#####
Press Here to Return to Frugal's HomePage

PREPARING LARGE ANIMALS:

When too large to elevate may be skinned by starting in the centre of the stomach and skinning to the centre of the back.

Spread the skin out on the ground to protect the meat and roll the animal over and skin the other side.

ALL INTERNAL ORGANS MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY TO PREVENT BLOATING.

Big game is usually bled out by the bullet which kills it, however it is advisable to cut the jugular vein after killing to assure thorough bleeding, hence better tasting and keeping of meat. Big game is more easily utilized when it has been cut into manageable chunks.

Heart, liver and kidneys of all game can be used except for polar bear and bearded seal as previously mentioned in removal of the liver:

BE CAREFUL not to break the gall sack. Incidentally there is no gall sack in Deer or other Antlered game.

PREPARING ANIMALS #2:

FOOD ODDS AND ENDS: (Deer etc.)

Some natives roast the bland of young antler of the deer family when these are in velvet stage. Other esteem the stomach contents of herbivorous mammals such as caribou for such greens mixed as they are with digestive acids are not too unlike salad prepared with vinegar.

Others as desirous of wasting nothing as those packers of sardines will not bother to open the smaller birds and animals they secure but pound them to a pulp which is tossed in its entirety into the pot. Even such ingredient as gall bas among other uses utility as a seasoning.

NEARLY EVERY PART OF NORTH AMERICAN ANIMALS ARE EDIBLE.

Except for the Polar bear and Ringed and Bearded Seal liver which are poisonous to a certain degree if you eat the liver too rich in vitamin A.

ALL FRESHWATER FISH IS GOOD! TO EAT yet beware of pollution. And don't fish them near town or villages.

PREPARING SHEEP-LIKE ANIMALS:

Follow the instructions for larger animals and then:

1) Split in two down the line of the spine, keeping exactly to the centre of the backbone.

2) Remove rear leg. Try to cut through the ball and socket joint.

3) Remove the front leg. There is no bone to cut through. Follow the line of the shoulder blade.

4) Cut of neck. (Off said the king!)

5) Cut off skirt (loose flesh hanging

below the ribs)

6) Cut between each rib & between

the vertebrae. This gives you chops.

7) The fillet, lying in the small back, is the best meat for preserving.

CLEANING FOWL OR RABBITS IN THE HOUSE:

Here is a trick to help you get rid of all little hair of down that somehow ALWAYS remain after skinning your rabbit, squirrel or partridge.

Take some scotch tape and roll in outward around you hand so that the sticky part is on the outside then by manipulating this hand duster carefully you will easily get rid of all the undesirable down and furs.

PREPARING PIG: check rpt

(NOT KOSHER? BORF!)

Do not attempt to skin a pig. Gut it first then place it over the hot embers of a fire and scrape the hair off. Hot water will help loosen the hair. It should be only just hotter than your hand can bear.

Water that is too hot will make the hair more difficult to remove. Pigs attract many parasites: ticks, crab lives and worms so cooking MUST MAKE SURE of killing them.

BOILING IS THEREFORE THE BEST WAY OF COOKING PORK.

PREPARING SMALL ANIMALS:

Follow the basic procedures as for larger animals they all need to be gutted.

PREPARING ANIMALS:

After having killed an animal, wait for it to cool off before cleaning the carcass. Ticks and parasites will leave this cold body.

If possible bring the carcass close to stream to help the cleaning. Here's some tips to help preparing small & medium game. (Not Elephants nor Dinosaurs!)

1) Suspend the carcass head down, cut the throat and let the blood run down into a container, make it boil, blood is very nourishing.

2) Make an incision around the joints and another in "Y" starting from the ass, all along the stomach up to the throat. Don't cut the flesh but only the skin.

3) Starting at the chest, cut along the front legs.

4) Cut off genitals organs.

5) Starting from the ass, remove the skin. Usually the skin removes as easy as glove when the animal is fresh killed.

