Bison!

[gitano]

I'm tired of buffalo. I'm tired of eating it. I'm tired of cleaning it. I'm tired of smelling it. I'm tired of cooking/canning it. Sheesh. Probably shooda just dropped it off at a processor before I ever brought it home! I think I could have 'handled' the waste by the butcher! I have 21 quarts of 'stew' canned, and I still have 3 quarters to process!

I appreciate that whining about having excess food is 'wrong', but MAN! My nose and stomach cannot be swayed by 'philosophy'.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

I wish I was closer pal, I'd be there with apron on and knives in-hand and saw on my hip.
Oddly enough, it's a part of the process I've always really enjoyed.


But I can see how dealing with that much of it could wear on someone.

Keep at it, even if it means being a vegetarian/piscatarian for a month or so until your sense of taste/smell returns to normal.

[gitano]

I appreciate the sentiment, Jamie.270.

 As a rule, I don't 'mind' the butchering, and I'm very meticulous (making it extra tedious), but it's been two full weeks since I shot this thing, and I still have 3 quarters hanging, one sack of ribs, and one "pieces" bag to trim. (We - wife, son-in-law, daughter, and I - had HALF a rack of the ribs for dinner tonight.) Tomorrow, I'm thinking of taking one hindquarter and 50# of 'scrap' to the butcher. The 'scrap' will become summer sausage, and the hindquarter will be 'dressed' at $1.35 x incoming weight. (I haven't weighed them yet, but they are more than 100 lbs a piece.) That is if they make sure to return MY bones to me. If they do a satisfactory job on that hindquarter, I'll give them the other hindquarter to do and I'll do the other front quarter, as it has the only potential for having a bullet in it, and I wouldn't trust them to save it for me. I'm still eating heart sandwiches for lunch!

Paul

[Paul Hoskins]

Too much of a good thing unless you own a meat processing plant. ......When the boys from Maine came down deer hunting several years ago they brought a 2 horsepower meat grinder. Good thing too because we had 14 deer to take care of. My little 1/2 HP grinder would have burned up. We had 6 men & a boy working & had a system. Everyone has a job  & it worked out really good. We were done in two days. Skunt out, quartered, cut & packaged & ground and frozen. A deer is not a bison. .......Paul H

[gitano]

I'm 'giving in' and taking a hindquarter plus about 100 pounds of neck meat to the local meat processor this morning. According to his web page, he will take in a hindquarter, bone it, trim it, make steaks, roasts, and burger for $1.20/pound intake weight. I'll have 70# of summer sausage ($3.29/lb finished weight) and 62# of burger ($1.29/lb finished weight) made from the 100# of neck meat. (40% increase for sausage, 20% increase for burger) The burger will be bagged in 2# bags, and the steaks and roasts vacuum packed. I'm figuring about 80# of meat off of the hindquarter, plus the 130+ pounds from the neck for a total of 210 pounds delivered for about $300 or about $1.45/lb.

Provided they do at minimum a "satisfactory" job, that's not a bad deal. And, as I said, if I like the end product, I'll give them the other hindquarter.

Rounding the weights, between the neck and four quarters, there was about 500 lbs of meat. The ribs, backstraps and tenderloins account for about another 100, (there was an amazing amount of rib meat), for a total of about 600. Assuming a 40% "recovery" rate, that puts the live weight at about 1500 lb. That's pretty much exactly what we figured when we looked at him hanging from the front loader.

40% 'recovery' is less than I get from caribou and young moose. I get pretty close to 50% with them. (I've never shot a really big bull moose.) Departments of Fish and Game around the country say most people get on average about 35% recovery from whitetails and mule deer. (That's because most people take them to butchers - an appropriate term for what those "experts" do!) I have been thinking about the relative weights of the bison head and hide, as well as their slightly denser bones. I haven't yet figured out if the proportions are different, although I suspect they are. I can tell you that the wall thickness on this bison's leg bones is thicker than the wall thickness on the leg bones of moose and other deer I have looked at. In other words, there's more percentage of marrow in a "deer" leg bone than there is in a bull bison's leg bones. I have always read that the skin on a bison's back was as thick as 1". Again because of my experience with "deer", I never believed that. I was wrong. "Bos" (cattle) are different than cervidae ("deer"). The skin on the neck and down most of the shoulders is every bit of 1 inch thick on a big bull bison!

