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10/03/11, 12:06 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: PA
Posts: 211
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If you want to do your own home slaughtering, more power to you but I would just as soon be able to drop off a hog, sheep, steer at the honest local butcher shop....let them deal with it, let me support a small business....and come home with meat from the animal I raised. I hope that isn't too much to expect.
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10/03/11, 01:39 PM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 2,375
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We butcher everything other than cattle here or at my daughter's place. That way we are sure of what we are getting, and responsible for how it turns out.
Cattle we take to a local small family butcher. We have them do the kill, skin, gutting and hanging then they cut the carcass into 6 pieces to make home cutting more manageable. Cost is pretty minimal and we are reasonably sure that we get back the animal we sent in... This has worked out well for us for several years.
Mary
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10/03/11, 01:49 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,313
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Thats too much to ask countrygent
The best politicians were former butchers.
I never knew anybody who didnt say, up home, that they thought they got rooked in the butchering process, at least once. Ive heard it a few times down here too.
Terri, Where u live by WP? I usta live on hwy 16 E heading towards Alton. 11. lives out there somewhere. He was , I hoped, try to find out where I lived there and take a few pics of it to see what had changed. He said he couldnt find it.
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10/03/11, 02:03 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the mountains of east TN
Posts: 753
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby
You should take blood samples before taking your critter in for slaughter, then simple dna testing of your meat can quickly determine if you got the correct packages back. Or you could do business with honest butchers.... or do it yourself.  |
OR, go and watch from beginning to end.
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Stephanie
Wife, Mom to 4 ( 2 in Tn, 2 in Gloryland), caretaker of chickens, rabbits, kittys, 2 dogs, 2 milk goats, 2 jersey cows, and 1 messy house
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10/03/11, 02:06 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3,604
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Quote:
Originally Posted by terri46355
Thanks! They said the ham steaks were a light sugar cure, but didn't mention how the bacon was done. Luckily, most of the meat was not cured or smoked. It tastes great! West Plains.
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If the rest of the meat is fine, it ain't the pig.
One of two things have happened:
1. The butcher goofed curing the bacon. Over the years, I've found that humans do make mistakes, even folks that are pretty good at what they do. You can mess up curing a ham pretty easy if you're not paying attention, baconles so, but it does happen.
2. Your bacon got swapped with somebody else's. That could be through a goof or on purpose.
What we've done over the years...we either cut up our own meat, or we are present while the carcass is being cut up (we know it's ours because we stamp our own).
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10/03/11, 02:23 PM
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I bought a bull calf from a dairy near me , made a steer out of it & raised it on pasture with a ration of grain everyday . When the time came to take it to the butcher I called all the local butchers & told them what breed the steer was & asked what percentage of the live weight I would get back in meat . All of them told me 50% . Two weeks before I took the steer in it was weighed on scales & weighed 790 lbs. I got back 236 lbs. of meat & some of that had bone in it . I was expecting around 400 lbs. of meat . This was not a beef breed steer but I explained that to the butchers .
What is the normal % for a beef breed ? I never raised another one . The meat was also tough . My father-in-law has a small herd of black angus raised on grass & grained for about the last month before butchering & that meat is always tough too . He has a slaughter house & butchers his own , I'll buy my beef from the market .
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10/03/11, 02:35 PM
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Living the dream.
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Morganton, NC
Posts: 1,982
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Did you pick it all up at once? Or go back and get the bacon later? Curing bacon takes time, they may swap the meat just so you can pick it up all at once.
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10/03/11, 03:33 PM
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Born in the wrong Century
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,067
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WV Hillbilly
I bought a bull calf from a dairy near me , made a steer out of it & raised it on pasture with a ration of grain everyday . When the time came to take it to the butcher I called all the local butchers & told them what breed the steer was & asked what percentage of the live weight I would get back in meat . All of them told me 50% . Two weeks before I took the steer in it was weighed on scales & weighed 790 lbs. I got back 236 lbs. of meat & some of that had bone in it . I was expecting around 400 lbs. of meat . This was not a beef breed steer but I explained that to the butchers .
What is the normal % for a beef breed ? I never raised another one . The meat was also tough . My father-in-law has a small herd of black angus raised on grass & grained for about the last month before butchering & that meat is always tough too . He has a slaughter house & butchers his own , I'll buy my beef from the market .
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it may been a little shy, Good rule of thumb is a 1/3 hide and offal 1/3 bone, and a 1/3 meat. for most healthy 4 legged animals at least.
if it was a little on the skinny side may explain the slight difference.
