Smokehouse Meat

Marty & the boys started a fire in the smokehouse this morning. Tonight we have smoked brisket and smoked pork butts.

Meat is a beautiful food. Especially when it’s been lovingly cooked over a slow, smoky heat all day. If you aren’t familiar with the retail cuts of meat, you should learn.  If you have a local, small town butcher, even better.  People who know meat can advise you on the best cut for your purpose.  We raise and butcher our own pigs and chickens but beef is a different story.  So much to do!  We either order a large portion and cut it ourselves, or we send the cow to the slaughterhouse.  Beef needs to hang in a cooler and age before being cut into steaks and such.

Here is a basic rendition of beef cuts.  That smoked meat in the first picture is brisket.  It’s perfect in the smokehouse, because it is a fatty cut, and needs the long, slow heat to melt the fat into the muscle.

As a general rule, when medicating any food animal, all injections (dewormers, anti-inflamatories, vaccines, etc) should always be given in the neck muscle.  Most upper neck meat is used for ground meat.  You never want to give an injection in to a rump roast or a ham.  That makes for poor quality meat.

Well, those two little Berkshire piglets are calling for their bottle.  Time to go feed them!