after reading the calf and the coyote post I got to wondering who here has butchered their own meat? I was taught that it was a way of life and we should show our children what it takes to put food on the table. my family does our own hogs every year and also do beef when needed. I know that with hogs that when the gun cracks it sometimes is not a pretty site. but it is something that has to be done.
I do my own deer and other game, but never did any domestics.
We used to raise hogs when Dad was still living and each fall would do all the work ourselves. We no longer raise them and the beef we raise is sent to the local slaughter house so it can hang in the coolers a while before they cut it up.
Now the wild game we still do. Cam got his first taste of it this past year when he killed his first deer. Here he is doing the final cuts on his backstraps. (BTW: He cut the entire deer up and put it in the freezer all by him self. Not that I could help, he wouldn't let me. But while he was doing his, I was doing mine so he got to watch on how to do it.)
(http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p200/Adwolfehunter/110_1084.jpg)
Shot the hogs we raised ourselves and skinned them but shipped out the meat, did our own chickens ( will never forget the first one I wacked ), awlays done our own deer and other wild game.
First hogs I raised I loaded one in the truck before shooting it, what a mistake that was, bout took the box off and got myself crushed then it fell off hittin the ground brusing alot of the meat. :doh2:
Second pair of hogs I got smart...lol :eyebrow: Shot them, took a backhoe and hung em to bleed then skinned and loaded up to take to the butcher :yoyo:
Havent raised any in a few years now.
awh, we make the deer butchering a family affair as well, kids wife and myself. Kids love to help out.
I've cleaned and cut up so many deer over the years that I can't eat the stuff anymore. I can smell it cooking a mile away. You can slice it, spice it and dice it anyway you want, but I won't eat it.
Bob
I had watched a few hogs be butchered, but I had never done it myself until I got the deer last year. I think butchered had a new meaning when I got done with it. It was a good learning experience and hopefully the next one will be better. Most people around here take them to the custom processors. I was just too cheap to give them between $150 and $225 for processing.
Jerry
I do all my own wild game and have done domestic as well but its a pain ...my niece and her hubby have opened a butcher shop now so they get the cows :biggrin:
The hogs were a treat for me. I got to stay out of school for a week while we worked them up. First few years my job was helping one of my brothers scald and scrap the hair. Dad shot them and after we got done with the scalding he hung them off a boom pole attached to the tractor. Then grand dad would start cutting them up. While waiting we carried the meat to the house were mom, grandmaw and sis would start the sausage grinding and packaging of the cuts. That was some good sausage and I still hate the thought of scalding them. Always thought it would have been easier to skin them but no doing around grand dad. It always amazed me to watch him take a hatchet and cut the rib meat out. I couldn't take a knife and cut that straight :confused:
I never did the hog scalding or even seen it done, the reason for us skinnin them is because the butcher charged an ungodly amount with the skin left on. But you're right about the taste of the meat, WAY better tasting ! Sweet porkchops, sausage, bacon..... I'm makin myself hungry.
If-n Bopeye see's this he'll short out the entire web with drool hitting the keyboard. But I can post a pic of a rattler a friend killed this past weekend to run him off too.... :confused: :biggrin: Nah, I'll save it for the next bite me :laugh2:
I have done both the scalding and the skinning. skinning is less messy. when you scald is seems after 2 hogs you got wet feet legs and arms. we do the hogs in january and it allways seems to snow whenever we pick the date. when you skin you just get greasy. I do agree everything tastes better when you butcher it.
