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foxfire
.375 member


Reged: 25/11/04
Posts: 511
Loc: Long Island N.Y.,
Professionally Butchered
      #48755 - 01/02/06 01:23 AM

On my last hunt with my son we took two whitetail and a boar. Usually most guiding services will bone out your animals and send you out with hunks of boned meat. It usually gets wasted or given away as I'm not much of a butcher. I don't have the time or inclination either.

This time we requested the services of a professional butcher. All of our meat was cut, ground, made into sausages and vaccum packed. What a difference this makes. We have been eating everything we shot, giving away very little and we've really been having a ball cooking and experimenting with all of the meat.

For the price charged by the butcher this was a terrific investment and a lot more fun.

--------------------
No good deed goes unpunished

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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39883
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: foxfire]
      #48778 - 01/02/06 06:20 AM

Those boned out "hunks" can be cut into nice steaks if you know the cuts eg fillets or backstraps.

Cubed or cut into strips for casseroles and stirfries. Lots of uses.

Sausages and mince is nice too.





--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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mikeh416Rigby
.450 member


Reged: 24/02/03
Posts: 6051
Loc: The beautiful Oley Valley, PA....
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: foxfire]
      #48808 - 01/02/06 02:50 PM

foxfire, butchering your own deer is really easy. There are a lot of videos out there to help you through it. Another way to learn, is to go to your local meat market, and talk to one of the butchers there, and see if one of them would be willing to come to your home and show you how it's done.

It takes me around 2 hours to skin, bone out, cut steaks, roasts, filets, etc. Then another hour to grind up meat for hamburger and sausage. I usually add ground pork shoulder to my ground deer meat so there's some fat in the meat. Otherwise, it's too dry. I pick up the ground pork at the butcher shop. I only make sausage patties. I don't bother with stuffing it into casings.

I also bought one of those home vacuum sealers at Cabela's. They're worth their weight in gold. No more freezer burned meat or fish.

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AspenHill
Sponsor


Reged: 08/01/03
Posts: 1528
Loc: Vermont, USA
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: NitroX]
      #48810 - 01/02/06 02:59 PM

I tend to be a perfectionist and thus butcher my own game. It isn't hard to do but I am not very fast at it. I like thick cut steaks as I live off my grill. Thicker cuts just seem to cook up nicer and stay juicier.

Pieces of meat I want to use as ground stay in chunks until I thaw them. Simply cubing the meat and putting it into a food processor with a chopping blade gives you very fine quality ground meat in a few seconds.

I also have a vacuum sealer to greatly extend the freezer life of meat. This past hunting season for me netted three whitetail does and two buck pronghorn. I have no need to buy any red meat at the store.

I fish when I can AND I also raise my own chickens and don't buy poultry meat or eggs in the store either. I also grew a year's supply of winter squash (butternut) and oh are they yummy!

Almost 'living off the land' here!



--------------------
~Ann

Everyday spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

Aspen Hill Adventures

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foxfire
.375 member


Reged: 25/11/04
Posts: 511
Loc: Long Island N.Y.,
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: AspenHill]
      #48848 - 02/02/06 12:32 AM

At this time I definately don't have the time or desire to butcher my own game. Given the cheap cost the butcher charged, the time involved and the better than perfect job done. I'd bring it to them again everytime.
My wife even called the butcher for recipes. Reach into the freezer and the packages are there marked and ready to go it was a real pleasure this time.
We had a lot of chopped meat made as it's one of my favorites. My wife has made Chili, meat balls, taco's, stuffed peppers, etc. This was the best way "for me" so far.

--------------------
No good deed goes unpunished

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mikeh416Rigby
.450 member


Reged: 24/02/03
Posts: 6051
Loc: The beautiful Oley Valley, PA....
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: foxfire]
      #48858 - 02/02/06 02:20 AM

That's fine. If your butcher only wraps the finished cuts in butcher's paper, I'd still invest in the vacuum sealer, and when you get the meat home from the butcher, vacuum seal it yourself. The meat will last more than a year when vacuum sealed, vs. a couple of months when just wrapped in paper.

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EricD
.416 member


Reged: 27/02/04
Posts: 4636
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: AspenHill]
      #48862 - 02/02/06 03:39 AM

Ann,

When you say "butternut" squash, are you talking about the same as found in southern africa? The orangish colored, long ones?

What month do you plant the seeds and when is the crop ready to harvest?

And for how long do the ones you grow last in your cubbard/storeroom/fridge before rotting?

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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39883
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: AspenHill]
      #48865 - 02/02/06 03:54 AM

Ann

Your setup sounds quite ideal.

Venison, fish, chickens, eggs, and home grown vegetables.

