BUTCHERING, SKINNING & TANNING
MOVE TO THE KILL:
1) Veteran woodsmen tells us of certain labour saving principles
practised by Indians. MOVE YOUR CAMP TO YOUR KILL AND NOT VICE VERSA.
2) If you MUST transport the carcass first reduce the weight by eating heart,
liver, kidneys skull meat, intestines and leg bone marrow.
3) ROLL; DON'T CARRY GAME DOWNHILL. On snow or ice use the pelt of one animal
as a sled to drag another.
Once scraped of fat and stretched between trees a hide can be green-dried in a day. Spread under a sleeping bag = ideal insulator.
WORKING ON YOUR OWN:
1) Lifting a large animal takes considerable effort. If on your own you may
have to skin and gut the animal on the ground.
2) To prevent the carcass from rolling, cut off the feet of hoofed animals
and place them under it.
3) Lay the carcass down a natural slope, scoop an impression in the ground
in which to place a collecting tin or other vessel so that the animal bleeds
into it.
4) Follow the same pattern of incisions in the hide then skin the animal from
one side to the backbone, spread out the hide and then roll the animal on
to it to finish skinning the other half- this helps keeps the meat from rubbing
on the ground.
CAN'T MOVE THE DEER!: Now if you can not transport your deer to your camp right away, you MUST take some precautions such as to lay it on its stomach on some pieces of wood, so as to raise it to MAKE SURE that it is well ventilated to dry and cool off.
DON'T HANG IT UP, AND MAKE SURE you cover it very well with many spruce branches held in place with bigger logs even with a rope if need be. Otherwise the scavengers will make it disappear in one day, believe it or not 5 or 6 crows can clean a deer in one day.
HOW TO CARRY DEER: THE WORST METHOD IS to tie its legs together and using a 12 foot pole between the legs you & your partner tries to carry it. The continuous swinging motion of the deer will nearly kill you.
1) THE TASK IS TWICE AS EASY if you use 2 poles to tie the legs and you then
carry the weight on your shoulders and to avoid the swinging motion.
2) You just march on the same footstep rhythm or you can use this different
method which is to make a net under the deer using a rope between the 2 poles
in which you carry the deer instead of tying it to the poles you tie it to
the stretcher by the neck.
HOW TO CARRY IT ALONE?:
1) If you are alone and can not get help from the above nor Spock to beam
it up, then first, don't try to drag it on the floor unless the deer is very
small, it will get tangled up everywhere.
2) Don't try to obstinate yourself unless you are Hulk to drag a 175 to 200
pound deer, you only risk the hearth attack.
3) Move your camp to the kill is the logical choice if in emergency even without
it.
TRICK TO MOVE IT IF ALONE: TO CUT THE WEIGHT IN HALF BY:
1) Try this trick which will cut the weight in half. Search for 2 small tree
about 15 feet long with a trunk slightly bent, if not, cut 2 straight trees
that you cut the ends in #bevel# so that they slide better. Place them about
20 inches apart and tie a rope at every foot between them. Roll your deer
on this stretcher stomach upward and attach it firmly by the legs and the
neck so that it does not slide downward.
2) If your rope is long enough cut a piece which you will attach to the handles
so as to help you to support the weight on your shoulder as some kind of harness.
You will then note that a man of average strength can by use of this method
carry a deer of 200 pound without heart attack or total exhaustion.
BUTCHERING TIPS: Hundred of pounds of meat is lost because the amateurs does not know how to carve the animal properly, or because he has not opened and cleaned the animal as soon as killed. Or using bayonet type of knife to open an animal thus perforating the intestine and spoiling the meat to no avail.
BUTCHERING TIP 1: Too many hunters spoil the taste of the games by using the same knife to remove the #glands# located on the deer legs and to skin the deer itself. Correct this error by using a small knife really sharp to extract the gland.
DEER BUTCHERING: Deer or Moose meat spoils very fast if left on the ground.
1) So if you can not hang the deer on a tree, drag the body to a dead trunk
& put it on it or upon a tree stump or a group of shrubs would do it.