Paul

[Jamie.270]

Wow, no wonder the hide was so heavy.  I'm curious to know how much shrinkage there will be after drying/tanning!
I take it this tanning job will be "hair on?"
And will you be getting the leg bones back, and/or have them sawn into soup bones?  Or will you get them back whole and do that yourself?
I've never tried marrow from a cervid, but bison/buffalo marrow should be close if not identical to beef.

[gitano]

Tanning is "life-size", hair on, without hooves. Full "face". (The bison's face was GORGEOUS! 3 to 4 inch-long VERY curly black and brown hair.) I don't expect too much shrinkage in the skin, as it will be thinned significantly before tanning. I can stretch it (with a 'ring' of nails), soon after tanning (like what would be done if it was going to be made into a wall-hanging rug), oil it, and it will be purt' near "original" size when dry.

I will be getting the leg bones back. I emphasized that to the butcher, TWICE. I will be making "soup bones" from some of them, but not as many as I might have because I had a bit of a windfall when I went back to the butcher to take the second hindquarter to him. :D

This is why I took the second hindquarter to him before getting the "results" back from the first hindquarter/pieces batch:
I was able to speak with THE person that was doing the butchering, and I told him I didn't want the shanks cut off the bone, "I will take care of that."
He said, "Do you want me to cut it in chunks?"
I said, "No. Just leave it on the bone. I'LL GET IT WHEN I GET THE BONES." That way I am more assured of getting my bones back.
I also said, "DO NOT TRIM THE DRIED "SKIN" off of the hindquarter!"
He responded, "You want me just to leave it on the steaks and roasts?"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "You can trim it off when you prepare the steaks and just throw it in the pressure cooker and re-hydrate it."
I said "EXACTLY!"

So he illustrated that he actually UNDERSTOOD what I wanted. By doing that, and the fact that I'm feeling a little 'pressed', I decided to take the other hindquarter to him today. Plus, I wanted to RE-emphasize that I wanted MY BONES BACK!

Here's the weight info:
First hindquarter - 94 lb
Second hindquarter - 95lb
First bag of "stuff" - 50.2lb
Bag of neck meat - 56.3lb

Total weight 295.5 lb. I estimated about 50lb each for the "bags", and "over" 100lb each for the hindquarters for a total of 300 lb. I was off by 4.5lb (if you don't count the "over 100" estimate"). I'm 'good' with a 5 pound out of 300 error (1.5%). That lends a bit more credence to the live-weight estimate of 1500.


I should net about 80 lb from each hindquarter plus 79lb of sausage and 66lb of burger for a total of 305lb "out" for 295lb "in". That's assuming they don't get 'carried away' while processing my meat.

The "windfall" I got was...
There were probably 20 "legs" (scapula-humorus-radius/ulna [the front leg bones], and femur-tibia/fibula-metatarsals [hind leg bones]) from moose and caribou in bins, waiting to be picked up by dog mushers. I asked if I could have some of them. "Take as many as you want" was the reply! :D I only took two front legs at this time. When I go back to pick up my meat, I'm going to get several femurs.


So, God willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll get a good outcome from taking the hindquarters and "pieces" to a local butcher. I REALLY hope I haven't made ANOTHER mistake trusting a butcher...

Paul

[sakorick]

My bet would be that you found a good to go butcher!

[Jamie.270]

My bet would be that you found a good to go butcher!

It certainly sounds that way!


I've got my fingers crossed for this being the case Paul.


PS: We always referred to that dried "skin" meat as the rind.
And the only reason to EVER trim it off is if a stray hair or two found it's way on some.  Even then the trimming of it was always carefully done.

