Anderson: Butcher your own deer? He'll show you how

Kerry Swendsen is evangelistic in his message to deer hunters: You can butcher your own deer.

And save money in the process.

And be assured the venison you and your family eat came from the deer you shot.

Swendsen, who has decades of meat-cutting experience, eight years ago started a company called Deer Dummy (website: deerdummy.com), with the intent of teaching hunters how to properly field-dress and butcher downed deer.

"We started out with classes taught at schools through continuing education,'' Swendsen said. "We held our first class at Monticello High School in July 2006. Nine people showed up.''

Since then, the word has spread about Swendsen's educational efforts, and routinely his classes fill to capacity. Also, each year he holds seminars at Game Fair in Ramsey.

"Some people come to the class because they're tired of paying someone to butcher their deer,'' Swendsen said. "Others come because they want to have more control over their meat.

"I remember one woman came with her husband, who had been butchering his own deer but doing it incorrectly, and at the end of the class the woman said, 'Now we can finally have dinners featuring something other than my husband's mystery cuts of venison.' "

Because not everyone can get to a Deer Dummy class, which now are held each year only in October (check the Deer Dummy website late next summer for a schedule), Swendsen has produced a $9.99 DVD showing the process, step by step.

Additionally, Swendsen now sells a flexible roll-up deer-cutting mat made from the same bacteria-inhibiting material used in restaurants and butcher shops.

The advantage of Swendsen's cutting mat is that it has step-by-step deer-butchering instructions printed on it (actually in it), with photographs of different cuts of meat, so that an amateur can be led through the process almost mistake-free.

Additionally, because the mat is made from high-density polyethylene, it doesn't dull knives — like a hard cutting board will.

Measuring 27x40 inches, the mat has plenty of room to lay down an inside round, bottom round or knuckle of a leg before cutting.

Butchering 101: the basics

Before a deer carcass can be butchered, it has to be field-dressed. Again, there are right ways, wrong ways and OK-but-not-very-good ways to accomplish the task.

Don't know how to field-dress a deer, or would like to know more? Swendsen has an app for that, for Android-powered smartphones or iPhones and iPads. (Again, see the website.)

Swendsen advises that once a deer has been returned to a hunter's home, it should be hung by its rear legs for skinning, after which it should be cleaned thoroughly.

"When you bring a piece of meat to the cutting board, you want it as clean as possible,'' Swendsen said. "No dirt. No blood. No hair.''

Accomplish this by washing the carcass (again, while it is hanging upside down, with its skin and head removed) with water, using a towel as necessary to rub the carcass clean.

"You'll probably still have a little hair on it, so get yourself a copper scrubber and a bucket of water and scrape the carcass until all the hair is off,'' Swendsen said. "You might get a little fat and sinew in the scrubber as well, and that's fine. Just wash off the scrubber in the bucket of water.''

When butchering, Swendsen said, start with a sharp knife, and keep it sharp through the last cut of meat.

"More people get cut using a dull knife than a sharp knife,'' Swendsen said. "With a dull knife, you have to apply a lot more pressure, and that's how you get hurt.'' (Special butchering knives are sold through the Deer Dummy website.)

Cook the right cuts the right way

Butchering a deer involves more than cutting an animal properly, and wrapping the cuts.

Knowing how to prepare various cuts for various methods of cooking is also critical.

"One example is knowing that while butchering you might want to freeze a knuckle whole, and cut it up in a month or two, after you've decided whether to cut steaks from it or roasts,'' Swendsen said.

Another example: The inside round could be cut now, just after the season, to make jerky. Or cutting it could wait a month or two, thus ensuring the jerky will be fresher when prepared and eaten.

No, Swendsen doesn't have an app for that.

Just a DVD. And, now, a flexible deer-butchering instructional mat.

Dennis Anderson danderson@startribune.com