I was a Meat-Cutter,,I went to a Vocational School for it,,in school they would bring it to us in hanging 1/4 er's,,then when I graduated I worked In an IGA store,,well about 3 months of that and me AND the employer figured out that
I do NOT work well with the Public :biggrin:,,so then I went and worked in a Slaughter house,,I started out in Sanitation
well Sanitation in a slaughter house it a "DIRTY JOB" ,,I had to clean the Blood pool out and the De-Hair chute
They would run the Hogs through a chute,,"stun" them and throw a chain around their hind legs,,and there were about 10 workers standing on a 3-4 Foot high Ledge,,the Hogs came up at a 45 Degree angle and level out,,there was a 3-4 foot deep pool,,just like a swimming pool,,well the hogs would come pass the workers and they would "STICK" the Hogs and they would bleed out into the pool,,and then the chain would drag the hogs through SCALDING water,,a lot of the hogs would "Quiver" when they went in the scalder,,then they would go through the "De-Hair" Chute,,it was a Cylindrecal Chute and there was rubber paddles about 1 1/2 to 2" thick with steel 1" square plates/tabs on them,,these cylinders would spin at a FAST rate and BEAT the hair off of the scalded Hogs,,then they would go up throught he ceiling to the next floor and then the Hogs and Beef would go down a sort of "Production" Line and get cut up in no time flat,,and they use EVERYTHING in a Slaughter house :puke:
Bob
OH we also do our own Deer,,,, Jerry,,did the butchers charge $150-$200 to butcher A DEER !!! ?
We raised a steer every year to butcher. One year I shot the steer in the butt with my BB gun to see what it would do! Well he jumped pretty good. That wasn't the end of the story though. I was in the kitchen when MaMa was cutting up that particular piece of meat and out rolled that BB! :shrug: Despite my denial, I found it difficult to sit down for about a week!! :eyebrownod:
I helped neighbors scald and scrape hogs. It was also my job to shoot them between the eyes. One shot from that .22 and over they went. After scalding and scraping, they would skin them and cut up the skin and put in a big vat of oil to make cracklings. That was some good eating. They also made chitlings but I passed of those.
I process my deer every year, when I'm lucky enough to get one.
Nelson
Bob,
Yep. That is what they get to cut up, package for the freezer, and make some sticks. The more of the stick or jerky you get the higher the price. I had a friend that had said his doe cost him about $185. I thought that was pretty high, but when I took my deer in to get it tagged there was a sign on the wall not to accept deer from people who had not paid for prior processing. There was nothing under $150 and a couple, that I assumed were for more than one deer that were around $400.
My wife got me a Cabela's jerky shooter for Christmas and I made my own. Tasted pretty good, or at least good enough that I have eaten it all. :biggrin:
Jerry
Damn we use to cut and wrap Deer for $10 in 1979,,and we put it in the Blast Freezer ! the old guy down the road butchered Deer for $15 ,,cut and wrapped,,My Oldest Son makes Deer Jerky,,he cuts it in thin strips and he also uses that Gun to make it,,he does it both ways and to be honest,,they BOTH taste great
Bob
I have allways wondered about them shooters but have not got enough gumption to buy one. does the jerky stick together good?
I think Yerry should start a thread in the Betty Crocker section on this..... I bought the spices to do this and have read a bunch of different approaches, but would love to get the views of folks here on what worked good for them..... I have my eye on one of them guns cause it would be a heck of a lot easier to just cube all I don't steak and then either speedie or grind for burgers or jerky.
How bout it Yerry? :shrug:
Well , ...........goats .......barbie q goats........ boy go out there and bring me a goat! yes sir! I think I was 9, but I came back with a goat. We strung that goat up alive by his hind feet.....................Now boy, go cut that goats throat! Yes Sir! ....................Damn!!!!! Never forget that goat drowning and bleading out right in front of me. I was green as a goard and that was a first for me but I'm glad at an early age I learned that someone had to do it. Every piece of store bought meat you must know someone did your dirty work. Dont complain about the price, just take it out of the package and put it on the grill.
I am a little short on time tonight, but will try to get a Betty Crocker post tomorrow. It is pretty simple.
Yerry
I butcher all my own game unless it is early season to warm to hang and I don't have time. I do take some venison to the processor to get ground and have the fat added for burger after I de-bone and cut. He usually does it while I wait. Charges about .25 cents a pound.
When I do have to take a deer in(due to warm temps) it only costs around $70. I don't have anything special done, no jerky and such.
I've never done any beef or pork.
