This was Tuesday, at our friends, Sophie and Ruud's place.
They had decided not to keep their two calves till next spring, which would mean they'd had to feed them all winter at an extra financial cost. The calves had been weaned and were grazing over the summer months. The meat of such calves is called rosé veal.
The actual slaughter is done by the local butcher, but I wanted to give them a hand with de-boning and cutting up the meat. Ruud and Sophie have helped us so often and given us so much over the last few years. It was totally my pleasure. To top it off they are both exhausted after a full spring and summer looking after their homestead and growing veg for the local pubs and restaurants.
At the end of the day, I took home the bones and pulled a fantastic stock.
I picked the meat off the bones , which got divided into 1.5 kg meat for veal croquettes which Sophie likes to make and more than 1 kg went for a veal terrine in aspic.
Which is basically the meat with stock and extra gelatin.
When firmed up completely, slices can be cut and eaten between a sandwich or roll. A chunk of it would go well as part of a ploughman's lunch.
The lesser meat I kept for the dogs.
The fat that surrounds the kidneys (suet) I rendered down to tallow, excellent for frying chips/French fries.
Everything is now packed and ready to deliver the goodies back to these dear friends.
From experience I know that keeping and butchering animals is an Herculean task, and to move all the meat in one day needs an army of people ideally. And then there is the clean up !
Heh heh (that's a contended sigh in Dutch/Flemish), I think I missed my calling. I should have been a butcher. ;-)
Have a grand weekend !
Patricia xxx...x
All that meat will keep them going for a while x
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that but they have 6 kids of which 5 strapping young lads with a great appetite. ;)
DeleteHow nice that you were able to return a favour. It always surprises me to see how much meat you can get off one carcass.
ReplyDelete