5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.
Got some free time and a hacksaw this weekend?
Take your nose-to-tail eating a step further, and try a hand at butchering your own meat with Andrew Wiseheart from Contigo Austin.
If you're up to the challenge but still feeling squeamish, just remember these wise words by Denver chef Frank Bonnano:
"...You sure as hell should see how that animal came before you. Visit a slaughterhouse, talk to a hunter, get to know your butcher. As a chef, it will improve your knowledge. As a human being, it will enrich your understanding."
Butchering Primer on Half Hog: Andrew Wiseheart
*Note: You can normally purchase a headless, half-hog from your local butcher shop.
1. Shoulder
"The body will be divided into three main sections: shoulder, middle and ham. Place your half hog on a clean surface. First, you’ll need to separate the shoulder. With the half hog on your table, use your hacksaw to cut through spine between the fourth and fifth rib. Next, use your hacksaw to separate the ribs, going through bone only, making sure you don’t hit any meat."
2. Ham
"To remove the rear of the hog and separate from the middle, use the hacksaw on the last rib and cut through the spine only, making sure to saw the bone only. The pig should now be in three workable sections."
3. Trotters
"With your three main pieces apart you can cut off the trotters for use, making sure nothing goes to waste. Remove the trotters with the shanks by cutting around each shank with a boning knife until you hit bone. Use the hacksaw to cut bone only and completely remove trotters."
4. Skin
"Remove skin from shoulder and ham by pulling on the skin and pushing with your boning knife creating tension to easily 'peel' the skin from the meat. Use the skin to make chicharrónes."
5. Sausage
"After you’ve removed the skin from the ham, you can easily make ground meat for sausage. De-bone the ham by using the boning knife to remove the aitch (pelvic) bone. Repeat the same process to remove the ball-and-socket joint. Loosen meat from bones and remove bones entirely. Cut meat into one- to two- inch cubes. The meat is now ready for a grinder to make sausage."
Is there someone you'd like to see in the hot seat? Let us know in the comments below and if we agree, we'll do our best to chase 'em down.
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Consuming meat of any kind is barbaric and should be criminal. You people should all be shot.
You do realize that humans are omnivores right? We can't get all the nutrition we need from only plants.
Right...And just how is that national obesity epidemic workiing out for you?
Blaming the obesity epidemic on meat alone is akin to blaming all our economic problems on President Obama: ignorant and myopic. There is no single contributing factor for either fix we're in. It take s village to make a fat, poor idiot.
So what village can we thank for you?
Any way you look at it, consuming meat should be criminal. You should be locked up or shot on sight.
MiM, meat doesn't make people obese. Too much meat, too much sugar, too much fat, not enough exercise, and so on is what makes people obese.
Your pathetic attempt to lay the blame on one type of food is either a lame attempt at trolling, or a demonstration of extreme simple-mindedness.
Which is it?
Awww, see? That's what I meant. You don't even recognize it when someone is talking about you right in front of your face. *Pats him/her on the head* Now .... see up there? The part where it says so and so "@M is M" ? That means this is all for you. There, there. Now run along and play.
so is killing veggies....What the difference from you killing plants and me killing animals? NOTHING!!! Go protest and get off the computer
When the game of life makes you feel like quittin' it helps a lot if you kill a kitten.
LMAO , NICE !!!!!!
Good screen name.
An omnivore consuming only vegetables is perverse and unnatural. You should be naturally selected out of the gene pool.
North Dakota Boy: I am an omnivore consuming a vegan diet. I suppose I have taken myself out of the gene pool by not having children. In terms of "unnatural", so are many things that you likely do every day.
Advocating shooting people should be conspiracy to commit murder. You should be imprisoned for life.
You forgot to mention that advocating shooting people is *barbaric*.
Trotters are feet. Get it?
For a full description of hog butchering, read "Christmas in the Big Woods," part of the "Litttle House on the Prairie" books. Describes everything from how headcheese is made to making a hog bladder balloon.
There was a murder in Houston a few years back in which the guy cut up his girlfriend and burned her remains on his outdoor grill. Everyone thought he was cooking a lot of brisket. When cooking human smells like any other type of cooking mammal, it's no wonder some of his neighbors can't eat meat anymore. I can't deal with grease, so it's an easy choice for me.
