You can add spices or small ingredients, such as slices of onion, for flavor. Leave out all garlic, whether fresh or granulated – under pressure canning, garlic becomes rather bitter.
Method
Wash and boil or hot-water rinse jars and lids. Set on a wood surface, such as a cutting board, or place on towels laid over a tile or stone countertop. Put meat into the jars, but do not pack overly tightly, within 1” of the top rim of the jar. Add 1 tsp sea salt (or other non-iodized salt) to each quart jar, and ½ tsp to each pint or ¼ tsp to half-pints. Pour boiling water into each jar to cover the meat, up to 1” from the top jar rim. Clean the rims and put on lid and band and tighten. Fill pressure canner with lukewarm water a minimum of 2” of water above the bottom rack, or according to canner directions. Place jars into the canner so that they don’t touch. Close and seal canner according to manufacturer’s directions.
Turn up heat and continue until steam vents from the canner for a couple minutes, then place the weight on the vent to close. Let pressure build to 10-pounds, 240 degrees (or whatever is appropriate for your elevation). Hold at 10-pounds 240 degrees for 110 minutes for quarts, 90 minutes for pints and half-pints. If the pressure goes below 10-pounds 240 degrees, you must reheat and restart the timer – it must maintain that temperature and pressure for the full continuous time.
When the time is done, turn off the heat and do not move the canner. Let it cool until the vent weight can be removed without any hissing – it could be an hour or so. Remove the weight, then carefully remove the lid so that steam rises away from you. Leave the jars in the canner for a while so that all bubbling inside the jars stops – lids may seal during this time with a clicking sound. Remove the jars to the cutting board or towels, and let rest until cool. Label with type of meat, date, and then store.
MAKING FRESH CHEESE
The perfect use for that extra milk; double or triple or multiply the recipe as needed. A gallon of milk makes about a pound of cheese.
1-quart whole goat’s milk
¼ cup vinegar or lemon juice
Bring the milk almost to a boil – there will be tiny bubbles around the edge of the pan. Turn off the heat. Immediately add the vinegar or lemon juice. Stir once or twice. The milk will separate into curds and whey. Let this sit and cool off until you can handle it with ease.
Pour the curds and whey through boiled cheesecloth resting in a colander so that you catch the curds as the whey drains into a collecting dish. The whey can be consumed if you wish, or fed to the chickens, pigs, cats or dogs.
Take the curds in the cheesecloth, twist slightly to drain, and then put the curds into a bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon of salt per half pound of fresh cheese – or other spices and flavorings as you like (chives, garlic, pepper, sugar, strawberries, etc).
This fresh cheese can be used exactly as it is as a spread over toast. Or, you can treat it like cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, or use it in any recipe that calls for cream cheese!
BUTCHERING, GENERIC STYLE
An amazing thing about animals is that they’re all basically the same underneath. All the critters in this book have livers, kidneys, similar heart and blood vessel systems, lungs, brains, stomachs and digestive tracts. The birds have a couple additional little attachments – one is called a crop (located in the neck where it joins the body) and a gizzard (inside the body) that do the work of teeth.
So, basically, butchering is the same work, no matter how big or small the carcass you’re working upon. For this reason, I’ve written rather general instructions on butchering that could apply to almost any edible critter.
Let me suggest that you not overly concern yourself with producing “supermarket” cuts of meat – although you certainly can – because those specialized cuts are prepared using high speed electric meat saws on partially frozen pieces of meat. Home-raised meat can be any size, shape, or thickness – and still cook up into a mouth-watering treat.
Head: Earlier chapters on individual animals have instructed you how to stun and bleed the animal or bird; and to remove the animal’s head. There are two main reasons for this: (1) once the head is off, it’s emotionally easier to do the work; and (2) you don’t usually eat the head (though some people do boil down pigs’ heads for “head cheese”).
Hanging: Tie loops of twine or rope around the animal’s hind legs at the ankles, and suspend the animal from a strong support at a height that is comfortable for you to work at. The animal’s neck and shoulders will hang down, and will continue to drip fluids.
Skinning: Chickens can be skinned by pulling the skin off like a glove, inside out. However, the skin is a good source of fat, so if you’re able to leave it on, do so. You can pluck the feathers from a chicken immediately (it does take some effort), or you can dunk and swish the headless bird in a near-boiling kettle of water for a minute or so – that will loosen the feathers, and you’ll have an easier time pulling them out. Immediately after plucking, dunk the bird in cold water to stop the skin-cooking process.
For larger animals, carefully lift the skin away from the muscle at the back of the animal’s thigh, and insert a sharp knife beneath the skin. Cut the skin ONLY (!), from each rear hock to the anus, then mid-abdomen all the way to the neck, then outward toward the end of each front leg -- lifting with one hand so that you don’t puncture the muscle or gut. For very young rabbits, you may only have to separate the skin from the rear legs using your knife, and then peel the hide down inside out like pulling a glove off of the carcass. For male animals, cut to one side of the scrotum and penis.
