After a big-game animal is reduced to its essentials, it is time for the final processing and preparation. For steaks, it is best to separate them into your most common serving amount. If you live alone, this may be a single steak, if you are feeding a large family, packages of four or more may better suit your needs. Once the steaks are separated, they can either be vacuum packed or wrapped with commercial grade wrapping paper. Whatever method you choose, the main key is to keep excess air off the meat to keep it from freezer burning over time. Be sure to date and label everything so you can identify it at a later time.

Backstraps, hindquarters and tenderloins can all be cut into steaks. Hindquarters can also be cut into large roasts if desired. If you prefer stew meat, this is best accomplished with scraps between ribs, brisket (bottom of the rib cage), neck and front shoulders. A portion of this same meat and trimmings can also be run through a meat grinder for breakfast sausage, brauts, summer sausage, ground jerky and hamburger.

Advanced Meat Processing:
Hamburger - hamburger is the simplest and possibly the easiest to use form of venison. To make it, grind scraps of venison with roughly 20% beef fat obtained from your local butcher. Package in either pre-formed patties or 1-2 pound plastic bags or freezer paper.

Breakfast Sausage - Breakfast sausage is another easy way to process venison. Take ground venison and mix with roughly 30% ground pork shoulders and breakfast sausage spice/cure mix. Package in one to two pound increments. It can be rolled or cooked as patties.

	Additional Information:  Read more articles:  - Meat Processing  Gear information:  - Smoking & Curing  - Vacuum Packaging  Get the gear:  - Meat Processing Gear

Summer Sausage - summer sausage is very similar to making breakfast sausage with a few added steps. Instead of using breakfast sausage spices and cure, get summer sausage spices and cure. Some people also add cheese and jalapenos to taste. Grind all ingredients together, mix the cure into the meat well and then stuff it in pre-formed thick summer sausage casings. These range anywhere from a half-pound to over three pounds. Select whichever ones work best for your application. After they are stuffed, they need to be smoked to be cured. Smoke for at least two hours and/or until their core temperature has reached 160 degrees.

Bratwursts - essentially the same procedure as summer sausage, bratwursts use a different seasoning/cure mixture, different casings and may or may not be smoked as they are cooked before consuming.

Jerky - Jerky can come in two forms. The traditional method is to slice roasts and round steaks thin, marinate in a jerky seasoning and either smoke, dehydrate or place in an oven until they are cured. The second, and arguably easier way it to take ground venison, mix with the appropriate spices/cure and "shoot" it through a jerky gun directly onto a cookie tray, smoking or dehydration rack.