After butchering caribou and musk-ox in the field for 22 of my 29-year life it is interesting to see a butcher do their work for the first time. As a hunter from the north we take just about everything home but the lungs and intestines. Cool video guys!
Thank you for sharing this video. I appreciate that these folks need to make a living, and they are very efficient, but this video illustrates why I do this process myself. You said it best when you said "there is no right or wrong way to do it, it's whatever you like and what you want". It takes me a long time to process my elk but I get everything I like and I have very little waste. I even save the bones for bone broth and the scraps go to the dog. Seeing all the waste especially on the tenderloin was a little disturbing.
I understand your sentiment. I guess this is the price you pay if you dont want to do it yourself but you want it fast and they got a business to run. Its also comforting for new hunters like me to know there is a service like this available if im not confident to do it myself yet.
Thanks guys! There are 300 videos out there on how to field strip an elk, but hardly any of them tell you how to cut/wrap. Love the content and ESPECIALLY love having it to view now during quarantine. gracias amigos
It's a pleasure to watch these guys work. I'm a bone-out guy and a merciless trimmer. Nice to see a processor doing the same. Too many, in my experience, are bandsaw-jockeys that would rather slab an animal up than trim them up properly.
Outstanding video 👍, I worked with a classmate , friend , meat cutter for over 45 years ! Mr. Bill wild game processing ! I learned so much , I did enjoy the process ! Memories , special friends , co workers ! Thank you for sharing what was done ! Bob
This was by far one of the most helpful and informative videos for what we need to know about butchering an elk. Thank you Randy and the whole Fresh Tracks team for all that you do!
At 86 ,Randy I would have to say that this is the best documented video of cutting up an elk .. This is for all four legged critters.. I saved this into my notes for the future . Thank you for sharing and the pro butcher at Yellowstone.👍
This easily is one of my favorite informational videos. I will definitely refer to it in the future to see their way of separating the Sirloin varieties! Thanks Guys
Excellent video Randy! I love to do my own processing at home!! However, this is a very informative look into the correct/professional side of butchering!
Pros always have a time is money factor. If you do it yourself, you can be fussy and spend extra hours to get extra pounds, that they just couldn't justify. I understand the tradeoffs...sometimes you are hunting far away from home and have to get the meat ready to go home and don't have all the tools on hand or a freezer.
Randy, if you ever need a hand doing this in the field, let me know. I went to school years ago for meat cutting. It provided a much needed tool in my tool bag to help me be a better sportsman and avid hunter. Being a farm kid from NW Wisconsin, it brought me through the whole circle of life to be able to being able to see these animals eat with cattle side by side in the pasture and get to hunt them in november. You have a good processor there, very knowledgeable and a good clean business. God bless in all you do.
Got my first elk yesterday. My dad and I quartered her in the field, and I wasn’t sure how to prep the meat for storage now that I’m home. This video gave me a little confidence to try butchering myself. Just gonna use a sharp knife and go slowly!
Congrats man! That’s so incredible. I couldn’t imagine how awesome it would be to have an elk to cut up. So much meat my family could eat for a year lol.
Great video...well done! After years (36) of butchering my own elk into steaks, roasts, burger, and breakfast sausage, the wife asked me this last season: Could I grind all but the back straps and tenderloin into burger and breakfast sausage? Got to thinking that as the backstraps, tenderloins, burger and breakfast sausage are what we enjoyed the most, why not? So I did it and have no regrets in doing so. I've always been particular about my ground elk...no fat, silverskin, or tendons! I then mix it with 1 part ground beef (70% lean) to 4 parts ground elk to make burger. For the breakfast sausage, I do a 50/50 mix of ground elk and ground Boston butt (along with my combination of spices). I did a lot of grinding last fall, but it was worth it - lots of great burgers and breakfast sausage!
I usually freeze hole muscle with in big 5 lbs bags . Lasts longer in the freezer than grinding right away. Take out what you need and then grid to make batches of sausages , stews , what ever I want . I had game like moose taste like i just shot it up to 3 years later , never had to throw any away. ground mixed with pork goes rancid in the freezer in as little as 6 months.
About half way through and I think this is a great video and very informative. I liked the picture of the different cut section of the Elk posted periodically as the Butcher made his cut. I really want to hunt big game but need to feel comfortable field dressing first. Of course I am going to try to pair up with someone experience first but I don't want to spend an arm and a leg. Anyway thanks for sharing the video. From Toronto, Canada.