For larger animals, begin “folding” the skin backwards from the cut line, using a dull knife this time to peel and separate the skin. It’s okay if you accidentally cut a hunk out of the muscle or poke a hole in the skin, but the fewer cuts like this there are, the more attractive the results will be. For goats, some owners actually just cut a small slit under the skin near the anus and insert a garden hose – turn on the water and pressure separates the skin from the carcass without too much effort, as well as cooling the meat quickly.
Continue until you have completely removed the skin. You may wish to remove the front feet at this time, rather than trying to skin them out. Garden clippers work on rabbits. For goats and pigs, fold the foot forward and cut the tendons, then bend the foot backwards and cut the inside tendons – then, you can twist the foot off. Cut the tail off flush with the body.
Lay the skin down, fleshy side up, and coat with a layer of salt if you plan to tan it.
Gutting: For sheep and goats: with your sharp knife, cut a circle around the anus, and pull the rectum out slightly. Tie a piece of twine around it and close up the anus so no bowel contents spill onto your meat. For chicken and rabbits, this is unnecessary.
Now, again using the sharp knife cut directly down the center of the animal’s belly with the knife blade’s sharp edge facing OUTWARD, not inward. Keep one hand immediately behind the knife inside the animal’s gut, to prevent accidentally cutting into the bowels. If you do, the meat is still salvageable (wash cavity after degutted with a solution of one part bleach to four parts water, or lots of running water if you don’t have bleach), but your life will be easier if you avoid cutting the bowels in the first place.
Cut down the rib line – you’ll hit bone. At this point, the bowels, and stomach and will try to fall out of the open gut. Make sure you have a collecting bucket to drop these into. The rectum should slip out as a whole piece with the twine still on it. If not, make a few more cuts around it until it does. The lower bowels and stomach may now rip loose from the rest of the chest contents, or there may be some bits still connecting them.
For birds, just reach in now, and pull all the remaining guts out – no need to cut down the chest.
For other animals, cut down the centerline of the chest. You may need a heavier knife to cut through the cartilage where the rib bones join in the center of the chest. This is the animal’s thoracic cavity, in which you’ll find the liver, kidneys, lungs,
heart and throat. Go ahead and pull these out, and place in your gut bucket.
If you wish, save the kidneys (which are shaped like giant kidney beans), liver, and heart. The liver has a small dark green finger-shaped gallbladder attached to it. Cut this out by removing liver from around it and being exceptionally careful not to cut the gallbladder. The greenish bile is very bitter and will make anything it touches inedible.
Rinse or wash off the carcass now, which should be clean of all guts, organs, and windpipe. What you’ve got here is a nice, muscular piece of meat. Trim any bruised-looking sections, and cut off jagged sections of neck.
Cutting: With smaller animals such as rabbits or very young goats, you can section the carcass into portion-sized pieces. It’s easier to section a carcass if you cut at joints. Cut the rear legs off at the ball-and-socket joint where they meet the hip. Cut the hips off where the first vertebrae (backbone) meets it. Cut the mid-back (loin) off where it meets the rib cage. Cut the ribcage down the middle so you have a right and left “breast” section. You can also separate the foreleg at the shoulder at this point if you wish.
Larger animals can be cut into the same pieces, and then cut into smaller serving sizes if you wish. In addition, you can de-bone meat (completely remove the bone from a piece), roll the meat up, and secure with butcher’s twine, so that you end up with a lovely boneless roast.
On your first new butchering jobs, you may end up with a bunch of little chunks of meat from various parts of the body. No problem! These are the pieces sold in supermarkets as “stew meat” and “stir fry” for exorbitant prices. Consider yourself blessed!
Remember to cut the back feet off at the ankle joint, and remove the twine.
Each section of meat should be individually washed in running cool water, patted dry with paper towels or air dried for a few minutes, and put in a covered container or plastic bag in the refrigerator to age. You can also age meat by hanging the entire carcass in a cold, covered area that doesn’t quite get to freezing – an unheated garage in winter, a shed, or even off the limb of a large tree. The goal is to get the carcass to cool quickly, then tenderize as it hangs. Avoid hanging where predators, dogs, or cats, can get at it. Pigs and goats can be eaten the same day they are butchered, but the goat will be tough if it isn’t aged. Birds and older rabbits must be aged or it will be like eating leather. Young fryer rabbits up to eight weeks old can be cooked immediately after they have cooled.
Notes and Cautions: If meat should drop and hit the ground, it is unfortunately contaminated with microbes. With a very clean area, you may be able to get away with using that meat – as long as you saturate it with one part bleach to four parts water, or rinse thoroughly in clear water, and it is well cooked (not rare) when you eat it. If the meat falls on manure, you’re risking a good case E. Coli-caused diarrhea if you eat it. Keep your butchering area clean!
TANNING HIDES
Here’s a low-cost and low-labor method for turning those hides into useful items – I’ve used this on goat skins, sheep skins, rabbit hides, and even deer skins, but it can be used on any mammal hide when you want the hair to remain on the leather. An average goat pelt takes about an hour to process and a couple days to dry; it costs only a couple dollars per skin (really) if you’re doing several at a time; and it results in a soft, workable hide that can be used as-is or cut up for sewing projects.
