Processing & Cooking Deer
Processing
Processing is the term used for breaking down the deer into different cuts of meat and packaging it. When it comes to processing your deer, you have two options: you can take it to a processor, or you can process the animal yourself.
If you’d like to find a processor near you, check out the National Deer Association’s Venison Processor Map. This map does not contain every processor, but it can be a good starting point! If you are a processor but don’t see your business listed, submit your information, and the NDA team will update the map.
Interested in processing your own deer?
Check out our deer processing playlist on YouTube, where we asked a professional some questions we frequently encounter about deer processing.
About Deer Meat (Venison)
Deer meat, also known as venison, is a fairly lean meat, especially when compared to beef: a 3-oz portion of venison has 159 calories, 7 g of fat, and 22.5 g of protein, while 3 oz of beef has 215 calories, 17 g of fat, and 14.5 g of protein. The lower fat content means venison can dry out more quickly than beef, so we recommend using a marinade and cutting the meat into larger pieces to make it as tasty as possible.
Eating locally harvested venison is also a great way to reduce your carbon footprint while procuring free-range, sustainably raised, and ethically harvested meat yourself.
Recommended Reading
- Why Conscientious Eaters Take To Hunting as Locavores by Terri Williams
- Ethical Hunting: The Ultimate Organic Food Source by Terri Williams
Recipes
Venison can generally be used in any recipe you’d use beef. Several of our team members grew up eating (and still eat!) ground venison in place of beef in pasta sauces, as tenderloins, and as pot roasts. Outdoor Life has a comparison of beef and venison on its website.
Not sure if you or your family will like venison, and worried about harvesting a deer before you know for sure? Congratulations on being an ethical hunter and thinking about these things in advance! Many grocery stores carry farmed venison from New Zealand in their ground meat sections, which can be a great way to try before you hunt — and it’s often cheaper than ground beef, too!
Venison Recipe Playlist
Check out Hunting and Fishing for Locavores’ series on venison, which includes over 20 tasty recipes!
We also recommend the following for venison (and other game meat) recipes:
- Hunter Angler Gardener Cook by Hank Shaw
- Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things by Hank Shaw
- Wild Harvest Table by Cornell Cooperative Extension
- Wild Game Gourmet by Larry White
- Gut It. Cut It. Cook It.: The Deer Hunter’s Guide to Processing & Preparing Venison by Al Cambronne and Erich Fromm
- The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1: Big Game by Steve Rinella
- From Field to Fork: Venison by the National Deer Association
- Illinois Learn to Hunt Cookbook
Whenever possible, we recommend choosing the “spiral-bound” option for cookbooks — it makes them much easier to lie flat and stay open when you’re processing the animal or following a recipe.
Gifting/Donating Venison
IDNR has several recommendations for hunters wishing to gift or donate venison to another individual or organization.