Butchering Day

[yoderjac]

Tomorrow will be a butchering day for me. How many of you guys butcher your own? What kind of setup do you have? What kind of techniques do your use? Just interested to see how others do things.

Thanks,

jack

 

[H20fwler]

We always butcher at home in the garage. I just hang them up and take them apart, bone everything. I keep the rounds and back straps separate for steaks, everything else gets put in ziplock freezer bags for stew meat/burger/summer sausage and stir fry. I'm surprised if anything is left in the freezer three months after, we eat it up. And a deer or two usually heads to college for my youngest sons freezer.

I've never been into using a saw, bone dust always seemed to make the meat taste different to me.

When I bone I don't have much waste;

 

[Diesel5610]

We do it just like H20fwler. I bought a pressure canner and I am planning on canning one for the first time. I have had canned deer meat and it is great. Just have to get a late season archery doe to cooperate.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We used to cook all the meat off the bones ( like shown above ) and make home-made mincemeat and can that. Venison mincemeat makes a delicious mince pie.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

We don't waste a thing. I will cut through the pelvis but otherwise front shoulders and neck can came off without a saw.

Hell I even tried ribs this time!

 

[chickenlittle]

It was a little warm when I got my buck on PA's opener so we deboned it that afternoon and froze in big ziplock bags. Except for the good steaks, I will pressure can the rest as I get time. My whole family likes the canned venison. If I get a doe during flintlock, it will end up mostly as burger.

Before I discovered canning, I would slice up pieces for stir fry and vacuum pack those and grind the rest for burger.

 

[yoderjac]

I started out deboning everything with a knife. The older I get, the lazier I get. Here are some of the tools I've been using:

This is a cheap Harbor Freight (central machinery) meat saw that I modified. The stainless sliding table did not have enough range of movement. I removed it and installed long drawer slides on top of the unit. I then took a poly cutting board, made the cut for the blade and attached it to the drawer slides. It works very well with a long range of movement. For a fence to get ham stakes nice and even, I build a fence out of a clamp and section of cutting board. I can move the clamp ot whatever thickness I want.

This is just a Cabelas grinder that I use. It works pretty well. The saw has a grinder attachment, but it doesn't have the power. The other issue I found was that by the time I was done cutting stakes and filleting the loins and rest of the deer and then cleaned all the grind meat and ground it, the meat from the steak cutting had dried on the saw making it hard to clean. Now, I cut the ham stakes (the only thing I use the meat saw for) and then immediately take the saw outside and clean it with a power washer. Cleanup is easy and fast.

Finally, my Vacuum Sealer. It is a chamber type unit. I used to use Food Saver type model but I found this has some real advantages. The bags the Food Saver type units use bags that have to have channels and the air is directly sucked out of the bag. If there is any liquid, it gets sucked out the top and prevent the heat seal from working properly. The bags for these Food Saver type units are much more expensive even in bulk. The chamber unit sucks the air out of the entire chamber then seals the bag. Because the entire chamber is evacuated, liquid is not sucked to the lip of the bag. You can even vacuum seal soup but I like the fact that we can put marinate in with the meat, vacuum seal it, and freeze it. When we want to use it we put it in the fridge to thaw and it marinates in the bag.

Other than this, I have a couple commercial reach-in coolers, one in my garage and one at the farm in my barn. We are far enough south that spoilage can happen quickly here so cooling meat quickly is important. This also allows for controlled temperature aging of older deer when needed. More importantly, after a harvest, I can dress, skin, and quarter a deer, hang it, and get back to hunting until I'm ready to butcher.

