View Full Version : Please note: question about animal butchery, please don’t read if you find unpleasant
Please note: question about animal butchery, please don’t read if you find unpleasant.
Now here is a naive question.
I have never killed and prepared anything. Never gutted or skinned anything. I don’t have a desire to do it, in fact I’m not 100% sure I could, but would like to think I knew how to and I am interested in it. Having read and seen a little, I think I have a feeling of what to do, but often especially on TV, in the current climate, the nitty gritty is glossed over.
I’ve heard reference to bleeding but I’ve never seen any information. Would you bleed a rabbit/fish/deer to remove the blood, if so when and how, and what are the consequences of not doing.
Does anyone have any pictures which explain the preparation of an animal?
An apology if this has offended anyone.
There's no need to bleed rabbit or fish, because they have so little blood that just gutting them does the trick. A deer, on the other hand, you'd want to tie up by it's back legs and cut its throat to get rid of all the blood.
if you're shooting deer, you'll have tried to hit it in the heart, which leads to the animal bleeding out into the chest cavity so it ends up just like a rabbit - no need to bleed.
In short, if you're dealing with a farmed animal, then shoot it in the head, hang it from a tree by its back legs, then cut its throat deeply (down to the spine to be sure, if it's your first time). Once all the blood has drained (into a bucket!), you can gut, skin and butcher it.
I used to think I couldn't do that (veggie for five years!), but it's surprisingly easy once you get stuck in. I started with some pigeon a friend gave me, and ended up working in a butchery! :-)
If you've got any more questions about butchering or related topics, don't hesitate to ask. :D
Thanks, I understand it’s an unpleasant subject for many.
What would be the consequences of not bleeding a larger animal, not keep as well? Tainted taste?
And if anyone has done a picture series on gutting and butchering please could they point me at it or post it. Many thanks
Yeah, if you fail to bleed it it won't taste quite right - various chemicals which pump 'round it the blood won't get flushed so they stay in the meat. I doubt it would matter much if it was life-or-death, but the blood makes a lovely pudding so it's still worth doing! :)
Here's an excellent pictorial:
http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Wild_Food/Paunching_&_Skinning_a_Rabbit/
Other quadrapeds are exactly the same - practice on a rabbit, then once you can do it easily you'll have no problems with any size animal - sheep, pig, cow, they're all basically the same under the skin. I can heartily recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0882663917/ref=pd_sxp_f/104-8245832-2500712?v=glance&s=books
Happy butchering! :D
Hi Jim,
Brilliant link, thank you so much, it was exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks for taking the time.
Andy.
There's no need to bleed rabbit or fish,
Unless its shark ... I think you're meant to cut the tail off to bleed them.
Oh hell just in case you wondered where Shark came in...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/Lithril/IMG_1787.jpg
:D :D :D
That's a lovely shark! Where did you get him from? Did you eat him? :)
Buckshot
01-07-2005, 10:49
When bleeding a deer you can also put the knife into the V shape at the top of the ribs. Stick the knife in at the base of the neck/ top of the ribs crossways, so the edge (not the tip) of the blade is pointing towards one shoulder blade and the back is towards the other. Then slice accross the inside of the cavity. This cuts the aorta just above the heart and the animal bleeds into the chest cavity. You only need to go in a few inches - say 4-5 so you don't need a huge machete or anything.
Works well :)
There's a couple of tutorials on preparing birds on this site, a goose and pigeon I think. Do a search and see.
Cheers
Mark
Caught him on Bruny Island, Tasmania last year, wasn't sure how to prepare him at the time so we let the lil fella go back.
beachlover
01-07-2005, 12:37
There's no need to bleed rabbit or fish, because they have so little blood that just gutting them does the trick.
This is true as only as long as "gutting" includes the removal of major vessels, such as the prominent dorsal blood vessel running along the spine in the abdominal cavity of fish as in the case of trout etc. Leaving this intact can seriously spoil the flesh and taste very bitter and metallic when cooked. If I had known this thread was coming up today I could have taken photos of me cleaning out trout last night :( mind you I don't know who would have taken the pics as the other half and youngster turn green and vacate the kitchen when I do it :rolleyes:
I've got it in my head that with pig/boar you should always bleed well because of a risk of disease/toxins if you leave the blood in? However, this might be completely wrong - i anyone knows I'd love to be told the proper answer!
I have a feeling porcine blood has a high probability of containing parasites like tapeworm spores. I haven't got a source for that, so take it with a pinch of salt!
