Low cost butcher recommendations for ground meat

[Macdrizzle]

I live around the Edmonton region and I'm looking to ground most of my whitetail meat. Since it will be grounded I don't see the point of paying a premium for "quality" so I'm reaching out to see if anyone knows of any really low cost butchers that ground. I plan on de-boning all the meat myself and bring into the butcher just pure meat.

Any recommendations for cheap butchers around Edmonton?

What's the typical venison/pork fat ratio? Does anyone do ground meat with just 100% venison?

[Dick284]

Grind only deer, don’t add anything to it, vac seal as required.
If you like to cut your deer with other meat do that as its own step, separately.

The cheapest butcher is the guy you see in the mirror every morning.

Buy a grinder, buy a vac sealer, and make it a family affair.

[tallieho]

Rent a grinder...most rental places rent them

[SouthWestRanger]

^^^ you can buy a quality grinder for not much more than the cost of a deer or two ground. Buy a grinder and a vac sealer and you will save so much on butchering.

[-JR-]

pm sent

[3blade]

I’ve been using a little Weston I got on sale for $60. Who know how many hundreds of pounds through it over the years. All you gotta do is 10lb batches, turn it off, have a beer while letting it cool. A whitetail will be 30-50 lbs. - no problem at all.

Just buy one and do it yourself. Plus then you know you’re getting YOUR deer and not mixed in or contaminated with someone’s gut-juice soaked rutty moose.

I prefer to grind right before cooking, less moisture loss and oxidation.

If you mix in fat of any kind it’s only good for a few months depending on the wrapping/vac bag. If you keep it longer, you’re better to grind/freeze only lean deer, and hand mix in 20% ground pork when preparing a dish.

[Coiloil37]

I agree with above. Especially if you’re already cutting it off the bone. Remove the fat and silver skin and grind it up.
As mentioned above we set up a family assembly line and the process is quick and easy. When we move over here I bought a grinder off Amazon for $79 and it’s awesome. Literally awesome and much better then the one I had in Canada that cost me several hundred. My point is, you don’t have to spend a fortune on the grinder.

[Joe Btfsplk]

I got my first whitetail last year, and bought a used grinder on kijiji. We deboned the animal ourselves without knowing ANYTHING about how to do it. We ground almost all of it and since we already had a vacuum packer, packed it and froze it. The results have been great, my wife absolutely loves the meat, it goes great in Chile, burgers, spaghetti sauce, lasagna, etc.
It has literally turned my wife from “I’m not sure about this hunting thing...” to “are you getting another deer this year?” Win-win situation in my book....

[Smoky buck]

If you buy a good grinder it will grind burger faster than you can feed it

Just get a decent one that is easy to clean and is decent quality it’s worth it

[Dewey Cox]

I know I'm not answering your question, but I have to agree with everyone else.
If you're already deboning, you may as well grind too.
Get a cheap grinder and a box of ground meat bags.
I grind all my deer, except for maybe a handful of steaks. I grind it into bags (like stuffing a 1.5lb sausage) and freeze it.

[CDNOutdoorsman]

If you were near me, you could borrow my grinder and vac sealer to try it before buying.
Or maybe talk to someone that has the equipment and ask to join in on their grinding/sausage making night and get yours done. Good reason to get together with like minded hunters, have a cold one or too and get your meat done.

If you insist on a butcher, Darcy at Real Deal Meats is awesome to deal with from my experience up that way.

[Greatwest]

Originally Posted by CDNOutdoorsman

If you insist on a butcher, Darcy at Real Deal Meats is awesome to deal with from my experience up that way.

I’ve got some de-boned elk meat at Real Deal Meats right now getting half made into smokies and the other half into ground meat. Already took the steaks and roasts and sent the rest there. Going to be buying a grinder myself when they go on sale or I find a good deal on a used one.

[sns2]

I have the 1.75hp model from Cabelas at work. That thing is a beast. I told the kids yesterday when we were using it that it would be good for disposing of dead bodies. Took them a while to get it.

For home, I bought a $129 unit from Costco, fully expecting it to give out. That was 15 years ago. I can’t begin to imagine how many lbs of meat it has done.

[fishnguy]

What I do, hence I think this is the best or efficient way to go, lol, is cut the meat into chunks - of course remove all fat, ligaments, etc aka “silverskin” - and wrap it in shrink wrap tightly getting rid of “all” air, then butcher paper, and freeze it in packages of desired weight (mine range from 0.5 to 1kg and in between). Take out when needed and grind it in semi frozen state if possible or whatever, really. You always have fresh grind that way and best preserved meat because it will always be fresher when frozen in large chunks than “burger”. That way you can also grind it together with pork or whatever you are adding on the spot as you go without a fear of fat spoiling or whatever and it is easier to mix things up when you grind them together. The chunks of meat wrapped properly the way I described above will last a very long time in your freezer and you would always have fresh meat to grind and add whatever you want because you may want to add different proportions of pork, for example, depending on the dish; or bacon; or nothing at all.

For the price of butcher, I bet you can buy a semi-decent grinder that will last a very long time and go through many deer. I used to run a hand grinder doing exactly what I described above. I bought it for… hmm… don’t remember, probably for ten bucks at Homesense or something like that. Worked just fine for a few years. I then looked for a good hand grinder for a long time, but couldn’t find anything and I bought a LEM #8 and I still do it the same way - grind on demand sort of thing. So in hindsight, I’d probably buy something significantly cheaper (though it is a not very expensive grinder).

