Tyson. The food company.

Whole butchery is making a comeback. Even in my backyard.

 

Not all that difficult - bone/muscle structure is about the same

Good timing on your comment though - I'm halfway through the Dexter series again..

 

Good on you for real. Like that knife too

 

Also from Rebel 635 2 pages back
"Case ready plants are the ones that do the final consumer level packaging."

I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about the case ready beef cuts currently available at Target and Walmart.
Those 2 retailers no longer have meat cutters on site. What they sell is what you mention as 'final consumer level packaging".
Target for sure prints a disclaimer on beef something like "color is not and indicator of freshness". The reason for this is that
it is packaged with 'Modified Atmosphere Packing' -MAP for short. Carbon monoxide is used in the packing process. Carbon monoxide
reacts with the red blood cells to prevent discoloration.

White folks that die from carbon monoxide poisoning take on a reddish skin tone after death.

You can have my share of that stuff.

 

Wife an I were talking about this last night. If you gave somebody a hind quarters of anything they'd probably ask wtf you expect them to do with that and turn vegetarian.

I butcher my own deer, and while it's probably not as professional as if I sent it out, it all tastes great. My sausages are better than the local butcher if I may say so myself... If they started selling primal cuts we wouldn't starve. Thankfully I have a freezer full of beef, venny, and enough wildlife around to eat for years.

When my son was about 3 I'd put him to bed and started out to the garage to finish breaking down a deer. I removed a rear quarter and brought it into the house to finish breaking it down. When I opened the garage door to go back in he was standing there just staring at the leg I was holding. He said "is that a deer?" I said "yeah, part of one" lol. Still cracks me up. They know where food comes from.

 

There were times growing up where part of my "chores" was sitting around the table with the family cutting up the deer that dad shot. I hated it doing it but I sure did like eating the venison.

 

Kosher beef comes only from the front 1/4 of the animal. So t-bone, sirloin, filet mignon, n.y. strip and anything off the back leg are not kosher.
Also the animal must be killed with 1 stroke of a knife - its throat is cut. Non kosher plants use other methods to put the animal down.
I speculate on this statement - if the animal does not die with a single cut, it can't be considered kosher.

It is important that the animal not suffer when being put down.
Why the hind 1/4 is not kosher is beyond my understanding.

 

Has something to do with the unpure end of the animal. they don't eat ass

 

Now that really made me lol and it's true.

 

One of my earliest memories as a little kid was when I went into the basement and pop was working over a pig carcass with a hatchet.

 

My wife is from southwest virginia mountains - very small town. The Thanksgiving tradition was for the locals to get together and slaughter the hogs they had been raising that year. Late '70's sometime I got in on one kill day. We killed, scalded / shaved and gutted about 25 hogs by noon, had dinner then headed to the garage to finish the cutting. Then fil salted most and stored in his smoke house. trimmings were take to a local grocer to be ground. Next day mil cooked and canned all that sausage. Tough country folks.

 

Lucky you. Bet you never crossed him after that I was never exposed to that as a kid, aside from cleaning fish. Dad hunted deer, but it was always professionally butchered and wrapped before I saw it. We always had a garden, and knew where food came from, but wasn't exposed to it at that level. Aside from the deer and turkeys my kids are the same, but I'd like to change that and get them more involved in the whole process.

I've always wanted to raise animals, but have never had the time or motivation. We have the property to do it (previous owners raised ducks, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and pigs) but most of the pens are all run down and need serious work. They were thrown together really shitty, with what they had on hand and all falling down. The longer this goes on the closer I get towards rebuilding some and bringing everything back to working again. There's a big shortage of laying hens around here now as everybody is buying them to co op can't keep up lol.

For some reason I really want to raise pigs from little piglet all the way to smoking the bacon with garden grown tomato and lettuce, on fresh baked bread with some fresh duck egg mayo. Now I'm hungry again.

 

Gotta give props to anyone that wants to do this as well as folks that can process what they hunt. big thumbs up!

 

whats the minimum butchery tools needed to process an animal?

 

Chainsaw.

 

6" rapala filet knife. Then a stiff boning knife. That's primarily what I use. Like anything you can get as fancy as you want. But those have worked for me. I have a grinder as well. Started with a kitchen aid attachment, but have a dedicated one now. But know guys how still do it with a hand crank.

Chainsaw saves you from needing a grinder though, so that's an added benefit.

 

If you decide to get into it you always want to get at least 2, they do much better with eating competition. Never raise one pig.

 

Thanks, good to know. I think our "pigpen" is big enough for 4 if I remember what the previous owners told me. It's in the best shape of all the pens, so probably wouldn't need much to use again. A group of my friends used to all split the food and my buddy Stevie would raise turkeys, until it got out of hand and the turkeys were 40+lbs the one year. One of the wives flipped (one who'd probably turn vegetarian if meat didn't come on sytrofoam...) She was actually pissed that she had to cut it down to fit in in the oven lol. Effin things were huge. I'd probably do the same with the pigs. We all split a cow already and it's a good group of guys that would lend a hand butchering.

 

Is there a taste difference in freshly butchered meat? Specifically, the domestic stuff, poultry, beef and pork! This thread has me considering purchasing a side of a couple animals with some family members.

 

There is if it's fed properly. Pork from my brother falls off the bone and melts in your mouth. A pound of local grass fed beef hamburg cooked up leaves less than a 1/4 cup of fat in the pan. And fresh eggs from my Amish neighbor are better than those from the store.