The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid (26 page)

Skinning should be done as soon after the kill as possible. On a warm, freshly killed carcass, the skin can almost be just pulled away, and it only takes a few minutes. If you allow the carcass to cool, the skin will set and you will have a harder job separating it from the rest of the animal. You want to skin the animal without making cuts in either the hide or the meat. If you do slice into the meat and blood starts to get on the hide, you can apply flour or cornmeal to the cut to stop the blood.

Start by cutting all the way around the four knee joints of the animal. Then carefully slit along the inside of the leg all the way to the incision you made to initially dress the animal. The initial dressing incision was made by using a very sharp knife to cut the skin in a straight line from the lower end of the breastbone down to the anus. Remember to always cut with the blade of the knife inserted into the skin and facing up. This will help you avoid cutting into internal organs, like the intestines.

Extend the belly incision to just below the lower jaw. You can remove the head by cutting completely around the ears, jaws, and antlers. (If you are hanging the meat from the head, be sure to only cut the hide layer.) Slit the skin on the underside of the tail. Now you are ready to start removing the hide from the animal.

Cleaning an animal requires contact with blood, bone, internal soft muscle tissue, and possibly fecal material. You can also nick your hands on bone shards and the blade of your skinning knife. To protect your hands you can use gloves for dressing and skinning your animal. Elbow-length gloves colored hunter orange for extra visibility are essential tools for a hunter. You can buy them from many major retailers, as well as from major hunting retail catalogs.

As you work, pull the skin away from the meat with your hand while carefully slicing through the white layer that lies between the meat and the hide. Watch the angle of your blade to be sure you are not slicing into the meat or hide. Determine the length of your cuts by the ease with which the hide is peeling back from the meat. In some cases, like around the chest, you will be able to pull large sections away without much cutting at all. Other places, like around the butt, will require careful, more precise work.

Quartering and Cutting Large Game

To further process your large game, the first thing you want to do is cut off the head. If you are planning on mounting the head, you will need detailed instructions from your taxidermist about how to not only process, but skin your animal. However, if you are hunting to feed your family, you will want to use all of the meat for food, not decoration.

After you have removed the head, saw the carcass down the center of the backbone. This will divide the carcass into two halves. Lay one half on a table and locate the last two ribs. Cut between the last two ribs in order to quarter it.

Chill the meat before you cut it, because cold fat is firmer. Trim off the fat because wild game fat can go rancid quickly. You can save the fat for soap making or candle making if you wish. Unless you were able to shoot the animal in the head, there will be areas of “bloodshot” meat. This is where the bullet passed through. The meat will be torn and there will be hard black bits in it. All this meat should be trimmed out and thrown away. Also get rid of any other black bits. If you bled your animal well, you shouldn’t find too many of these.

You will generally get about 50 percent of the original weight of an animal in meat once it’s butchered. For example, an average mule deer weighs about 150 pounds, so you could harvest about 75 pounds of meat. Other animals and their average weights: antelope—80 pounds; white-tailed deer—125 pounds; bighorn sheep—175 pounds; black bear—200 pounds; caribou—250 pounds; grizzly bear—500 pounds; elk—500 pounds; moose—650 pounds. These are male weights; females weigh approximately one-third less.

The Hindquarter

The hindquarter, or haunch, is one of the back halves of the carcass. The haunch is the whole hind leg and loin of the animal. You need to cut the haunch off ahead of the hip joint. Begin just below where the ribs end. You’ll need to use a meat saw to cut through the bone. Once you’ve separated the haunch from the rest of the carcass, cut the haunch in two places to make thirds from top to bottom.

The top third is where you will get your round steak. Cut right across the grain and through the bone to the other end of the haunch. Another way you can process this cut is by separating the bundles of muscles. This option allows you to get the meat without having to cut through the bone for every steak. The largest bundle consists of the top round and the bottom round cuts. You can either separate them into top and bottom and cut into steaks, or leave them attached to each other and cut into steaks. The remaining bundle is the sirloin. You need to cut across the grain for your sirloin steaks.

The middle third of the haunch is generally made into roasts. If you would prefer, however, you can make it into extra round deer (like hamburger) or save it for jerky.