Cool seeing what others do!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[swat1018]

When I built my new house and barn in 2008, I put a "butcher shop" in the barn. It's a 20' x 30' bay with a 10' overhead door and 12' ceilings. The room is insulated and I put the epoxy paint on the floor. I bought a set of display kitchen cabinets for cheap off a lumber yard. I have a 6 x 10 walk-in cooler inside to hang deer. I also have a chest type freezer to put finished product. I have a Cabela's electric hoist on the ceiling to hang the deer from when I gut them, and when I skin and break them down. I put the hoist directly over the floor drain. I have a grinder that's from a grocery store that went out of business, it's a 1940s vintage and will probably outlast me. I also have a cuber, and a vertical stuffer. We pack all of our burger in poly bags with the stuffer. We have a Cabala's vacuum packer we pack all of our loins with. I use the loins for steak, and grind everything else. I also make about 60# of summer sausage a year, my small electric smoker is also in the shop. We have a hose, and a shop sink also. I really need to add a tankless water heater to make clean up even easier. We probably do between 10-15 in an average year.

It sure beats cutting meat in your kitchen. I prefer to whip out the garden hose and bleach when we're finished.

 

[yoderjac]

When I built my new house and barn in 2008, I put a "butcher shop" in the barn. It's a 20' x 30' bay with a 10' overhead door and 12' ceilings. The room is insulated and I put the epoxy paint on the floor. I bought a set of display kitchen cabinets for cheap off a lumber yard. I have a 6 x 10 walk-in cooler inside to hang deer. I also have a chest type freezer to put finished product. I have a Cabela's electric hoist on the ceiling to hang the deer from when I gut them, and when I skin and break them down. I put the hoist directly over the floor drain. I have a grinder that's from a grocery store that went out of business, it's a 1940s vintage and will probably outlast me. I also have a cuber, and a vertical stuffer. We pack all of our burger in poly bags with the stuffer. We have a Cabala's vacuum packer we pack all of our loins with. I use the loins for steak, and grind everything else. I also make about 60# of summer sausage a year, my small electric smoker is also in the shop. We have a hose, and a shop sink also. I really need to add a tankless water heater to make clean up even easier. We probably do between 10-15 in an average year.

It sure beats cutting meat in your kitchen. I prefer to whip out the garden hose and bleach when we're finished.

Post some pics when you get a chance. We plan to build a new home soon closer to the farm. I'm looking to do something very similar. Fortunately I married a saint.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Updated Picture Links

 

[yoderjac]

This old thread has some good pics of my butchering equipment. Last year, we upgraded the Vacuum Seal machine and details are in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/vacuum-sealing-machines.13872/

Butchering has been on my mind the last couple days as described in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/exhausted.15046/

So, this afternoon while my wife was boiling the bones for soup stock and bbq meat, I hopped on Craigslist. I found a commercial meat slicer that was fairly close and just listed. They don't seem to last long. It was a good price for a commercial machine. The only thing I can find wrong is that it is missing the sharpening assembly. Since I'm not using it commercially, I'm not sure how much that matters. I looked on line at parts but they show "out of stock". Here is the unit:

I cleaned it up and lubricated it and it seems to be running well. My main purpose for it was to slice liver, but I'm sure my wife will find many other uses. I've cut myself a few times trying to make even slices of liver with a butcher knife. Nothing serious, but this will be much better for both consistency and safety.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[b116757]

This old thread has some good pics of my butchering equipment. Last year, we upgraded the Vacuum Seal machine and details are in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/vacuum-sealing-machines.13872/

Butchering has been on my mind the last couple days as described in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/exhausted.15046/

So, this afternoon while my wife was boiling the bones for soup stock and bbq meat, I hopped on Craigslist. I found a commercial meat slicer that was fairly close and just listed. They don't seem to last long. It was a good price for a commercial machine. The only thing I can find wrong is that it is missing the sharpening assembly. Since I'm not using it commercially, I'm not sure how much that matters. I looked on line at parts but they show "out of stock". Here is the unit:

I cleaned it up and lubricated it and it seems to be running well. My main purpose for it was to slice liver, but I'm sure my wife will find many other uses. I've cut myself a few times trying to make even slices of liver with a butcher knife. Nothing serious, but this will be much better for both consistency and safety.

