Do It Yourself Butchering

[KYHeirloomer]

Years back I had a bad experience with a meat processor and a large deer. Kevin can confirm that Illionois deer grow almost as big as horses. And this one was big even for Illinois; with an estimated live weight of 305 pounds.

What I got back from the processor was 95 pounds, including bones.

I vowed then that I'd learn to butcher my own meats. While this is important with game, it's not confined to that. You can save a lot of money by, for instance, purchaisng primal cuts and breaking them down yourself. Or dismantling whole chickens. And so forth.

Before going into details, though, I'm curious if folks here are interested or not? There's a lot of detail involved, and I'd hate to do all that typing if there's no interest.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Brook since Eddie does not hunt (bad back) I am sure I would have no need, the very closest I have come lately was with the chickens I dressed out, and I did it the "lazy girls" way and simply skinned them, I wasn't into boiling water & plucking feathers! But someone else here may well be interested. The hunters I know down in Alabama always dressed out their own deer, and I would wrap it and make sausage and freeze it. We never sent one to a meat processor, actually it was illegal for them to take in deer meat to process down there?!? One law that was kept down there in lower Alabama

[Mama Mangia]

looks like you deer processor ate good - at your expense -

[KYHeirloomer]

You don't know the half of it, Mama. Turns out he was a thief of the first water. Someday I'll tell you about our friend's lambs that were taken to him for slaughter.

But I wasn't thinking so much of hunters, per se, on this thread. Anyone with a freezer really should consider buying large cuts and breaking them down.

For instance, you can get whole tenderloins, in cryovac packages. If you know a little about butchering, you wind up with, among other things, filets at the price of chuck. Well, maybe not that cheap. But considerably less expensive that buying them pre-cut as steaks.

Buy the bone-in pork loin and make your own chops for a lot less than the meat counter charges.

I watch the sales and buy chickens at 40% off. Three of them, averaging around 5 pounds each, run me about $18. By the time I'm done, and not counting the stock, we get about 26 servings. Compare that to buying already cut apart chickens, and you quickly see the savings.

What I'm saying is that any home cook can benefit from knowing a little bit about butchering.

[mrsjimmyp]

There may be some out there interested. I grew up on a farm and we raised all of our food......including meat. So I'm very familiar with butchering my own meat. I don't do it now though.Hubby dresses his own deer....he is an avid bowhunter.

[Mama Mangia]

KYH - people like that are all over - ditto with the pig farm here - and the other places that cut your meat for you. I prefer to do as much cutting as I can - I don't trust very many people.

Too bad you weren't closer - we could echange stories about all the idiots out there - the farmers, the meat processors - etc. and enjoy several pots of tea and coffee with all the stories.

It's all over unfortunately -

[ymget]

I don't know the prices of meat for everyone else, but in Israel it can cost twice as much to buy a chicken "dismantled" than to actually butcher the thing yourself.

What surprised me once I found out how to do it, was how easy it actually was. Its all about knowing where to start and having the correct knife.

Before you tackle the big job of typing it all out, can I just mention that someone has probably saved you the work. If you surf the web, you can usually find a breakdown of how to do it.

I actually uploaded a video of a portioning and deboning a chicken to my website to help people understand how easy it is.

[jfain]

I cut up my own chickens too, I also buy whole beef and pork tenderloins to cut into roasts & chops. I have even butchered a deer with my sister. The next year she took my deer to a butcher to have them break it down because I couldn't come down in time to do it myself. Was I ever sorry. They don't do it to my liking. From now on I'll take the time to do it myself.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Jfain you are so brave!!! I can clean and cut the meat but not dress out the deer

I cut up my own chickens too, I also buy whole beef and pork tenderloins to cut into roasts & chops. I have even butchered a deer with my sister. The next year she took my deer to a butcher to have them break it down because I couldn't come down in time to do it myself. Was I ever sorry. They don't do it to my liking. From now on I'll take the time to do it myself.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

I enjoy buying whole birds, or large portions of meat and breaking them down at home.

Funny- my sister's idea of "breaking down meat" is buying the 20-piece McNuggets and dividing them amongst her son and a l'il friend or two! Ha!