Another Way to Approach Breaking Down a Whole Animal

If you aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into carving up a whole animal, there’s another option (but you will still need to understand the structure of the animal and all the characteristics of the meat from its different parts). Many communities—especially those in areas where there is a lot of hunting—have a game processor/private slaugter- house. Hunters bring the deer they get to these processors, who break down the animal into portion sizes and roasts per the hunters’ choice, often turning much of the animal into sausage prepared according to the processor’s own time-honored recipe. These folks are a fine resource for the family who would like to break gently into obtaining local meat. You could buy the animal from a local rancher or farmer, and then have the butcher process it for you. For most people, this is still a far better choice than buying meat from the supermarket. Remember, however, that you will have to tell the butcher how to process and portion the animal, which means familiarizing yourself with all the options for the animal you’ve chosen, plus taking into account the size of your family and your favorite menus—the same decisions you’ll need to make if and when you butcher your own animal. Or there’s another option: have the butcher break down the animal into “primals” (the large sections of an animal). Then you can freeze the meat in primal cuts, allowing you to take your time defrosting and breaking down each primal into subprimal and individual cuts.