[gitano]

First -

Because:
1) I have MY bison leg bones back, and
2) I have four legs each from a big bull moose and a bull caribou. :D:D:D:D:D

Now then... I have also heard the dried outer layer of a quarter called the "rind". Because I learned it first, the word that comes to mind for me is "fell", which is German for "skin". I may have heard "fleischfell" or "meat skin", but the most common word I heard used is "fell". AND... I have heard American butchers call it "fell", without knowing the origin or meaning. Whatever it's called by whomever, I am pretty sure my meat will have the rind/fell still on it when I get it.

Secundo - Some of you MAY have heard of Akutaq AKA - "Eskimo Icecream". For a VERY long while, even the natives argued VIGOROUSLY that it's ORIGINAL ingredients were Crisco and berries, meaning that it couldn't have shown up on the gustatory landscape until at least 1911 when it was first produced commercially by Proctor and Gamble. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco) It is only recently that the native Yupik community (and I), have prevailed in getting the REAL ingredients - the ingredients I was given as a kid - back into the 'real world'. What I had as a kid was moose and caribou (whichever was available) bone marrow mixed vigorously with whatever berries were at hand. For me that was always highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule), lingon berry or "lowbush" cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), or salmon berry (Rubus spectabilus), or blueberry (Vaccinium alaskaense), or Kinnikinnik AKA bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), or any combination thereof. Honestly, I'm not sure there is a "modern" icecream I like better. I can't remember the last time I had it. I will be having it this evening if I can get my hands on some berries!:jumpingsmiley:

So... I AM a 'happy camper'! Here's hoping they don't 'butcher' my meat to badly!

Paul

[Jamie.270]

[sakorick]

Bring some south!

First -

Because:
1) I have MY bison leg bones back, and
2) I have four legs each from a big bull moose and a bull caribou. :D:D:D:D:D

Now then... I have also heard the dried outer layer of a quarter called the "rind". Because I learned it first, the word that comes to mind for me is "fell", which is German for "skin". I may have heard "fleischfell" or "meat skin", but the most common word I heard used is "fell". AND... I have heard American butchers call it "fell", without knowing the origin or meaning. Whatever it's called by whomever, I am pretty sure my meat will have the rind/fell still on it when I get it.

Secundo - Some of you MAY have heard of Akutaq AKA - "Eskimo Icecream". For a VERY long while, even the natives argued VIGOROUSLY that it's ORIGINAL ingredients were Crisco and berries, meaning that it couldn't have shown up on the gustatory landscape until at least 1911 when it was first produced commercially by Proctor and Gamble. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco) It is only recently that the native Yupik community (and I), have prevailed in getting the REAL ingredients - the ingredients I was given as a kid - back into the 'real world'. What I had as a kid was moose and caribou (whichever was available) bone marrow mixed vigorously with whatever berries were at hand. For me that was always highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule), lingon berry or "lowbush" cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), or salmon berry (Rubus spectabilus), or blueberry (Vaccinium alaskaense), or Kinnikinnik AKA bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), or any combination thereof. Honestly, I'm not sure there is a "modern" icecream I like better. I can't remember the last time I had it. I will be having it this evening if I can get my hands on some berries!:jumpingsmiley:

So... I AM a 'happy camper'! Here's hoping they don't 'butcher' my meat to badly!

Paul

[gitano]

I don't suppose you mean akutaq. :)

I WILL be bringing sausage, steaks, and maybe jerky if I get it made in time.

Paul

[gitano]

For those interested: https://www.thebutchersguild.org/meat-glossary

"Fell" - The fell is the paper-thin covering of outer fat on a roast. It is  usually removed for small cuts, like chops, but kept in place for roasts  and legs because it helps retain the shape and juiciness when cooking.


Never heard it used that way, but then I'm not a butcher. I have heard American butchers use the term "fell" though. Maybe it was in the above context. Nevertheless, in German butchery, "fell" means skin or ... "rind", :grin: among other things of course!



Paul

[Jamie.270]

Let's try the German word "Rinde."


https://www.dict.cc/german-english/Rinde.html



 

Rinde {f}
bark
 crust
rind [of cheese]gastr.
cortexanat.
peeling
outer layer

That works for me.