As far as I know, all animals need to be bled carefuly and completely, because as beachlover points out even a small amount of blood can cause an unpleasant taste. I'm not sure about hygiene reasons, but taste should be reason enough! ;)
And if all else fails and you can't bring yourself to gut it, post it to me and I'll do it. I only charge an arm and a leg! :P :D
Ogri the trog
01-07-2005, 17:11
[QUOTE=Jim_W] Here's an excellent pictorial:
http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/W...nning_a_Rabbit/ [QUOTE]
Jim,
Excellent tutorial, though I remove rabbit skins using fingers instead of a knife. I have a fear of handling a knife while my hands could be slippery from body tissue etc.
Ogri the trog
BorderReiver
04-07-2005, 11:14
I have a feeling porcine blood has a high probability of containing parasites like tapeworm spores. I haven't got a source for that, so take it with a pinch of salt!
As far as I know, all animals need to be bled carefuly and completely, because as beachlover points out even a small amount of blood can cause an unpleasant taste. I'm not sure about hygiene reasons, but taste should be reason enough! ;)
And if all else fails and you can't bring yourself to gut it, post it to me and I'll do it. I only charge an arm and a leg! :P :D
Don't know about being blood born,but the recommendation is that pork should always be overcooked rather than underdone because of the risk of parasitic infestation.
Not that I am contributing to this thread, I am reading it with interest. But, according to my butcher at Tesco’s, that advice about over cooking pork is out of date and now it is safe enough to eat rare!
I can’t imagine Tesco’s would risk the kind of law suite that would follow if this was incorrect, however he could have been some rouge butcher terrorist!
Spacemonkey
05-07-2005, 14:00
Ok so I don't exactly butcher 'animals' regularily, but I do know a thing or two about removing skin and guts, not to mention bleeding.... say no more!!
Anyway, my two penneth is thus-the first place for decomposition to occur is the caecum, which is the bit your appendix hangs off and where the small intestine becomes the large intestine. It, like most of the gut, is host to loads of 'friendly' bacteria, which get bored having nothing more to eat, and thus eat the dead host. This spreads throughout the viscera in the abdomen, but before it gets far, the blood starts to turn. The blood and other tissue fluids are host to bacteria that can't wait to spread and thus get to work quickly after death. The red cells also break down (haemolysis) and release chemicals which are probably what causes the dodgy taste. This all combines to give an effect that we call 'marbleing' as your veins forms brown lines on your skin which looks like marble. The skin also decomposes rapidly and the connective tissue goes first so that the outer layer of skin comes off when touched. By now the animal would be very unedible!! So basically, gut, bleed and refridgerate pronto as this can all happen within a day.
It's interesting to note that in the Arctic, rancid meat is considered a deilicacy. One such Inuit delight is to stuff a whole fulmar gull (feathers, guts and all) into a seal skin pouch which still contains it's fat layer. This is left to go off for quite some while before eating the lot. Yum... evidently smells like a very mature cheese.
That's very interesting! Are you a doctor of some sort? :D
I always wonder about the relationship between hanging game and decay. If I hang a pheasant for two weeks, a lot of what you describe will have happened - is this what makes it 'gamey'?
In a similar vein, did anyone see that programme about the slaughterhouse? Very good.
Spacemonkey
06-07-2005, 15:59
Personally I don't like the hung game taste. Any smell of decompsition makes me retch when associated with food. I'm an embalmer and also a mortician, if that's what you'd call it-the person who does autopsies. One of the reasons I am partially veggie is due to associating food with things at work. Guess i have been doing it too long!
When you die, the chemical process that happens in the beginning of decomposition causes the muscles to contract and of course, as you have no blood flow, the chemicals stay there until they break down themselves. This is what causes Rigor Mortis. This will make the meat tough, however, buy moving the joint and thus stretching the muscle, the rigor is removed, never to return, and the meat is soft again. I believe that hanging is also to soften the meat via decomp, but giving the meat a work out (!) will do the same.
Ahhh I see. I've done the stretching thing many times, but never really knew what it was about.
So, once these nasty organisms get to work, what is it about them that hurts us if we eat them? Do they produce chemicals that are harmful, or is it the beasites themselves? Are they aerobic? Or are there different 'decay paths' for aerobic/anaerobic decay?
Sorry to bombard you with Qs! :)
Hmmm, methinks there's some "interesting" info here. :)
Well, firstly, tapeworms don't produce spores (perhaps you meant cyst?) and the blood has nothing to do with tapeworms unless you ingest the fertilized egg, in which case you will become an intermediate host and a larvae will hatch, bore into your intestine, jump into the bloodstream and be delivered to your muscles where it will burrow in and form a cyst. This usually comes from drinking tainted water or chewing on grass contaminated with feces. So, don't eat the grass. :D But you won't get the cyst from eating tapeworm cysts. Tapeworms hang out in the gut--small intestine.
