Thread: Butchery

"use the sawz all to cut the vertebrae"..... almost cut his bloody hand off with it too.

I've never done a deer but also being a butcher by trade i have done plenty of slaughtering ie killing,slaughtering and breaking down of carcasses and at no time do you hose or wet meat the only time you are supposed to wet meat is to lightly wash the gut chamber free of acidy gut juices (after gutting) which will taint the meat if left trick is try and bleed the animal when possible a little blood won't hurt just wipe excess of with a dry rag while breaking down into smaller portions all this is the reason being when you wet meat the water starts a decay process not an aging process a decay process will rot the meat much quicker than the aging process for example meat washed and put in a fridge will keep for lets say 3 to 4 days where as aging meat in a fridge will keep for around 2 weeks big difference also aging meat will keep longer than wet meat when both are frozen this has been prooven over many years as the old timers used to hang a carcass in a shed over night and cover it with cloth to keep the dew of it so the water in the dew wouldn't damage the meat by starting the rot process if they had no shed it would be a tank stand or if they had nothing it would be the bathroom or they would find some way of doing it or just plain cut it up fresh into managable pieces and lay it on the kitchen table to cool usually overnight and throw a sheet over it just in case as i said i have not handled deer but that vidio ticks all the wrong box's for good meat handling cheers

Originally Posted by RUMPY

https://youtu.be/Ubxppdxfx0w

This is a pretty good example. The venex method is how the guys used to break down carcasses when I worked in the meat works as a young man.

Yes, think I prefer that one.
From 10:00 to 12:20 the leg is broken down into the three main muscle groups. For the butchery experts amongst us, could someone please tell me what the proper term is for each of these - referenced to the time in this video ? At 11:15 off comes the first of these three - this is the piece that includes that circular muscle (usually of a lighter colour to the rest of the meat) that cuts into small medallians. Has that piece got a separate name too?

Sorry Puffin, I'm not expert enough to give proper advice. Any real butchers out there?

Rumpy mate i can only quote beef so on the back leg you get shin meat (lower leg) then there is the silverside ( back of top half) then the round then the inside of the leg is the topside then the top of the leg is the rump looking at the vidio of the deer the butcher took half the silverside with the topside and the other half with the round half the silverside was taken with the rump but all pieces were small hard to really get exact but all that meat on a hind quater is exceptional eating i rekon cut the deer leg off at the knee plaster it with holes with a knife and plug garlic into the holes to the center of the leg and roast do the same with a leg of pork so the garlic covers the whole inner part of the leg and roast all you will need then is the angels because you will be in heaven when you eat the meat cheers

OK, I have topside, round, silverside and rump as beef "sort of" equivalents. The interesting thing is the way the leg is broken down in that video is exactly how we take the meat off each leg - in three bits (excluding knuckle/shin that come off last) - the meat comes naturally apart down those separations in the muscle as shown. It seems a little odd that in doing so we are breaking up the traditional cuts. The first two parts I always cross-cut into steaks. The last part to come off is the piece that wraps around the bone closer to the hip ball and needs to be cut free of it, forming a hemispherical looking roast when on a tray that comprises of several individual muscle groups separated by silverskin (if that is the correct term). All very interesting.

Ah, just found the information I was after: Topside, Silverside, and Thick flank - that's the one I mentioned above as the last to come off, it seems it is often cut thinly into schnitzel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob5Lb86HM8U

Yeah Puffin that thick flank is what we call round steak you can corn it cube it or cube it to make crumbed steak or mince it very versatile piece of meat all the rest is pretty much as beef

We’ve not been cutting the rump off? Looks like it’s a combination of the top of two of the main groups, I’ll have to watch the videos again. Good question @Puffin. Thanks @rigga and @RUMPY for you answers.

I normally cut rump off first. Not sure if it's right but I cut straight across just above the ball. Everything above there is rump steak in my freezer. Good tip for cutting nice steaks is get the muscle really cold, almost starting to freeze and quickly cut steaks and get it back into freezer.