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The Butchering Thread

It's time to start thinning out the herd on Shoestring Acres. I have 7 Peking ducks and 1 mallard to butcher, which leaves me just 2 pair of mallards. I had 2 turkeys. This one was the most aggressive, so he goes. I'll post up the packaged good later on. Should be 20#s with ease.

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I was wondering about the turkey status. My mental calendar was about right for them.
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This morning I processed the 22 day old cow legs I had in my refrigerator. I was going for 28 days but yesterday when I opened the fridge it began to smell a little funky.
 
15#s when it was all said and done with. I'll probably smoke the legs, use the thighs for stock/soup, inners will get grilled, small end steaks from the breast will get deep fried, and the big halves of the breast will get smoke or roasted. Not bad for 3 beers and a football game's worth of time, plus I has good company.

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I just put up 48 lbs of bacon last week. Bought as uncured pork belly, placed in cure for 2 weeks and then cold smoked last week over hickory. The meat slicer got its yearly workout in, a great investment though.
the last hog I butchered I did the hams loins hocks and sides same process but hot smoke up to safe temp. You could emerse a whole hog in a water tank....so tasty