Butchering station & process

[bowbuild]

I rarely have a bruised neck...only if I miss, club the the back of the head, or pellet gun. I have found if tyou bend the legs to the inside there is less chance of breaking the leg.

Bowbuild

 

[ollitos]

Hi. So you put them in freezer zip locks in the fridge for a few days and then freeze them?

When we butcher, we call the restaurant and tell them when we can deliver. We try to time butchering so that after aging for three days we can deliver when they are open (it's a small restaurant and they're closed on Mondays). If he doesn't take them fresh, then we freeze them whole.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Yeah, I can do the front feet no problem, but I am still perfecting my rear feet technique

Yeah, the front ones are easy. It's the back ones that are hard, especially with the skin and fur.

I have found if you bend the legs to the inside there is less chance of breaking the leg.

Thanks. I will try that from now on.

 

[DebFred]

Thank you all. Enjoying reading this. One thing though. What if you lose power for an extended period of time? I want to freeze them and my other foods, but leery of it because of that.

THank you.

 

[ollitos]

you can can meat

 

[TerriG]

Like ollitos said, you can can it.

Right now, we do them all when they are the right age, but if we didn't have power, we would use what we have in the freezer and then just dispatch one at a time for the meals that we need them for. You don't have to do them all at once.

 

[DebFred]

That makes sense. That's how we did our chickens in Kentucky. As needed. Have any of you ever canned meat?

Thanks!

 

[AnnClaire]

Yep, I can mine as soup starter for bunny noodle soup, or shredded/chopped for other recipes such as pot pie. The Ball Blue Book of Canning will have a timing chart. However, use the timing/pressure for chicken as their rabbit timing is for wild rabbit and is intended to render certain pathogens inert. This also assumes you have parasite free domestic rabbits <br /><br />__________ Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:44 pm __________<br /><br />Also, if you have not home canned any meat before, I would suggest that you can a pint ... one bone-in, one w/out bones and taste them before you do up a bunch.

I personally cannot abide the taste of canned chicken, but will use chicken canned in broth as soup starter.

 

[3mina]

Anyway, if you use freezer bags, be careful of sharp bone ends as they can puncture the freezer bag. Also, you want to expell as much air from the bag as you can before sealing as air is what causes freezer burn

I'd sent a couple of litters to the packers due to time constraints this year and they came back with the hind legs tucked into the ribs, a very nice neat way to keep freezer bags intact

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I'd sent a couple of litters to the packers due to time constraints this year and they came back with the hind legs tucked into the ribs, a very nice neat way to keep freezer bags intact

Did they leave the rib cage intact?

I try to tuck the legs too, but I split the rib cage along the sternum, so it doesn't always work. Maybe I will try not splitting it, and see if I can manage to get the organs out. It is kind of a tight squeeze reaching in there.

 

[3mina]

Yup, rib cage intact. I usually split it too but when I got these back I really liked the packaging so I left it when I FCed on Sunday, including leaving the offal (heart, liver, kidneys) in the cavity. I decided to try something different as well because I don't rest anything before freezing or cooking and I want to see if it does make as much difference as it seems. I have my FW in the fridge as we speak, there is a lot of meat on those little frames Even on this runty one that's smaller than everyone else. I'm guessing she was about four pounds live and the carcass is a shade under 2 1/2.

 

[AnnClaire]

The last time I butchered and about half of the carcasses the time before, I used freezer paper and wrapped like the butcher used to ... we'll see how that does, but so far, the 2 rabbit packages I pulled were fine just not in the freezer long enough to show freezer burn