Animal Processing

Processing animals is an intensive process designed to minimize waste when harvesting food. If you are going to kill something, why waste it? Save scraps for dogs and cats, use the skin for many versatile materials, save the tallow for candle soap making, save the bones for making bone sauce as well as other objects. Organs can be processed and used for sausage casings, bags, foods, you name it. Everything has a purpose, so put it to use!

That being said, when you come across some hunter's "trash" on the side of the road, take it home with you and finish the job!

Materials I had on hand:

• Stretching frame
• Sharp knife
• String
• Large needle
• Hammer
• Chisel
• Hacksaw
• A good chunk of time

Additional Materials Recommended:

• Scraper
• Rounded log on which to scrape

Notes:

• You can also tack the hide to a board with nails to stretch it.
• Note: some would not recommend doing hair-on processing for deer hides. The hair on this particular mammal is hollow and breaks more easily than other mammals'.
• Hair-off processing: soak hide in lye, hydrated lime with wood ash, or other chemicals to loosen hair, then drape it on a rounded log and scrape off the hair using a hide scraper, or similar tool.

Procedure for hair-on processing: 1. Procure hide

2. Stretch hide, hair side down

• string/frame method
• nails/board method
• no need to overstretch

3. Clean and scrape hide

• Remove all non-skin tissue: membranes, tallow, meat, congealed blood, etc
• May want to clean the edges PRIOR to stretching it, so that you don't have to clean around the stretching fasteners

4. Procure brain

• Use the head of the animal
• No head? Can purchase beef/pork brains from a butcher, inexpensive
• There are some fancier methods blending brain and other materials (wood ash, water, etc) to make a solution or a paste, but I'm a straightforward kind of person, and I'm allergic to recipes.
• Go in through the back of the head, the bones are less strong
• Cut away skin and any flesh, get to the bone
• Hacksaw a "V" groove in the back of the head (just to keep the chisel on target)
• Hammer the chisel through the groove, into the skull
• Repeat with other groove
• Put chisel back into first groove, hammer chisel ~2" into skull, then pry the skull open
• Keep prying/removing chunks of bone until you have reasonable access the brain (if you can fit 2 or 3 fingers inside that'll do)
• Get through any membranes, stir up the brain a little so it's easily spread (I used the chisel)

5. Apply brain

• Scoop out brain with chisel or fingers (be careful not to cut your fingers on the bone edges)
• Spread globs of brain evenly on hide
• Once you run out of brain, give the head to your dog and begin evenly spreading the brain over the hide, using hands
• Your hands will smell bad after, but they will be very very soft from the brain fats. You can use gloves if you're persnickety and have soft hands already.
• Once you've massaged your hide and it's shiny and soft and gorgeous, let brain soak in overnight

6. Storage

• Shady, dry place
• Salt it to accelerate drying process
• Leave it on the frame until process is complete

7. Uses

• Floor mat for cold toes!
• "Decorative" wall hanging
• Trim for your homemade apparel
• Dog toys
• Whatever you want, I suppose