PETE WARD

"WELCOME TO MY OUTDOOR WORLD"


"BUTCHERING GAME AT HOME"
This article was written by Cheryl Napper and printed with her gracious permisson.cheryl may be found on the bowsite hiding under the disguise of the "HUNTRESS"
Here goes... Firstly, I debone all of the deer and hogs we kill and it really isn't as formidable a task as it appears. I prefer to skin and quarter the animal while it is still hanging, and then take the quarters home and debone and package them at my leisure. That isn't always possible however, so sometimes deboning it while hanging is necessary. If you have only 2' of counter space, that's all you need to debone the quarters in the kitchen since the hindquarters will be the largest pieces. I'll describe the entire process below, from quartering to packaging: To start, I always have my animal hanging head down, as it helps preserve the hindquarters which is where most of your muscle mass is. You don't want blood to pool in the meat as it harbors bacteria. I always remove the head when skinning/caping the animal. After you have peeled the hide all the way down to the animal's ears, take a stiff, long bladed knife and cut through the muscle on the back of the neck, directly behind the ears. Cut as far as you can, and then go around the rest of the animal's neck, making sure to cut through the esophagus and trachea. Then, take the tip of the knife and stick it straight into the small gap at the base of the skull on the top of the animals head. Wiggle the blade around a little bit to sever the connective tissue and spinal cord. Then simply grab the skull and give it a quick twist and it will fall away from the spine. I then dissect out both backstraps using a fillet knife. You will see a white strip of tendon outlining this muscle. You can literally slide your fingers in this crevice under the tendons and seperate most of it without even using a knife (although a knife does make the job much easier!). Cut the backstrap at both the top, near the neck, and bottom, near the hip. Place these in a seperate bag for processing later.
Next, I remove the inner loins (tenderloins) the same way. These lie on both sides of the spine inside the chest/abdominal cavity. Simply run your fingers along both sides of these muscles and slide up and down until you have seperated them out. Again, you can use a knife for this step, but I notice that I don't accidentally cut any meat off if I just use my fingers and bluntly dissect them out.
Next, remove both shoulders/forelegs by first cutting off the hooves at the elbow, as there is very little meat below that joint. You can remove the hooves by disarticulating the joint with a thin knife (simply cut between the cartilage off that covers the joint, and then get your knife blade between the bones and work your way around until all connective tissue has been severed). Or, you can simply cut the leg with a small saw or a big pair of lop shears. Then, lift the leg out away from the body and you can see where the big flat scapula lies. This bone/cartilage is not attached to anything and you can easily slide a long-bladed knife behind it to remove it from where it's attached to the ribs. Place these in a large bag to process further later.
Next, I remove the ribcage by using a saw or lop shears to cut the ribs right next to the spine. I usually cut the ribs in half for easier storage in the freezer. If you choose not to save the ribs, I trim off any meat I can to grind up later for sausage or burger. Then I do the same with the neck roast or any other remaining meat from that area. I usually cut it into small pieces and place in a large ziploc bag to be ground later. (it saves me alot of trouble on sausage-making day if the meats already cut into small cubes).
Lastly, I cut the spine away from the hip joint and discard it. Using a saw or the shears, I seperate the two halves of the pelvis. Make sure the legs are secured to the gambrel in such a way that they won't fall off when the pelvis is cut in half. Now I remove the leg from the hooves by seperating the leg at the hock (there's not enough salvageable meat below that joint). Do this just as you did the forelegs. Place the hindquarters in another large bag for processing later.
Okay, now you've got all your meat home and you want to debone it. If you choose to do this in the field, the technique is the same with the exception you don't have a counter to work on. Instead, you simply cut the meat away from the bone while it is hanging. I usually start with the shoulders, as it's my least favorite to work with due to the tendons and shape of the scapula. Now keep in mind that I'm not a butcher, so someone else more qualified will hopefully come along and correct me if I'm making any gross mistakes here. I simply look for seperate muscle masses, which are outlined by a layer of white connective tissue, and seperate them out. I don't usually get very many roasts from the shoulder, and tend to use most of this meat for sausage and burger, but that's just personal preference (I make a lot of bratwurst, chorizo, breakfast, italian and polish sausage). What scraps of meat I don't get for roasts, I add to the sausage/burger bag. I then do the same with the hindquarter, simply cutting the muscle away from the bone, and seperating all the muscle masses into roasts. It is best if you leave your meat in the biggest size piece possible to help avoid freezer burn. I then cut my backstrap into meal-sized portions. They can be sliced into medallions/butterflied later, but for freezing, keep them in one piece where possible. Make sure you wrap your tenderloins up and set them aside so they don't accidentally get ground into burger (been there!).
With the exception of your sausage and burger meat, you should be ready to wrap your goodies. I always double wrap all of my meat. It may not be necessary, but I've had meat in the freezer for over a year and a half without getting freezer burned. I first wrap the meat in saran wrap, and then in freezer wrap, labelling each package with the species, cut of meat, and date. I hope I didn't leave anything out. The best way to learn is to watch or help somebody else for the first time. This is definately something you get better/faster at the more you do. Now, I've got it down to about an hour and a half to skin and quarter an animal and another hour or so to grind/debone/package. The sausage making however is another story...that all starts with going out and picking the right herbs from the garden.
I hope this was helpful. Please feel free to add any tips or tricks y'all have that I may have missed! -Cheryl
I want to thank cheryl for contributing this article to my website. pete


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