Also, as far as the vacuum sealer goes. I know it is great and many people do it that way. Personally, I think it is too time consuming and it is much cheaper to buy shrink wrap and butcher paper and it serves the same purpose and the same or close results. Whatever the shrink wrap costs, I don’t remember because I bought a huge roll they sell in grocery stores a couple of years ago and still have it. Butcher paper is $30 per roll in Costco online (cheaper in store); I just ordered and already received my new roll. The previous one lasted probably five years or longer, no idea. And I wrapped some moose, elk, bear, and deer, not sure how many. So that’d be 50 bucks or less worth of packing material. It is also much faster to wrap it this way than vacuum seal it.



I really don’t see the advantage of vacuum seal if you aren't planning on keeping the meat for an unreasonable amount of time. That roll of paper will probably last a couple of decades if not longer wrapping a deer or two per season.

Sorry, no help with the butcher. But, especially if you are deboning the meat anyway, just put a little more work into it and do it yourself if time permits.

[58thecat]

If you spend the time to debone, trim, wash etc then go a little bit further and grind your own. The price of a butcher to do it is ball park for your own set up.

Good luck.

[bat119]

Co-op has pork shoulders on for $1.99 Lb.

[Macdrizzle]

Originally Posted by Dick284

Grind only deer, don’t add anything to it, vac seal as required.
If you like to cut your deer with other meat do that as its own step, separately.

The cheapest butcher is the guy you see in the mirror every morning.

Buy a grinder, buy a vac sealer, and make it a family affair.

Fair enough! I'm 100% open to that idea as well. Can you recommend some brands/models to go with? I was told you should only go with commercial/industrial ones.

[Macdrizzle]

Originally Posted by Macdrizzle

I live around the Edmonton region and I'm looking to ground most of my whitetail meat. Since it will be grounded I don't see the point of paying a premium for "quality" so I'm reaching out to see if anyone knows of any really low cost butchers that ground. I plan on de-boning all the meat myself and bring into the butcher just pure meat.

Any recommendations for cheap butchers around Edmonton?

What's the typical venison/pork fat ratio? Does anyone do ground meat with just 100% venison?

EDIT: based on all the responses I'm convinced I should DIY my own ground meat. Can you guys share your experiences with models/brands of meat grinders that are good and easy to clean? I'll only likely be using it 3-4x a year with pretty much only game meat.

Thanks for all the responses.

[aragor764]

I have the Cabelas Carnivore .75hp, very happy with it, easy to clean. There are some cheaper ones like Vevor 1.5hp that I was looking at but those ones don't have the removable main tube, which makes it harder to clean.

[badbrass]

I have the 1hp. Carnivore! Great unit! and fast! Has metal gears and will run for years! Very happy with it!

Originally Posted by aragor764

I have the Cabelas Carnivore .75hp, very happy with it, easy to clean. There are some cheaper ones like Vevor 1.5hp that I was looking at but those ones don't have the removable main tube, which makes it harder to clean.

[CDNOutdoorsman]

If you want a hand grinder, I have a couple that you can have...

[Hogie135]

If you have a kitchen aid mixer you can get the grinding attachment for it on amazon for like $60. Works great. Been using it for 10 years......well up until my ex wife took the mixer with her when we split. I need new grinder now.

[pikergolf]

The #12 at princess auto regularly goes on sale. I believe I got 40% off when I bought mine. I do about 60 lbs of ground pork and beef a year, never a hick up. It retails for 200 bucks.

[Smoky buck]

I have a Lem big bite and it grinds faster than I can feed it. We ground/wrapped the trim and tough cuts on two antelope this morning In maybe 20min

It’s not a cheap unit but it works well and easy to clean

[C&C Outdoors]

Originally Posted by badbrass

I have the 1hp. Carnivore! Great unit! and fast! Has metal gears and will run for years! Very happy with it!

X2! My cabelas 1hp grinder is going on it's 8th year now. Have put plenty of deer, elk and moose through it without a hitch. They are fast, easy to clean too.

I believe they go on sale a couple times per year for $100 off reg price IIRC.

[MyAlberta]

Other than a roast and chops, I hand grind all my deer with a $10 grinder found at value village. I’ll visit all the grocers for that sweet smelling pork trim, usually for free. I don’t vacuum pack, only because I’m too cheap to buy one.

[Dick284]

Originally Posted by Macdrizzle

Fair enough! I'm 100% open to that idea as well. Can you recommend some brands/models to go with? I was told you should only go with commercial/industrial ones.

Still have the 1/2hp Omcan grinder I started with, it’s not the fastest but it’s indestructible, and has metal gears.(Halford’s or Butchers and Packers)
I bought a Cabelas 3/4hp Carnivore 2 years ago and it’s a game changer.

[Albertajeff]

About 8 years ago we also were thinking same thing and ended up buying a 3/4HP from cabelas. Best decision ever. It paid for itself within the first two seasons and will be passed down. That thing is a carnivore 3/4GP and it’s true. It will eat anything, frozen or not it doesn’t slow down, two people can feed it as fast as possible and it won’t even break a sweat. We bought the jerky slicer attachment for it and ordered a set of tenderizer rollers from the US (some reason can get them in canada), we’ve used it to make sausage outa it but now have a stuffer. Great addition. Zero regrets. Wouldn’t think twice about buying again.

[PartTimeHunter]

I had a 3/4 horse Cabelas model for over 10 years, pre carnivore model. It finally started giving me issues so I looked around and went back to Cabelas to get their 1 horse carnivore. I have a stuffer so don’t use it for stuffing sausage. The hand crank stuffer works better imo. I did get a foot switch off amazon that I found helpful.

[ghfalls]

I’ve got the cheap cabela’s 5# grinder that was on sale for $60. Regular price I see only $100. It’s done a half dozen deers and hasn’t skipped a beat. I figured I’d just buy a cheap one and when I tag craps out after a few years upgrade. But I’m sure it will last for many years yet.