Butchering, Processing and Preservation of Meat

Learn to Expertly Butcher, Process, Preserve, and Prepare Meat Yourself

Frank G. Ashbrook's classic Butchering, Processing and Preservation of Meat remains the gold standard for do-it-yourself meat preparation. Ashbrook's vast knowledge and personal experience as a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist afforded him an ideal perspective for addressing the meat-related needs of any household. Anyone who prepares meat at home- from farmers to hunters to butchers to homesteaders to survivalists -can benefit from this comprehensive book.

Complete with detailed information, precise instructions, and clear diagrams and illustrations, this invaluable guide covers a range of topics: a brief history of meat consumption in North America, the place of meat in the Western diet, the structure and biological characteristics of meat, meal planning, slaughter, butchering of both livestock (hogs, cattle, sheep, poultry), fish, and game animals, handling the hides, dressing, preparation, preservation, and storage. In addition to showing how you can economically raise, butcher, and process meat yourself with affordable equipment and tools, Ashbrook describes widely used meat preservation techniques such as curing, freezing, smoking, salting, canning, and brining. Also included are recipes for making sausage and scrapple, as well as instructions for home tanning of hides and using by-products to make your own soap.

This indispensable book includes a thorough bibliography and list of other helpful references, and is a valuable resource for anyone who prepares meat at home.

This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a hardcover (ISBN 1648372287).

For more than 40 years Frank G. Ashbrook has served as animal husbandman and biologist with the U. S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior. Born in York, Pennsylvania, his first introduction to the home processing of meats came as a boy in his grandfather's home. Later, at Pennsylvania State University as an animal husbandry student and as a scientist in the Federal Government, he learned the scientific methods involved in dressing and preserving meat.Mr. Ashbrook is a member of many scientific societies and author of numerous scientific papers and magazine articles for American and Foreign publications. In addition to this volume, other books he has written include Raising Small Animals for Pleasure and Profit, Fur Farming for Profit, Cooking Wild Game, and How to Raise Rabbits for Food and Fur.