Does anyone else butcher their own meat?

[Hens and Roos]

Oh wow... just contemplating... bunny sliders? How do they taste? Do you mix any other meat in with the rabbit to add fat/moisture? I imagine being so lean, that it would be hard to make a bunny burger that would hold together... When I was in my final years in high school I worked in a meat room at a local grocery store. When they ground beef, they always passed it through the grinder 3 times and aside from scraps and trimmings, frequently added suet if the batch was too lean. When I'd have my venison processed, I always had them add 10% suet and 10% pork (meat and fat) by weight to the grind. Best ground meat I've ever had.

we mix ground pork with the ground rabbit- 50/50 mix, they turn out very good.

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks H&R! To clarify... you buy pork and grind it with the rabbit, or add already ground pork while grinding the rabbit or mix with after the rabbit is already ground? How many times do you grind the rabbit?

 

[Hens and Roos]

we usually buy the ground pork. we grind the rabbit and then mix the pork in. We only grind the rabbit once.

 

[Baymule]

When I used to hunt, I mixed pork with deer meat. Then I got smart and bought a fatty beef brisket to mix with the deer meat. It tasted better and kept longer in the freezer. @Hens and Roos why don't you try grinding your rabbit meat with a brisket?

 

[SteveElms]

We do all of our own processing. We've done chickens, rabbits, quail, goats, deer, waterfowl, turkeys and even a longhorn steer (long story). We like knowing where our food came from and that we aren't getting somebody else's animal that may not have been raised the same as ours. It's more work but well worth it to us. About the only equipment we have is a commercial grinder, really good knives (Knives of Alaska), hand meat saw and a vacuum sealer.

If you ever need someone to go along on an elk hunt I'll volunteer. I haven't gone since 2004 when we went to Del Norte. I saw one elk about a half mile away but had the time of my life.

Steve

 

[Baymule]

We do all of our own processing. We've done chickens, rabbits, quail, goats, deer, waterfowl, turkeys and even a longhorn steer (long story). We like knowing where our food came from and that we aren't getting somebody else's animal that may not have been raised the same as ours. It's more work but well worth it to us. About the only equipment we have is a commercial grinder, really good knives (Knives of Alaska), hand meat saw and a vacuum sealer.

If you ever need someone to go along on an elk hunt I'll volunteer. I haven't gone since 2004 when we went to Del Norte. I saw one elk about a half mile away but had the time of my life.

Steve

We like long stories! Tell us about the longhorn!

 

[Poka_Doodle]

We do all of our own processing. We've done chickens, rabbits, quail, goats, deer, waterfowl, turkeys and even a longhorn steer (long story). We like knowing where our food came from and that we aren't getting somebody else's animal that may not have been raised the same as ours. It's more work but well worth it to us. About the only equipment we have is a commercial grinder, really good knives (Knives of Alaska), hand meat saw and a vacuum sealer.

If you ever need someone to go along on an elk hunt I'll volunteer. I haven't gone since 2004 when we went to Del Norte. I saw one elk about a half mile away but had the time of my life.

Steve

Oh, I'll let you know if the boys mention it, I might go once though. Only one problem for you though, Southern Colorado. However they bird hunt in South Dakota every few years.

 

[Sheepshape]

Slaughtering your own animals on a farm in Britain is very uncommon as a certificate of competence in slaughtering is needed and strict adherence to hygiene and Animal Welfare Standards need to be proven. it is permissible to slaughter poultry on a farm without the certificates etc.

Whatever, as a vegetarian for many years and one who sees all my animals pretty much as pets, I'd fine it impossible.

I keep as many of my sheep as possible and sell on ewes and some rams for breeding. I have to send some ram lambs for slaughter to an abattoir, and so I have been to this abattoir to see the process (I'm not at all squeamish). I don't have any problem doing autopsies on animals to try to find out why they have died. I'm sure that there is a degree of hypocrisy in my keeping of sheep, but I can say that all the animals I keep have good lives.

I've no idea what lamb tastes like, but I don't like the smell of the meat cooking (unlike chicken which I think smells appetising, though I would never eat it!).

I suppose it takes all sorts.....

 

[Baymule]

Slaughtering your own animals on a farm in Britain is very uncommon as a certificate of competence in slaughtering is needed and strict adherence to hygiene and Animal Welfare Standards need to be proven. it is permissible to slaughter poultry on a farm without the certificates etc.

I can see it being a problem if you slaughter an animal to sell the meat, but if you are going to eat it yourself, why does it matter? A certificate? I can just picture the reaction of some of these backwoods rednecks if some gooberment official showed up demanding a certificate because there is a carcass hanging in a tree. Or me, for that matter.

 

[Sheepshape]

I very much doubt that anyone would come snooping around here, either, and even less that they would be able to pronounce the name of where we are (I live in Wales,and in what is described in a book on the county as 'an isolated and remote rural location with a harsh climate'.........so we don't get many unwelcome visitors). If folk want their animals slaughtered for the table, then there is a butcher not too far away who is licensed to slaughter and will skin, joint up etc., so it isn't really a problem.

Don't carcasses hanging in trees get eaten? Over here there's nothing much more than birds to take hanging things, but foxes will take any on the ground.