# Burn Hair Off Instead of Skinning



## raezza (May 16, 2016)

Hello all, I am fairly new to sheep farming. I am very familiar with processing pigs for my freezer. I use scald and scrape method with pigs and I have skinned a couple of hair sheep that I harvested for my freezer. 

My extended family wants to use the skin from one of the hair sheep I intend to slaughter soon for food. We live in a tropical climate and go straight from slaughter to butchering to the freezer. They say that they can burn the hair off, then remove the skin and internals for their use, then I will process what's left for my freezer. 

Won't burning the hair/skin effect the meat underneath? I also wonder if it is possible to dip the sheep into near boiling water to scald and scrape/pull the hair off? 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

the first thing I think of is what is all that burning hair going to smell like ??
wouldn't it be easier to shear the hair off really close before killing the sheep ?
when we do sheep, we take great care to keep the outside of the hide from touching the meat. and once you touch the hide with your hands, do not touch the meat until you wash your hands very good..
we even use this method when skinning a deer..
idk about scalding and scraping a sheep. maybe test it on a small area first.. in the end, you will have to skin it anyway.. scraping seems like an unnecessary step to do...


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## Bob M. (Nov 5, 2018)

ya you can scald and scrape or flame and scrape. The burned hair smells awful, but its fast with a torch, or a propane brush burning torch. I'd just skin it.


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## raezza (May 16, 2016)

Thanks Bob and Stach for your input... esp you Bob for giving me a bit of confidence to just do it... we did it earlier today... basically cut as much hair as we could with regular scissors, then we used propane torches to burn the hair and scald the skin a little, then scraped with a knife. We then removed the skin as usual... I butchered, bagged and froze the meat as normal... 

My brothers in law used the skin to make a dish called pinapaitan. Basically they cooked the skin a little more on a grill both sides... then cooked the liver and heart, chopped everything up into about .25 - .5 inch pieces, cut up and cooked a bunch of garlic, onion, ginger bit of fat from the sheep, added the skin and liver heart chunks... cooked that a bit, filled about 3/4 the pot of with water and about 15-20 little limes juiced and then chopped up the rinds and threw that in too... they call them calamansi, I think they are key limes in the states... they let it boil over the wood fire for a couple hours... I didn't think I would like it but it really was quite good especially with the local beer here called Red Horse. No more wasting the skin that's for sure. 

By the way the stink of burning the hair wasn't that bad, however, I do still smell it in my mind...

Thanks again for the boost of confidence Bob, I think it was very much worth the extra effort...

Take care
Rob


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## Bob M. (Nov 5, 2018)

That sounds like a cool dish, never had it before, just may give it a try when i can.


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## ridgerunner1965 (Apr 13, 2013)

ok never thot about this. I would just skin a sheep like I would a deer.

I did see some aisans burning a pig by covering it in straw and burning off the hair. I don't know them at all. was just driving by and seen it. im sure whatever they made was delicious.


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

raezza said:


> Thanks Bob and Stach for your input... esp you Bob for giving me a bit of confidence to just do it... we did it earlier today... basically cut as much hair as we could with regular scissors, then we used propane torches to burn the hair and scald the skin a little, then scraped with a knife. We then removed the skin as usual... I butchered, bagged and froze the meat as normal...
> 
> My brothers in law used the skin to make a dish called pinapaitan. Basically they cooked the skin a little more on a grill both sides... then cooked the liver and heart, chopped everything up into about .25 - .5 inch pieces, cut up and cooked a bunch of garlic, onion, ginger bit of fat from the sheep, added the skin and liver heart chunks... cooked that a bit, filled about 3/4 the pot of with water and about 15-20 little limes juiced and then chopped up the rinds and threw that in too... they call them calamansi, I think they are key limes in the states... they let it boil over the wood fire for a couple hours... I didn't think I would like it but it really was quite good especially with the local beer here called Red Horse. No more wasting the skin that's for sure.
> 
> ...


No offense, but this dish sounds absolutely terrible. I can't stomach the taste, or even the smell, of mutton though. Blehhh!!!


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## raezza (May 16, 2016)

No offense taken Shannon... if it helps... the thought in my mind as I ate it was like a smoky bacon soup, except when I got a piece of liver which I didn't like much and spit out to the dog whenever I happened to spoon some into my mouth. But the skin was which still had a thin layer of fat and meat was not bad at all... the ram was about 2.5 years old. 

I should have mentioned that before we burned/scalded and scraped, we thoroughly wet it down, when we were done the skin was medium tan in color, after they cooked the sin on the grill it crispied up and was a medium brown color... as they cut it up it was like thick bacon just before it turns crispy, not quite crispy not soft... after the cooking it was very soft and easy to eat, the flavor was smoky sour not muttony at all. It also did not have a bad smell at all. I'll definitely eat it again it would be great on a cold night, the soup was great.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

very interesting.. I know that I will never cook a sheep this way, but if I should come across a meal like that I would have to try it..
I have seen videos of people in the rain forest who eat monkeys. they just toss the whole animal onto a fire and burn the hair off. I don't know what they do with it after that, though..
bon apitite


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## Bob M. (Nov 5, 2018)

I'l probably never get around to doing it myself either, but if the opportunity arises, heck why not? it isnt going to kill you or make you sick thats for sure, not like people do not eat the skin (often the best part.) of other things a well.


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