Snapshots: Butchering

Before we get into the main event of our week, I'm just gonna drop this photo right here so the butchering photos aren't the first thing people see when they see the post.

This is a 1960 Studebaker coupe.

That was parked outside of church last Sunday. When one child and I stopped to look at it, the older gentlemen who just bought it came out to talk to us. It's apparently been sitting in a barn in the village for 30 years, and only has 29,000 miles on it. The guy who bought it is bringing it back to his home in Flagstaff, Arizona, to restore it.

Okay! Now on to the butchering!

Last Sunday, A. took the middle son hunting. He (son, not A.) had a tag for a bull elk in an area only about 40 minutes from our house. A friend of ours who is really into hunting had been bow hunting there just the week before, and had actually scouted the water tanks and so on in the area the day before son's hunt. He told A. exactly where he saw the elk, and how to get there. 

The hunters left at 6 a.m. and when the rest of us got back from church at 9 a.m., there was a message on the machine that they had a bull elk on the ground and were going to start skinning it.

If you've never seen an elk, you should know that they are very big. They're the largest member of the deer family here by far, and are second in size only to the moose on this continent. I have a photo for a handy reference.

Warning: Dead animal photo ahead .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

It dropped right where it was shot, so they didn't have to track it at all. Good shot, son. From a hundred yards, too.

Luckily, the kill was only about a mile from where the Honda was parked. But that's still a very large mass to move that mile. A. skinned it, gutted it, and boned it out right there where it fell. Then he put about half of it into a game bag and hiked it back to the car. He did the same for another trip, which means he did four miles round-trip, carrying around 100 pounds of meat on his back for two of those miles.

Son, meanwhile, carried back A.'s pack, which was almost as heavy as he was. Strenuous hiking all around.

The same friend who had been so helpful before the hunt had called me asking if they had had any luck, and upon hearing that they definitely had, actually drove to them and helped our son carry out the head. They brought the whole head out for two reasons. 

One is that sawing through the base of those antlers would require a saw much bigger than they had, so popping the head off at the neck with a knife was much more practical.

The other is that elk are the only land animals on the entire continent that have ivories. That is, they have non-functional teeth in the back of their mouths that are actually ivory because they are vestigial tusks. Son was very enthused about these, so of course they had to be packed out as well.

Red meat, especially game meat, needs to be aged for at least a week. This helps with both the flavor and the texture. We couldn't hang this meat because it was already boned out, and the weather was also too warm, so we put it in big coolers with big blocks of ice, draining off the water and adding more ice as needed, until Friday. That's when I was done with my work week and could help with the butchering.

Butchering an animal this big is no small task. We started at 9:30 a.m. and I didn't finish cleaning up until 4:30 p.m.

The butcher shop in action.

Of course, since all four children were home, all four of them wanted to help. They're all proficient with a knife, so I gave them the trimmed pieces to cut stew meat and steaks. They also spent a lot of time turning the grinder.

We ended up with three boxes of more than a hundred pounts of steaks, stew meat, ground meat, stir-fry meat, and some we ground with extra fat to make chorizo sausage.

Elk in a box.

And then I could finally scrub down my hard-working dining table.

Much better.

We've already tried some of the steaks, and I am so pleased to tell you that this elk is very, very mild in flavor. Such a relief, given the last elk I had to use that was in full rut and tasted like it.

This is just the beginning of hunting season. Between A. and the two older boys, there's still a deer hunt and two more elk hunts to come. Plus we have a ram that is going to meet his freezer reward this fall. 

I think it's safe to say that our iron requirements are going to be met this winter.

There you have it! My carnivore life, snapshotted.