Home butchering

[TnAndy]

Yep....same here. Bought one of those metal cabinet with propane burner smokers (think it might be a Masterbuilt too), and I've smoked a bunch of stuff with it. One of favorites is summer sausage, make 25lb batches at a time.

 

[TnAndy]

I agree we dry cured whole hams before and if done right they will keep without refrigeration but they are WAAAYYY too salty

The secret is to slice them fairly thin.....like 1/4" or less, then soak in cold water to remove most of the salt...takes a couple rinses. IF refrigeration ever gets to be an issue, I guess I'd go back to it, for salty ham beats no ham....but the brine cure is sometimes called a 'sweet cure' for a reason....way less salty.

 

[Egon]

In a time of long ago when growing up on a farm our beef and pork were always home butchered. Hams and bacon were salt cured in wooden barrels. Sausage was mixed up and cased. ( cleaned out intestine were used for the casing ) All was smoked in a smoke house. It was a small building that resembled an outhouse. Willow wood was used for the smoke. No nitrates were used.

Good food!

 

[LouNY]

Very interesting on canning the bacon, I also had never heard of that process being used.
I'd have a problem wrapping all that up in parchment paper, the shrinkage would be a tad bit high.
Did I mention I really like bacon.
Good looking pork cuts,
how did the Dexter turn out for you?
was it grass or grain finished?
How was the marbling and what age was it.
We have a few Low Line in addition to our regular Angus and they finish out nice,
but the steaks and roasts are smaller then normal.
Of course thats to be expected they are a smaller animal, but it sure makes for fewer issues with first calve heifers.

 

[oosik]

Egon - we always used willow, alder or birch. If we used birch - remove all the bark. It will tend to impart a bitter taste. A very good friend. Lived on acreage, in the Matanuska valley, near Palmer, AK. Built a "large" - 8' x 12' smoke house. Very fancy - multiple openings; screened, shuttered windows to assist in smoke density - UV lights to control any mold growth, multiple fans, electrically controlled smoke generator - the absolute works.

So the very first batch of salmon he smoked. Gave us a call. Come up - from Anchorage - look at how my fancy smoke house works - sample some of the product. I couldn't believe what he was doing. Everything was first class - right up until he used Black Spruce for the smoke. What a Nimrod.........

Ever chewed on a shop rag that's been soaked in turpentine. 120 pound of the very best AK silver salmon all tasted like that.

That was 43 years ago. He's my age. He will NEVER live that down. Even his dog just snarled at the smoked salmon.

 

[Bird]

I guess we just never went as far into our meat processing as a lot of you folks. I can barely remember hogs being scalded and scraped at my grandparents' place when I was a little feller. But from the time I was big enough to remember and to help, we killed the hogs and calves, skinned (yep, even hogs because Dad didn't like the skin left on), gutted, and cut them in two, then took the two halves to the lock plant in town and the butcher there cut, packaged, made sausage, etc.

 

[jmc]

So the very first batch of salmon he smoked. Gave us a call. Come up - from Anchorage - look at how my fancy smoke house works - sample some of the product. I couldn't believe what he was doing. Everything was first class - right up until he used Black Spruce for the smoke. What a Nimrod.........

Ever chewed on a shop rag that's been soaked in turpentine. 120 pound of the very best AK silver salmon all tasted like that.

That reminds me of a long forgotten story from a Dr. I used to work with. Louisiana guy, born and raised- he and some other med school residents had done an animal study on a bunch of rabbits that they had to dissect. Seemed like a shame to waste all that rabbit meat so they invited a bunch of Drs and staff over to a big rabbit barbecue. Turns out, the rabbit was inedible because they had used ether to kill the rabbits and apparently, the ether permeates the muscle. None of the residents had considered this. (or maybe they were the first ones to discover it.)

 

[teejk]

Yep....same here. Bought one of those metal cabinet with propane burner smokers (think it might be a Masterbuilt too), and I've smoked a bunch of stuff with it. One of favorites is summer sausage, make 25lb batches at a time.

Try chicken wings sometime. Not cheap anymore (when I was a meat cutter decades ago we could hardly give wings away...now they are the most expensive part of the bird) but worth it for a treat. Just did a batch on Friday along with a pork butt (as long as I have clean-up to do may as well load it up). I keep any poultry below pork or anything else so it doesn't drip down. Poultry can make people sick.

 

[MossRoad]

Try chicken wings sometime. Not cheap anymore (when I was a meat cutter decades ago we could hardly give wings away...not they are the most expensive part of the bird) but worth it for a treat. Just did a batch on Friday along with a pork butt (as long as I have clean-up to do may as well load it up). I keep any poultry below pork or anything else so it doesn't drip down. Poultry can make people sick.

Apparently they can kill you...

Woman, 76, pecked to death by her rooster in Australia

(why does every thing in Australia try to kill you?)

 

[MossRoad]

That reminds me of a long forgotten story from a Dr. I used to work with. Louisiana guy, born and raised- he and some other med school residents had done an animal study on a bunch of rabbits that they had to dissect. Seemed like a shame to waste all that rabbit meat so they invited a bunch of Drs and staff over to a big rabbit barbecue. Turns out, the rabbit was inedible because they had used ether to kill the rabbits and apparently, the ether permeates the muscle. None of the residents had considered this. (or maybe they were the first ones to discover it.)

Purdue University has an AG school and a Veterinarian school. The AG school has a butcher shop where they sell meat. The vet school? Ah, uh, no! :laughing:

A Cut Above at Purdue's Boilermaker Butcher Block - My Indiana Home