Bison!

[gitano]

Certainly "works" for me, I just never heard anything but the word "fell" in the context of hanging meat.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Certainly "works" for me, I just never heard anything but the word "fell" in the context of hanging meat.

 Paul

I have no quarrel with the use of the word "fell" as applied in the definition you cited.
But "fell" strikes me as something that grows on the meat within the animal and is retained in the butchering and aging processes.


Whereas "rind" is something that forms on the meat as it dries from dry-age hanging, because it wasn't there to start with.





And actually, I think at this stage we're gettin' kinda nit-picky!  :D
Dear Mr butcher,...
Call it whatever you like, just don't trim it off!

[j0e_bl0ggs (deceased)]

Never heard fell apart from fell over when it was shot, rind is the common expression regarding the dried meat layer here.

[gitano]

I got the meat back from the butcher today. (Earlier than I thought.) I gave him 300lb including hind leg bones and got 280lb back. Very pleased with that ratio alone. Got 102lb of 'burger', 74lb of summer sausage, and the balance (104lb) in "steaks and roasts". Total cost was $641.49 or $2.29/lb of finished meat. I tasted the summer sausage :D, and we had burger for dinner. I am VERY happy with this! I momentarily thought "Dang! I shoulda given him the whole thing!" However, on further reflection, I did it just about right. I processed the parts that I could do in a timely fashion AND the way I wanted. Had I dropped off the whole animal at the butcher, I probably would have paid at least $1000, and still would have had to do all the canning. Nevertheless, future animals will go to this butcher, with small exceptions.
 
 Paul


PS - Now that I think about it, I recall that I "took back" my leg bones with the gastrocnemius (hocks) attached. They were every bit of 10lb each. Therefore, I gave him about 280lb, about what I got back. Given that ratio 1:1, the cost per pound was about $2.14. Not a big difference, but more accurate.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Really glad it worked out for ya Paul.
And the really good news is, you've found a processor you can trust to not rake you over the coals in the future.

[Jamie.270]

And just in case I forget, or it doesn't get said enough, Thank You (and Rick too!) for taking us along on this little adventure of yours.


It's just one more thing to love about this place.

[gitano]

Thanks! Like I said, future animals will go to this place. Game processing at $1.29/lb incoming is a great deal. Considering what you get back - packaged burger, vacuumed steaks and roasts, and "stew meat" if you want - it's a great deal. Most importantly, they do a good job!

Tomorrow the other front quarter and smoked ribs, and I'll finally be finished with "the beast"!

Thanks again.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Just curious,...
Did they freeze that burger for you?  Or would they have if you had asked/paid?

[gitano]

Yes. Sort of. They will store your stuff for three days without cost. Stored, it will freeze. However, I picked it up as soon as they called me.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Sounds like you found your own version of our "Eddie-the-butcher."
Good ones like that are worth every penny.

[Paul Hoskins]

Paul & Rick. thanks  for taking us along on the bison hunt of s lifetime. It was rough at times but we made it. All is well that ends well. I never had any doubt's about being successful but was a bit concerned about getting the beast out & processed without losing some meat. Fortunately, the weather was about perfect. Thanks to the meat processor, the ordeal is about over. For that I'm thankful. I was getting tired from all the work. Now we  can all sit back & talk about the hunt & decide what to do with the  skull and hide.That's all minor worries now. ........Paul H

[gitano]

The hide's taken care of, (money the simple solution of course), but the skull remains an open issue. I checked around, and the cheapest I can find for simple cleaning and bleaching is $400. That, frankly, is absurd. In the past, I have maintained a dermestid beetle colony for cleaning bones/skulls, but I don't (didn't) fancy starting up a new colony for this effort. (There's a bit of danger associated with maintaining dermestid beetle colonies.) However, I'm thinking about doing just that. Boiling is a bit problematic due to the size of the skull and the season-winter. I THINK I'm going to get the beetles after it, pressure-wash it, and then bleach it. At the moment, given the season, it's a relatively low priority.

I'm taking the right front quarter apart this morning. Maybe I'll find a bullet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Paul

[gitano]

We're getting down near the end of this saga. There will be some later posts when I get the hide back from the tannery and when I get the skull taken care of, but this is going to be close to the last "meat" post for sure.

As I mentioned, I took the last quarter apart today. It was the one that took the first shot. (The front right.) The front quarters came off the carcass while it was hanging in Helkenn's shop that first night. Therefore, it's been "hanging" for 18 days. It is perfectly aged. PERFECTLY! It has a smell that is impossible for me to describe other than "sweet". If you've ever smelled a properly aged piece of game meat, you'll know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, it defies description. (As most smells do.) I'll tell the story with the pictures.

Here are two pictures of the whole quarter: "Inside" and "Outside".









Next are pictures of the wound. These first ones are just generally looking at the wound from the "inside", before I start the dissection.





And a little closer.

The above  pictures are essentially looking "back out" through the wound channel.

Once dissected, here's what the humerus and scapula looked like. First the whole joint exposed.





Now a couple of the head of the humerus:






Notice that the head of the humerus is broken into at least three pieces.

Here's the "socket" end of the shoulder blade (scapula):








And he didn't really even flinch. He just turned sideways so I could shoot him in the heart. He didn't flinch then either, just took off running.

Now here are some interesting pictures that, I think, will clear up the "fell" vs "rind" issue. "Fell" is most often used (when not discussing butchery), as "fur". In the following pictures, you will see some white "fur". This is EXACTLY what I STRIVE to achieve with my hanging/aging, and I am fairly certain this is the "fell"  or "fur" that I so often heard used in Bavaria when describing PROPERLY aged game meat. I always assumed they were referring to the "skin" or "rind", when in fact, they were most likely being more specific and referring to the mold that forms on the outside of the "rinde".


































99% of Americans are so obsessed with "cleanliness" that the thought of allowing a mold to grow on your meat before you eat it is inconceivable. It isn't until this 'fur' gets growing that the meat is actually PROPERLY aged! MAN! The meat from this shoulder is SWEET!

Oh by they way... I found the bullet.:D

The jacket had separated from the core. "Failure!" NOT! I found MANY tiny pieces of lead around the joint mixed in with all the tiny pieces of bone shrapnel, the vast majority of which were not larger than about 2 or 3 millimeters. (You can see them in the above pictures if you look closely.) There was only one piece of lead worth saving. It weighed 31.6 grains. The remaining jacket weighed 131.05 grains, or ~26% of original weight. Max diameter was 0.856" or 206% of caliber.









Here's what the bullet's final resting place looked like:





I am REALLY happy about finding the bullet. It is THE "trophy" for me. The head and hide are a big deal, but I would have been VERY disappointed if I hadn't retrieved at least one of the bullets.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

If I had a dollar for every time I mixed up a batch of cold water with a little white vinegar in it to wipe down a carcass from that mold growth, I could get good'n drunk.
That always told me it was time.
Wipe it down, take it down, section it and cut it up.  (whole deer or elk qtrs)



That was another tip I got from Eddie.  I still remember calling him the first time it happened.  I was in a panic and thought I'd let it hang too long.
 He never mentioned "fell" though, that I can recall.
He just said the mold meant it was time to cut, and to wipe it down first and stop worrying.

[gitano]

Eddie was right!

Paul

PS - Was Eddie, German?

Paul