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Phish Phart

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I recently had a buck processed by T & D in Swartswood and he seemed to have done a nice job. However, the areas that he processes the meat are not clean and I question his efforts to rid his workplace of bacteria after a days work of butchering deer. Will I go back to him? No way! Is there a butcher anywhere that keeps his processing area totally clean and doesn't work out of his garage like T&D? I would gladly pay more to a butcher who is more professional. Because of what I experienced at T&D, I am considering buying my own meat grinder and learning how to butch my own deer. Has anyone ever had any problems with e-coli or any other nasty bacteria? You can bet I will cook all this meat well done........
 
I have never been to T&D but I have been eating garage deer for years without incident. Most processors are not posh environments.

You can't compare these hard-working guys to the butcher at ShopRite, a more fair comparison would be to compare them to the slaughter house where Shop Rite gets their meat.

I have seen plenty of slaughter & fish houses and I can assure you the processors I have seen in NJ DO look(and smell) rather posh in comparison.

As long as they bleach and hose down after you have nothing to worry about.
 
Some butchers are more diligent than others.

Either way, they are all inspected by their local health departments for regulatory compliance. If there are complaints, then the health department will investigate it, otherwise I believe the inspection is only annual.
 
If you really value the harvest - do it yourself.

Pennsylvania F&G promotes a great DVD series for butchering and cooking venison. Milos Cihalka (sp.?) field dresses, skins and butchers in this how-to series. He goes through every muscle of meat on the whole deer shows you how to bone out and separate every cut. He even tells you which cuts are tender and tough and what each is good for. Cant beat it. (Venison Healthy and Tasty I think it's called)
 
there not inspected by the health department, i saw a post on hear from killers in mddletown area that they werenot inspected
They should be, but I wouldn't doubt that many aren't.

My dad used to work for the health department until he retired about 10 years ago and said butchers (registered business) are inspected by either the county, state, and/or federal. Depending on their history, they may be inspected more than once a year.

Maybe something's changed over the last 10 years? [confused]
 
I think true hunters should just butcher their own harvest. I've butchered deer early season with load of maggots, unfortunatly, and the meat still tasted great and I never got sick. I can't imagion that these butchers have facilities with maggots crawing around.
 
I think true hunters should just butcher their own harvest.
I don't think it's fair to call urban hunters "untrue".

The reality is, I'd love to butcher my own deer but living in a condo it's just not an option.

Out of state I've butchered and helped butcher deer, and think it's a great experience and you truly get what you killed (as much as you are willing to cut out/off/up). [up]
 
[confused][confused][confused][confused]hmmmmmm
 
If your just packing off venison without any beef or pork added your not gonna get much. Most of these deer are real skinny this year and you probably yield 25-30% boneless prime by weight. Basically 70-75% is scrap. A registered commercial butcher gets an annual inspection but garage shops do not
 
Processing deer does not fall into the same same category as beef butchers , there fore are not inspected. However a beef butcher will be inspected and cannot have deer in the same area as the other meats. I'm sure Killer will be best to comment on this. I only know what I have read. I'd get a different butcher. I butcher all my deer myself. I hang and qtr it in the garage or shed and cut it up in my kitchen, before the wife gets home from work. I remove everything form the counters, butcher and grind. Then clean it all and replace everything. You would never no what happened. Except for the cast iron pan on the stove.[tasty]
 
99% sure the garage butchers only get inspected initially, then it's on a complaint only basis.

If the butcher adds ANY meat to what he/she is butchering they have to apply for a different license which causes more regular inspections.
 
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