How to Place Your Venison Processing Order
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This page is to help you maximize the yield of usable meat from your deer. By ordering thoughtfully, you'll get your deer processed into the products your family uses. You've invested money, time and energy to take this animal. Now before you waste any of those valuable commodities, let's be sure you're ordering what best for you. Nothing is worse than starting off deer season with a freezer full of venison that didn't get used. Let's get started!
YIELD - How much meat will I get back?
When we talk about yield, we are assuming that you're bringing in a whole animal that we skin. We accept clean iced pieces and already skinned deer but the best yield is from a fresh (2-4 hr from kill) skinned and cleaned at Cordray's.
YIELD - How much meat will I get back?
When we talk about yield, we are assuming that you're bringing in a whole animal that we skin. We accept clean iced pieces and already skinned deer but the best yield is from a fresh (2-4 hr from kill) skinned and cleaned at Cordray's.
The weight of the carcass is the hanging weight with no head, feet, guts or skin. That's the weight you're charged on for Processing. The meat weight column is our estimate of how much boneless meat that animal will yield at Cordray's. Your final actual weight may be more since some products get weight added like the fat added to burger. It may be less if you had an errant shot - say shot through the hams. But since you get YOUR meat back at Cordray's we can tell you what to expect.
This picture shows whole loins & tenderloins with the rest of the meat from the hams and shoulders awaiting cubing. The remainder of the meat will be ground into what's ordered.
CUTS
Start at the neck of the animal and move down to order cuts.
Neck roasts - Our old timers always get the neck roast and cook it down for stews.
What can I do with SHOULDERS?
Roasts - The shoulders of a deer yield a smaller flat roast with the flat shoulder bone intact.
Cube steak (Meat pieces run through a tenderizer. Think country fried steak.) - Deer shoulders only yield a piece or two of cube steak since the meat is thin across the bone. If you're having other cube steak made, we can add in the cubed shoulders.
Grind it. - Most people let this few lbs of meat go into the ground meat
What can I do with LOINS? Loins are the meat on either side of the spine. Often called the backstrap or "tenderloin."
Tenderloins are the small pieces of meat inside the body cavity. We automatically cut tenderloins with any order for cuts.
Whole loins - This most requested cut allows you to cook whole or slice yourself later. Google "Venison Recipes" and they're all for whole loins.
Steaks - Slice them into medallions or butterfly them so they're twice as big. Regular cut is about 1 inch thick.
Cube steak - We can run this cut through the tenderizer to make cubed steak.
Grind it. - Like all cuts it can be added to the ground meat to make burger, sausage or cooked items.
What can I do with HAMS?
Applewood Smoked Hams - We can fully cook your venison ham and send you home with an applewood cooked smoked ham. You get your ham back and you pay per ham so we always suggest to do this with a bigger animal. Big bucks work great. The cooking process makes them tender and juicy just like a doe ham.
Roasts - The hams of the deer contain the most meat. Hams can be cut and packaged:
Sliced - Venison is a dry meat so sliced hams need to be carefully cooked to turn out well. Regular cut is 1 inch thick.
Common orders:
"Cube as much as possible." That mean we're to take any large pieces from the loins, shoulders and hams and run them through the cuber. Packs are usually 6 pieces per pack. Cube AMAP yields about 10% the live weight of the deer.
"Loin roasts and cube steak." This means we're to package the loins, then make cube steak out of any other cuts. Every year folks ask for us to make cube steak from the whole deer or cube all the rest. That's impossible. To make cube steak you need a fairly large piece of meat. There's only so much of that available in a carcass. Once we've made all the cube steak possible, you'll still have some trimmings to make into burger, sausage or smoked products. Every carcass has some ground meat.
Start at the neck of the animal and move down to order cuts.
Neck roasts - Our old timers always get the neck roast and cook it down for stews.
What can I do with SHOULDERS?
Roasts - The shoulders of a deer yield a smaller flat roast with the flat shoulder bone intact.