Nor will bleeding do anything to keep you from getting trichinosis which can be a very serious disease depending on the dose. This is a nematode infection and you get it from eating uncooked pork. This time eating the cysts are bad news. I would check with your government and see what the incidence of infection is before I start eating rare pork. In North America people still can get if from eating uncooked pork but also from eating uncooked bear meat and this is well documented among Indians in Canada who eat a lot of bear meat.
logstacker
11-07-2005, 21:03
Not that I am contributing to this thread, I am reading it with interest. But, according to my butcher at Tesco’s, that advice about over cooking pork is out of date and now it is safe enough to eat rare!
I can’t imagine Tesco’s would risk the kind of law suite that would follow if this was incorrect, however he could have been some rouge butcher terrorist!
My butcher at TESCO!!!!!As a 25 year time served butcher let me tell you that the majority of "butchers" there are folks dressed in straw hats and stripey aprons.No skill,just corporate quotes.They don`t pay enough to attract skill.My boss pays 10 pounds an hour to get skilled guys,and still struggles.
Pork MUST be cooked properly.FULL STOP.I have customer who contracted an eye parasite from undercooked pork.She is now 50% sighted.
Sorry to sound off,but many folk think cos it`s Tesco it must be right.You wanna try their "fishmongers "too.They`re crap as well.
We had a guy come to us for a job from Morrisons.He was in his 50`s,and was a butchery manager.I was about 30 and just stood in on the interview.My boss asked me if I had any questions.We had just had a delivery of pigs,and they were there ,on the hook.I offered him a knife and asked him to break one down.He declined.He had only ever "seen one done".
`Nuff said!
logstacker
11-07-2005, 21:10
Also listen to spacemonkey.He`s right.
Spacemonkey
11-07-2005, 22:25
Blimey, I don't hear that often!! ;)
Buckshot
12-07-2005, 08:38
:D :D :D
Butternut
21-08-2005, 19:16
Thanks everyone so far for a great thread. The books and TV do certainly gloss over the blobby bits! :rolleyes: As a semi-armchair BCer I was ashamed when I found an injured pheasant in the garden and didn't know how to get it on the table for dinner!
Regarding rotten delicacies, I ate some of that raw shark they burry in shingle/sand for a year or two in Iceland. Imagine an intense fishy amonia blast through your sinuses! Sort of revolting and fantastic at the same time :eek:
lardbloke
21-08-2005, 20:40
When I left school at 15, I was put on a YTS course with the local COOP as a butcher. Luckily for me this was a course so I had to attend the local college at night to pass the old Institute of meat certificate (which I did with flying colours). It was belief that all butchers should have this peice of paper and you should ask to see if your butcher has passed the relevant courses (if not, why not). The course was about a very small porttion of the Environmental health officers course, which the clever people could have gone onto to do (no one does). Luckily I left a after finishing my YTS to join the RAF and onto better things.
As for the eating of pork raw, well I remember a few of the butchers in the various stores swore that you could eat pork raw (sausages) but I think this was from the old days when they were more organic, but would not reccomend it by a long stretch.
I still can rememer how to cut all the joints of every beast or foul via memory and would suggest people visiting a local slaughter house to over come their meat fears.
BlueTrain
09-09-2005, 21:43
When I was still living in West Virginia, I once witnessed a bull killed for slaughter with a shotgun to the forehead. I'm not sure that was common but it worked.
Concerning vegetarians, I am certain many are put off by the thought of the killing and butchering, yet I am also certain that most of them would be slight repulsed by everything that goes into getting those vegetables on the table as well.
All that dirt, you know.
bushwacker bob
09-09-2005, 22:18
The reason your butcher said that rare pork is now safe is because the ministry of agriculture(MAFF,DEFRA or this years name) believe that the pork tapeworm has been eliminated from the British farmed pig stock.
They cant vouch for imported pork tho'
a little tip on skinning not seen it on here yet if its been posted already sorry but here goes
if you are skining and doing the full job straight away and you dont need the skin
the easist way i have found bearing in mind i was a game keeper for many years is to place the first cut down the spine thus pressing onto a ahrd surface and no chance of cutting the organs then pealing the skin of as normal from the back to the front, 1 less messy 2 less smell 3 easy to pull on ie. no loose bits of skin to fight with . once skin then extremities removed then to gut which is cleaner has the skin isnt flopping inside the cavity. i hope this isnt old ground?.