How To Hang Beef After Slaughter

Slaughter houses have means you may lack, but you can accomplish a hang even without commercial equipment.

The ultimate purpose of hanging beef after slaughter is to allow the beef to cure and age. However, the first steps following the hanging beef are to bleed, gut and skin the carcass. After the beef is properly aged, a butcher can then carve the animal without fouling the meat as he would if the carcass was on the ground. The proper method for hanging beef varies according to the equipment, cold storage and tools you have available, but the basic principles remain the same.

Things You'll Need

• Block and tackle chain hoist
• Single tree spreader
• Butcher knife
• Saw

Instructions

1. Open the carcass. After you stun and bleed the animal, you must partially skin it and remove the legs below the knees. However, to completely skin it, you must open the carcass, and then you must hang it. To open the carcass, cut through the brisket with your butcher knife. The brisket is the chest muscle located below the throat that runs partially down the animal's breast bone. Saw the breast bone down the animal's center-line.

2. Turn your butcher knife upside down, so the blade is facing up. Slice open the abdominal cavity, running the knife down the animal's center-line. If you cut with the knife blade down, you will slice into the guts of the animal and contaminate the meat. Prior to cutting into the abdominal cavity, remove the penis of a male specimen. Pull it out of the sheath and cut it off.

3. Slice down between the round muscles covering the center-line of the animal's pelvis. Be careful not to cut into the meat. Just slice through the membrane holding the two muscles together. Cut through the center-line of the pelvis with your knife. If the cartilage is too solid, use the saw to saw through it.

4. Pull the legs apart and insert the single tree spreader between the animal's legs. Slide one of the two arms of the spreader into the tendon at the back of the animal's leg. The tendon is found at the back of the animal's back shank. Insert the other arm of the spreader into the other tendon. Attach the single tree to the hoist and lift the animal. The rest of the carcass is ready to be skinned, gutted and refrigerated.

References

• Oklahoma State University: Home Slaughtering and Processing of Beef
• Extension.Missouri.edu: Home Slaughtering and Processing of Beef