Great video! A fantastic channel that I learned a lot from is the Scott Rea Project. He is showing such a huge variety of how to butcher fame animals, it never gets boring. There's so many tasty ways to cut up a carcass!
Best explanation of the different names of the cuts and cool to consider what the best steak cuts are based on tenderness. The round and sirloin are pretty tough on game like elk and I would suggest roasts on those. The front should has a lot to offer beyond burger that would be cool to go over. Some amazing roasts and steaks in the shoulders too.
really good video randy...TY. And to the meat processor, thanks to him as well for letting us see behind the scenes on his processes. Ive been doing my own deer for years....hopefully one of these years soon, I get to cut up some elk meat and have some bigger steaks to work with!
Great video. Very nice of them to let you film this. I saw them throw the flat iron steak in the burger pile and cringed. Second most tender steak will make a good burger I suppose.
Great video randy very helpful and interesting to watch more educational videos like this helps us small family's doing our own thank you and keep bringing them 😀💗
I don't know if it's the feeling of providing and accomplishment, or the fact that it's food, but man, do I love the sound and smell of butchering an animal I harvested.
This was great Randy. What would be cool is to see what they do with an animal that is dirty/hairy and had not been taken very good care of. I saw their blowtorch there, so, I’m guessing that they burn the hair off, which is what we do as well. Super interesting. Thanks for sharing.
P.S artist at work but the customer may be the butcher of the beautiful animal and I will still rewatch this video with a small bourbon. Thank you again.
I like to use the neck meat for cube steak. And some of the smaller muscles out of the rear quarters. Breaded and pan fried cube steaks are the way to go for people that say I dont like wild game.
When you take an animal in for processing, if you arent quite sure what you want done with it is it common for the butcher/processor to walk you through whats possible, or do they prefer you to know at the outset what you want done?
First off great video as always , I mite be crazy but man , just seems like they waste a ton of good edible meat and scrap that could be used for burger. Any who , love the video and Randy you are the man. !!
My thoughts exaclty. A 'Commercial' butcher is going to go as fast as they can to maximize the $/hr of labor. There was a good amount of meat being wasted by their 'trimming'. This is why I do all my butchering.
Correct way to calculate fat is a ratio not to calculate the percentage of the meat weight…. The percentage of fat in the finished product is from the total weight …. So for this example he would need 11.6lb of suet to have a finished product with a fat content of 15% of the entire batch of ground meat …… not really a huge deal but for larger quantities or when trying to to make sausage products it’s help narrow down your desired level of fat….. love the video guys definitely know what he’s doing !!!
OMG I had to get some Elk ribs out for tomorrow. We got my Elk out in one piece and cut up muh like this. Great video, thanks for sharing on the crew doing fantastic work on processing an animal.
Great video! Process your own game to save money and meat. Way too many horror stories of people disappointed with their game meat after getting it back from the processor.
Im Glad i clean and process my own, They were throwing away some meat that i would have kept. I am one of those people that will trim until there is nothing left to trim, but i can take all the time i need they have to be fast. Also unless you are going to mount it i will head shoot deer because there is a lot of meat on the neck. Just MAKE sure you can get a good shot.
Awesome video I thank you. When I had the ability to afford to hunt for Elk I had to realize that I was incapable of doing so. I beg you to go into debt to do the hunt while you can. I thank you for your videos and I hope others will take this advice as you only have so many chances in your life. I again thank you for your videos. I think I will watch again with a small bourbon and wish to get a second chance at life.
Is there a way to prevent all that clotting/bad stuff from happening to the meat, or does it always happen because due to the size it takes a long time to get the animal in for processing?
Nice, i was wondering what meats were the steaks. Now ill have to make a bunch of steaks too like this next time i get a kill. Preferably a bull moose, elk is good too . Deer is kinda small but good. Im making elk jerky right now from all my sirloin and both rounds.
They explained why they do it. Its for sanitation purposes. Most of that meat will be scrap meat and used for things like dog food so its not being wasted. There is also fat, silverskin, and other trimmed meat that just isn't good to eat alone so its used for sausage meat.
Commercial cutting is a bitter/sweet view for me. I love the "edjumication" factor, but I cry seeing so much usable red goodness going into the trash bin. If it's red goodness, it goes into the grinder/snausage pile. But, these guys are in it to make a profit, I understand.
I am seeing this exactly as you do. My father taught me to throw almost nothing in the trash. But then I am not trying to make a living and I don't care how long it takes to process my deers.