All you need is a sharp knife, a place to do the butchering (such as a table set up in the garage or basement), a meat saw (a sharp hack saw will suffice) and some freezer wrap or a vacuum sealer. Although deer processing is easier if you have two or three people to perform the tasks, you can do it alone as well. Expect the entire process and clean-up to take about three hours.

Deer processing begins when the deer is down. Take care when field dressing the animal to remove all of the entrails and drain blood from the body cavity. Be careful, too, when you haul the carcass out of the woods to avoid dragging it through water or mud. At home, hang the animal in a cool place until you are ready to butcher it. While some believe that hanging the animal for several days improves the flavor, a practical consideration is how warm or cold your storage area—often a garage—will be. If the carcass gets too warm, it will spoil. If it drops below freezing, the carcass will freeze, making it very difficult to process.

Before you can butcher a deer, you must remove the hide, which is easiest when the deer is hanging. Again, take care to keep the carcass clean. Slide your knife beneath the hide to avoid cutting hair and getting it on the carcass, where it is difficult to remove. Pull firmly to remove the hide and use your knife to slice away tallow and membrane. To make skinning easier, remove the lower front legs with a meat saw.

Once you have skinned the carcass, use your knife to remove some of the tallow on the back and hind quarters. This makes it easier to then cut the quarters and backstraps from the carcass, which is the next step. When you are finished, you’ll have four quarters, two backstraps and some neck meat. The ribs will remain on the carcass.

Many hunters prefer boneless venison. When you begin cutting up the quarters, follow the major muscles and cut them off the bone. Then slice against the grain to cut chops and roasts. Save some meat for making sausage and hamburger. Trim all membrane and tallow from the finished cuts to improve the taste. Also, trim away the areas damaged by the shot.

When you’re finished, wrap or vacuum-seal the meat in dinner-sized packages. Label and date the packages. You can store meat to be made into sausage or hamburger in the refrigerator for a few days. Store your packaged meat in the freezer. It should keep for six months or more.

Shawn Perich is teaching a workshop on processing venison at North House Folk School Oct. 28.