If too heavy push branches under the body & use a branch or pole as leverage.
It does not matter that the hind legs drag on the ground.
2) A good hunter does it in 5 minutes and by dirtying only one hand but if
it is your first butchering, it will take 1/2 hour and you'll be a mess.
3) Start first by placing the deer in proper position which is down toward
a small slope which will help the cleaning up.
4) Using a rope you will spread open the hind legs by tying them to a small
tree near by. Thus installed the deer offers you its abdomen and rib cage.
5) It is the abdomen that MUST be emptied of its content if you want to avoid
spoiling the meat. You start by the removing of the genital organs of the
male.
6) To empty a deer, you open the deer from the #sternum# to the tail base, from the sternum precisely where the bony part of the rib cage ends.
7) When the opening is big enough to insert the index and the major finger of your left hand, these fingers will push downward while lifting strongly the skin upward.
8) Meanwhile the sharp knife turned upward will be introduced between your fingers and will work downward all the way to the #anus# MAKING SURE NOT TO PERFORATE THE INTESTINES.
9) You will gradually open the hole about 10 inches on each side. You will then notice that the #viscera# enveloped in a transparent pouch have a tendency to come out of the open stomach.
10) You MUST MAKE SURE not to perforate this envelope and to work in such a way as to let the stomach and the intestines be removed in one block.
11) Otherwise the guts will come off the pouch and will make your task much more difficult & messy.
12) You MUST disengage all the pouch (diaphragm) so as to let it easily come out of the abdomen.
13) In order to help you along, you introduce you open hand between the skin and the pouch and direct it along the back bone. Then you cut off the #oesophagi#.
14) It is a gut of about 1 1/2 inch in diameter located at the top end of the stomach & connected to the #pharynx#.
15) Once this done you grab with your left hand the end of the #oesophagi# connected to the stomach and you pull firmly downward. The pouch containing the intestines and guts should come out fairly easily.
16) If the deer is heavy, you can turn it sideways to help the clearing of the #viscera#. Once they are completely out of the deer you then cut the #big intestine# as closely as possible from the #anus#.
Clean all blood and dry it, using dry grass, moss. Now all you have to do is to detach the liver which has stayed stuck behind the stomach.
DEER BUTCHERING TIP 2: Once at camp with your deer REMEMBER that is preferable to let it age a bit before butchering it; about 8 to 10 days, the meat will be much more tender. Of course we assume that you have emptied the deer in the first place.
AT CAMP BUTCHERING:
1) Once at camp you finish the butchering job by opening the rib
cage to remove the hearth and tongue.
2) Removing the deer of any further scrap and then you hang it up to a bar located between 2 trees at about 12 feet high, either by the head or hind legs through which you have passed a pole at the #tendons d"Achilles#.
But don't forget to cover it up so as to avoid scavengers etc. Use a tarpaulin to protect it from snow or rain as well.
3) You finish the opening with the knife then use the axe to open the thorax by cutting the sternum all the way to the neck.
4) To remove the lungs and the heart; cut the jugular vein which is a tube about 1 inch in diameter, once cut; insert your fingers and pull downward and all the breathing system will come out of the thorax.
5) Clean the inside of the deer of the remaining parts of the lungs, other pouches and of all blood.
6) As for the heart, it will be bled by simply compressing it strongly. Finally remove the #metatarsiennes glands# located at the bottom of the #tendons d'Achille# which you use to rub your boots as # 1 waterproofing.
BUTCHERING TIP 3: Whatever is not used either hearth liver, lungs etc. of all game MUST NEVER be left in the wood but burned since they will give many diseases to other games, so MAKE SURE to get rid off them.
WARNING HEALTH HAZARDS DISEASED ANIMALS:
1) There are lymph glands in the cheeks of all animals more noticeable on large ones. If large and discoloured they are signs of illness. Any animal that is distorted or discoloured about the head such as rabbit with the symptoms of myxomatosis MUST BE BOILED.
