The Butcher

[sabertooth]

“When the student is ready the butcher will appear”

 The old fashion trade butchering is a dying art, being replaced by the assembly line and factory farming methods. There are still places to be found in the heartland of Kentucky where people produce and harvest their meat animals in a more traditional fashion. I have found a teacher who has been butchering since he was 7 years old and he is going to teach me all the skills in the trade. Perhaps I can use this thread to share some of what I learn on the way.

While driving out to slaughter a cow, we started talking about how humans are the ultimate predators. I was surprised how learned this old country butcher actually is. He begins to explain to me how it is actually best to eat meat raw, because in the raw state meat contains enzymes that enable it to be digested, and by cooking meat the body is taxed by having to produce more of its own enzymes.

We work out of an old military vehicle that has a home made crane with a wench attached to it. The set up is very nice and the work is fairly easy. From the time he drops the cow till it is skinned, gutted, quartered and put into a tank takes less than an hour. Then back at the shop we salt the hides and load the quarters into the refrigerator to hang.

I just got finished trimming out a whole beef, spent most of today learning about how to make all the cuts, and use all the equipment.

[ys]

Definitely tell us more.  I'm very interested.

[eveheart]

I'll be reading every word you write on this thread. I watch a lot of youtube videos on butchering. I hope you can make a video, too.

[jessica]

that's a sweet job saber! 

we had some folks come out to kill some piggies and they had the same set up, old truck with a crane to hang and drain and clean em out, then on to a little metal table to skin, then hung in a fridge truck and sent to the butcher.

really the only way to learn all of that is hands on so its great that youre getting a paid education. 

its also great your boss know whats up with meat.  I can tell you that very few ranchers and butchers have batted an eye when I tell them I eat meat raw, most dont care, understand, have done it themselves or have had relatives who occasionally chow raw meats.  really eye opening.

[goodsamaritan]

Witnessing your career change here... priceless!

[cherimoya_kid]

  I can tell you that very few ranchers and butchers have batted an eye when I tell them I eat meat raw, most dont care, understand, have done it themselves or have had relatives who occasionally chow raw meats.  really eye opening.

that is very interesting. It doesn't surprise me too much, though.  People generally become more relaxed around things they are very familiar with.

[sabertooth]

There is a hidden backwoods sub culture of raw meat eaters in many parts of the world.

When my boss started out working at the slaughter house all the old guys there would drink blood, as a remedy for a hang over. He said one day after a night of drinking he drank a big cup, and within minutes he started feeling much better. He will also eat some raw meats while butchering, but from habit will always sear his steaks.

He told me about why the Indians use smoke houses, to dry the meat, not to cook it. Traditional smoke houses would not get hot enough to cook meat. The purpose of the smoke was to keep insects away while the meat dried. I am going to build a smoke shack soon and start experimenting with ways to dry age meats.

[goodsamaritan]

Maybe screen technology these days will keep the insects away instead of smoke?

[jessica]

I would think the smoke and the heat created by the fire would help to lower the humidity and help the drying process, in addiction to keeping away insects.  I cant tell you how dry a house heated with a wood stove can get in the middle of a wet winter...they really evaporate moisture well.

[goodsamaritan]

In our city, the beef slaughter house butcher does the killing and the quartering.

In our wet markets we have 2 more types of butchers who process the quarters.

1. the "stripper" cuts it up in big chunks. (they usually have no personality)

2. the show / salesman butcher. - they call out to customers, smile, befriend, haggle and do their showmanship cutting up the beef exactly according to the specifications of the customers.  They even give recipe advice.

-----------

When it comes to pigs, the pigs are slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.

The stripper cuts up the pig in large parts.

And the retail showman salesman does his thing.

-----------

You could be the all of the above.  With your pole dancing training, you could flex your muscles and smile as the retail showman and have the ladies lining up to buy from you.