Boy have I butchered. :rolleye:
On the farm growing up we were pretty close to being self sufficient. Chickens, hogs & beef, but the sheep were gone by the time I showed up.
In my teens the Gov't came & put a lot of little meat shops outta business because they wouldn't or couldn't make the mandates put on 'em. Needless to say butchering equipment went "For Sale." So my Dad & brother bought a bunch of equipment. What a God Send!
Thanksgiving break was the time when the family would get together for "butcherin'" Everyone who could walk had work to do.
We rendered our own lard, stuffed our sausage, ground meat, & we even had a cube steaker. :eyebrow:
Never cared for fresh meat. Ya know, meat that ain't never been frozen or aged. Yuck! :puke:
We didn't do our own casings, those were store bought. :whew:
Those were good days w/ family & all. :biggrin:
I use cut up my own Deer but now days just take a couple of young does to the processor in Louisville Georgia, the state of Georgia puts a limit on the amount they can charge to process a Deer and I usaly get all the jerky they can get out of the Deer and the rest ground. For a 130 to 135 pound Doe usally runs about $100.00. They Jerky cost $7.00 lb, Summer Sausage $7.00 for a stick. I don't eat any Buck meat anymore just Does, Give the Buck away. I not sure what some are calling jerky, sounds like Slim Jim's or Thin Jim's, Jerky is sliced meat cut from the BackStrap and Hindquater. I plan to bring some to the LBL this year. Good stuff.cc
Butcher haven't you seen my calls :roflmao: :roflmao:
Oh we are talking meat here
As a youngen growing up on a farm we used to butcher 1 beef and 2 or 3 hogs a year,and we would always help the neighbors butcher Cut slice wrap grind smoke yes we done it all Iliked it so much that when I was 15 years old I went to work in the local slaughter house where we killed up to 40 hogs a day
I was searching for something else and came upon this old thread. As most of you here now know I butcher always.
Yep, like others here I grew up on a farm where we butchered and processed beef, hogs and poultry. I still cut up my own deer, moose, grind hamburger etc. I prefer cutting it the way I choose, often cut for specific recipes my wife likes. Wife is spoiled with our home cut meat. Even the stew has all sinew etc. removed and each chunk is pure lean meat.
In recent years I have started leaving major muscles in one piece for the freezer, which leaves options for its use when thawed. It can be cooked as is for a roast, cut into steaks, fajitas, stew, etc. That makes the cutting and wrapping quicker and extends the options.
We go to a sausage maker but no longer have a really good one. The best man in this area got too good, went to commercial volume, and doesn't do small custom batches like wild game anymore.
pitw, if you were closer I'd try to get you to make sausage for me! There is a family who knows how to butcher!
OK, you would be disappointed in my sausages as that ain't my long suit and have made more bad than good. I just refuse to eat stuff I didn't have a hand in preparing. The thought of someone having a bad day and spitting in the mixture just turns my stomach. The last batch of sausage was pretty fair as it disappeared way to fast. :madd:
I butcher my own fish, does that count? :laf: :shrug:
Quote from: FinsnFur on August 13, 2016, 05:48:24 AM
I butcher my own fish, does that count? :laf: :shrug:
"A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or do any combination of these three tasks."
So Jim the answer would be, yes it does.
Jerry
We butchered our own on the farm. Never shot any of it either. We always did our middle of Oct. with uncles who lived near by. The would grab the pig hook a rope to the rear legs and haul it up and stick it. Blood was collect for blood sausage. It would bleed out then go to the gutting area then over to the scalding kettle to be scraped of hair and cleaned up good.
they would quarter it and cut it up on benches made for this. Much of this meat was salted in old wooden barrels we kept deep in the Michigan basement.
The one steer we did nearly about the same except I don't remember them saving the blood.
Next week end we moved on to a uncles farm to do it all over again, usefully were 4 farms a year we did this at.
Chicken, ducks geese and turkeys you were on you own like wild game. The deer we hung and skinned then boned it and cut it all by hand till I bought a meat saw in 1971.
:eyebrownod: Al