Contemplating seasonal feeder-lambs

[wolf]

@wolf What is lamb with the fell on?

When a lamb is skinned for meat, there's a very thin parchment-like membrane covering the muscles. When I was a youngster, back in the '60s, the meat at the store came cut into roasts and chops with this membrane intact - and is what gives the "extra lamby taste" to the meat. Somewhere around the '70s - '80s, the "city folks" claimed they didn't like that "gamey taste" to their meat, and the commercial butchers started stripping that Fell OFF while cutting chops and roasts - so the meat would sell to those kind of people. I hated when they did that, because I loved the real flavor and the crispy coating the Fell became as it cooked. It's sort of like the skin on a roasted ham - only a lot thinner.

 

[Baymule]

Would that be similar to the membrane I cut off deer meat?

 

[wolf]

Would that be similar to the membrane I cut off deer meat?

There's a membrane you pull off deer meat??? I've dressed deer before, and all I've ever pulled is the hide and the guts - never stripped anything else off it. I've rinsed a fresh carcass with cold hose-water and scrubbed the surface with a newly-bought "floor brush" to get all the loose hairs off before cutting up, and I may trim extra fat off cause it's so waxy - but I've never pulled any membrane off a carcass. I just layer bacon on meat I've trimmed fat off of.

But if you want a natural finish on any wood projects, that rendered deer fat from the trim is GREAT! The waxiness makes a great finish and the warmth of your hand melts it just enough to soak into the wood fibers. Polishes up to a nice satin finish! I render by boiling, chilling the pot, and removing the hardened fat off the top - store in a lidded coffee can.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Maybe it's this that Bay is talking about:

Silver skin (more precisely, fascia) is a thin membrane consisting of many layers of fat and collagen. Think of fascia as meat's girdle or spanx- helping to lift and separate muscle groups so they can easily slide past each other.

 

[wolf]

Then the Fell on a sheep-carcass is the fascia between the muscle and the hide.

 

[Baymule]

I haven't slaughtered a sheep. I can slaughter chickens and hogs, but I haven't gathered up my cojones to kill a little lamb.......I could skin, gut and cut it up, but the killing part has me taking them to the slaughter house.

 

[Mike CHS]

I'm like @Baymule - we don't butcher young lambs but we also don't send them off to the butcher till they are full grown. They get a lot of hands on time so they all have left their imprint but after 7-12 months of watching them grow, I can't do the deed myself.

 

[Bossroo]

I have the hardest time in pulling the vegies out of the ground or cutting their heads off at ground level. I have planted their seeds months ago , tended after them for days on end and gave them my blood, sweat and tears. Then to actually kill my babies... NO WAY ! So, I turn the lambs out onto the garden so that they can get fat, then I make them smile from ear to ear , then send them to freezer camp and eventually warm them up on my BBQ and finally onto my plate.

 

[Baymule]