SC - Butchering the lamb

[Alderton, Philippa]

I have gotten enough private inquiries on the subject, and I spent enough
bandwidth on it before War, that I suppose I had better let the rest of you
know what happened.

Anna and Frederich showed up with their vehicles at A&S Info Point- I
collected people at my camp, since I pretty well had a carload just with us.
We met and then caravanned to the butcher site and unloaded.

We brought out the lamb, actually, at about 115 pounds, a well developed
young sheep. He had fully developed testicles- hadn't been castrated- more
on that later.

I cut his throat.

He didn't die.

I later discovered that he had a slight modification of the location of his
carotid artery, which placed it further behind the jawbone that I had ever
observed previously- I now know more about how to place the knife.

He didn't suffer, he wasn't upset, he just refused to bleed to death, and I
finally cut him deeper, and he expired quickly there after.

Still feel bad about that, though.

I then demonstrated to those who were interested where to cut his hind legs
between the (Achilles) tendon and the bone in order to hang him properly
from the rack I had smithed, and we skinned him. I started the cuts, showed
people what to do, and, with a few odd bits of advice, I helped them skin
him out. At that point, a lady who wished his wool started to clean the skin
properly. I then removed his innards, explaining what they were ( they look
a lot different from what you see in a medical text) and handed out various
parts to those who wanted them.

I then cut off his head, and rough cut him into 6 sections (minus the head,
which I had bagged for my recipe), being each foreleg, including shoulder,
halves of the ribcage/body (Jehan- Yves was kind enough to saw through the
spine), and the hind legs.

Various people then trimmed up the various parts into usable sections
(Mistress Christianna deserves a loud Thank-You for guiding people through
most of this part of the process, and as we got various parts cleaned and
separated, we bagged them and put them into coolers. It was getting warm,
and we were taking a fair amount of time, so we moved everything into the
shade.

When we were done, Anna's husband buried only the intestines (no one wanted
to make sausage), the blood Ras didn't need, and some odd bits of connective
tissue. We also left the plastic we'd butchered on.

Memorable lamb bits:

Ras had taken the testicles, and, of course, was cooking them in our camp,
and wandering around throughout the afternoon saying things like "Should I
parboil my testicles before I slice them?" Whatever you want, Ras......

Frederich had marinated his leg, and was cooking it in our camp, but his
smoker wasn't cooking it fast enough, so our neighbors let him cook it up on
their facilities- came out very good.....

Stefan hadn't realized that the stocks we had him making took a long time to
cook properly, so showed up late, so only the plain unroasted stock made it
to the potluck, but I think he got a clue...... Now if we could only teach
him how to boil water..... recipes, anyone? ;-)

Badger made a wonderful haggis- very tasty. Must congratulate him on his
patience on cleaning out a very full lamb stomach.

Mistress Christianna made a couple of things- she did a great job with the
ribs, but the "sausage" she made using the abdominal caul for a wrapper was
to die for...... recipe, please?

I made a recipe from Rumpolt that M. Grasse was kind enough to web for us
after my request, which is as follows:

 2. (Lamb) heads to preserve (the word may also mean marinade, or even
prepare in a sauce). Clean it out also whole/ take over a beef broth/ that
is   not too salty/ and when you think/ that it is cooked done/ so take egg
yolks and vinegar/ pour it into the broth/ so it becomes white/ also put a
few green herbs/ and unsalted fresh butter/ and let it not cook long/ or it
curdles from the egg/ and runs together/ so it is neither dainty nor lovely.

My redaction-on-the-fly:

Split the lamb head, removing brains and tongue. Parboil brains and tongue,
and dice. Mix the egg yolks, vinegar and butter, with the green herbs- I did
this by feel, I don't have exact quantities- and add to the diced brains and
tongue, which has been simmering in the beef broth. Simmer and stir until it
thickens.

This amounted to the brains and tongue in a Hollandaise-type sauce- tasted
great. By good luck, I happened to place my bowl next to a plate of
flatbread, and most folks were using the bread as a scoop for the sauce-
seemed to be well received.....;-)

If I were to do it again, I'd use the roasted bone lamb broth, and thicken
just a wee bit more. BTW, the green herbs I used were a few that Frederich
(BLESS that man!) happened to hijack from his garden, so they were about 2
or 3 hours fresh, I think

As for the rest of you, I'd dearly love to know your exact recipes, and your
specific challenges.

Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

The World's Need

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.

- - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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