The bottom third of the haunch is used for hamburger or jerky, and the bone is used for soup.

Once the haunch is processed, the remainder of the hindquarter is ribs and the two strips of meat along the backbone. The strip on the outside is the most tender meat in the animal. This meat is what would be considered tenderloin, and is used to make T-bone and sirloin steaks. If you have a smaller-sized animal, like a deer, you will generally want to bone it out and make “tips” of meat.

You can then saw the ribs and the backbone to your preference. You can use this meat for soup bones, spareribs, and dog food.

If your venison has a strong, gamey taste, there are several ways to tone it down. You can soak the meat in salt, vinegar, and water for several hours before cooking to help make the flavor milder. Use long, slow cooking methods and cook in sauces, gravies, etc. Use seasonings and marinades. Try combinations of thyme, parsley, garlic, onions, soup mixes, etc. Marinades tenderize the meat and disguise the gamey flavor.

Front Quarter

Just as you removed the haunch for the hindquarter, you will want to remove the leg of the front quarter, also known as the arm. Cut the arm away by pulling the bone away from the body at the joint and then cutting the bone at the joint until it is detached across the line where it joins the chest.

Saw the arm into three pieces, just as you did the haunch. The upper portion can be used for either roasts or hamburger. The middle third is generally made into an “arm roast,” and you can use the bottom third for hamburger, jerky, and soup bones.

The remaining meat in the front quarter can be divided into two kinds of meat. The meat along the backbone is an extension of the tenderloin you
had in the hindquarters. You can slice that into steaks or tips depending on your preference and the size of your animal. The other meat is basically bone, and can be made into soup bones. You can use the rib area for stew meat or spareribs.

Small Game

If you are truly relying on hunting to supply you and your family with food, the most plentiful animals to hunt are small game like rabbits, squirrels, raccoon, and opossum. There are some basic rules for harvesting small game.

• Never eat a small animal that is already dead. You don’t know if the animal died of a disease that can be passed on to you and your family.
  
• If an animal isn’t active and healthy looking, don’t hunt it.
  
• If you hunt and kill small game, examine it closely to ensure that it doesn’t look sickly. If there is any question in your mind, discard it.
  
• There are some infections that small animals carry that can be passed on to hunters. The likelihood is less in the winter, but whenever you handle small game you should wear gloves when you process it in order to protect yourself.
  
• When processing a small animal, it is important that you check the health of the liver. Small, white cystlike spots in the liver, pea-sized or smaller, signify tularemia or other infectious diseases. If you find that you have processed an infected animal, discard the meat and wash your hands and the surfaces the animal was exposed to with a strong disinfectant.
  

Tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” is a disease caused by the bacterium
Francisella tularensis
. Tularemia is typically found in animals, especially rodents, rabbits, and hares. Tularemia is usually a rural disease and has been reported in all U.S. states except Hawaii. About 200 human cases of tularemia are reported each year in the United States. Most cases occur in the south-central and western states.

Scent Glands

The scent glands are the first item you should be aware of when you process small game. These are small waxy or reddish (depending on the animal) nubs that can be situated under the forelegs, along the lower part of the backbone, and/or under the lower part of the abdomen. Often, when you skin the animal, they are pulled away with the skin. However, if they remain, they must be very carefully cut out of the meat. You need to remove them intact, because if you don’t, they will release a very strong musky scent that will taint the meat.

Dressing Small Game

You need to dress small game immediately and then allow it to cool completely. The first step is to make an incision down the belly. Start near the lower portion of the abdomen. Be sure you don’t puncture the stomach or the intestines with your knife. After making the incision, hold on to the front feet and the head and swing the animal sharply downward in order to snap the entrails out of the body cavity. At this point, you can remove the lungs, heart, and liver. The next step is to remove the head and wipe out the inside of the body cavity.

Skinning Small Game

The skin of many small animals is highly prized for warmth and texture. Rabbit fur and hide, for example, makes very warm mittens. If you want to use the skin of the small animals, you should first cut off the head, tail, and forepaws. In order for you to have better access, hang the animal by its hind legs, stretching the legs far enough apart to work between them.