How do you clean hair from your meat?

[John Y Cannuck]

I'm sure all the guys here have had the occasional hair show up on thier steaks. With the usual grumbles from the missus.  :roll:
Some blame the butcher. But, it's not really his fault, unless he also did the skinning.
So how do you control it?

[mparks]

When I have it quartered, I use a propane torch to singe off the straglers.  I also keep a roll of paper towels handy to pluck off an hairs I run into while cutting up steaks.

[John Y Cannuck]

Interesting, how fast is that?
I use a damp fluffy towel, and it works well, but it's damned cold, when trying to clean a carcass at -10 or so.
That propane method sounds a hell of a lot faster, and warmer!

[John Y Cannuck]

Well, I tried it . On a road kill carcass
It does work, it is fast, but it's not perfect.
I found it worked best on hairs that were standing up, at least partially. Hairs that were fully stuck down to the meat didn't want to be zapped.
Maybe a combination method will work best. Run over it with the flame, wipe it down, then flame again if need be.

[bud340]

We use a pressure washer and a burlap bag or cheese cloth to rub the meat down.  Burlap, a brush with very course brissels and the pressure washer works best.  It is imposible to keep the meat clean even though we wrap it with cheese cloth after it is quartered.

We will add the Tiger torch to this process next time.  Thanks.

[slim]

Pick off most by hand then use a propane torch,works great!

[The Gamemaster]

On a whitetail deer, I just leave the hide on it - until I am ready to skin it.

Once you have it up and off the floor on the gambrel, I just start at the rear of the deer and skin towards the head.

I try to make sure that I don't cut through the hide with the saw and only use meat saws on the meat.  Keep a separate saw for the legs and neck.  Keep your saws and knives clean.

Once the deer is cleaned, use a garden hose and lot's of cold water to clean out the deer - inside and out.

Before you butcher, cut off excess fat and skin that you are not going to process, along with throwing away the ribs, because it isn't worth my while to sit there and clean ribs - while the rest of the meat is waiting to be cut.  When you only have a one man operation - you got to have priorities.

Then before I cut my meat, I wash it down in a clean sink and try to make sure to clean as much of the hair off the meat as possible.

Anything that is left over that I find while cutting, I pull off with my fingers and wipe my hands on a clean cloth and from time to time - wash my hands and also the cutting board.  Which ends up being about every 15 minutes.

If you keep everything clean, you will not have any hair in your meat.

The same thing is true when it comes to grinding, if you clean your grinder every 15 minutes, you will not get a build up of junk inside of it.

Burning hair off the meat will transfer the smell and taste of burned hair onto your meat and will give it a funny taste. 

It's easier for me to keep my meat clean and work a little harder to get the results that I am looking for than it is for me to rush to get it done and then have a big mess to clean up when I am done.

[SHOOTALL]

cover with water and dip or skim hair off top of water as it floats to top

[John Y Cannuck]

You must have a heck of a bathtub 

[ken2222]

I use the propane method....wipe it backwards, propane, change directions with the wipe, propane and cut it up. Works GREAT! 

Ken

[SHOOTALL]

A PIECE AT A TIME !

[John Y Cannuck]

A PIECE AT A TIME !

The toothbrush method? Or do you prefer a toothpick?

[SHOOTALL]

naw i put a hind quarter in the pan cover with water and skim hair off the top , change water a couple times and its a done deal !
tooth brush , tooth pick ? naw just take them out and use sink spray to knock hair and crud off !

[John Y Cannuck]

We took a moose out of camp in an ATV trailer a few years back, The quarters escaped from the bags, and got embedded with at least some dirt, in addition to the few hairs we had on them. We used a pressure washer to get it off. Wasn't totally effective, but by the time it was butchered, it had cleaned up.

[Chilachuck]

I leave the hide on until I can get it to where it's going to hang and then skin. It's usually clean enough that way.

Leave it hang until the skin dries and either pick off what's obvious or peel the membrane with the hair stuck to it. No freezer, so I usually let it hang whole while slicing some for dinner.

[Hippy]

We kill between 25-50 deer a year and the ONLY way to remove hair is with a Pressure Washer. I have some of the meat processed locally and the people that do the processing were amazed at the absence of hair. They now do that on the deer that they skin and process for their customers.
Thanx,
Jim

[bilmac]

What gamemaster said plus:

Only cut the skin from the inside. You can lift it cut it loose and then cut from inside out. Lots less cut hair floating around that way.

Have a helper hold the skin back as you loosen it around the hind legs so it doesn't keep flapping back onto your clean meat. I run a one man operation so I have a couple of hooks with string attached and weights on the string. These can be attached to the skin to hold it back.

 Instead of cutting the skin to free the front legs, I "case" them, turn the skin inside out. You get lots of hair when you skin the front legs the usual way.

I am constantly picking hair during the whole process. I have zero hair tolerance and great meat.

[Totenkopf]

 To skin cut around each ankle. Cut from that up inside leg to field dresss cut. Cut around neck and skin back all the way down to shoulder. Cut from ring around neck in front to field dress cut. Hang from neck in tree. Place a golf ball in back of neck (anything will work just as long as larger then inside of knot, used rocks before). Then tie a bowline knot with the neck hide doubled and golfball trapped inside to keep the hide from slipping out of the knot. Attach the end of the rope to atv, truck, winch or come along and slowly pull skin off. Seems like a lot but takes about 4 or 5 minutes to do. The only hair is at each point you caped. Take a knife and scrape at 80 degree angle or so and wipe hair off on rag. I then quarter with knife then lower to plastic painters drop sheet and finish with cordless sawzall. When chopped, ground and wrapped whole process takes about an hour and a half.

[charles p]

On another board someone recommended a drop point knife.  I just picked up a Gerber and do not like it.  With my old pointed blades, I can get under the hide and cut up.  With the drop point, I have to cut against the hair, which is bad.

I also use a blade with a gut hook.  I make the usual cut down the belly part of the deer, then I go down the back side to the neck.  I cut the tail off and start there for the back side.  This allows me to clean one half of the deer at a time.  It results in cleaner meat and faster skinning.  You don't chase yourself going around and around the deer, and normally I have enough strength in my aging hands to rip off the hide from either side once it is no longer connected to the opposite side.

Give this a try next time.

[John Y Cannuck]

That's thinking outside the box.
With a gut hook, such a cut is easy. I've been a stick in the mud with regard to gut hooks, believing I could do as well with a regular blade. (Been hunting for 40 years)
This year, after losing a knife, I tried one. I'm not easily impressed, but that thing was just amazing! particularly on the tougher leg cuts. The Buck Alpha hunter is the knife I tried. Love the hook, the knife, it's nice, but I miss my old Buck lite.

[FW Conch]

I was taught in the '50s by old timers, plus my Grandfather was the community (traveling) butcher.  The

only hair a practiced skinner gets on the meat is a little around the neck, which can be wiped off with "wet

ones" & a little on the thin meat  around the flanks which I trim off & discard.   I pull the deer up by the

neck, break the skin @ the skull & remove it backwards & down cutting the legs @ the joints as I go

leaving them with the hide. Two pair of pliers really helps. Have plastic bags available for the quarters or

two really big ones, 1 for the back of the carcass, 1 for the front overlapping. I have quartered deer near

where they dropped & never gotten any hair on the meat. Totenkopf seems to have a good method! Jim