'Tis the season for wild game processing

Pickup trucks have drivers and passengers wearing fashionable fall orange and it’s only going to increase over the next few weeks.

Many big game hunters wait until the last weekend over Thanksgiving before they get serious, yet numerous hunters are working hard already as they have family members with tags and hope to fill the freezer as soon as possible. The ‘rut’ for muleys and whitetails will start next month, and if we have snow, it can be the greatest time of the year for an awful lot of Montanan’s. The elk come down lower and every ungulate that is harvestable is much easier to see against the white-stuff, and tracking becomes a special thrill in its own.

It’s often said that once the trigger is pulled, the real work begins. Every hunter understands and accepts this condition as it’s a part of the experience of getting it back to the rig. After that, there are two different directions to choose from: take it home or to a friend’s place for butchering, or take it to a wild game processing plant who will call you when it’s all cut and wrapped ready for pickup.

Cutting and packaging the game yourself is much less expensive and there are lots of people who make a weekend of it taking care of everyone’s animals turning the labor into a social event. Much like neighbors helping neighbors raise a barn 100 years ago.

If you are new to butchering it by yourself, it can be daunting, but the professionals will tell you that it shouldn’t be. All of that fresh game meat is just that. It’s just meat and there’s no reason to be intimidated by it. You go to the store and buy beef, pork, etc., all the time. That deer or elk is no different in terms of cuts. Size will vary but the only difference is that you are saving money by processing the meat yourself.

Many folks overcomplicate meat processing — as if they’re going to do it wrong. Sure, there are different, maybe even better ways of cutting meat but in the end it’s meat. You learn as you go with each year becoming easier and it’ll taste the same no matter how sloppy your cutting is. You’ll hack your way through it and come up with their own process for how you personally like to cut up game meat.

Breaking down a hindquarter is pretty simple. Once separated from the bone, a person can almost separate the muscle groups apart by hand. This is roast-paradise due to the size of muscles. The top and bottom rounds are often saved for roasts, but you can also slice some great steaks from these cuts as they don’t have much silver skin on the inside of them. Try to remember to always cut against the grain when cutting steaks. If you cut with the grain, you’ll end up in a tussle trying to bite into that steak.

Depending on the size of the animal many will use the front quarters entirely for grinding, but chops, steaks and smaller roasts are hidden in there. Tenderloins and backstraps are sacred and you’ll be surprised at how much meat the neck has. Many a hunter takes the entire critter and cuts away anything that doesn’t look edible and makes burger from it which is the most versatile cut you can have.

The "grind pile" can go to burger or the yummy ‘fun-food’s everyone enjoys. But here is where you need to get some professional help if your buddies don’t have the equipment required for this phase.

Last year during the pandemic, Superior Meats was only accepting boned out meat ready for grinding. This year, even with their expansion, that are not able to take any wild game and the reason is both good and bad.

Their recent building expansion brought new commercial contracts and they are overwhelmed with the amount of processing they have in front of them with absolutely no room to store wild game, let alone cut it up into steaks, chops and roasts. To take a commercial processing area and switch to butchering wild game, a huge time-consuming cleansing must take place. Then, to go back to a commercial processing plant the cleaning process repeats.

The crew is very apologetic as they know how important their service is to their prior customers from each fall, but at this point, they just cannot be of service.

So, it’s good news that owner Jerry Stroot is putting more people to work, and bad news for hunters who need help with administering table fare preparation of their hunt. JoAnn Frey at Clark Fork Custom Meats in Plains reports they are busy, but they can be of help.

“If it’s boned out and clean, we can take it for grinding into burger and making specialty items,” Frey said.

And for those who have a palate that isn’t friendly with wild game, these are the "fun foods" that everyone enjoys. Jerky, salami, teriyaki sticks, hotdogs, sausages, thuringer, etc.

Lolo Locker south of Missoula said the same thing, but their storage space is getting full.

For the hunters who would rather only field dress their elk, deer and antelope and drive it directly to a butcher’s shop for skinning, and processing, H & H Meats in Missoula has always been available for big game hunters and the reason is because this time of year, they do not perform any commercial processing. They are open for big game hunters who want to drop off the entire carcass or take it in boned out with instructions for what they would like it made into. But all processing plants strongly suggested you call them before stopping by.