Handling the Skins: The quality of hides you begin with will make a big difference in how your pelts tan out. Fresh hides, right off the animal, should be cooled immediately. Trim off any flesh and scrape visible fat from the hide. You don’t have to scrape it completely, though – that will take place later and be much easier at that point. Place the skin in the shade, lying completely flat with the fur side down, preferably on a cold concrete or rock surface.
When the skin feels cool to the touch (a half-hour or so), immediately cover the fleshy side completely and thoroughly with plain, non-iodized salt. Use three to five pounds per two goatskins. Three pounds of salt costs less than a two dollars, and this is the first treatment for a hide that makes the next steps possible. If skins aren’t salted within a few hours of removal from the animal, you might as well forget it – they will have already begun the course of decomposition and will probably lose their hair during the processing.
At this point, because you’re probably busy dealing with the animal carcass and don’t need to worry about the pelt, you should leave the skin in a protected spot to dry. You may tack it lightly to a tree, fur side down; or to the side of garage, or lay it flat wherever is handy. Add salt again if you’ve lost a lot in moving it; the salt will draw moisture from the skin and liquid may pool in low spots. Just add more salt. Transport the skin flat – you can stack several, if you keep a good layer of salt between them.
We’ve had trouble with neighborhood cats and other predators gnawing the edges of skins that were too easy to get at. Put the hide so it is out of reach, even if that means laying it in the bottom of a cage and locking the troublemakers out! You don’t need to stretch the skin yet, just make sure that it is completely flat, with no curled-up edges. Let the skin dry until it is crispy. This may take a few days to a couple weeks. When completely dry, the skin is very “stable” and won’t change or deteriorate appreciably. We’ve found salted goatskins that we’d forgotten in a barn for a couple years – they tanned up as nicely as if they were brand new.
If you’re able to tan within a half-hour of taking the hide off the animal, you may skip the “salting” step.
Equipment: You’ll need two large plastic trashcans, about 30-gallon size, and one lid. In addition, have on hand measuring cups, a wooden stirring stick about four feet long; staple gun and staples OR hammer and small stainless nails; wire bristle brush; and a wood rack (or stretcher) to tack the animal pelt for drying.
For a sufficient quantity of tanning solution to tan four to six goatskins or 10 rabbit skins, use these ingredients (cut the recipe in half for fewer skins):
7 gallons of water
16 cups plain salt (not iodized)
2 pounds (16 cups) bran flakes
3-½ cups battery acid (from auto parts store)
One box baking soda
Can Neat’s Foot oil
Mixing the Solution: a couple hours before you plan to tan, take three gallons of water and bring to a boil. Pour this over the two pounds of bran flakes. Let this sit for an hour. Strain the bran out, saving the brownish water solution. Discard the bran flakes (or save to feed to critters).
Next, bring the remaining 4 gallons of water to a boil. Put the 16 cups of pickling salt in your plastic trashcan. Pour the water over the salt, and use the stirring stick to mix until the salt dissolves. Add to this the brown bran liquid. Stir.
When this solution is lukewarm (neither hot nor cold, comfortable to the touch), you are ready to add the battery acid. Keep the box of baking soda right next to you with the top open. Very, very carefully pour the battery acid along the side of the trash can into the solution – don’t let it splash, if you can help it.
CAUTION: If you get battery acid on your skin, use plenty of cool running water to rinse it; then apply the baking soda; rinse again. If battery acid splashes into your eyes or mouth, immediately run cool tap water on the spot for AT LEAST ten minutes. You should see a health care provider right away. If battery acid splashes on your clothes, it will eat a hole into the fabric – flush with water and cover with baking soda.
Stir the battery acid in thoroughly. Keep the trash can lid tightly on this whenever you move away from it, even for a couple of seconds. It’s a good safety habit. Kids and cats move fast.
If you have dried skins, soak them in clear fresh water until flexible. At this point, you can peel off the dried inner skin from the hide fairly readily. If you have fresh skins, use as-is. Add the skins to the solution. Stir the hide or hides, pressing down carefully under the liquid until fully saturated. Leave them to soak for 40 minutes, stirring from time to time t
o make sure all parts of the hide are exposed to the solution. After 40 minutes, the soaking tan is complete.
During the soak, fill your other trashcan with lukewarm clear water. When the time is up, use the stirring stick and move the skins one-by-one into your other trashcan. This is the rinsing process, which removes excess salt from the skins. Stir and slosh the skins for about five minutes, changing the water if it gets very dirty looking.
At this point, some people add the box of baking soda to the rinse water – there are pluses and minuses on this decision. Adding the baking soda will neutralize some of the acid in the skin. This is good because there will be less possibility of residual acid in the fur to affect sensitive people. However, this may cause the preserving effect of the acid to be neutralized as well.
Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age Page 39