Cube steak (Meat pieces run through a tenderizer. Think country fried steak.) - Deer shoulders only yield a piece or two of cube steak since the meat is thin across the bone. If you're having other cube steak made, we can add in the cubed shoulders.
Grind it. - Most people let this few lbs of meat go into the ground meat
What can I do with LOINS? Loins are the meat on either side of the spine. Often called the backstrap or "tenderloin."
Tenderloins are the small pieces of meat inside the body cavity. We automatically cut tenderloins with any order for cuts.
Whole loins - This most requested cut allows you to cook whole or slice yourself later. Google "Venison Recipes" and they're all for whole loins.
Steaks - Slice them into medallions or butterfly them so they're twice as big. Regular cut is about 1 inch thick.
Cube steak - We can run this cut through the tenderizer to make cubed steak.
Grind it. - Like all cuts it can be added to the ground meat to make burger, sausage or cooked items.
What can I do with HAMS?
Applewood Smoked Hams - We can fully cook your venison ham and send you home with an applewood cooked smoked ham. You get your ham back and you pay per ham so we always suggest to do this with a bigger animal. Big bucks work great. The cooking process makes them tender and juicy just like a doe ham.
Roasts - The hams of the deer contain the most meat. Hams can be cut and packaged:
- whole with the bone in
- halved with the bone in
- whole boneless
- halved boneless
Sliced - Venison is a dry meat so sliced hams need to be carefully cooked to turn out well. Regular cut is 1 inch thick.
Common orders:
"Cube as much as possible." That mean we're to take any large pieces from the loins, shoulders and hams and run them through the cuber. Packs are usually 6 pieces per pack. Cube AMAP yields about 10% the live weight of the deer.
"Loin roasts and cube steak." This means we're to package the loins, then make cube steak out of any other cuts. Every year folks ask for us to make cube steak from the whole deer or cube all the rest. That's impossible. To make cube steak you need a fairly large piece of meat. There's only so much of that available in a carcass. Once we've made all the cube steak possible, you'll still have some trimmings to make into burger, sausage or smoked products. Every carcass has some ground meat.
Mr. Bishop ordered jalapenos added to his burger. We use only fresh jalapenos in our recipes.
GRIND - Click here for all your ground choices.
After ordering what cuts you need, you'll need to decide how to divide your the rest of your meat. We call it trimmings. We take the meat that is trimmed from the roasts and steaks you order along with the small pieces from the ribs and shanks and grind them. There are lots of choices that can be made with ground venison! Remember that we need to use all your meat.
SAUSAGE: We make fresh sausage in lots of different flavors. You can order your sausage made into breakfast pinky links (about 1/2 inch diameter), large links (about 1 inch diameter), patties, or bulk (1.3 lb. chubs).
You must order a minimum of 10 lbs. of each item you choose. For instance, if you choose maple pinky links and hot patties, you'll need to order at least 10 lbs. of maple pinky links and 10 lbs. of hot patties. We make all of your fresh ground items from your meat so we have to have at least 10 lbs. to run through these big grinders.
BURGER: Burger is ground venison with beef fat added. You can order it specially made with no fat added but standard burger has 15% beef fat added to make the drier venison meat tastier. Unless you order something special you'll get 15% burger. See the menu for all the burger mix possibilities.
Burger patties - Premade patties in plain, jalapeno, bacon, and onion flavors are a big seller. We choose the fat content on these. Different mixes of burger also require the 10 lb. minimum.
SMOKED ITEMS - Up until this point everything we've made has come from your deer. For cooked items we batch the deer together in order to be able to cook large recipes. We cook 300 lbs. of meat to make snack sticks. It's what allows us to be able to offer so many specialty items. So if you order 5 lbs. of snack sticks we pull 5 lbs from your trimmings and add it to the cooking batch. When you come for pick up your bill will show us to get you 5 lbs of snack sticks from the freezer.
To place your order for smoked items, keep in mind the yield chart. We'll help you decide if you can get 6 of this and 4 of that. You can order specific numbers of items or decide which smoked items go into the split of "the rest."