Boneless pork in my crockpot = World's Best pulled pork , mine ;-9
THANK YOU!!!!!! This article really helps. I would love to see articles on butchering a steer, Also how about butchering a goose?
To some of you other people, meat, milk, cheese, eggs all these things do come from animals and animals live on farms.
I have butchered several hogs. These instructions are useless to anyone who is actually going to attempt it. I'm guessing that this is meant to be an "armchair" guide for someone who would never go near a hog, living or dead.
Yeah thats great and all, but what I really wanna know is how to slaughter a cat. For desperate times, you know?
Same steps; smaller knife
I'm hungry
Is this meant as an April Fool's joke or what?
I doubt that anyone would be motivated to go out and get a half hog to butcher based solely on this set of "instructions".
It sounds like somebody wrote these "instructions" in a pathetic attempt at some form of humor.
In case someone did not notice, here is an example from the "instructions":
"Next, use your hacksaw to separate the ribs, going through bone only, making sure you don’t hit any meat."
For most of us non-butchers, "separate the ribs" is what we do after we cook a rack of them and are ready to eat them. "making sure you don’t hit any meat." Sounds nuts to us. Could it be that "separate the ribs" should have been followed by "from the spine"? Oh yes! That's *probably* what he meant.
No diagram, no pictures, nutty half-baked "instructions"... is this a not-ready-for-prime-time comedy column or what?
First, list the tools we will need in order to proceed with this process. Second, please explain words such as "trotters". As a hunter all my life, I have never hear that word before. Third, if you call it a "ham" Im going to assume that the "ham" will be a "ham" and not ground meat. I think this needs to be a LOT more clear> I have loved your articles int eh past, but I think you mailed this one in. I am very disappoint.
Rick, I grew up doing some of these things, the last couple of years, trapping, hunting, butchering wild hogs, has become much more important and I suspect it will for a lot of people. What you need to do this job, and I am thinking through what I lay out when I butcher. One you need a sturdy place to hang the carcass. In the woods, a strong branch, near a source of running clean water. In town, I found what we call a hitting frame – i coach softball/baseball and we have a hitting backstop – its a frame with legs – and usually on the frame is a large mat with a picture of a catcher on it – then we pitch balls to the kid – this backstop stops the balls, anyway, I take the mat off the frame and put two sturdy straps with hooks on them. I run the hooks through the back legs of the hog, between the tendon and the bone, in the lower part of the leg. I have a old plastic wheelbarrow that I put under the hog to catch all the nasty that draines or falls out of the hog. I have a knife sharpener, and two knives, both very strong knives, but one that i use to work the skin off, and make close cuts and one larger knife for cutting other areas. A saw can be handy for cutting the bones, but we use a old branch pruner to cut bones, like the legs, etc. and we use the branch clipper/pruner more than the saw. A skinning knife is handy too, but I have lost mine, this is the knife that has a claw looking think on the opposite side – very sharp on the claw, this is used to cut/slice through the hog's very tough skin. The hogs we butcher are the wild feral hogs – they will run from 80 lbs to 200 lbs or better. Make sure you use sturdy tools – flimsy ones can snap and hurt you. We ground up most of our meat except for tenderloins on hogs and back strap on deer (strip on either side of the back bone – incredible meat). Wild hog meat is red – looks like venison – hellaciously healthier than beef. Domestic hog meat looks nasty to me – way to much fat – actually looks like the pictures of cardio-plaque that you used to see in health class. Wild hog eats whatever they can find or steal in the woods – and that is what my family eats most of for meat. We mix it with low-sodium no-sodium spices , chop up lots of onion, (and garlic on my side), and form them into large patties and cook them over the outside grill with mesquite wood. Years ago, I was the only one that ate it, couple of years ago, my wife was diagnosed with terminal heart disease – she had to go to low fat low sodiuum diet – and so started eating what I killed and cooked. Now she is healthy – has no sign of heart disease – and the only down side is she keeps pushing me to go kill more hogs.
