It's been deer season and Matthew and Simon both went hunting a little, even though things have been fairly hectic around here. I did not take the oppourtunity to go hunting this time, but Matthew got a nice doe. He killed it Saturday, November 10th, the first day of deer season. Simon saw a deer when he went hunting all by himself Sunday evening but did not get a shot at it. We ate some of the venison for our Sunday dinner on the 11th and everyone agreed that the way Lisa fixed it was the best venison dish we had ever had! She rolled back-strap slices in seasoned flour and laid out two layers of them with butter and cheddar cheese between the layers of venison and also on top. It was delicious!
On Friday, Simon butchered two of our roosters all by himself and we had some excellent chicken-and-dumplings for supper Friday evening and Saturday. Simon has been around us butchering chickens for years and he had butchered some before when Matthew was with him. This time, however, Matthew was out of town, I was still at work, and Lisa stayed in the house. Simon dispatched both birds and commenced to the plucking all by himself, with no trouble at all! When I came home from work, Lisa was already getting the meat into a pot. It was a delicious meal and I didn't even find out that it was not Lisa who did the butchering until a few days later! It was no big deal to Simon, I guess, but after I realized what he had done, I was very impressed!
Matthew had been out of town last week doing some work at Bob and Brenda's home in Corbin and got home Saturday evening. He was a bit tired Sunday, but he wasn't going to let a few days work 3 hours away slow him down at all. He had butchered a number of our hogs in previous years, so I knew he was very good at it. What I didn't know was that he would feel like butchering a 500 plus pound hog on Monday! We had decided that we wanted her butchered, and had checked into having it done professionally again like we did back in June. Appalachian Meats said they were all tied up this week with deer processing and could not get to our hog until December. When I got home from work Monday, I discovered that Matthew had decided to butcher our large hog all by himself, and save us a big butchering fee! The tenderloin from this hog was huge and even after I trimmed off all the fat we packed thick tenderloin slices into 7 gallon size freezer bags! We are going to turn a lot of the deer meat into deerburger, so now we can use some of the pork fat in the hamburger mix. The meat from a deer is very lean, and not the best for hamburger without some fat. We are going to go for a 80-20 or 85-15 ratio. We will still have a good amount of fat to render into lard, as well.
I did not get any pictures of Simon with the roosters he butchered since it was all completed by the time I got home, but I took some of Simon working on the deer meat. I did get home in time to take a few pictures of Matthew cutting out the tenderloin of the hog while it was hanging up. The dining room table was soon covered with pork, much like the pictures of Simon with the venison, but I didn't think to take a picture of the table with the pork tenderloin. I'm mainly wanting to show some pictures of the two butchers in the family, anyway. They both are doing some wonderful work and I am very proud to have two such sons! (By the way, Christina helped with the skinning of both the deer and the hog. I didn't get a picture of her this time, but I'm also proud of my country gal!)
It always feels great to be eating meat you've raised or hunted yourself and it's certainly better for you. You have every reason to be proud of your family. That is one huge hog! We still don't have a deer but hopefully this week.
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