790 / 3 = 263.33 difference being 27.33 lbs
percentage is kinda hard unless you have the same animals all the time.
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10/03/11, 04:52 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 5,204
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Who did the cutting? Did he find a shoat with an undescended testicle and just said nothing(or didn't know any better)? It's rare, but possible that you may have purchased a half barrow/half boar. You shouldn't automatically assume it was the butcher.......
How do some of the other cuts taste?
geo
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10/03/11, 04:59 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Sequim WA
Posts: 6,352
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I am now very nervous about using a Butcher for our pigs! We are feeding them the way we want, and they are getting a very gourmet pig diet, let me tell you. They are growing fast, very healthy, look just great. I'd be beyond bummed to get the wrong pork back! DH was interested in butchering one of them himself, after watching the process. We have time to figure this out as it won't be time until end of Nov, beginning Dec. That is also when it starts getting colder here.
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10/03/11, 05:04 PM
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: WV
Posts: 1,624
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When a hog is in heat, the meat tends to get a raunchy smell. At least thats what I've always heard.
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10/03/11, 05:43 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: W. Oregon
Posts: 8,754
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Sounds like just the bacon, tried the ham yet? A lot of slaughter houses don't cure meat, they send it out to someone else. More chance of being mixed up. I have not had anyone else cure meat for me since the local butcherhouse quit using a real smokehouse. I don't like chemical smoked meats at all. I smoke all my own and cure it the old way....James
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10/03/11, 05:50 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: W. Oregon
Posts: 8,754
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[QUOTE=lorichristie;5433739]I am now very nervous about using a Butcher for our pigs! We are feeding them the way we want, and they are getting a very gourmet pig diet, let me tell you. They are growing fast, very healthy, look just great.
Make sure they don't get any garden produce that can cause taste and odor problems. Cabbage, broccoli and such....James
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10/03/11, 06:05 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 4,325
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It sounds to me like home butchering might be a good skill to have. 
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10/03/11, 07:50 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 467
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A good way to avoid the 'doubts', and learn how to do-it-yourself, is to find a neighbor that slaughters, and hire him (paid in cash, or meat) to do it at your farm, while you watch/help. You help a neighbor, and a neighbor helps you. You know that no "funny-business" happened @ the butcher shop, and, you'll never have to pay again for butchering. Win/Win.
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10/03/11, 08:16 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Northern New Mexico
Posts: 92
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I just wanted to voice that not all butchers are cheating scoundrels. My dad is a small town butcher and he goes to great lengths to make his customers happy. He is super careful to keep everybody's meat seperate and never shorts his customers. I don't know if he is a rare gem or if butchers just get a bad rap, but I just wanted the unexperienced to know that not everybody is out to screw them. When in doubt ask the people around you for recommendations. You just might find a gem of a butcher around you.
To the OP, I really don't know what caused your problem, but I'm sure sorry it happened. Hopefully you can get it figured out. I agree that you should ask your butcher if he has any idea why it would taste off. Good luck!
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10/03/11, 08:16 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Tx
Posts: 186
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty'sDog
A good way to avoid the 'doubts', and learn how to do-it-yourself, is to find a neighbor that slaughters, and hire him (paid in cash, or meat) to do it at your farm, while you watch/help. You help a neighbor, and a neighbor helps you. You know that no "funny-business" happened @ the butcher shop, and, you'll never have to pay again for butchering. Win/Win.
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This sounds like the best of both worlds! 
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10/03/11, 08:25 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Sequim WA
Posts: 6,352
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A friend of mine referred me to a local Butcher. I called and asked some questions. The gal who answered confirmed they butcher one pig at a time, package, label everything, then on to next pig. I looked up the Butcher on line and zero complaints. My friend was thrilled with her service & end products. Yes, Jwal10, the last six weeks, their diet will be very carefully planned for a good tasting meat at the end!
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10/05/11, 05:43 PM
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: MO Ozarks
Posts: 378
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Quote:
Originally Posted by libbypayne8
I just wanted to voice that not all butchers are cheating scoundrels.
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I had a butcher in another state that was excellent, fair, and trustworthy. I can't say whether this place is the same, so I asked the question. A local meat market sold me some old boar bacon. I took it back and of course they said that nobody else thought the bacon was bad. Maybe I'm just too picky.
Thanks everyone for your input!
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Terri
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10/05/11, 08:24 PM
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Transplanted Tarheel
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Central KY
Posts: 596
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If you have an AG university near you check to see if they butcher. The university I work at does as part of a food science course and to train state inspected butchers. They charge about half of what a commercial processor does and since they are doing it as part of classwork they process an order at a time.
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