[jessica]

most food is precut and packaged here for convenience and storing.  there are butcher shops in very nice grocery stores that do high quality foods including grass fed meats, but those are usually only in very populated towns, but I don't think hot ladies every really line up at the butcher shop, maybe only in some very special communities.

[sabertooth]

Maybe screen technology these days will keep the insects away instead of smoke?

Thats what I was thinking to do. line the inside with screen and run a fan to dry age,

The Indians originally didn't even use smoke houses they just hung their meat on primative racks close enough to a fire for the heat to help it dry a little faster and  the smoke to keep the bugs away

most food is precut and packaged here for convenience and storing.  there are butcher shops in very nice grocery stores that do high quality foods including grass fed meats, but those are usually only in very populated towns, but I don't think hot ladies every really line up at the butcher shop, maybe only in some very special communities.

My boss was explaining how 90 percent of the work we do has to do with aesthetics. We turn a whole beef into different cuts of steaks, roast, stew meat and burger. Then his wife and this cute girl run the store front and keep the different cuts of meat all well presented in a deli case.

Got to dress out the first grassfed cow the other day. It was a big one , its dress weight was over 1000 pounds and its been hanging for 10 days. It was absolutely delicious. I got to graze on it all day, and ended up taking home 40 pounds of fat trimmings 40 pounds of suet, and 4 pounds of scrap meat I scavenged. Had to leave about 100 pounds of fat in the trash because I don't have room in my freezer for it(its a damn shame, he says we can't sell it because its done for local farmers and hasn't been properly inspected) But I can take what I want home for DOG FOOD.

[ys]

I'm using these as reference
Part 1 - How to bone a hind quarter of beef demonstration by Master Butcher Michael Cross
Part 2 - How to bone a hind quarter of beef demonstration by Master Butcher Michael Cross
Part 3 - How to bone a hind quarter of beef demonstration by Master Butcher Michael Cross

If you have any tips that would be great.

[cherimoya_kid]

That's awesome, Sabertooth.  Your job IS your food source.  ROFL  Gotta love it.

[sabertooth]

I have been witnessing first hand the negative effects of grain finishing beef.

Some farmers will use feeding troughs full of brewers grains and corn in order to fatten them quickly and cheaply. The feed smells awful and makes cows get morbidly fat, but since they are slaughtered by the time they are 30 months old, much of the negative effects don't reach the surface.
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130324/BUSINESS/303240024/From-brew-moo-Cattle-feed-spent-grain-from-breweries

I slaughtered a twenty month old Angus the other day , fattened on brewers grains, that's knees were swollen with fluid, an early sign of arthritis. This cant be healthy, even if its not GMO

The breeding stock is usually kept on pasture and only the young animals that are to be slaughtered are given large amounts of grains. In this way farms can still keep a healthy breeding population, but most of the conventionally raised animals that are fattened for slaughter, would not be fit to eat by Raw Paleo Standards.

At least not every animal we process is grain fed, there is a wild bull that's been raised on pasture that we are going to hunt down in a couple of weeks, and a 3 year old pasture cow a week after that.

[cherimoya_kid]

That's interesting, that they keep the breeding stock on pasture. 

[sabertooth]

Its more than interesting, its absolutely imperative they do so.

My boss has pointed out to me that, Already there are increasing rates of infertility, as well are pelvic bone deformities in conventionally raised cattle, , and if the breeding stock were not allowed on pasture and instead fed a diet of hay, supplemented GMO grains, and protein mixes of god knows what; that would render a large percentage of the animals infertile within a few generations.

Now the farmers we service are actually using more ethical methods compared to the majority of animal producers, in as much as that most of them avoid the use of antibiotics and hormones,

Many feed lot producers will buy pasture born calfs and then began to administer the special treatment.

Its totally  unsustainable to raise breeding stock by the same methods they finish out animals destined for human consumption. Animals who are to be fattened up by CONVENTIONAL methods become so sick and unbalanced that they would soon succumb to disease and die before they would be able to breed healthy offspring. 

