It has become a family tradition each Fall for several of us to gather to cut and wrap game meat while watching football. We did some on Saturday while watching college ball, then Sunday evening watching the NFL. Lotta snide comments about the NFL, but it was on our big screen.
We had two elk and one and a half big mule deer to do this round, with two blacktail bucks waiting in the wings, either hanging or frozen in ready to grind packages. Sometimes we freeze the hamburger meat from several animals in smallish packages easy-to-thaw and grind them all at one big session after the season. We are blessed with meat and horns this Fall.
I'd better put a pic in here to keep Jim happy!
(https://i.imgur.com/5J69cRo.jpg)
My son puts down a huge cloth drop on his living room floor (his wife is a saint!) We set up a long table in the center in front of a big screen TV with several of us cleaning and trimming field quartered meat, then cutting and wrapping. Meat for hamburger goes into large bins that fit in a fridge (he has three ?), two of them in the garage. We grind and package hamburger last.
If no football is on, we watch hunting shows. Wives help a bit sometimes but often go out together, or sit around bantering with their mighty hunters.
My hands were gooey, so no pics of the meat cutting but will add antler pics from the animals being processed.
(https://i.imgur.com/6kmyv4g.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xcCAzMy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WxeiJd9.png)
This last buck, taken by my grandson, is a buck of a lifetime IMO. Wow! Matching stickers on both sides of a good 4x4. Too bad that he is not two years older. He would be a monster with two more years of age on him.
Nice looking animals, but I have to comment about the "puts down a huge cloth drop on his living room floor (his wife is a saint!)" I was happy that my wife allowed me to run the grinder in the kitchen, but the living room would never have happened. She REALLY is a saint!
I'm with Jerry.
I had to read that a couple times to make sure I was getting that right :alscalls: :alscalls: :bowingsmilie: :bowingsmilie:
Oops! Didn't realize that our family cutting meat in a main room of the house was that bizarre! My farm family did that when I was growing up. As in Pitw's country, it can be pretty cold and miserable to do it outside or in an unheated garage.
By the time the meat gets to the cutting table inside the house, it is in clean or fairly clean delectable looking chunks, already removed from bones and divided into large muscle groups. The outer straps will each be in one long piece, from rib eye to porterhouse, with all of the T-bone and chops between. The hams will usually come in in two or three big pieces if it is elk, but on a deer may come in as one boneless chunk. It is all carried to the table in plastic tubs, straight from a fridge so is very cold.
We often cook a few pieces while cutting, especially odds and ends we decide to eat on the spot rather than toss into the hamburger bin.
The big cloth drop cloth is key, covering the entire floor of the large room, and can be folded or rolled in a way to contain every possible crumb or scrap or drip. We have a double layer under the table area.
I've got good memories of cutting meat with my Mom and Dad, and of my late wife smiling over her husband, son and grandkids as we cut meat last year.
This is making me hungry so am going to make a breakfast of elk hamburger and eggs.
Those are some dandy bucks and bulls. Lots of good eating to look forward to in the near future.
Love it!
I'm envious of those living in areas where elk are. They are on my bucket list.