(no subject)

[unicornduke]

butchering talk below



So the deer is done. It took me an hour to skin and quarter it, which was a big improvement in time over last time and I hardly needed my instruction list.

I have realized a minor issue, and that is that I'm relatively short. This buck was much bigger than the last one and we got it hung six inches higher than previous and they both nearly touched the ground. So I had to stand on a milk crate in order to reach the hind legs.

I also have to literally hug the hindquarters because I can't balance them in one hand and cut them lose and then remove the lower legs. It's pretty absurd to be honest. Dad was running to pick up straw so no help around.

There was no time improvement in cutting the meat from the bone and cutting it into pieces. It took me around 3 hours again. This whole deer is for ground meat and so I tried to hurry through the processing because it doesn't matter what the cuts look like as long as most of the fat and sinew are off. I also tried to hurry through it because I was doing it in the unheated garage and it's kinda chilly. I wasn't in the wind at least. My back is sore because I was looking down the whole time.

Grinding went really fast.

Comments

[graydon]

The Grohmann 6" utility knife is more like a 6" paring knife than a 6" chef's knife but good for pretty much all small-or-vegetable kitchen tasks. The Lee Valley "peasant chef's" knife (the name of the style in France) is the closest thing I can think of to a 6" chef's knife. Really general purpose; high carbon tool steel, so it will rust, but takes a lovely edge.

Sharpening steels are halfway between a swage -- squishing the edge back into shape -- and a file -- stripping metal off. This will work fine for your standard cutlery stainless knives but with some modern fancy hunting knives they don't work well because the knife is made out of some ridiculous tool steel that's both harder and tougher than the sharpening steel. (Some Bark River knives in 3V got bad reviews because of this; reviewer didn't like the knife because it won't sharpen using traditional means.)

I have a bias against sharpening steels because they take off far more material than strictly necessary when used on modern knives. They are however very fast and totally ubiquitous among butchers and chefs.

I'm still a strop-and-hone sort of guy, because I am never in that much of a hurry with knives.

[unicornduke]

Neat!