butchering your own steer (my hubby and I disagree!!!)

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I want to get our local trust worthy butcher to "do" our first steer, about july the steer will be ready. My hubby thinks he and the nieghbors can do it. I think it needs to hang for a while, he thinks not. He is worried that once it is at the butcher, who knows if we really get ours back, he really works hard to care for the little guy. What are your thoughts? Am I right...I love it when I am, or is he right? grrr?? hehehehehe Or, am I subconsiously avoiding the work?? julie

-- julie britt (jbritt@ceva.net), February 17, 2002

Answers

Hanging it will give you a better flavor/texture and doing it yourself is something worth doing, and a good excuse for a get together, especially, if you do the old timey (original) bar-b-que with the head.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 17, 2002.

Well, it depends on what your local butcher charges. We are having ours done for 28cents a pound. We pick up ours Friday! They charge by the hanging weight. Anyway....I wouldn't do it for that because it is a mess and I have done just about everything that there is to do around this farm. If you can afford to have it done and it is not expensive, then by all means have the butcher do it. If you are going to butcher it yourself in July, you will need a cool place to keep it for a couple of weeks to age. If you don't age it I think that it has a funny taste. Those are just my opinions. Of course, once he does one, he might not bother you to do it again! heeheehee! My hubby says.....rather have it come back in those lovely meal sized packages if we can afford to have it done! No muss, No fuss, and no guts in the yard!!!!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 17, 2002.

If the butcher is going to short you, chances are they would keep a couple of prime cuts for themselves rather than switching an entire carcass.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 17, 2002.

Our local butcher's employees are well known for taking the best cuts home with them. During deer season, the carcasses are all dumped in a big pile and no one gets his own deer back. I've personally been shorted at this shop also, so beware it's probably pretty wide spread.

-- bruce (niobrara55@hotmail.com), February 17, 2002.

If you don't have the butcher do it, take the carcass to the butcher so that it can hang for at least 2 weeks in his cooler...you don't want to hang your carcass in July unless you can chill it. In my personal experience hanging for 20 days is even better but most meat cutters won't do it for that long...some USDA rule or something. Aged beef is much more tender and flavorful than green in my opinion.

If you are worried about the honesty of the butcher, ask him or her to let you watch...if you have never done a steer before it will be good education at the very least. Honest people can be found in every profession.

If you do it yourself then next time time the kill for early winter so you can hang the carcass in your barn.

Good Luck.

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), February 17, 2002.



i have stoped hanging them myself and cut up on a as convenient basis let them cool down so the meat will cut up better .had a couple of emergencies in the summer when i had no cooling facilites and cut up while it was still hot and froze the hamberger trimmings to be ground laterhad to have her cut up and wraped that night and go to work the next morning couldnt tell any difference in flavor actualy seemed better .the old timers used to hang poultry and let it mellow , yuck.if you are not uptight about the cuts being the exact butchershop shape do it your self and save a few bucks .

-- george darby (windwillow@fuse.net), February 17, 2002.

If he wants to do it for the entertainment value, :), having fun with the neighbors, let him, but doing butchering in July is asking for trouble, IMO. Too much heat and FLIES!! Why not wait until October and let it hang for a week in the barn? Then both of you win. :) I'd certainly let beef hang if I could, especially a lean animal. Makes better eating.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), February 17, 2002.

We did a huge Simintal in the front yard about a month ago. It was very easy! The temp was perfect, let it hang just overnight, didn't freeze but stayed cold, and it took me 2 days to cut it all up and put in the freezer. This is the absolute best tasting meat I've ever had, and it did not hang 10 days. And the cow was 4 years old. I would say wait till the weather gets cold next fall and do it yourself. It is very easy, and you know that it is kept clean.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), February 17, 2002.

its a lot of work, if you do ityourself , do it now , or wait till fall, even without "hanging" time , unless you have 10 people it will take 2-3 days from start to finish , then consider the offal, the insides you dont want to eat, do you have dogs to feed it too, or would you not be ok with that??? plan it out, do it bfore it gets too warm , take the cow off food for 24 hours before butchering,then get everyobne ready, has he sonsidered the sheer amount of work involved?, and you cant "take a break", it must be done , start to finish , as quickly as possible... you kill, and skin, gut and bleed out , hang, halve, wash , and start cutting , all at same time , it will be a lot harder , if you hang overnight , will make the carcass cold , stiff and easier to handle , do you have a bandsaw?, how will you cut the large bones, ask hubby all this , ,maybe look at some of the butchering , meat processing sites ,

if you take to a butcher, tell them you want to watch the whole thing , unless you know the butcher personally!, then , mark your carcass, use food grade coloring , and make a "brand", on each half or 1/4( we use our initials , and blue color in the past on deer)

and come back to the butcher on cutting day , make sure you get "your" steer, especially important , if like most homesteaders you raised organicly, who would want a hormoned animal instead of thier nice grain and gress fed animal(yech)

in short, check out why he wants to do it , then discuss discuss discuss, make sure you really know what your in for , either way! B

-- Beth Van Stiphout (willosnake@hotmail.com), February 18, 2002.


Have you ever butchered anything before? I wouldn't recommended starting with a huge steer. My parents and I have hung a lot of sheep and hogs and veal but nothing bigger unless it was an emergency. In the middle of summer you'll have all kinds of nasty flies at the carcass and fly eggs are not MY favorite condiment on anything! And you'll need to chill it off before cutting so unless you have a cooler or your freezer is empty enough to accomadate it in quarters, warm meat is just not as easy to cut. Good luck which ever way you decide. Leslie

-- Leslie Ann Rigley (l.a.rigley@altavista.com), February 18, 2002.


Well my hackles are up. I have a homestead butcher shop and every year I have a new first timer( farmer beef pigs lambs etc ), ask the same things.Will I get my own meat back,I want all my meat back, and I tell them all the same thing Yes Yes Yes.I then ask them if they would like to save some money and that if then are willing to help I will take off so much a pound.This will all so let them see just how much work is beign done for 30 cent a pound.I under stand and I think that most good butchers do allso that you have watched this animal grow and its most likely the most work in to one thing you have ever done,2yr for most beef. And that you want every last bit of it to be mouth watering.AT the butcher shop you have some ome who knows whats armchuck roast chuck roast,chuck steak,rib steak,prim rib,blade steak,flank steak,etc on a frount 1/4. And t bones,porterhouse,pinbone steaks,top and bottom round,eye of round or whole round steaks,sirloin staak,sirlointip, newyorkstrip steaks,tenderlionI hope oyu see were Iam going with this at home you get Beef steak. So find a good butcher ask lots of ? and leave the whine in the whine shed, a new friend with a walkin cooler is a good thing. Have a gerat day Jimbo

-- Jim Lewis (jtbutcher30@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.

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