Meat Processor | Santa Fe

Hello Everyone,
Just checking if anyone knows of a reputable butcher/meat processor in the Santa Fe area?

Thank you,
Adrian

I do my best to stay away from butchers and haven't had many good experiences with them. On the few occasions I've used them something is always fishy. Once, I took two head of beef that were supposed to be separate (one belonged to me the other to my brother) and his came back with tons of steaks and mine with tons of ground. Very different ratios and both seemed VERY light. Another time, I killed a great high mountain cow elk and took extra care to treat the meat right. I kept the straps and tenderloins and steaked them out myself. When I got the meat back from the butcher, it had straps and loins in the lot. Either I got someone else's elk or they threw in someone else's best cuts. If possible do it yourself. If you wound something and recover it a week later I would take it to the butcher, maybe you'd end up with something better.

Cory

+1 on processing your own meat quality control for sure thanks to my pops just need to pass it on to my kids.

Thanks for the responses.
I always process my own, like to know where it's coming from.
Because I do my own, it's usually packaged steak or stew meat.
I wanted to try adding ground meat, sausage and have a good amount "sliced" ready for the dehydrator.
Thanks again!

I do burger just grind it up add just enfough beef fat to hold it togreather when u make a patty. For breakfeast sag I go 5 lbs to 1 lb of pork + season u like run it through the grinder and your good to go. You could maybe take a chunk or two to your local butcher and they will usually slice it for you for jerky good luck on your hunt

I have had some bad experiences as well with butchers. Once a buddy and I took a couple young cows to the butcher and took great care with handling the meat. In return we got back something that smelled spoiled, meat with blood clots from the wound, or an older elk. Since then I have processed my own meat.

If you wait for the sales you can find some great deals on grinders, sausage stuffers, and meat slicers. Over the years I have acquired several different pieces of equipment and even upgraded a few. For the longest time I used a hand grinder, which later I upgraded to an electric grinder. In addition, I used an old cast iron Enterprise sausage stuffer a buddy of mine found on ebay for me. Sausage stuffers work great, especially if you want to added cheese chunks to summer sausage or snack sticks. Recently I bought a meat slicer online for about $50 and it has worked great so far for slicing jerky meat and slicing homemade bacon. Hog casings can be ordered online, usually dehydrated which you will have to hydrate, but you can find hydrated ones at the local butcher shop or if you shop around, you can find them fairly cheap. Spices will depend on what you want to do. I prefer A.C. Leggs Old Plantation seasonings. You can find great deals on ColumbiaSpice.com. Once a year I will invite a bunch of hunting buddies over to make sausage. Its a great way to get together, shoot the BS, tell stories, drink barley pop, and make sausage, everything from elk, deer, pheasant, duck, goose, speed goat, yard bird (chicken), and thunder birds (turkey). Last year we made roughly about 600 pounds all together. Doing it yourself is the best way to ensure that your are getting what you want and the quality you want from your harvest. Good luck this year with the hunts.

Great tips, thank you all again!

I'll be spending the butcher payment on a grinder, slicer and stuffer attachment.

Good luck to everyone this season!

I agree with processing the meat yourself. I know there are some good butchers out there but I find processing it myself provides some additional satisfaction. It is also a good skill to develop.