Home Butchering Picture Tutorial (Lamb)

Nice pictures but I can tell from them that you're probably about a foot taller than me. It's a little different for us hobbits. There's no way I could handle a sheep that big. What was the live weight, like 250-300?

I raise Soay. A large ram is typically 90-100 pounds. I can store the meat on the hoof and just butcher when the freezer is getting low, so I don't need as much freezer space. I don't use a saw at all. I disarticulate the joints and end up with 4 shanks, 2 shoulder blade roasts. 2 loins. 2 thighs which I debone in a spiral fashion to keep it as a roast which I can brine into a really nice roast that tastes like a cross of prosciutto and pastrami. The rest of the skeletal meat, tongue and heart go into burger. The liver and testicles get fried up on butchering day. That's when they are the best. If you de-vein the liver it will taste better. Rather than using a knife to extract the gall bladder you can just pinch around the duct that connects it to the liver and bluntly dissect it away and then continue that into the liver and pull out those bile ducts. The underside of the liver won't be pretty when you are done but it will taste better and if you fry that side down first people can't tell that it wasn't pretty. The skeleton gets cooked down over a few days in a pressure cooker into stock, usually 6 quarts. The butchering process also takes less time than a larger animal

The downside to a much smaller sheep is that chops aren't really a thing. You end up with roasts and burger, but I'm sure there's a lot of other hobbits out there who look at butchering demos and think that they can't do it, but they can, either with a lot of help (for some reason helpers never show up on butchering day) or by having a smaller livestock

www.windridgefarm.us

 

Thanks. Good discussion. Here's an interest item for you. They recently started teaching Special Forces guys how to butcher meat. They found that doing behind the lines or long duration stuff it was/is an essential survival skill to stay healthy.

 

From a young age grandpa started me on rabbits and doves, haeve lost count over the years of how may deer i have dressed and processed. Add new tools every season. This year a 440lb electric hoist is in the garage, save the back some hurting.

 

I think it's so amazing that you butcher your own meat and can feed your family so well. It really is an art and a skill that takes practice to become proficient.
We recently trapped wild hogs and it was nice to have so much meat to share.
I used to be a quail farmer, but still can't get myself to butcher birds. I think I get a little too attached, but if my survival ever depends on it I would probably be able to do it.

 

Quit naming them , just they all have the same name = Freezer burn !!

 

Haha, true enough—freezer burn is the ultimate equalizer!