Buying 1/2 a Beef?

[Baymule]

I had to look up the hanger steak too. I guess the picture is not a New York Strip, LOL.

 

[drstratton]

I had to look up the hanger steak too. I guess the picture is not a New York Strip, LOL.

Lol...I'm glad that I wasn't alone!

 

[drstratton]

I figured that I would go ahead and give an update on my chick...he made it through the night and actually ate some food this morning...praying he is over the hump!

 

[Ridgetop]

Hopefully your butcher is a good one. Where is he getting his beef from? Is it local? What grade does it cut? You want to make sure that it hangs a long enough time and has good marbling. Short hanging beef with poor marbling will not be tender.

We just ordered a beef half from our butcher. When I called him to bring in the locker lambs he said he was really busy because these local steers were coming in. $1.78 on the hoof. Very large Angus steers, cutting prime or choice. Price comes out around $4/lb. Kent vouched for them and he knows his quality. The grower is excellent with beef. Otherwise I don't usually buy a half steer anymore. I actually prefer lamb and goat.

Usually the butcher will cut and package custom to instructions. I have it packed for number of people eating every night. If I want a large cut for family holiday dinners (16 or more) I tell Kent how many people will be eating it. A good butcher knows the yield of what he is cutting.

Simpleterrier and Farmerjan: My mother used to buy what she called "hanging tender" years ago when it was an inexpensive cut but beautifully flavorful and tender. I think she said it is the meat hanging under the steers neck. Is that right?

Also, if you want the innards and bones for your dogs, ask up front and the butcher will save them for you. He has to pay to dispose of that stuff so is happy to give it to you to take away. Offal is the part predators eat first. The intestinal contents of getting vegetable vitamins. LOL Your wolf dog should love the offal served to it raw. The Eskimos prefer wolf dogs for their lead sled dogs I understand.

Here is a good story for you BYHers who have all met similar people. Years ago, when we had a lot of dairy goats, I got a call from a woman who wanted to buy goat milk. At the time milk sales were only legal for animal consumption unless you had a grade A dairy (see Babsbag's struggles). After telling her this, the woman said she wanted it for her sick wolf. She had a wolf she had somehow managed to buy without a permit for wildlife. She loved her wolf but in spite of her special diet for him, his hair was falling and he was lethargic. The vet didn't know what was wrong with him and she thought goats' milk might work. When I talked to her abut this she said she was feeding him boiled wild rice and vegetables. NO MEAT! Apparently, meat was carcinogenic.
She had done no reading about wolves or their diets, although "she loved them passionately". She was feeding this organic and vegetarian diet because it was healthier! I sold her the goat milk and gave her some organ meats (we had just received our annual fair meat (half steer, 1 hog, 3 lambs, 2 goats, numerous rabbits, and our freezers were full. I also referred her to the local wildlife rescue organization. She was irate at them because they had told her she had no business having a wolf. I could see why! I also referred her to some excellent books and studies on wolves, none of which she had read or heard of before acquiring her poor wolf.

Next she wanted to know how to cook the organ meats so thy would be "safe". She wanted to boil them for an hour to kill any cancer causing pathogens! I told her absolutely not to cook them but to feed raw. Then she decided she could soak the meat in food grade alcohol for an hour to make it safe. After half hour explaining why she should not do that, I told her that the wolf would be dead of old age before it contracted cancer from raw meat. Finally, she agreed to feed the raw organ meat to the wolf. After a week eating the raw organ meats, the wolf was better, and his hair was growing back. By now she was giving me 2x daily updates on his progress.
She confided her ambition was to buy an acre or so with a little house in the middle of the country where she could let her wolf run free. !!!!! I told her that someone would shoot it if she did that. She was horrified and asked why anyone would do such a horrid thing to her sweet wolf. I told her that I would certainly shoot any wolf I caught running free through my pastures! I asked her what she expected from ranchers whose livestock would be at risk from a wolf raised in captivity who had not learned to kill wild prey came after thf would do what was natural to it and kill or mutilate livestock. She stopped calling after that.

