Anybody do birth to dinner anymore?

[crimsoncrazy]

By that I mean you finish, butcher and cut your own beef? My family still does. It's like a holiday for us. We butcher. Hang for 2 weeks then cut it up.

 

[HDRider]

No, but I'd like to.. Good idea.........

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Our calves are born on our place, finished on grass, and we direct-market the final product. We occasionally have a quarter or half of a steer left over and we keep it for ourselves. It tastes better than what you can buy. We don't butcher our cattle though; we have found somebody who is 2 hours away from us, but they do a phenomenal job. It is well worth the drive for us.

 

[snake67]

By that I mean you finish, butcher and cut your own beef? My family still does. It's like a holiday for us. We butcher. Hang for 2 weeks then cut it up.

Yup

Bez

 

[Bigfoot]

Only if one is injured, and the. It wouldn't really qualified as finished.

 

[ohiosteve]

Yes. I did my first born here died here animal this fall. I will continue to do this as long as I am able. I have butchered animals at home that I bought elsewhere before also, but to me, butchering one that was born on my place is even better. The steer that we are eating now is a Longhorn/Angus cross. He had a few minutes of stress in his life as a calf when I pinned him in my catch gate and castrated him, but he didn't have any other stress after that and died stress free and untouched late this fall. He only hung for a few days which I know is less than ideal but my family and friends all agree it is delicious beef. I have been using the money saved on butchering for things like a vacuum packager and grinder.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I have done my share of hog killin's.
Hunting with Dad and baying up the the hog's cutting the pigs that were with the sow that
had our mark. I didn't even know you were supposed to eat beef until I was a big ole teenager.
Just supposed to sale them.
We used to raise for the the freezer until the kids got grown.
Now we just sale a calf and go buy rib eyes and roast we like.

 

[Tim/South]

We butchered all of out own meat when I was growing up. No one else did, but my grandfather wanted beef and pork he had finished. We bought the grinder and meat saw from a grocery store going out of business. It was nice to have a hugh capacity meat grinder. Prior to that it was turning an old grinder by hand. The band meat saw replaced the old hand saw. I thought we were up town when we went high tech.

 

[dun]

Sometimes, other times we buy a market steer at hte 4H/FFA sale after the county fair.

 

[MO_cows]

We have never tackled processing a beef. That's about a year's worth of meat for us, not about to risk it, so leave it to the professionals who have the equipment and experience. I would like to watch it done and learn more, but doubt we would ever take it on. They are born and raised here but the processing happens about an hour away.

We helped process 5 deer all at one time, it was exhausting and still not as much meat to deal with as a steer. It was 4 of us, 2 couples, and seemed like we would never get done.

 

[highgrit]

We butchered 54 deer here this year. But I feel like beef needs to age for 3 - 4 weeks myself. And till we build a large cooler it's not going to work. Sure stinks paying someone to do what you can do yourself.

 

[Tim/South]

We butchered 54 deer here this year. But I feel like beef needs to age for 3 - 4 weeks myself. And till we build a large cooler it's not going to work. Sure stinks paying someone to do what you can do yourself.

Here the health department will not let the processor age them over 2 weeks. At least that is what they say. Could be the cooler space or them not wanting to have the power bill an additional 2 weeks.
Hang one in the cooler until the outside is covered with a light mold and you have a steak that will melt in your mouth.

 

[highgrit]

:nod: It's sad that some government agency can tell you what to do with your food. And then let big business import stuff from countries that have zero regulations.

 

[Rafter S]

Not any more, but we did when I was a kid. Although we didn't feed them out. Dad would pick out a heifer that was ready to wean and we'd shoot her in the pasture with a 22 and get to work.

We raised and butchered hogs too. Scraped them instead of skinning, made sausage, blood sausage, rendered the lard, smoked the bacon, sausage, and ham, and had hog brains and scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day.

And then there was the chickens. I hated picking chickens.

And rabbits.

We didn't buy much meat.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Not any more, but we did when I was a kid. Although we didn't feed them out. Dad would pick out a heifer that was ready to wean and we'd shoot her in the pasture with a 22 and get to work.

We raised and butchered hogs too. Scraped them instead of skinning, made sausage, blood sausage, rendered the lard, smoked the bacon, sausage, and ham, and had hog brains and scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day.

And then there was the chickens. I hated picking chickens.

And rabbits.

We didn't buy much meat.

Why did you have to remind me of those dam chicken's.
Scalding them almost turned me against chicken.
Talk about have a bunch of men mad get the water to hot and set the hair on that hog.

 

[dun]

Why did you have to remind me of those dam chicken's.
Scalding them almost turned me against chicken.
Talk about have a bunch of men mad get the water to hot and set the hair on that hog.

I didn;t mind scalding and plucking chickens, I still do it with wild turkeys. It was/is the drawing them that turned/s my stomach. After that I can;t eat any kind of bird for a couple of days

 

[Rafter S]

Talk about have a bunch of men mad get the water to hot and set the hair on that hog.

And the women could sure fuss when I'd pour the water too fast cleaning casings. Or turn the handle too fast stuffing sausage. I was sure glad when I got big enough to help the men instead of the women.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Talk about have a bunch of men mad get the water to hot and set the hair on that hog.

And the women could sure fuss when I'd pour the water too fast cleaning casings. Or turn the handle too fast stuffing sausage. I was sure glad when I got big enough to help the men instead of the women.

I have no idea how many times I turned the crank on that old sausage grinder.
They lined the kid's up and we got to have fun turning the handle.
You had better like hog liver or eggs and brains that day or you had better just get a biscuit.
That was all there was going to be that day, might be some hot water cornbread.

 

[Rafter S]

Talk about have a bunch of men mad get the water to hot and set the hair on that hog.

And the women could sure fuss when I'd pour the water too fast cleaning casings. Or turn the handle too fast stuffing sausage. I was sure glad when I got big enough to help the men instead of the women.

I have no idea how many times I turned the crank on that old sausage grinder.
They lined the kid's up and we got to have fun turning the handle.
You had better like hog liver or eggs and brains that day or you had better just get a biscuit.
That was all there was going to be that day, might be some hot water cornbread.

I didn't mind the brains and eggs, but I've never yet been hungry enough to eat liver.

 

[ohiosteve]

I've been told many times that I've got an iron gut, but there is very little, I mean VERY little that I won't eat and enjoy when properly prepared. I'm not joking when I say I've got a tupperware container in the fridge with a hot pepper sauce prepared with the intestinal juice squirted right out of a steers gallbladder. Put that on some grilled beef with some sticky white rice as a side and get ready to live!