Must keep you quite busy.

My families' farm used to do a lot of this, but we stopped most of it bit by bit. Lots of work!

We used to have our own herd of milk cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, grow our own potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, carrots, cabbage, beans, peas, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, eating grapes, wild mushrooms. Not to mention rabbit, hare, wild ducks, pigeons.

Now all we do is eat our own venison and make our own wine. Plus wild game. Not bad though.

Myself I like the 'wild forests'.

My parents still have a special vegetable plot for themselves though and grow more than they can eat.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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foxfire
.375 member


Reged: 25/11/04
Posts: 511
Loc: Long Island N.Y.,
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: mikeh416Rigby]
      #48866 - 02/02/06 03:56 AM

mikeh416Rigby,
We hunted in Clearville Pa. and had the meat butchered in Rainsburg Pa. All the meat was vaccum packed.
They made hot, sweet, country and breakfast sausage. Every cut of meat was marked on the package. This time we are getting the total full use of the meat harvested.
All the meat for the trip home was packed in a couple of coolers instead of boxes. The next time we kill an animal I'm headed for the butcher again.


--------------------
No good deed goes unpunished

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AspenHill
Sponsor


Reged: 08/01/03
Posts: 1528
Loc: Vermont, USA
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: EricD]
      #48901 - 02/02/06 10:47 AM

Erik,

Our butternut are funny shaped, most of them have a neck and then a larger, rounded chamber where the seeds are. Sometimes they grow longish, thin necks and others will be thicker squatty ones (kind of like people ) but they all taste the same (be nice). The shell is a tan color and the inside bright orange. We also call these winter squash as they have a hard shell and 'keep' a long time.

I also grew a type called spaghetti squash, also a hard shelled type. Spaghetti squash are oval shaped, like a rugby football, and have a cream colored shell. But I've eaten all of those already. They are lovely and when cooked hvae a stringy look and resemble pasta. They taste like sweet corn but with much less calories (low sugar).

I store my squash in my utility room which isn't heated but stays about 50 degrees F on average through the winter. None have rotted other than the ones where the stem broke too close to the fruit or where it had a cut in the shell.

I plant mine in May and protect the seedlings if I think frost will come. They mature by mid September through October and I pick when the first frost hits. When you pick squash you have to leave the stem on them.

I find that these squash cook up real well in a microwave oven. I cut them in half lengthwise and then scoop out the seeds. Then place them cut side down in a glass baking dish with about an inch of water (2.5 ml). Do not cover them. Set my microwave for 20 minutes and let it go.

Microwave ovens can vary but you will know when they are cooked when you can press the shell and it gives easily. I check mine after 15 minutes of cooking and until I determine it is cooked. Scoop out the flesh into a nice dish, add some real butter and serve.

These are all good served with grilled game meat. That orange color is what makes them so healthy, Betacarotine, a known antioxidant.

There are MANY varieties of winter squash. Our seed cataloges offer lots of them. They easy and are fun to grow.

John, if I could stay home day after day I wouldn't go to buy many groceries. I'd do as much as possible on my own as it would be much healthier. Low sugar, no chemicals, hormones, antibioitics, etc.... The biggest causes of cancer and diabeties in humans.

--------------------
~Ann

Everyday spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

Aspen Hill Adventures

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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39883
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: AspenHill]
      #48918 - 02/02/06 12:42 PM

I have left a butternut on a table on my verandah for several months adnd it was fine. Not in summer though. I think a cool dark cellar would keep them well for many months.

We cook butternut by just cutting off the hard shell, cubing the amount desired into large 'cubes' and steaming it.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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EricD
.416 member


Reged: 27/02/04
Posts: 4636
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: AspenHill]
      #48967 - 02/02/06 06:36 PM

Thanks Ann, that's the same as I was thinking about.

Maybe I'll try to plant some here in Norway in the future! It might no work, but would be worth it, as they are one of our favorite veggies.

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AdamTayler
.375 member


Reged: 22/03/04
Posts: 688
Loc: B.C.
Re: Professionally Butchered [Re: foxfire]
      #49076 - 03/02/06 01:49 PM

I debone the meat and then take it to my butcher. I could cut and wrap it myself, but it is easier to give the meat to someone who can process it blindfolded and has all the equipment to do so. Most of my venison gets turned into sausage and no other animal is mixed in with it, so the butcher just has to make sure he does not leave them in the smoker too long or they will be too dry. Once they reach the temp where the bacteria is killed, they come out: lean and organic. I then vaccuum seal them in packages of 6-8. I give away some of the meat to friends and family. I have one hunting partner who does not eat red meat so he gives away all of his!

--------------------
It's the journey, not the destination.

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