After the Hunt

After the Hunt

When people find out that I hunt they usually want to know what I do with the animal. My response is usually "I eat it" with a confused look on my face.

People hunt for many reasons, some people are trophy hunters and like to adorn their walls with mounts. Although I do have my first deer mounted in my home office (I mounted it myself) I do not really have trophy mounts. I do have my antlers from Scotland hanging in my garage, but that is to remind me of the days in the Highlands. I don't foresee having a game room in my house it is just not my thing.  The real reason that I hunt is for the experience and the meat.

I enjoy being able to feed my family meat that I have harvested, butchered, and prepared. With prepackaged food I think that people are getting more and more detached from what they are eating. They don't understand that a life was given up to provide you with that hamburger. I have a great deal of respect for the animals that I harvest and am proud that I use them to provide food for my family.

Ok, I will get off my soap box. Some hunters take their game to a butcher to process the animal for them. I have never taken an animal to a butcher. I have always done it myself and have set up my garage to do the initial butchering.  Once broken down I do the rest in the kitchen.

 I have a winch installed in the ceiling of my garage to hoist the animals when I am doing the skinning and quartering. Originally I had just a simple hook and a block and tackle and it did the job fine. But the winch is a really cool addition.

I keep the door closed and keep it relatively cool in the garage and it works out great for the initial separating of the animal.

 I usually skin and then quarter the animal in my garage. From there I put the quarters, tenderloins, loins, ect. into a refrigerator to cool and age for about a week.

For this I have an old keg-orator that I have converted to hold meat. I reinforced the top of the keg-orator so that I can use stainless steel hooks to hang the meat. I wish I had a picture of it with meat in it but unfortunately I do not. I have a tray in the bottom to catch the drippings.

Having beer on tap in the garage was cool, but using the refrigerator to hold meat is much more productive!

 Finally the meat is frozen and used to feed my family. Here is some pulled pork that was made from the pig above.

 Some simple breakfast sausage from the same pig. It is really easy to make and my kids love it. An added benefit is that the meat is really lean compared to store bought breakfast sausage so my kids are not getting a ton of fat from it.

 Some pork loin steaks from the same pig.

My kids have been raised on wild game. Both of my children know where meat comes from and have a respect for the animals that they eat.