Oh yeah, she was a vegan and card carrying member of PETA. This is why I frown on trouble making organizations whose members do not do their homework about wildlife, livestock, farming practices, and woodland understory maintenance! Of course, people that know about those things do not join PETA.

 

[MoreAU]

including cut, wrap and butcher fee!

I'll suggest that if you can, get vacuum packing instead of butcher's wrap. They'll keep longer in a deep freeze without freezer burn.

I also found my butcher was very helpful in deciding how to get it done up. I just let them know this was my first time (or 1st few times) and asked their opinion. One thing I didn't know to tell them was how old the beef was and that was a mistake. I have steaks still in my freezer for over 10 years now that are too tough to eat because I didn't know that an old bull should be made into hamburger.

On the bones, one other lesson I learned was the difference between dog bones & soup bones. Soup bones will fit in a stock pot.

Good luck with it!

 

[drstratton]

Hopefully your butcher is a good one. Where is he getting his beef from? Is it local? What grade does it cut? You want to make sure that it hangs a long enough time and has good marbling. Short hanging beef with poor marbling will not be tender.

We just ordered a beef half from our butcher. When I called him to bring in the locker lambs he said he was really busy because these local steers were coming in. $1.78 on the hoof. Very large Angus steers, cutting prime or choice. Price comes out around $4/lb. Kent vouched for them and he knows his quality. The grower is excellent with beef. Otherwise I don't usually buy a half steer anymore. I actually prefer lamb and goat.

Usually the butcher will cut and package custom to instructions. I have it packed for number of people eating every night. If I want a large cut for family holiday dinners (16 or more) I tell Kent how many people will be eating it. A good butcher knows the yield of what he is cutting.

Simpleterrier and Farmerjan: My mother used to buy what she called "hanging tender" years ago when it was an inexpensive cut but beautifully flavorful and tender. I think she said it is the meat hanging under the steers neck. Is that right?

Also, if you want the innards and bones for your dogs, ask up front and the butcher will save them for you. He has to pay to dispose of that stuff so is happy to give it to you to take away. Offal is the part predators eat first. The intestinal contents of getting vegetable vitamins. LOL Your wolf dog should love the offal served to it raw. The Eskimos prefer wolf dogs for their lead sled dogs I understand.

Here is a good story for you BYHers who have all met similar people. Years ago, when we had a lot of dairy goats, I got a call from a woman who wanted to buy goat milk. At the time milk sales were only legal for animal consumption unless you had a grade A dairy (see Babsbag's struggles). After telling her this, the woman said she wanted it for her sick wolf. She had a wolf she had somehow managed to buy without a permit for wildlife. She loved her wolf but in spite of her special diet for him, his hair was falling and he was lethargic. The vet didn't know what was wrong with him and she thought goats' milk might work. When I talked to her abut this she said she was feeding him boiled wild rice and vegetables. NO MEAT! Apparently, meat was carcinogenic.
She had done no reading about wolves or their diets, although "she loved them passionately". She was feeding this organic and vegetarian diet because it was healthier! I sold her the goat milk and gave her some organ meats (we had just received our annual fair meat (half steer, 1 hog, 3 lambs, 2 goats, numerous rabbits, and our freezers were full. I also referred her to the local wildlife rescue organization. She was irate at them because they had told her she had no business having a wolf. I could see why! I also referred her to some excellent books and studies on wolves, none of which she had read or heard of before acquiring her poor wolf.

