Re(2): SC - Re: Butchery

[Sue Wensel]

>Also, my family hunted, butchrered and prepared our own meat for years and
>never felt a need to be familiar with anatomy to eat. We knew what was edible
>and ate it. This insisting anatomical knowledge is a prerequesite to
>butchering is also, IMHO, absurd. Basically, you kill it, skin it and eat the
>parts that are edible whatevcer they are.

>Lord Ras

As did my family -- those skills were taught generation to generation.  Many
factors in these skills affect the edibility of the animal. 

How would you go about killing the animal?  Ideally, you don't want to run the
animal all over creation before you kill it or you end up with tougher meat
than you might want.  You don't want a gut shot animal or the meat will have a
strong taste.  

How do you dress the meat?  Knowing what parts of the animal to cut and not to
cut, how to tie off the orifices, etc. was vitally important so as not to
render the entire animal inedible.  I have a memory of my brother being
careless and rupturing the bladder of a rabbit he was to kill and butcher. 
The rabbit tasted vile; but he was required to eat the entire animal so as to
learn from the mistake.

How do you cut the carcass?  Which joints do you want? Cut with the grain of
the meat or against it (depends on the cut of meat)?  How do you get rid of
the membranes that cause some of the strong flavor?  

How do you preserve the meat?  What meat is better fresh and what meat will
survive preservation?  What do you want smoked, salted, frozen, preserved in
honey/lard, etc?

Let's not forget how to cook it.  But that is not the butcher's purview.

Lots of questions here besides kill it, cut it up, and eat it.  This
philosophy might pass for birds and small game, but won't give you decent
venison, beef, or other large game.

I have a more than passing familiarity with this process, having taken part in
the various aspects of it, but I would not presume to say I know how to do it.
 

Derdriu