Author Topic: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!  (Read 3949 times)

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Offline Inger

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I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« on: November 17, 2012, 01:54:21 am »
Please help.. Tomorrow my brother will kill two lambs and I am the one who has  to butcher them.. especially take the brains out. No way will I let them go to waste. No one else will do that so I need to do it myself. How the heck can I get the brains out...? The head is so hard! Anyone have  advice on how to do it  best?
« Last Edit: November 17, 2012, 02:12:58 am by TylerDurden »

Offline Alive

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2012, 02:12:21 am »

Offline Projectile Vomit

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2012, 02:22:36 am »
I imagine Inger probably won't have access to a ban saw, so making the above cut will be hard. Can you borrow a decent bone saw among friends, or buy one from a local butcher supply shop? Alternatively you can use a hack saw with coarse teeth, but that will be a lot of work.

Offline Alive

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2012, 02:46:31 am »
ahhh, that's why the cut was so perfect, d'oh!

How about just smashing it with a sledge hammer, like cracking a nut?  :)

Offline ys

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2012, 03:00:23 am »
I would try hacksaw.  I use hacksaw with small teeth on all my bone cutting.  It takes longer but the cuts are much nicer.  To open up the skull I would start with hacksaw and try to crack it open with a regular hammer.

Offline Projectile Vomit

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2012, 05:02:29 am »
Cracking it open like a nut won't work, the skull is made up of several bones that are fused and the way they'll split will destroy the brain and make it challenging to recover enough of it to be meaningfully used. Best bet is to duplicate the ban saw cut shown in the YouTube video with a hacksaw with a coarse-toothed blade, and recover the halves of the brain after prying the skull open.

I've also heard of people cutting off the soft tissue of a grazing animal's nose and forcing a hose into it, then turning the hose on to force the brain out the opening where the spinal cord enters the back of the skull. These people weren't interested in eating the brain, just interested in getting it with the least amount of work possible (to brain-tan animal hides), so I don't know if this will be a useful way to get the brain out and keep it clean and whole enough to be edible. I imagine it would also make quite a mess, so would have to be done outdoors or in a room that was easy to clean afterwards.

Offline Inger

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2012, 07:49:31 pm »
Didn't had time to response before.. I was working.. But now I am about to go down in the garage and see what I can get done... -X Thank you so much for your input!

I found this site.. pretty good I guess! I printed it out and this is how I will proceed.

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/notifiable-diseases2/ag0970-brain-removal-in-sheep-and-cattle

Offline Inger

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Re: I need help with butchering! I need to save the brain!
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2012, 02:36:26 am »
Ok I did it and it was not hard at all! I took some pics and put them in my journal.

 

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