DS
Regarding number of hogs, we probably go through 6-8 hogs and several deer a year. I buy a lot of chicken as well – and that plus the fish we catch is what we eat. I buy store bought beef often for my youngest – though she tells me if I leave the onions off the wild hog, she will eat it too. My kids are highschool, college athletes, and people talk about how muscled they look – i think it might be because what they eat are wild running – wild living animals.
Donnie: Great post; glad to hear your wife is healthy.
Not very practical for most of us. It would take me 10 years to eat a whole pig. Not counting the 1:59ers from my college days.
thats why you just hunt deer and turn the rest into jerky lasts for a long time tastes good and can be a good present :)
Dover, you might be surprised just how fast a person goes through a whole hog. In the United States every year the average person consumes enough pork to consume nearly one half of a hog. There are over 100 million hogs slaughtered in the large farms alone every year in the U.S.
I think burger places should be right next to a cattle farm so you know they have nice fresh meat
Anyone who can see an animal get slaughtered and still eat meat has some real problems! "If slaughterhouses were made of glass, everyone would be vegetarian!"
"Problems" like not being able to eat more meat?
lol silly vegetarians. Just because you can't hear the plants screaming doesn't mean you aren't killing and eating them just like we do animals. :)
Skipped biology and botany back in school, didn't you?
tired old reply...still doesn't make sense. Animals feel pain and fear just like we do and it gives us no right to kill them and eat them. I wish we as humans would evolve and become more empathetic to the world around us. The majority of us are so selfish.
So....what about animals killing and eating each other? Do they not have that right? We as humans cannot because....we can think better than they? If they have such advanced feelings as you claim then shouldn't they feel sad too every time they kill and eat another animal? I assure you they do not. Nature is cruel. Grow up.
Just because you can't hear plants scream doesn't mean they are
I love it when vegetarians and vegans troll a page about meat.
Sure slaughterhouses aren't pretty, but I'd say it's still a whole lot more humane than what other large predators do to their prey (we are animals, remember that?)
Watch a documentary about wolves, or large cats and how they take down their prey. I'd say being knocked unconscious and exsanguinated is a lot more humane than being chased around, leaped on, bitten and then having your stomach ripped out and eaten while you're still conscious.
I totally support PETA – People Eating Tasty Animals.
I am a vegan, and I do not support PETA. As far as "trolling" goes, I am just visiting. No intention on "trolling" anyone
Maranda,
I have personally slit the necks of goats for me to eat. This was in a country called Ethiopia, and in another country called Kenya. Did I feel bad? It is heartbreaking to see the animal kick and hear the bubbles of the throat. But I needed to eat. And that is why veganism will never be as prominant as people would like. People need to eat. I eat meat from the store again now, but if I needed to I would kill a goat again.
Nice-I don't care if you are starving-you have no right to kill another to eat it.
Says you. You have no right to tell me what I do and don't have the right to do. pi$$ off.
"I don't care if you're starving" Fine with me. Since you don't care, I'll just slit your throat, drain you, gut you like a hog and commit cann!balism. Go $uck an oleander bu$h.
You are correct that people need to eat, but they do not need to eat meat. A healthy vegetarian or vegan diet is far cheaper and far better for your health (and of course, the health of the animals you were going to eat) than a carnivorous diet. Vegans and vegetarians typically have better health and far lower rates of obesity and other health problems than the meat-eating population. A meat-free diet is also better for the planet because factory farming produces harmful emissions that have greatly increased global warming. Altogether, veganism and vegetarianism are the smart choice all around, and quite tasty if you make a little effort to prepare your meals.
Hey veg-heads! Remember what causes your veggies to grow – animal manure. If you live in an area where all there is are grasslands, are you going to eat the grass or the animals grazing on it before you starve to death? Yes, there is a cycle of life, both plant and animal. That's why we humans are omnivores.
Char, I don't care if you are a sanctimonious fool, you have no right to condemn another human to starvation.
Nope, ive gone hunting tons of times before and gutted and preparted my own deer and i still eat meat. mmmm meat
Anyone who eats meat and cannot appreciate that an animal gave its life and appreciate the process has problems.
Absolutely. We see meat in pretty packages and do not see any of the carnage that goes on. Lots of us would be not eat meat if saw it slaughtered. I myself did not eat meat for that reason for a few years, but then fell off the wagon – hard to cook different meals for everybody and work full time.