Next she wanted to know how to cook the organ meats so thy would be "safe". She wanted to boil them for an hour to kill any cancer causing pathogens! I told her absolutely not to cook them but to feed raw. Then she decided she could soak the meat in food grade alcohol for an hour to make it safe. After half hour explaining why she should not do that, I told her that the wolf would be dead of old age before it contracted cancer from raw meat. Finally, she agreed to feed the raw organ meat to the wolf. After a week eating the raw organ meats, the wolf was better, and his hair was growing back. By now she was giving me 2x daily updates on his progress.
She confided her ambition was to buy an acre or so with a little house in the middle of the country where she could let her wolf run free. !!!!! I told her that someone would shoot it if she did that. She was horrified and asked why anyone would do such a horrid thing to her sweet wolf. I told her that I would certainly shoot any wolf I caught running free through my pastures! I asked her what she expected from ranchers whose livestock would be at risk from a wolf raised in captivity who had not learned to kill wild prey came after thf would do what was natural to it and kill or mutilate livestock. She stopped calling after that.

Oh yeah, she was a vegan and card carrying member of PETA. This is why I frown on trouble making organizations whose members do not do their homework about wildlife, livestock, farming practices, and woodland understory maintenance! Of course, people that know about those things do not join PETA.

I'm getting my 1/2 of beef from a good friend! Thank you for all of the info!

Some people definitely have no business raising a wolf and as sweet as my sons dog is...she won't hurt a kitten, in fact absolutely loves them, but she will go after fowl & goats! My son got her as a rescue...if he had gotten her as a puppy, he might have been able to train her not to go after the above mentioned animals, but I can't say that for sure either and as to a purebred wolf...I don't think you could keep them from going after livestock!

 

[Ridgetop]

One of my cousins had a couple wolf crosses too. They were very sweet. And like I said they are very prized among the northern people who considered the wolf blood gave the dogs extra stamina and brains. The wolf pack would kill a dog so the Eskimos (Innuits) used to tie a bitch in heat out where one of the unmated males in a pack would come across her, After the honeymoon the owner would collect his bitch and the wolf would return smiling to the pack. Only the alpha male and female produce pups in a pack. They mate for life. However, there are always additional adult males and females in a pack as well that do not mate. These adults help in the hunt and also babysit the pups. Single adult male "uncles" were not adverse to play around outside the pack structure. These days with snowmobiles there is not as much need for sled dogs so I don't know if this still goes on. You are right, impossible to kill genetic heredity in a species without generations of human selective breeding.

 

[drstratton]

I'll suggest that if you can, get vacuum packing instead of butcher's wrap. They'll keep longer in a deep freeze without freezer burn.

I also found my butcher was very helpful in deciding how to get it done up. I just let them know this was my first time (or 1st few times) and asked their opinion. One thing I didn't know to tell them was how old the beef was and that was a mistake. I have steaks still in my freezer for over 10 years now that are too tough to eat because I didn't know that an old bull should be made into hamburger.

On the bones, one other lesson I learned was the difference between dog bones & soup bones. Soup bones will fit in a stock pot.

Good luck with it!

Thank you so much for the info! The beef I'm getting is a young one at prime butchering stage!

I will be asking for soup bones, hoping to get them cut 1-2" preferably 1"! I'm also asking for the fat that is cut off, I plan on rendering it for my own tallow! I don't use Polyunsaturated oils (to much processing), they are so bad for you!

 

[drstratton]

One of my cousins had a couple wolf crosses too. They were very sweet. And like I said they are very prized among the northern people who considered the wolf blood gave the dogs extra stamina and brains. The wolf pack would kill a dog so the Eskimos (Innuits) used to tie a bitch in heat out where one of the unmated males in a pack would come across her, After the honeymoon the owner would collect his bitch and the wolf would return smiling to the pack. Only the alpha male and female produce pups in a pack. They mate for life. However, there are always additional adult males and females in a pack as well that do not mate. These adults help in the hunt and also babysit the pups. Single adult male "uncles" were not adverse to play around outside the pack structure. These days with snowmobiles there is not as much need for sled dogs so I don't know if this still goes on. You are right, impossible to kill genetic heredity in a species without generations of human selective breeding.

I believe it's true...Edon is extremely smart, she's also quite stubborn!

 

[Ridgetop]

I use olive oil for everything. Suet is good to have, and of course, lard makes the best pie crust. It is getting hard to find lard these days. Everyone is afraid of fat.