2) There is then little risk of infection from eating it. But care should be taken in preparation when there is a risk.
3) It is ESSENTIAL that any cut or sore in your skin be covered when slaughtering or handling meat.
4) For if an animal carries disease a break in the skin provides easy entry to your beautiful body!
PREPARING THE KILL: No part of a carcass should be wasted. Careful preparation will give you the maximum food value and make full use of the parts you can not eat. Set about it in four stages.
SKINNING: So that the hide or fur can be for shelter or clothing. Pigs are not skinned because they have a useful layer of fat under the skin. Birds are plucked but not usually skinned.
GUTTING: To remove the gut and recover the offal.
JOINTING: To produce suitable cuts for cooking by various methods
BLEEDING:
1) Which is ESSENTIAL if the meat is to keep & without which the taste is very strong.
2) DO NOT WASTE BLOOD. It is rich in vitamins and minerals including salt, that could otherwise be missing from the survivor's diet. Cattle food is an important part of the diet of many African herdsmen.
3) Cannibals who drank their enemies' blood found vision and general health improved and giddy spells, induced by vitamin deficiency, cured.
4) The blood provided the missing vitamins and minerals. But today with aids they would drink death & beside the Bible forbids us to drink blood.
ANY ANIMAL WILL BLEED BETTER IF HUNG WITH THE HEAD DOWN.
1) Tie ropes around the hock (Not the ankle, it will slip off) & hoist it up to a branch or build a frame, placing a receptacle beneath to catch the blood.
2) For a frame you need a strong structure. Drive the posts into the ground and lash them firmly where they cross to make A frame and then rest the horizontal bar on top.
3) Bleed the animal by cutting the jugular vein or carotid artery in its neck. When the animal is hanging these will bulge more clearly & should be easy to see.
The cut can be made either behind the ears, stabbing in line with the ears to pierce the vein on both sides of the head at the same time or lower down in the V of the neck, before the artery branches.
Unless you have a stiletto type knife the latter is best. An alternative is to cut the throat from ear to ear.
4) This has the disadvantage to cut through the windpipe and food from the stomach may come up & contaminate the blood which you are trying to save, but if your knife does not have a sharp point it may be necessary. It is particularly important to very thoroughly bleed pigs.
5) If blood remains in their tissues, which have a high moisture and fat content, it will speed deterioration of the flesh.
GUTTING:
1) With the carcass still suspended remove the gut and recover the offal. Pinch the abdomen as high as possible and in the pouch of flesh you have raised make a slit big enough to take two fingers.
2) Do not stab into the flesh or you may cut through to internal organs. Insert the fingers and use them as a guide for the knife to cut upwards towards the anus.
3) Now cut downwards in the same way, using the hand to hold back the gut, which will begin to spill outwards see PIX #? 112. Cut down as far as the breastbone. The initial incision, made in the pinched-up flesh, needs only accommodate two fingers.
4) Cut in the same way as skinning before First up, then down. The back of the hand prevents the gut from spilling.
5) Let the gut spill out, allow it to hang down so that you can inspect it. Remove the 2 kidneys and the liver.
6) The chest cavity is covered with a membrane and easily missed in small game. Cut through the membrane and remove the heart, lungs and windpipe.
7) Ensure that the anus is clear you should be able to see daylight through it. Push a hand through with large animals. The carcass is now clean & you are a bloody mess.
JOINTING MEAT:
1) Large animals can be quartered by first splitting down the backbone and then cutting each side between the tenth and eleventh rib.
The hindquarters will contain steaks rump & filet and the choicer cuts, the forequarter meat is more stringy and needs slow cooking to make it tender
2) The cuts into which a carcass is divided will differ according to the kind of animal and the cook's preference.
1) Fillet or undercut: The most tender meat only 1% is fillet. Ideal for preserving.
2) Sirloin: Next most tender. Fat free strips can be cut for preserving.
3) Rump: Ideal for frying, little cooking is needed. Can also be dried in strips.
4) Topside: Muscle from the top of the leg. Cook slowly, it tends to be tough. Cut into cube for boiling.