My main point is that the majority people in america are eating these feed lot animals and the hormones , antibiotics , and GMOs that are proven to cause severe issues in the breeding stock of farm animals are being ingested by the breeding stock of humanity.

[PaleoPhil]

It's the same story with bees too, and all other species. The queen bees that are raised near-wild, without being fed any HFCS crap, are the heartiest, and are much sought after by beekeepers throughout the US.

Sabertooth, you rightly point out that humans are eating mostly crap and are degenerating as a result. We are the only species in history which embraces its own destruction and willingly accelerates it.

Humans, the first suicidal species. Not even lemmings were this foolish.

[sabertooth]

To the credit of our species and the will to survive inherent in all whom are truly alive, there are those among us who still retain remnants of our primal drives, as well as the intelligence by which to plot out an alternative courses of action.

We must not be carried away by the suicidal compulsion of the fallen masses of our species,
We must diverge from the mainstream and blaze a new trail away from the ruins of a post neolithic world.
Take whoever will come with us, and leave the rest to fend for themselves.

It is in our nature to follow the call of the wild which beckons certain members of a species at critical times to schism from the main branches of the evolutionary tree, as it has done with all former breeds of hominids who came before us.

If these grandiose, big picture, machinations hold elements of truth, and the ways of modern man are inevitably leading up to an evolutionary cull-de- sac,  where our descendants are doomed to flounder in a post humanistic genetic decay; then I put my hope in the notion that there must be those among us who are instinctively intact beings of great spirit that are willing and able to alter course and re wild the species.

Big picture aside, I think there is much we can do as individuals to prevent the insane methods of modern food production from harming those around us. Save whom ever you can, by getting educated and spreading the word through the grass fed roots. Try having fun along the way.


 

[sabertooth]

I helped slaughter a steer last week with a broken front leg, after skinning it I seen that the leg was covered in a yellow viscous liquid. My boss said it was pus, full of healing antibodies. He also told me that when wounds are like that you have to throw out the liver because it always tastes  foul.

Later today we tried to salvage what meat we could from the leg. What was really odd was that the meat throughout the animal had a different texture and was dark and purplish. The smell was very odd, and the yellow puss ran through the other joints of the animal. The healing process altered the composition of the entire animal.

I tried a piece and it had a weird after taste, and since it was one of those brewer grain finished monsters I decided it wasn't fit to eat, even if it was technically safe.

[Dr. D]

The same thing happened with my roadkill deer. Everything tasted odd and was purple. The dogs didn't mind though.

I was wondering what the yellow pus was also. Thanks.

[sabertooth]

I went out to Russel Springs to get a Sheep. The lady is really eccentric, but one soon gets use to eccentric farmers. Animal lover, tree huggers often take much better care of their animals than farmer Bob who sells to the local slaughter house.  If you want an animal that has been raised on pasture without the use of GMO feeds and drugs, you have to deal with far out people.

The lady's husband was sent out to help me pick out one, I told him to let me have the fattest one of the bunch and soon found a nice ram. While on the road home he called , saying that he gave me the wrong one, his wife was screaming in the background" I told him to take the one with the horns".

So I turned around and before I could get very far she called and told me to keep him then hung up on me.

Then while almost home the husband calls back and ask me if the one I got was a male. "Yes; he has balls". He explained that the  other males were all castrated and destined to be culled, but the one I picked was intact and to be put out to stud. He was real cool about everything and we joked about how his wife was going to cut off his balls for giving away the wrong sheep.

Finding this out made me a little sad in a way. Going out to farms and taking sheep that are set aside to cull, in order to thin out a flock is a humane and decent way to harvest meat. Most male sheep that are not separated or castrated go nuts and kill the other males, so they need to be culled. But the one I picked was destined for a life of luxury, and at least a couple of years living as a stud in his prime. So as I prepared it for slaughter I cant help but feel sorry for robbing the poor boy of his destiny.

