# Butchering question



## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

We had a Scottish Highland steer slaughtered on farm and taken to a butcher to dry age and cut and wrap. We just thawed our first steaks and they do not look like what DH saw. At slaughter the meat was a deep cherry red, now the steaks are pale. At slaughter time we ate some fresh meat trim and the liver and they were quite flavorful. The "dry aged" steaks are bland.

How is this possible? Can aging so change a beef? The butcher swears that the beef is our steer. We don't know what to do.


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

From what I know about ageing - admitedly not that much - it should darken the meat as water is lost, not lighten it. 

I could be wrong but it sounds like you got back a different animal despite what you have been told.

No idea what you can do about it though :shrug:


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

Something is very wrong there. Your beef should be dark, dark red, not any way, shape or form should it be "pale". Maybe you should take it to the butcher to see for himself, and he could explain it to you. The dry aging should just enhance the tenderness of your beef, boy, thats really a rotten deal for you. Maybe someone with some butchering experience can get in on this........... You might check over on the homesteading part where they talk about home canning and butchering, I bet someone there would know the answer.
P.J.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

How long since the butchering until you are trying the meat? What cut were the steaks? How long was it dry aged? & what cuts of 'trim' was your DH referring to? Also, how was the meat packaged and how did you thaw it?

Just because a certain cut is 'dark' doesn't ensure that the entire animal is 'dark'. I would try a few more packages before I would freak out. How does the burger look and taste? What are the roasts like?


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## beerbudget (Jun 30, 2008)

Just curious who was your butcher? Or you can give me a city if you don't want to name the shop.


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## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

This was a Scottish highland steer that we bought from a friend of ours early last fall and finished on grass and alfalfa. We took it to the same place we took a Jersey steer earlier this year. They are a small place and will hang meat as long as they feel is right and the customer want, unlike some who just want to move it out. They were recommended by our friend who has taken a lot of pork there and they have an excellent reputation. We and our customers who bought quarters were very happy with the Jersey.

When the ranch butcher came to our place to kill, skin and gut the SH, he cut it into quarters to make it easier to handle. That is when DH saw the dark color. The butcher hung the meat for 30 days cut and wrapped it and them froze it. We had told him to use his judgement on how long it should age, since with his experience he can tell if it has enough fat cover, etc.

Half the steer was sold to a friend of ours and half was ours. We picked up both halves ourselves. The processing fee on our half was for 50 pounds less than the other half, which I thought was very strange and questioned them about. The person who was helping us did not know why there was a difference. Also, when they brought it out they accidentally brought out one box of meat with the wrong name on it (same initial as us, though). So when we saw pale meat we were already thinking something could be a little strange.

The first that we thawed from the SH was porterhouse steak. It was a pale red and the texture seemed wetter than it should for dry aged. We have had pork darker than the pale color it was. I called the butcher to ask if we had gotten someone else's meat by mistake and he said that was impossible, no other beef had been in there at that time. He said that the incorrect weight was because they had incorrectly charged us for the same weight as the Jersey last month. I broiled it with just salt for seasoning. It tasted okay, but not fantastic. 

We then thawed a package of shanks. They had a darker red color and definitely seemed to be dry aged. They were tasty braised.

My husband has been looking up photos of raw Scottish Highland beef on the internet and has been finding some that do look a little pale. I am now wondering if that porterhouse got dropped on the floor and then washed, making it seem wet? We still don't know what to think but are not jumping to conclusions. 

Our concern is mostly for our friends who we sold the half to as grassfed Scottish Highland. We don't want to be misrepresenting what they got.


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## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

gone-a-milkin--

The meat was packaged in plastic shrink wrap. To thaw it sat out on the counter for a little while and then was refrigerated, still in its wrapper.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

> The butcher hung the meat for >>>30 days<<< cut and wrapped it and them froze it


30 DAYS for Aging??? WOW that is mighty mighty long time~!
The steers I butcher are only aged for a few days like 8 to 9 days~! Mine get buchered on a Monday and a wek later either on a Thursday or Friday I pick it up and it goes in MY freezer~! WOW I never heard of aging one as long as 30 days~!


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

We usually have then hang for 14 to 21 days, depending on the amount of fat cover. I would think 30 days was pretty long, espicially for a grass fed calf. I don't know though, I wasn't there............
P.J.


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## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

That was one possibility we thought of--they let it go too long, it went bad and they replaced it with some other animal.


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## BDB (Feb 26, 2005)

I butcher our own steers we hang them for two weeks and the meats always dark never pale we have highlands to use to take them to the butcher but I know we where not getting our animal back been doin our own for the past ten years not a problem since


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## ptannjr (Jul 29, 2008)

BDB said:


> I butcher our own steers we hang them for two weeks and the meats always dark never pale we have highlands to use to take them to the butcher but I know we where not getting our animal back been doin our own for the past ten years not a problem since


How can one know if they are not getting there meat back?


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## Jay (Feb 5, 2008)

ptannjr said:


> How can one know if they are not getting there meat back?


The way to know if it is indeed YOUR beef---
Butcher it yourself.
Otherwise you might never know.


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## ptannjr (Jul 29, 2008)

Jay said:


> The way to know if it is indeed YOUR beef---
> Butcher it yourself.
> Otherwise you might never know.


Kind of what i was thinking. Thanks


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

Jay said:


> The way to know if it is indeed YOUR beef---
> Butcher it yourself.
> Otherwise you might never know.



You can tell by size, sometimes. Say, you send in a large steer that should have a big steak and you get back a little steak that had to come from a smaller animal. But it's really hard to prove.

Jennifer


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## Christiaan (Mar 13, 2004)

We hang our Highlands 21 to 28 days, so 30 would not be excessive. The meat would not spoil in 30 days, but it might dry too much resulting in excessive trim.


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## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

Can you describe the color and texture of your 30 day aged Highland beef?

Thanks.
Jean


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

I've always wondered how to know if you're getting your own meat back or not. In the past four years, we've sent show steers off to have their carcasses graded and the meat packaged. It's sad to sit down to a steak that was supposed to grade out as "choice -" and then have to saw on it for half an hour to get it down the pipe knowing full well that the ribeye you're eating can't be the one you sent to the butcher.


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## Christiaan (Mar 13, 2004)

Our beef is always a rich, dark red with little marbleing. Moisture loss when thawing (we've actually measured this, Bill Nye would be proud of us) is around 
0.5%


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

JHinCA said:


> We had a Scottish Highland steer slaughtered on farm and taken to a butcher to dry age and cut and wrap. We just thawed our first steaks and they do not look like what DH saw. At slaughter the meat was a deep cherry red, now the steaks are pale. At slaughter time we ate some fresh meat trim and the liver and they were quite flavorful. The "dry aged" steaks are bland.
> 
> How is this possible? Can aging so change a beef? The butcher swears that the beef is our steer. * We don't know what to do*.


next time butcher your own


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