[Sca-cooks] hanging meat:::was PETA

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Phlip,  (and anybody else)
>
> I always wondered why one had to hand an animal upside down (or a bird)
for
> a few days before butchering? what does this do and why doesnt' the meat
> spoil in the meantime?
>
> Phillipa

Well, keep in mind, you kill them before you hang them- otherwise you're
gonna have a very upset critter on your hands ;-)

As far as hanging them upside down, two reasons- partly to drain the blood,
and partly because they have a very useful place to attach them to whatever
you're hanging them from. In humans, it would be called the achilles tendon-
it you cut between it and the bone (and it's simply skin there) the tendon
and the bone form a loop that is strong enough to hold the animal's weight.

Once you hang it like this, with the legs spread apart, you have easy access
to the entire carcass, for skinning, gutting, and dismembering.

As far as hanging it for a period of time, initially, it's to let the
carcass cool out once it's skinned and gutted- it makes it a lot easier to
cut the flesh. It's firmer, and responds better to the knife.

As far as letting it hang for varying periods of time after it's cooled out,
that's pretty much a matter of preference, varying from culture to culture
and family to family. The reason is to let enzymes and bacteria work, to
improve the flavor and tenderize the meat, but it's not something you do
very long in warm weather, for obvious reasons.

The Brits tend to hang poultry for what I feel are ridiculous ammounts of
time- there are several recipes about that suggest hanging it until it
starts to turn green, but they like it that way, and I don't care, as long
as I don't have to eat it. I will say, though, that hanging it like that
does make the feathers easier to remove.

Myself, I don't hang poultry (on the rare occasions I butcher them- I hate
plucking feathers) or small game, like rabbits, and I'll hang other critters
a minimum ammount of time- usually no more than an afternoon, before cutting
them up.

Most American beef is hung for a much longer period than I prefer- I believe
about a week- but it's held in controlled temperatures, and it's intact- in
other words, the muscle fibers are covered with the animal's own connective
tissue, so unwanted bacteria can't enter into the flesh, and the enzymatic
action can work undisturbed. Also, being gutted, the intestinal bacteria are
kept away from the meat.

"Hanging" is also referred to as "aging", and the "aging" time is one of the
factors that help different grades of beef get their higher lever stamps. If
you see a piece of meat marked "prime aged (whatever) " , you know that it
has fulfilled a series of criteria for marbling (fat content), as well as
having been hung for what is considered an optimum amount of time.

I seem to remember that "The Joy of Cooking" has a fair amount of
information on meats- you might want to look through what they have to say.

Hope this helps...

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....