He will live on in me and together we will carry on life's purpose. For this purpose I am grateful and pay great respect to the spirit of the ram for its sacrifice.

[ys]

I just processed 56lb one-year old.  Without head and organs it came about 22lb.  There was almost no fat.  I told the guy not to bring so young anymore.  He gets it from Amish in Indiana-Illinois border.  The good thing it was all green in the stomach. No traces of grains.

Here is my question.  How do you cut through the spine to get 2 halves for lamb chops?  I don't have band saw.  Just hack saw and knives.  Cut with hack saw as close to the spine as possible from both sides?

[jessica]

these two things popped up on my facebook feed and seemed pertinent...I didn't watch the video as I think they may have filmed a slaughter, and I don't think that an animals death should ever be filmed or photographed, like..the actual point of death, I think its disrespectful.

but it thought this was a good quote.....kind of eerie and makes me think how bad our lack of experience in basic natural survival has so changed how we perceive things, like our whole basis of society is based on the same moral judgment that is pretty unique to mankind....and just that we are a weird ass species

"I have come to the conclusion, after decades of living with animals, that dying is not painful, only the fear of death is. How does modern slaughtering work? Animals are transported over long distances, crowded in confined spaces and when they arrive at the slaughterhouse they can smell blood, fear, and death, never mind hear the screaming of the other animals. Just look them in the eyes and you know what fear of death is. This is unnecessary and unacceptable. Humane slaughter takes a little more time, but we owe it to animals. The most important thing for the animal is not to be stressed or in pain. The product will also be healthier. Humane butchering happens locally, where the animal has lived, without transportation. An animal is best killed by the human it feels most close to." -Sepp Holzer

The Good Slaughter: A Proud Meat Cutter Shares His Story | food.curated. | Reserve Channel

[sabertooth]

I just processed 56lb one-year old.  Without head and organs it came about 22lb.  There was almost no fat.  I told the guy not to bring so young anymore.  He gets it from Amish in Indiana-Illinois border.  The good thing it was all green in the stomach. No traces of grains.

Here is my question.  How do you cut through the spine to get 2 halves for lamb chops?  I don't have band saw.  Just hack saw and knives.  Cut with hack saw as close to the spine as possible from both sides?

We have a 1600 dollar hand held electric bone saw that we split animals with, my boss said he use to have to hand saw through the spine.

A hack saw would work, or perhaps an electric saw saw, if you cant get an actual butchers saw.

these two things popped up on my facebook feed and seemed pertinent...I didn't watch the video as I think they may have filmed a slaughter, and I don't think that an animals death should ever be filmed or photographed, like..the actual point of death, I think its disrespectful.

Why should it be disrespectful, the animal isn't even aware of being filmed. Its no worse than national geographic filming a lion hunt.

There are many ways to ensure a quick and painless death, and I agree that it is better to use humane methods when slaughtering.
Not only is it the moral thing to do, but if you let an animal get stressed and suffer it actually builds up a bitter taste in its meat from all the lactic acid and adrenalin released in the struggle.

True story believe it or not...
My boss once told me of a the time when a farmer he slaughtered for found a huge field of marijuana someone was growing on his land. He didn't want to turn it in to the authorities because they would come in and make a mess of his other crops, so he cut it into hay and fed it to his cows. When my boss was called over to slaughter a cow he saw about 20 cows just standing around chewing their cud as calm as can be. He ask the farmer to separate the other cows so he wouldn't frighten them. The farmer told him not to bother because they were all to stoned to care.

He shot the one dead, and usually other cows will scatter and move out of the way when one is dropped with a 22, but he said these cows didn't blink an eye, they were so mellow and relaxed that they wouldn't leave and crowded around so that it was hard for him to pull the thing out to skin it.

In conclusion
So why not finish out animals on a blend of hay and cannabis. Getting an animal stoned must make it easier to handle and would cause less pain and suffering when it comes time to slaughter.

Think how tender and flavorful a marijuana finished cow would taste.