, a lot of it out at the farm unless it was dang cold in the shop.

[Mr Peabody]

In some of our hunting units you have to pretty much bone it out to leave the unit with it. Chronic Wasting Disease has struck.

[archeryrob]

Same, I call it Indian butchering. Modern butchering only leaves bones in because they use band saws to make the job easier. Hang in the garage and bone out into meat lugs to the basement fridge and foot ball roasts become steaks and other rounds canning or jerky. Shoulders and shanks ground. Neck ground, once in a while I save side neck steaks to be marinated and tied as a roast, but normally grind it. People doing tomahawks with deer now and that's a waste of time, IMO. Back strap with a handle?

Now, I have left bone in on a front shoulder and gave it to my M-i-L for Christmas dinner. I cut the shank area off and she covered it in spices and put it in a baking bag and it just fell apart.

[reloader28]

Only thing I leave the bone in is once in a while the shank for osso bucco tho it fits in a crock pot and vac bags better without the bone.

[Meatball357]

In some of our hunting units you have to pretty much bone it out to leave the unit with it. Chronic Wasting Disease has struck.

This is true.

And bringing loads out from several miles deep can make it necessary to leave bones behind.

On the flipside, I feel I caused an elk's meat to take on a very tough texture because I left the deboned quarters in the pickup box overnight. Froze to single digits. I've read where freezing before rigor mortis has a chance to break down the muscle can cause tough meat.

[Winger Ed.]

I always bone out wild game.

I've had deer that was processed like a cow with the bones in, and those little brown glands
or something that sort of look like a pinto bean. The meat kind of stinks when ya cook it.
I call it the 'wild animal smell'.