6) Disembowel it, empty it from bottom upward. Do this firmly while making a round incision to remove the genitals.

7) Keep the kidneys, liver, heart & fat around the intestines and clinging to the skin.

ALL MAMMIFEROUS PARTS ARE COMESTIBLES including the brain, eyes, tongue, & all that is fleshy. Check the heart, kidneys, liver & intestines to see if not full of worms.

If the animal was sick, wear gloves to manipulate & prepare the food, to protect yourself from any contagion, make it cook longer in that case.

IF MEAT IS VERY WELL COOKED, CONTAGION RISK IS VERY SMALL.

8) Don't throw away any animal parts. The glands and genitals can be used as baits for snares or hooks.

9) When cleaning the interior parts leave no traces of blood. Use a dry cloth or any kind of dry hay around.

TANNING: see taning

BUTCHERING TIP #?:

Once you have suspended the deer upside down, using hooks or a strong stick passed through the tendons of the hind legs, you start the cutting at the thighs toward the neck.

You may find the skinning of the thighs a bit tough to do, but it is easier if you pinch the skin and use a small knife, same thing for the flank

In the rear and dorsal region the skin will come off easier, especially using this method, which is to pull on the skin with your left hand and press on the flesh with the right hand.

The opposite pressure helps greatly to do the job. It is also recommended to wrap your right hand with a cloth to protect the fat which protects the meat from drying.

All will go well up to the neck where it will again get tough because the skin is very thick.

For this last operation you may use a wooden-horse (Trojan?) which is more stable for the deer than when suspended and you can roll more easily the skin in cutting toward the head.

You cut the head between the first and second cervical vertebra which you disjoint one from the other by turning the head on its axis.

THERE ARE 2 METHODS OF BUTCHERING:

The first one see the photo is also the most frequent yet the least useful for deer etc.

This is why we show you the second one where you don't have to saw the back bone which is for us a greater amelioration. Even better if you simply remove the 4 quarters then dissect the loins.

Nothing is easier with a small & very sharp knife than to remove from the neck till the tail, the 2 cylinder of meat stuck along the back bone.

You will not loose 1lb of meat and also obtain 2 splendid piece of meat of about 2 1/2 feet long, perfectly clean.

You can then cut them in 2 or 3 parts, roll them up in a strong Al. paper and put them in the freezer for later use, and no need to keep the bones taking precious space.

Of course you also have removed the sirloin otherwise the #faux filets# will have dried up in a total lost. The deer thus cut up lives you with only the flank for spare ribs, and the neck to make ground meat, beside the heart, liver & tongue which is used as well.

Many hunters think that only the 4 quarters are good, they forget that the sirloin and loins are the superior parts in butchering.

There are many ways to divide the meat according to your need and taste as you can see on the photo.

REMEMBER that it's in the buttocks, loins, and shoulders that you find roast & beef steaks, if you want to do pemmican use flank, chest, front forelegs & neck.

BUTCHERING:

DON'T CUT MEAT IN SENSE OF FIBRES, IT WILL GET TOUGH!!!

No problem with a knife, yet without one, we can best puncture and tear using a thin-edged rock or jagged end of a dead limb.

Birds we learn can be dressed (or Undress) in a few moments with bare hand alone.

SKIN TO SIT WARM:

Sewing a wide piece about 4 to 6 inches or the entire width of a rabbit skin for example at the back bottom of your hunting coat, inside or on the outside with the fur sticking outward.

This will permit you to sit at ease in warmth, since the skin would act as cold or wet shield and it is mighty handy to sit at times cut off from cold or wet spot.

This an add on which should be a MUST for all survivors or hunters to be sewn preferably at home rather than in the wild and wet!

Other rabbit skins could also be sewn around the wrist area of your bush or survivor jacket to protect your writs from cold or wet as well as around each bottom legs for the same reasons.