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Show V ... v ,i)fnf fhb,X I ' i -VI 't V ' 'M'' ,7 . . . j v '.!' (VVKj THE QUALITY OF deer steak depends on the condition of the deer when it goes to the butcher. The deer should be clean, skinned and free from hair, as these which are ready to be butchered. Proper care insures wholesome venison By Cindy Robertson You are about to bite into a succulent, tender steak. As you bring the first taste to your mouth, your wife tells you she watched the packers process the beef it came from. "It was awful," she shudders. "It was covered with hair, dirt and flies, and contaminated from the way they gutted it. Some of it was spoiled because of not being kept cool enough. But I didn't think you'd mind." Of course, if you know anything at all about how packing houses treat beef and pork, you know that doesn't happen. Meat packers are federally inspected, so they have to meet strict government standards for sanitation and cleanliness. Yet, many of the Basin area's expert meat packers and cutters say the poor treatment described above is exactly what is given some of the game shot by hunters. According to Russell Anderson, a meat cutter at Day's Thriftway, who also does custom-cutting at home, a few hunters think only about getting their deer, and forget to consider what must be done afterwards. Because their game is not handled in a clean and proper manner, Russell sees too much of this meal wasted. Perhaps you feel though, that you don't have to worry about how to take care of your deer, because you will just pass it on to a packing house, and let them do it for you. You may be in for a surprise. The Basin packers have stopped processing wild game due to the passage of a Federal law. There have been cases in the past in some areas of hunters bringing in dirty, uninspected game that contaminated clean, inspected meat, as well as a few incidents of food poisoning. So the government passed the law requiring packers to keep game and inspected meat totally separate from each other. The meat packer must hang each kind of meat in a separate cooler. Before he can process the game, he must put all of the domestic meat away, and wash down and sterilize the whole plant. As Don Anderson of Uintah Packing Co., explained, they would like to do game, but it would mean they would have to buy another cooler, and run a second shift of workers. "It just isn't practical," prac-tical," Anderson said. Roosevelt Meat is the only meat packer in this area that cuts up any game, and they just take it after hours, when the plant has already been cleaned up. Maybe you are thinking you can still slide through with just knowing how to shoot, as long as you take your deer to a ,. private cutter. Not so. Ask one of these small custom cutters such as Arza Adams, and he will tell you that they all require the meat to be brought to them already skinned, gutted and clean., Also, since custom cutters have much smaller facilities than big packing companies, they often have to turn away as many hunters as they accept. So there is a real chance you will have the full responsibility for your catch. Well, if the buck is yours to take care of, at least until you deliver it in a clean condition to the cutter, and most likely until you yourself get in into the, freezer, what can be done to insure that the meat will remain clean and wholesome all the way from the field to the family's table? The experts in the meat business know you want your game to have the same high standard of quality as their inspected meat, so local meat packers and cutters offer the following tips to help. It may seem odd, but the very first step in keeping your meat clean is to learn to shoot! A buck shot in the head or ' neck is much easier to clean properly than one shot in the abdomen. After you make sure your deer is dead the next step is to bleed it, since blood in the meat hastens its spoilage. The interior organs of an animal go bad very quickly, so the animal should be gutted right away, and very carefully, to avoid contamination of the meat. This can be done by cutting 'the skin around the rectum, splitting the carcass open from the pelvin to the center of the chest, and then cleaning out the insides. You will probably want to wait until you get home to continue, so that the hide will protect the meat in transit. Once home, hang the meat from its hind legs, making sure it is out of reach of dogs and pests, and remove the hide, after slitting it up the legs and around the neck, by pulling it off. The next step is also critical in keeping your meat wholesome, that is the chilling. All meat needs to be chilled right away to removed the body heat of the animal, or it will spoil more rapidly. Some cutters will hang it for you if it is clean. If you are hanging it yourself, be careful not to let it hang too long, or get too warm, as that too will make it spoil. One or two days is the minimum, and five to seven days the maximum for deer. Hanging times vary depending on the animal. If the days get too warm, Scott Mathews of Roosevelt Meat suggest taking the carass in during the day, even wrapping it up in something insulated like a sleeping bag is desired, putting it in a shaded cool place, such as a basement, and then hanging it out again at night. Russell Anderson has custom processed deer for the past three years, and says a large share of the fine meat he has had to throw away spoiled from improper hanging. He also strongly recommended recom-mended that whether a hunter is taking his deer to a professional cutter or doing it himself, he should wash it under water and scrub it with a brush, both to remove contamination and to greatly reduce processing time. If you are the one cutting it, split the carcass down the backbone into halves and put the pieces on a clean table, using clean tools. Cut off the front legs, I U h - - . ,. H f ...... 1 1 4,. -f - , V ' pi I. . jv -"'stzx m,..(;1 t -v . -j- I c- s . : ;V . , J A THREE-POINT buck was taken by John Johnson, center hC Ogden, Saturday during the opener. Also in the picture is George Puckett, Springville, right. then the shoulders, remove the hind legs at the aitch bone (the bond that connects the legs), cut the ribs off two to four inches from the loin, and divide or debone the rest into steaks, roasts, or whatever your family likes. The important im-portant Dart is not how you divide it, but that you use the same clean standards you would if it were beef. Processing your own meat, as long as you keep it clean and wholesome, can be very rewarding. For more information, in-formation, you can obtain the free, 32 page booklet, "Venison Field Care and Cooking" from the regional office of the Division of Wildlife Resources. Books on the subject, such as "Getting the Most from your Fish and Game" by Robert Candy can be found at the library, and "The Venison Book" by Stephen Green, at the bookstore. For Bum .) MB the serious home processor $ti Reynolds of Superior Meat n recommends the book "The Meals' Eat" by Romans and Ziegler M can be ordered through the bookstotlt as one of the best for learning ho? yfl process any kind of meat. fv "Whether a hunter uses someone I us to prepare his game or chooses to i it himself," said Russell Anderson, J he readied his shop for the deer I would soon be coming in, "it js LX responsibility to keep it ' clean wholesome. 1 The quality of his mi will be directly affected by how Ji cares for it." So the next time you raise a bi ! broiled-to-perfection deer steak toy i mouth, no one will be able to scare' I with tales of its unclean preparatj you know it is fine quality rai Ji! because it was taken care of. i |