subject: Meat Processing [print this page] City dwellers forget that all those neatly packaged roasts, chops, and burgers came from live animals that were processed. Rows of healthy looking pink meat sitting on styrofoam trays, covered in plastic wrap are labeled for your convenience, allowing you to select just the right cut for your dinner. It's convenient, certainly, but those who go through the process of growing meat for market or who hunt for their freezers know that proper meat processing in Oklahoma or New York is crucial for their own safety as well as for taste and palatability.
An Oklahoma cowboy probably relies on a Tulsa butcher to buy the roasts and steaks made from the cattle he's brought to the slaughterhouse. But if you're not a rancher, how can you go about processing your own meat? When you've raised pigs or bagged an elk or deer during hunting season, what's the best way of going about making the meat safe for human consumption?
The easiest way is to take your meat to a processer. There are many smaller businesses that have experience in quickly and efficiently skinning the carcass and separating the meat from the bone into different cuts. If you have multiple animals ready for slaughter, you can also arrange to have them shipped to the slaughterhouse and come by later for the meat. From there, you can either stuff your freezer or sell what you can't use to local merchants, such as a Hominy meat seller in OK. Processors can also turn the meat into jerky, which is always popular for eating throughout the year or storing away for hard times.
If you're not a hunter or rancher, you can often find great deals on larger cuts of meat which you can take home and divide into more usable portions. Sometimes, the butcher will be willing to do the cutting for you without adding to the price per pound, which saves you a lot of time with a cleaver. If you love the taste of wild game, visit one of those processors or a butcher who sells the fruits of the latest hunting season all cut up and neatly wrapped.
Whether you're a DIY meat processor or prefer to shop in your comfortable grocery store for a steak, understanding how animals are used for food is important. You'll gain a greater respect for the animals themselves and the process by which you enjoy that steak.
