Does anyone have a set up for processing their own animals at home? I am looking for ideas for a set up to process my own beef, hogs, deer and anything else edible that we drag in. Please show us pix if you have any.
Home Processing
- Thread starter mayesfarm
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gusea305
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We did our own for years. I do not have pics anymore. Build a well insulated building maybe 4x8, just a big enough to hold 4 quarters without them touching eachother or the sides. Put in a window air-conditioner. You can buy a little computer that will make the AC get into the high 30s. A meat bandsaw, a grinder, big plastic cutting boards, various good knives, big stainless bowls and .plenty of bleach.
We didn't butcher until the temperature dropped in the fall. By then it is pretty wet here. You have to keep air moving over the meat. Keep an eye on it. We would wipe the carcass down with vinegar water every few days and we could hang over 20 days. It was the right flavor, tenderness, moisture content for me starting at 16 days. Make sure to blast out the inside of the shed with bleach water before and after and then make sure it is dry. When butcher season is over and all the equipment is thoroughly cleaned put it all up in the hanging shed.
We would get 2-3 families together and butcher hang cut and wrap, move on to the next one as soon as the previous was all finished up.
It was always a good time.
Here is a link to something similar
We didn't butcher until the temperature dropped in the fall. By then it is pretty wet here. You have to keep air moving over the meat. Keep an eye on it. We would wipe the carcass down with vinegar water every few days and we could hang over 20 days. It was the right flavor, tenderness, moisture content for me starting at 16 days. Make sure to blast out the inside of the shed with bleach water before and after and then make sure it is dry. When butcher season is over and all the equipment is thoroughly cleaned put it all up in the hanging shed.
We would get 2-3 families together and butcher hang cut and wrap, move on to the next one as soon as the previous was all finished up.
It was always a good time.
Here is a link to something similar
Last edited:
M.Magis
Well-known member
I do all my own as well, but no sort of real set up. Animals get hung in the outside garage. With deer I just break them down one quarter at a time and finish cutting inside on the kitchen table. Beef are obviously a lot bigger, so I set up a makeshift table out in the garage with some benches and plywood. Steaks are cut on the old Craftsman band saw. Burger is ground in the kitchen. The tube bags and tape dispenser I bought from LEM is worth its weight in gold. Everything else is vacuum sealed.