Thanks,

Jack

I had a Hobart commercial slicer similar to that one when we where fooling around with my wife’s catering hobby. I liked it but the clean up required after using it prevented me from using it for small projects. I had a meat mixer for sausage making that was relegated to the don’t use pile of equipment for the same reason to much work to clean after using it.

 

[yoderjac]

I had a Hobart commercial slicer similar to that one when we where fooling around with my wife’s catering hobby. I liked it but the clean up required after using it prevented me from using it for small projects. I had a meat mixer for sausage making that was relegated to the don’t use pile of equipment for the same reason to much work to clean after using it.

Yes, that is a good point. Clean-up is an important consideration. Our butchering setup is now in the barn at our retirement property. I have an overhang with hoist for dressing and skinning at that door. My little saw is on wheels and all of the other equipment is on carts. I wheel it to the door and use n electric pressure washer when we are done to clean the saw (the toughest) and other equipment. I've got it setup with soap and hot water (which will probably kill the pressure washer over time).

 

[b116757]

Pressure washer not a bad idea for quick cleanup of processing equipment little tough in my kitchen but a good idea for a shop environment. We had a 3 bay commercial sink in the kitchen when we catered. When we added on and moved into that building, I moved the commercial sink into the laundry room. It was so handy for cleaning my sausage making equipment I hated to get rid of it.

 

[yoderjac]

Pressure washer not a bad idea for quick cleanup of processing equipment little tough in my kitchen but a good idea for a shop environment. We had a 3 bay commercial sink in the kitchen when we catered. When we added on and moved into that building, I moved the commercial sink into the laundry room. It was so handy for cleaning my sausage making equipment I hated to get rid of it.

Yes, when we were butchering in my suburban kitchen, cleanup was much worse. I had to build a ramp, wheel equipment into the garage and then outside to use the pressure washer on it. My hoses ran outside and were a pain in cold weather.

Since we built the barn on the retirement property, I put a utility sink near the overhead door where we butcher. I rigged up both hot and cold spigots at the bottom of the sink. I can use a very short section of holes with quick connects to the pressure washer. I can easily blow out the short hose in cold weather. In the suburbs, I had to make due. When we build the barn, I planned for butchering and cleanup. I ended up buying this commercial slicer from a couple who used it a lot when they had kids. The kids are all grown up and it has been sitting around for years for your reason. Not worth it for small jobs with just 2 of them. They did not hunt or butcher. They just bought meat and cheese in bulk with all the kids.

 

[yoderjac]

This old thread has some good pics of my butchering equipment. Last year, we upgraded the Vacuum Seal machine and details are in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/vacuum-sealing-machines.13872/

Butchering has been on my mind the last couple days as described in this thread: https://habitat-talk.com/threads/exhausted.15046/

So, this afternoon while my wife was boiling the bones for soup stock and bbq meat, I hopped on Craigslist. I found a commercial meat slicer that was fairly close and just listed. They don't seem to last long. It was a good price for a commercial machine. The only thing I can find wrong is that it is missing the sharpening assembly. Since I'm not using it commercially, I'm not sure how much that matters. I looked on line at parts but they show "out of stock". Here is the unit:

I cleaned it up and lubricated it and it seems to be running well. My main purpose for it was to slice liver, but I'm sure my wife will find many other uses. I've cut myself a few times trying to make even slices of liver with a butcher knife. Nothing serious, but this will be much better for both consistency and safety.

Thanks,

Jack

As I dug into this meat slicer more and got some manual online, I found it had two deficiencies, but for the price it was well worth it. It is missing two parts, one is called a meat deflector that attached to the back side and the other is the sharpener assembly. I've been able to order both online. They were expensive, but even with that, the used commercial slicer was a good deal compared to what a new one would cost.

We sliced up 3 deer hearts with it for sandwich meat. It worked well. While the blade was sharp enough not to be any problem, I'm guessing it has not been sharpened for years. So, when the deflector and sharpener assembly arrive, I'll sharpen it and see how it performs.