How to slaughter and butcher a ram

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When purchasing a live lamb, the breeder should remember that sooner or later he will have to face the problem of slaughter. When keeping an animal at home, you should know about the peculiarities of how to cut a ram, properly remove the skin from it and cut the carcass into separate parts, why adhere to these rules.

How to butcher a ram

Getting quality lamb is not easy. You need to follow step-by-step instructions to preserve the quality of not only the products and organs, but also the skins of the killed animal. In addition, some methods of improving the palatability of the carcass must be applied several days before cutting.

Sheep butcher

According to Kazakh and Muslim traditions, raising and slaughtering a ram is a man's business. Oriental men learn how to slaughter a ram from an early age, observing the work of the hands of their fathers and grandfathers. Muslims, on the other hand, are partly prepared for the slaughter of sheep for religious reasons (a sacrificial offering on the holiday of Kurban Bayram). During the procedure, adherents of Islam read a prayer, cut, bleed the animal and butcher it. They say: "We will slaughter a ram or a camel, and Allah will be favored."

A person who slashes a lamb must be a skilled craftsman, because the quality of not only meat, but also internal organs: liver, heart, etc. depends on how correctly the butcher is cut. That is why Muslims are considered the best butchers.

Cutting a lamb for a religious holiday is a centuries-old tradition. The organs are the first on the table, the soups from the head and legs are the second, and the third is mutton kebab, pilaf, squares and other meat dishes. Unlike Orthodoxy, where people fast, limiting themselves in food, the people of the East do not consider it necessary. Even during the Uraz fast, Muslims limit themselves not in the very use of meat, but in the time of the meal itself. In addition, on Islamic holidays, raw meat is often given to poor people in need of food. The attitude to the procedure for slaughtering a ram and its butchering plays a major role in the quality of finished meat products, so no one better than a Muslim can tell how to slaughter a ram correctly.

The main differences between the slaughter and butchering of sheep in industrial and yard conditions

Butchering a ram at home and in industrial abattoirs has some differences. They most often concern:

• use of tools (electrical equipment can also be used);
• places of slaughter and cutting;
• compliance with sanitary standards;
• the speed of all technological operations.

Wherever there is a special place for carrying out technological processes for obtaining meat products, sanitary standards are more taken into account. The slaughter, which is carried out in the yard of the farm, is considered by experts to be incorrect.In part, this concerns the risk of contamination of meat, which can lead to its infection with harmful infections, so even ordinary farmers are advised to give their livestock for slaughter in specialized workshops.

If the slaughter of sheep or rams is nevertheless carried out independently, the farmer must be aware of the fulfillment of all the requirements of the technological process. Preparatory operations should be performed first, after which the animal is immobilized, slaughtered and cut up. The ram is slaughtered only after all the preparatory operations have been completed.

Slaughter preparation

Before you slaughter a ram, you should perform several preparatory operations. A special place is given to feeding and watering animals. 12 hours before the planned slaughter, a sheep or ram is aged without food. The main reasons for this preparation are associated with the need to empty the intestines of the animal, which will lead to:

• facilitating the process of slaughtering and cutting;
• reducing the risk of faecal contamination of mutton;
• compliance with the requirements of sanitary standards.

If it is impossible to feed pets before slaughter, then they should not be denied a drink. A large amount of water drunk by the livestock improves the process of separating the skin from the carcass. If you slaughter an animal without being drunk, the skin may be damaged. That is why, before butchering a ram, it is often forced to drink.

The time of the last haircut is also important. To obtain high-quality wool, a sheep or ram is sheared 1.5-2 months before the planned slaughter. By the time of cutting, it has time to grow to the required length.

We must not forget about the veterinary examination. A specialist must examine the animal for the absence of diseases dangerous to humans. In case of confirmation of normal health, the veterinarian must issue a certificate to the farmer confirming the readiness of the animal for slaughter.