5) Top rump: Muscle from front of thigh. As for topside.
6) Silverside: Muscle on the outside of thighs. Good roasting.
7) Hind flank: Belly, ideal for stews & casseroles.
8) Leg: Tough and sinewy cut into cubes and stew.
9) Flank: Muscular extension of the belly. Ideal for stews Usually tough so needs long simmering to make tender.
10) Brisket: Same as Flank.
11) Shin: Foreleg, best cubed for stews.
12) Neck: Stews.
13) Clod: Ideal for stews. Contains less tissue than leg. Cook slowly.
14) Chuck and blade: Quite tender but usually cut up as stewing steak.
15) 8 ribs: Ideal for roasting but cook slowly.
HANGING:
1) Offal should be eaten as soon as possible but the rest of the meat is better hung.
2) In moderate temperature leave the carcass hanging for 2-3 days. In hot climate it is better to preserve it by cooking it straight away.
3) When the animal is killed, acids released into the muscles help to break down their fibre, making the meat more tender. THE LONGER IT IS LEFT THE MORE TENDER IT WILL BE AND EASIER TO CUT WITH MORE FLAVOUR TOO AND HARMFUL PARASITIC BACTERIA IN THE MEAT WILL DIE.
4) You MUST keep flies off the flesh; if they lay eggs on meat it will spoil quickly.
OFFAL LIVER:
1) Liver is best eaten as soon as possible. Remove the bile bladder in the centre.
2) It is quite strong and can usually be pulled off without difficulty- but be careful, the bile will taint the flesh with which it comes in contact.
3) If any animal has any disease they will show up in the liver.
4) AVOID any liver that is mottled or covered with white spots. If only some is affected, cut it off and eat the reminder.
5) LIVER IS COMPLETE FOOD, CONTAINING THE ESSENTIAL VITAMINS AND MINERALS. If eaten raw no food value is lost. It requires little cooking.
STOMACH: (TRIPE):
1) Stomach takes little digesting, so is a good food for the sick or injured. Remove the stomach contents which make ideal "invalid" food.
2) Wash the tripe and simmer slowly with herbs. The contents may sound unpalatable but could save an injured person's life for the animal has done most of the hard work of breaking the food down.
3) Lightly boiled, stomach contents are nourishing and easily digestible. In some countries pigs are fed nothing but apple prior to slaughter.
4) They are cooked with the stomach still in. The subtle flavour of apple impregnates the meat. The stomach is removed after cooking and the contents used as sauce.
KIDNEYS: They are a valuable source of nourishment & ideal flavouring for stews. Boil them with herbs. The white fat surrounding them (suet) is a rich food source. Render it down to use in the preparation of pemmican.
MELTS: They are the spleen, a large organ in the bigger animals. It has limited food value and is not worth bothering about in the small games such as rabbits. It is best roasted.
LITES: Lites are the lungs of the animal, perfectly good to eat but not of great food value. Any respiratory complaints will show up in the lungs. Do not eat any mottled with black and white spots. Healthy lungs are pink and blemish free and best boiled. They could be set aside for fish or trap bait.
HEART: A tightly packed muscle with little or no fat. Roast it or use its distinctive flavour to liven up the stew.
INTESTINES:
1) They consist of lengths of tubes and are best used as sausage
skins. Turn them inside out and wash them. Then boil them thoroughly.
2) Mix fat and meat in equal proportions and then stir in blood. Stuff the mixture into the skin and boil them well.
3) Before putting them into boiling water add a little cold to take it just off the boil, this will counter any risk of the skins bursting.
4) This makes a highly nutritious food which if smoked will keep for a long time. Dried intestines can be used for light lashings.
SWEETBREADS: Are the pancreas or thymus gland, distinctive in larger game. Many people consider it a great delicacy and it is delicious boiled or roasted.
TAIL: Skin and boil to make an excellent soup for it is full of meat and gelatine.
FEET: Feet are chopped off during slaughter but should not be wasted. Boil them up to make a good stew. Clean dirt from hooves or paws and remove all traces of fur. Hooves are a source of nutritious aspic jelly.
