Cross-cut or Separated Muscle Groups?

[raredesign]

I have wondered what the majority of hunters do. Personally, I like separating each muscle for consistency, but I have known those who cut through multiple muscle groups as if it was a ham. I guess you get variety in a roast that way though. To clarify, I follow the length of the entire muscle and easily separate the grouping by hand, then slice off from the bone at each end. Something like the shoulder where I have three groups for instance, I then clean all silver-skin off each piece, and tie them together for a roast (or whatever I decide later).

 

Does anyone have photos to compare the two methods, or was that an anomaly?...or am I doing it wrong?! 

[Lawdwaz]

Seperate.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Separate.

 

Crosscut of the muscles that you separate out this way for cutting steaks will always give you the best results.

[raredesign]

Thanks for the feedback.

[growalot]

Go to growing deer TV he has an excellent video on muscle group seperation in this years archives

[Uncle Nicky]

Crosscut doesn't really give you the chance to trim out interior fat or silverskin. I don't have a photo, but if you seam the leg out as you would for beef or veal, you will get a top sirloin, sirloin tip, bottom round, top round, eye round, and the heel & shank (only good for stew or ground meat).

 

Not a big fan of deer roasts, so the majority of the shoulder & neck gets trimmed well and used for ground meat or sausage,

Edited October 29, 2014 by Uncle Nicky

[WNYBuckHunter]

I separate them. As Uncle Nicky said, you cant remove all or most of the silverskin, etc if you are cross cutting, so you will end up with that gamey taste some people complain about.

[covert]

Depends.  The steaks I cut at the beginning are trimmed better than the ones at the end.  If it's cold enough I can spend 2-3 days cutting one up then it will be all separated and nicely trimmed.  If I have to get it all done at once I try to do the best cuts first because when I get towards the end I tend to do less separating and trimming and more cutting.  That's when I end up with some just cut across.