how many of you butcher

[vvarmitr]

Boy have I butchered.
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.
Never cared for fresh meat. Ya know, meat that ain't never been frozen or aged. Yuck!
We didn't do our own casings, those were store bought.
Those were good days w/ family & all.

[Carolina Coyote]

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

[Bills Custom Calls]

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

[pitw]

I was searching for something else and came upon this old thread.  As most of you here now know I butcher always. 

[Okanagan]

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!

[pitw]

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.   

[FinsnFur]

I butcher my own fish, does that count?

[Hawks Feather]

I butcher my own fish, does that count?

"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

[trailtwister]

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.


  Al