Work harder-the animals will thank you.
What about you, char – how hard are you working?
Char, you really are unbearable self-righteous. If you cat like this in real life, I'll let you in on a secret... No matter how they act toward you, if you're really such a holier-than-thou snoot, people hate you. Come down off that pedestal you've made for yourself.
Heh... Couple of typos there...
unbearable = unbearably
cat = act
I've been a health-wise vegetarian for over 20 years. I have seen animals slaughtered and also am a retired surgeon. Obviously the visual aspect would be no problem for me.
It's easy for vegetarians to get arrogant. Most of the world does not have enough of ANYTHING to eat. Being a vegetarian is hardly a choice for them. Getting enough calories is their biggest challenge, no matter what shape they take.
Eastern Indians eat vegetarian as mainly a religious habit. Generally it's easier to sustain a vegetarian diet economically in poor countries...than meat, which is always very expensive.
I think vegetarians should be less arrogant. It's easy to be a vegetarian in Western countries where there's a tremendous amount and choice of food. This is unheard of in most of the developing World. If you're talking about sustainable, inexpensive protein, the obvious solution is insects. In most Asian countries this is a well recognized and beloved form of protein. It's what the people can afford, and it sustains them.
sanjosemike
Well said!
A vegetarian I can appreciate!
I'd happily have a guy like you over for dinner and make a meat-free meal.
I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years. Currently, I am a vegan. I have no ill will toward meat eaters or hunters. It just ain't for me.
If God had not meant us to eat meat, he would not have made cows out of steak.
LOL
@Maranda – I disagree. My father was a butcher and we as kids routinely got tours of his place of work (which was a "corporate" company) which was not pretty and did gross me out as a child, but not in a way that would make me stop eating meat. It was explained as "just a part of life." His friends would also have him butcher deer, pigs and other animals they may have raised or killed themselves. I eat meat to this day. I don't eat a lot of meat, from a purly health perspective, but I would not want to do without. To each his own, but do not judge or make your silly blanket statements. What may be right for you may not be right for someone else.
Ahhh... Americanus moronicus, aka, the Barking Moonbat, once again delivering its opinion as if it were fact.
I grew up knowing where my food comes from, and I'm fine with it. Just because you are squeamish doesn't mean everybody else should be uncomfortable with their place in the natural order of this planet.
wow... I use to LIKE ham
GOP dont taste good tho... very gamey and spoiled ish
Barbarians!
Ahh, the Vegans emerge. Did you know that alfalfa screams when it's picked, Vegans? Oh, the inhumanity of it all.
ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO that is a good one ;-)
Don't make light of this until you've been to a slaughterhouse.
@Char, I would love to see your area hit with drought or floods that wiped entire crops away. Your six yr old belly swollen because of hunger and a goat wanders into your yard. I would love to be there to tell u what u told the Ethopian "you have not right to kill another" Oh, and most of all, I would like you to listen and take the advise and GIVE ME THAT GOAT SO MY FAMILY WON'T STARVE, AND I AM SURE AFTER YOUR FAMILY STARVES TO DEATH YOU WOULD BE REWARDED IN HEAVEN BECAUSE YOU SAVED MY FAMILY FROM STARVATION: YOU ARE AN IDIOT
"Don't make light of this ..." ??? Really? How 'bout you don't take this so seriously 'til you've had your sense of humor re-instated?
I grew up on a working farm, saw animals slaughtered, helped out as soon as I was old enough. Am I allowed to mock you?
Alfalfa sreams when it is picked? Do you have a link to that?
screams, too
gross!!
We live in the year 2011. We shouldn't have to do that any longer.
What does the year have to do with eating nose-to-tail? You get more b@ng for your buck and you produce less waste.
so many things wrong with this statement it's hard to begin
Char, by all means, begin, you stuck-up flake.
What is "wrong" with advocating using the entire animal? It seems to me that if you are opposed to killing animals for meat, you should at least recognize that nose to tail (i.e. complete usage of the animal for food) is better than only partial usage, because it results in less killing.
sickos - put yourself also on the table and let the hacksaw do its work!
you people are sick
More! We should all do this if we enjoy meat.