HEAD:
1) On larger animal there is a good deal of meat on the head. The
cheeks make a very tasty dish. The tongue is highly nutritious.
2) Boil it to make it tender and skin before eating. The brain will brawn and will also provide useful solution for curing hides. All that is left or the whole head with small animals should be boiled.
BONES: All bones should be boiled for soup. They are rich in bone marrow with valuable vitamins. They can also be made into tools.
PREPARING SHEEP-LIKE ANIMALS: Follow the instructions for larger animals and then:
1) Split in two down the line of the spine, keeping exactly to the centre of the backbone.
2) Remove rear leg. Try to cut through the ball and socket joint.
3) Remove the front leg. There is no bone to cut through. Follow the line of the shoulder blade.
4) Cut of neck
5) Cut off skirt (loose flesh hanging below the ribs.)
6) Cut between each rib and between the vertebrae. This gives you chops.
7) The fillet, lying in the small back, is the best meat for preserving.
PREPARING PIG:
1) Do not attempt to skin a pig. Gut it first then place it over
the hot embers of a fire and scrape the hair off.
2) Hot water will help loosen the hair. It should be only just hotter than your hand can bear.
3) Water that is too hot will make the hair more difficult to remove. Pigs attract many parasites: ticks, crab lives and worms so cooking MUST MAKE SURE of killing them. Boiling is therefore the best way of cooking pork.
PREPARING SMALL ANIMALS: Follow the basic procedures as for larger animals they all need to be gutted.
PREPARING REPTILES:
1) Discard internal organs which may carry salmonella. Reptiles can
be cooked in their skins. Large snake can be chopped into steaks and provide
useful skins.
2) To prepare a snake, cut off head well down, behind poison sacs, open vent to neck, keeping blade outwards to avoid piercing innards which will fall clear. Skewer to suspend and ease of skin towards tail.
PREPARING BIRDS: Birds are prepared in much the same way as animals. Though they are usually plucked and cooked with the skin on instead of being skinned. Follow the sequence below.
BLEEDING: Kill birds by stretching their necks, then cut the throat and hang head-down to bleed. Or kill by cutting just under the tongue severing main nerve and main artery. The bird dies easily and bleeds well.
WARNING ON CARRION: Handle carrion eaters as little as possible they are more prone to infection, lice and ticks.
PLUCKING: It is easiest straight after the killing while the bird is still warm. Hot water can be used to loosen feathers except in the case of water-birds and seabirds in which it tends to tighten them. Keep feathers for arrow flights and insulation. Start at the chest. For speed you can skin a bird but that wastes the food value of the skin.
DRAWING (REMOVING INNARDS): Make an incision from the vent to the tail. Put your hand in & draw out all the innards. Retain the heart and kidneys. Cut off the head and feet.
CLEANING FOWL OR RABBITS IN THE HOUSE:
1) Here is a trick to help you get rid of all little hair of down
that somehow ALWAYS remain after skinning your rabbit, squirrel or partridge.
2) Take some scotch tape and roll in outward around you hand so that the sticky part is on the outside then by manipulating this hand duster carefully you will easily get rid of all the undesirable down and furs.
RABBIT SICKNESS = DANGER:
1) Tularaemia this sickness is caused by a germ and it appeared in
1968. Men can contact it from sick rabbits by direct contact with his hands
or by breathing the dust from infected wounds, or by tick stings or by eating
the meat not well cooked.
2) So it is recommended to wet the rabbit before skinning it, so as to avoid the dust and to prevent stings from tick by the use of rubber gloves and to MAKE SURE it is properly cooked. If the rabbit presents abscess or running lesions do not eat it but destroy.
PRESERVING PELT:
1) The only good way to keep the skin once its has been cleaned off
all its fat and blood and well washed it is to let it dry in fresh air.
2) When they are dry after 2 or 3 days they can be taken of their board to which they were nailed to stop the shrinking then they are kept in a fresh room till ready to use.