RECIPES

Thursday 11 May 2023

The Home Butcher

 

I was sorting through some old photos today and found this one from just over fifty years ago.  

I grew up on a dairy farm and about once a year my father would get an animal butchered for our beef (he slaughtered the sheep himself).

The butcher would arrive and humanely shoot the steer before preparing it and hanging it up as shown in this picture.




The carcass would remain like this overnight, then early next morning it would be all hands on deck. 

My father helped the butcher cut the beast up and my mother would divide the cuts into portions suitable for freezing.  Us children would get given the job of helping to package the meat into plastic bags and sealing and labelling them ready for the freezer.

Nothing was wasted.  Fat was rendered down for use as dripping, and scrappy bits of meat were put through the mincer.

With the end of the job in sight, we would be released from our chores and usually given a few scraps of meat to play with. 

I remember my brother and I lighting small fires and trying to cook them.  I don’t remember eating any of the burnt offerings we ended up with!

Things have changed a lot over the last fifty years 😊

Margaret.

 

8 comments:

  1. Such a typical farm scene at the time - I can remember watching my Uncle butchering some sheep one day. At 10 yrs old, I was fascinated, but only after the sheep was dead!
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  2. My word that brings back some memories. My brother once read that blood poured onto water was a good way to bring eels up and make them easier to catch. We had a large pond with many eels. He collected a bucket of blood when Dad was slaughtering sheep but left the bucket by the garden gate overnight unaware that clotting would occur. In the morning he had a large bucket full of red jelly which we all found amusing. We wasted little but other than on that day we never collected blood to make black pudding. My maternal grandmother's father was a butcher (slaughterman butcher) and she had some great descriptions of the role of her and her sisters in the pig slaughtering - nothing wasted but the squeal she used to say.

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  3. Gone are the days when we raised and grew our own food. Your family worked hard, Margaret. Good memories.

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  4. Every kid should have to do that sometime in their lives. People are too far removed from where their food comes from.

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  5. I remember very much the same scene from childhood except I only remember pigs being slaughtered. I know we raised and often ate beef too but maybe I was always in school when that happened. GM

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  6. Oh gosh, I can remember doing that on the farm. I was awfully glad when we could afford to get the butcher to cut up and pack the meat. I can still remember the smell of my hands after the packing. Ugh!

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  7. Yes I have similar recalls, my Mom was so particular about meat kids were not allowed:)

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  8. We never did beef...but ever year we butchered 4 hogs...I was always thankful I was usually at school the day it was done. I did help cut up.the fat to.use to tender lard.

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Thank-you for visiting my blog. I love it when you leave a comment so please feel free to have your say. Have a great day! Margaret xx