How to Freeze and Store Wild Game

Kory Slye is an angler and hunter who is a great author and an editor with Harvesting Nature. He's a GoWild™ Brand Ambassador. You can read this original and full length post on his blog.

BY KORY SLYE | GUEST AUTHOR

It was a successful hunt, several deer are headed to the freezer. If I’m lucky, there may already be other wild game and fish in the freezer. It’s important to know what is in the freezer and to be able to easily access it so the wild game and fish that I worked so hard to acquire does not go to waste.

While butchering, or if taking it to a processor, think about the cuts and types of meals wanted. Having a cut ready to go makes deciding what’s for dinner much easier. I butcher my own deer, so cuts I save for specific recipes are the deer’s front shoulder, left with the bone in for a bone-in blade roast. The ball roast from the hindquarter I like to save to make venison pastrami. The neck can be saved for a boneless neck roast. The possibilities are endless.

Cuts Matter

If unsure of what type of cuts to save, check out a few cook books before butchering. I’d recommend Steven Rinella’s Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game, both Volume 1 and 2, Hank Shaw’s Buck, Buck, Moose, and Harvesting Nature’s Eat Wild Game. If having a processor do the butchering, make sure to have a conversation with them when dropping off the trophy – all wild game is a trophy. See what they recommend and ask questions if uncertain.

In other cases, like the backstraps, I like to leave the cut of meat mostly whole. When butchering I cut the backstrap in half and freeze them in 12” to 16” sections. There are many more options available if they are left this way. I can roast this piece whole, I can stuff it with a filling, or slice steak sized pieces from it.

Properly Store Your Meat

When prepping the meat to be stored in the freezer it is important to properly protect it to avoid freezer burn and spoilage. With roasts and backstraps I will wrap in a couple layers of plastic wrap then wrap in freezer paper. When I grind burger I use just plain quart sized plastic freezer bags, no need to buy the special wild game bags as it’s an unnecessary expense. The quart size bags hold 1 to 1-1/2 pounds of burger well. Before putting into the freezer, I will press the burger flat in the bag, pushing out all of the air. This accomplishes several things, getting the air out will prevent freezer burn, the flat frozen bags of burger are easier to store in the freezer, and they thaw out more quickly.

Make sure everything in the freezer is clearly marked. I put the date that it was harvested and what the cut of meat is. There is nothing worse than pulling a mysterious package from the freezer, not knowing when it’s from, what cut or even animal it is. I avoid all of that by writing it down on the package.

See the rest of Kory's intelligent system for organizing freezers on his blog, Outdoorsman Dad.