THE REST - Every order must designate something for "the rest." We're pulling meat from your deer to fill your order. You and I are placing this order often without seeing the deer. So the amount of "the rest" is variable. We always fill cut requests first, then smoked items, and end with the sausage and burger. If you order too much you might be out of meat before you get everything you list. If you don't order enough your "rest" might be more than you expect.
"The rest " is often a math puzzle. Folks order the cuts. Then they decide to do 1/2 the rest in hot dogs and 1/2 in burger. Or maybe 1/4 in hot link sausage, 1/4 in maple patties and 1/2 cheese summer sausage. However it works out we use every lb. of your meat!
Yield Examples for 100 lb. deer:
"Slice the loins, cube the hams. Link hot sausage the rest. Add 12 lbs. hot dogs and 3 of bologna."
You'll get:
4 packs of sliced loins
5 lbs. of cubed steak - 6 pcs. per pack
12 packs of hot dogs
3 packs of bologna
15 lbs. of hot link sausage
"Cube as much as possible and Cheddarwurst the rest."
You'll get:
10 lbs. of cubed steak
30 packs of Cheddarwurst
After ordering what cuts you need, you'll need to decide how to divide your the rest of your meat. We call it trimmings. We take the meat that is trimmed from the roasts and steaks you order along with the small pieces from the ribs and shanks and grind them. There are lots of choices that can be made with ground venison! Remember that we need to use all your meat.
SAUSAGE: We make fresh sausage in lots of different flavors. You can order your sausage made into breakfast pinky links (about 1/2 inch diameter), large links (about 1 inch diameter), patties, or bulk (1.3 lb. chubs).
You must order a minimum of 10 lbs. of each item you choose. For instance, if you choose maple pinky links and hot patties, you'll need to order at least 10 lbs. of maple pinky links and 10 lbs. of hot patties. We make all of your fresh ground items from your meat so we have to have at least 10 lbs. to run through these big grinders.
BURGER: Burger is ground venison with beef fat added. You can order it specially made with no fat added but standard burger has 15% beef fat added to make the drier venison meat tastier. Unless you order something special you'll get 15% burger. See the menu for all the burger mix possibilities.
Burger patties - Premade patties in plain, jalapeno, bacon, and onion flavors are a big seller. We choose the fat content on these. Different mixes of burger also require the 10 lb. minimum.
SMOKED ITEMS - Up until this point everything we've made has come from your deer. For cooked items we batch the deer together in order to be able to cook large recipes. We cook 300 lbs. of meat to make snack sticks. It's what allows us to be able to offer so many specialty items. So if you order 5 lbs. of snack sticks we pull 5 lbs from your trimmings and add it to the cooking batch. When you come for pick up your bill will show us to get you 5 lbs of snack sticks from the freezer.
To place your order for smoked items, keep in mind the yield chart. We'll help you decide if you can get 6 of this and 4 of that. You can order specific numbers of items or decide which smoked items go into the split of "the rest."
THE REST - Every order must designate something for "the rest." We're pulling meat from your deer to fill your order. You and I are placing this order often without seeing the deer. So the amount of "the rest" is variable. We always fill cut requests first, then smoked items, and end with the sausage and burger. If you order too much you might be out of meat before you get everything you list. If you don't order enough your "rest" might be more than you expect.
"The rest " is often a math puzzle. Folks order the cuts. Then they decide to do 1/2 the rest in hot dogs and 1/2 in burger. Or maybe 1/4 in hot link sausage, 1/4 in maple patties and 1/2 cheese summer sausage. However it works out we use every lb. of your meat!
Yield Examples for 100 lb. deer:
"Slice the loins, cube the hams. Link hot sausage the rest. Add 12 lbs. hot dogs and 3 of bologna."
You'll get:
4 packs of sliced loins
5 lbs. of cubed steak - 6 pcs. per pack
12 packs of hot dogs
3 packs of bologna
15 lbs. of hot link sausage
"Cube as much as possible and Cheddarwurst the rest."
You'll get:
10 lbs. of cubed steak
30 packs of Cheddarwurst
