Post by macmex on Nov 27, 2023 11:38:35 GMT -6
The very first butchering I ever did was as a kid, when a mentor taught me to do chickens. Later I graduated to small game and when in my 30s I started helping do hogs, in Mexico, where we were living. I taught Jerreth, my wife, to do chickens and small game, the first year we were married. Once married, we usually worked on these things together. About 22 years ago we started doing deer and then, a few years later smaller ruminants from the farm. In 2020, we did our first steer. Ron, his son Josh, my wife's sister and brother-in-law all helped us with that one. It was a HUGE undertaking, yet very satisfying.
We spent a fair amount on equipment, over the years. Presently we have a band saw for cutting meat and bone and a commercial meat grinder, which is wonderful because it's fast and quiet. We borrowed a stainless steel table from Ron in 2020 and, again, last week when we did our second steer.
We started on Wednesday November 22, the day before Thanksgiving and put the last of the meat in the freezer Saturday night, November 25, around 9 pm. It was a LONG haul!
We had constructed a hoist for hanging this carcass. This one probably weighed about 1000 lbs before removing the innards, hooves and head. We had to pull with a pickup truck and lift with the tractor's front end loader in order to get it raised to a comfortable height.
We took things slowly both because it took a bit to remember stuff, and also in order to be safe. By the time we had it skinned and rinsed, it was dark!
Jerreth is really the brains of our operation. She's our "gadget person" and loves the logistical challenge. This time around she found a Youtube channel called The Bearded Butchers and followed their instructions for doing the cuts. I've watched such videos before but much of the info flies out of my memory as soon as I turn off the screen. She kept the video up, pausing and rewinding over the entire four days! The results were astounding! We came out with wonderful cuts like T-bone steaks, Round steak, Round Tip Steak, London Broil and all kinds of specialty cuts! (even some hamburger).
Following the advice of the Bearded Butchers, we split the carcass in half, lengthwise and then quartered it, before starting to make any cuts. Here's a photo of the two halves.
It was so large that we ended up having to use a hand saw to do the splitting. I was sore for a couple days after doing that! It did help, though, to follow their instructions.
This is a front quarter. It was all the two of us could do, to lift it onto a dolly and move it. We had to store all of the quarters on a tarp inside a stock trailer, taking them out, one by one, to deal with them. We would use the dolly to get each quarter to the house. Ron's table was a HUGE help in processing. I think we're going to be looking to get one ourselves! We still needed to do some cuts with the hand saw but once indoors, we managed to do a whole lot with the band saw.
Jerreth did most of the cuts, since she was manning the computer video. She took her time and did exactly what they said. It was amazing!
I did most of the packaging, though our daughter Emily did some of that. We used vacuum sealers for most of it. There were a couple of pieces too large for the vacuum sealer, so we used butcher paper on those. Emily processed the lungs, trachea and liver (and probably some other parts) for dog treats. She'd cut them up, bake them real well and then freeze dry them, turning them into high dollar dog treats. We worked as a team and had very little waste.
The steaks and roasts were amazing. These are just a few of them. These are T-bone steaks.
Sunday (yesterday) Jerreth put a roast in the crock pot. Yum!
I don't believe I'm going to raise any more calves just because the equipment for handling them is very expensive and I am not feeling safe about tackling calves for vaccinations and castrations. I've done this with 250 lb calves and it is a real "rodeo." A person could get really hurt doing that! But I think in a year or so we might purchase a feeder steer to fatten over the summer. We enjoy the processing and it does save a lot of money. Beside's we need to stay in practice!
We spent a fair amount on equipment, over the years. Presently we have a band saw for cutting meat and bone and a commercial meat grinder, which is wonderful because it's fast and quiet. We borrowed a stainless steel table from Ron in 2020 and, again, last week when we did our second steer.
We started on Wednesday November 22, the day before Thanksgiving and put the last of the meat in the freezer Saturday night, November 25, around 9 pm. It was a LONG haul!
We had constructed a hoist for hanging this carcass. This one probably weighed about 1000 lbs before removing the innards, hooves and head. We had to pull with a pickup truck and lift with the tractor's front end loader in order to get it raised to a comfortable height.
We took things slowly both because it took a bit to remember stuff, and also in order to be safe. By the time we had it skinned and rinsed, it was dark!
Jerreth is really the brains of our operation. She's our "gadget person" and loves the logistical challenge. This time around she found a Youtube channel called The Bearded Butchers and followed their instructions for doing the cuts. I've watched such videos before but much of the info flies out of my memory as soon as I turn off the screen. She kept the video up, pausing and rewinding over the entire four days! The results were astounding! We came out with wonderful cuts like T-bone steaks, Round steak, Round Tip Steak, London Broil and all kinds of specialty cuts! (even some hamburger).
Following the advice of the Bearded Butchers, we split the carcass in half, lengthwise and then quartered it, before starting to make any cuts. Here's a photo of the two halves.
It was so large that we ended up having to use a hand saw to do the splitting. I was sore for a couple days after doing that! It did help, though, to follow their instructions.
This is a front quarter. It was all the two of us could do, to lift it onto a dolly and move it. We had to store all of the quarters on a tarp inside a stock trailer, taking them out, one by one, to deal with them. We would use the dolly to get each quarter to the house. Ron's table was a HUGE help in processing. I think we're going to be looking to get one ourselves! We still needed to do some cuts with the hand saw but once indoors, we managed to do a whole lot with the band saw.
Jerreth did most of the cuts, since she was manning the computer video. She took her time and did exactly what they said. It was amazing!
I did most of the packaging, though our daughter Emily did some of that. We used vacuum sealers for most of it. There were a couple of pieces too large for the vacuum sealer, so we used butcher paper on those. Emily processed the lungs, trachea and liver (and probably some other parts) for dog treats. She'd cut them up, bake them real well and then freeze dry them, turning them into high dollar dog treats. We worked as a team and had very little waste.
The steaks and roasts were amazing. These are just a few of them. These are T-bone steaks.
Sunday (yesterday) Jerreth put a roast in the crock pot. Yum!
I don't believe I'm going to raise any more calves just because the equipment for handling them is very expensive and I am not feeling safe about tackling calves for vaccinations and castrations. I've done this with 250 lb calves and it is a real "rodeo." A person could get really hurt doing that! But I think in a year or so we might purchase a feeder steer to fatten over the summer. We enjoy the processing and it does save a lot of money. Beside's we need to stay in practice!
