How to butcher a lamb

Step 12 Grinding the odd cuts

All the little leftover bits of meat can go in the grinder.  My wife has a Kitchen Aid mixer, and we got the meat grinder attachment for it.  Depending on how liberal or conservative you are with the bits you grind, you should end up with somewhere between five and ten pounds of ground lamb.  Cut the pieces so that they will fit in the hopper.  Try to keep a balanced mix of lean and fatty cuts, as this will produce a more flavorful product that will form and cook better than one that is too lean or too fatty.  I like my mix to be about 80-20. 

That's it.  You're done.  Enjoy the lamb.

Comments

[spark master]

Can you shear the sheep before you dispatch it? Is Spinal nerve matter an issue for BSE . SE happens in many mammals and we can get it . Kuru is another version (or just another name) Krutchfield Jacobs Disease is the same in humans, (different source though)

Great instructable. My father in Law, (commercial meat cutter) had a "lamb Chopper" that was stolen it was aglorious saber with about a 3 foot blade (plus handle) he used it exclusively with lamb, but it was great for big steaks

Please please please do a video and put on Youtube. I though they tied off the annus immediately to prevent and expulsion of fecal matter, you could tie off the penis as well(if a male).

did you send the skin out for processing?

thanks again

[bodie]

You could do that. Depending on when you normally shear and when you normally lamb, it might not be much of a problem. We lambed in February and butchered the next winter, so we couldn't really shear the sheep first unless we butchered it just a few minutes later.

In general, you should be very careful handling brain and spinal cord if they could possibly be infected with BSE prions. However, since we raised these lambs from birth and fed them only grass and a tiny bit of grain, we were pretty confident
that they were prion-free.

I don't know about the tying-off of things, but we just handled them carefully and didn't have any problems. I contemplated processing the skins, but ultimately decided that I just too much going on and didn't have time. They would have made excellent rugs, though.

[wsecomp]

Good job, Bodie!  We raise goats and have someone do the butchering for us ($40 per animal).  He took the skin and horns off in one piece (which we are in the process of tanning). Eventually, we'll get to where we can do it ourselves.  We're still a little tender-hearted to do it yet.

About the only thing between killing kosher and killing hallal is for kosher you don't have to let the animal walk around (that I know of).  But other than that, slitting the throat is the same.

Even without the internals, the animal can still weight quite a bit, so make sure to lift with your legs and NOT with your back!  Our yearling buck weighed somewhere around 60# after removing the skin and internals.