How to immobilize a ram

Correctly slaughter and butcher a ram can only be immobilized beforehand. It is necessary to apply the most common method of the procedure - stunning. In industrial workshops, electric current or gas is most often used. The purpose of this procedure is to facilitate the slaughtering process. In addition, the animal, when killed, is in a disabled state, as in a dream. Quick actions of a person make it possible to avoid the painful death of a ram, and this fully corresponds to human humanity.

Before skinning a young ram, you should decide on the exact method of neutralizing it. At home, the use of carbon dioxide is not popular as it requires a sealed chamber. There are fewer problems with electrical discharge:

1. One of the wire contacts is brought into a special box, which is connected to the metal floor.
2. The animal is driven into the box.
3. The second contact touches the head of the ram.

The effectiveness of this method is high. The discharge of electric current paralyzes the musculature of the sheep and disrupts the activity of its nervous system.

The scheme for using carbon dioxide is simpler. An example of such a detoxification of a sheep can be found on the Internet. There are many videos with detailed instructions for such an operation.

A few decades ago, before butchering a lamb carcass, people stunned the animal with a hammer blow on the head. There is no need to talk about the effectiveness of this method. It often allows you to kill a sheep or ram in advance quickly and efficiently, which saves a person from the very concept of immobilization. However, this method has several disadvantages. The main one is the need to use an assistant who will hold the lamb.

All methods of immobilization are equally effective, the main thing is to act according to the instructions. It is very important not to scare the lamb prematurely, because in this case it will not be easy to score it: it will resist and may well injure a person.

Murder and bleeding

To slaughter and butcher a ram, according to experts, should be in accordance with some GOST rules (cutting mutton and goat meat into cuts). There are many video tutorials on how to perform bleeding and the steps that follow. Slaughter of a sheep or ram has the following features:

1. The appropriate age for slaughter is 7-14 months (how many months the animal will be before slaughter depends on the rate of weight gain). The ram is growing rapidly. In addition, some breeds are classified as fast-growing. So, the Gorky sheep already by 8 months weighs more than other livestock, in its average state of development.
2. The animal is slaughtered in a specially equipped place with hooks for hanging the carcass or a special drain for blood.
3. To exsanguinate, you need to make an incision with a knife in the region of the cervical vessels. After that, they put it on a clean floor sideways or hang it on a specially designated place. The correct procedure for exsanguination is a guarantee of the quality of cutting a ram.

If the household does not have a designated room, as experts say, it is possible to butcher a ram on the street. But for this, care should be taken to design a special frame with hooks on which all operations can be carried out. In addition, if the supports of such a design are dug into the ground and concreted, cutting the ram parts will be convenient.

We must not forget about what tool will be used in order to butcher the lamb carcass. It is worth choosing a few large, sharp knives used for both carcass cutting and skinning. If such a knife does not cut, you can also use a hammer. You also need to prepare containers for drained blood, organs and individual parts of meat products. This will keep them clean and free from contamination by harmful bacteria. After preparation, the animal is slaughtered. It remains only to start cutting.

How to properly cut a lamb carcass?

How to properly cut a lamb carcass after bleeding into separate parts can be found in special regulatory documents (GOST). The answer to the question of how to undress a ram for culinary needs correctly consists of several points:

1. The bloodless sheep or ram is placed on a horizontal surface (a floor or table covered with oilcloth).
2. Take a knife and separate the animal's head.
3. The ram's front legs are broken at the level of the hooves and the skin is separated by a longitudinal incision up to the groin area. After that, the skin is separated so that it remains only on the back.
4. The carcass is suspended by the hind legs, after which it is necessary to rip the abdominal cavity and cut out the stomach and intestines. The next in line are the liver, lungs, kidneys, etc.

After the operations, everyone cuts the part of the mascara that he needs. Most often, in a ram, the neck, loins, shoulder blade and legs are separated.

In production shops, carcasses are often split into 2 parts by a longitudinal cut. The half-carcass is easier to disassemble into separate parts. But there is also a drawback: large portions of food last longer.