The skin of the body and limbs having been re-
moved, stretch it out flat, hair side down, along-
side of you to receive portions of the meat as it is
butchered. Now take up your knife, insert its
point alongside the breastbone, and cut through
the false ribs to the point of the sternum. In a
young animal this is easy; but in an old one the
ribs have ossified, and you must search for the
soft points of union between the ribs and the ster-
num, which are rather hard to find. Here your
knife's temper, and perhaps your own, will be put
to the test. The most trifling-looking pocket
hatchet would do the trick in a jiffy.
Open the abdominal cavity, taking care not to
rupture anything, and prop the chest open a few
inches with a stick, or by merely pulling the ribs
away from each other. Cut the diaphragm free
at both sides and at the back. (It is the mem-
brane that separates the organs of the chest from
those of the abdomen.) Everything now is free
from the body except at the throat and anus.
Reach in and take in your grasp all the vessels that
run up into the neck. With knife in the other
hand, cut them across from above downward, tak-
ing care that you do not cut yourself. Now pull
away gradually, helping a little here and there
with the knife until all the contents of the visceral
cavity lie at your feet, save the lower end of the
rectum, which is still attached. With a hatchet,
if you had one, you would now split the pelvis.
The thing can be done with a large knife, if the
animal is not too old, by finding the soft suture at
the highest part of the bone and rocking the knife-
edge on it. But you may not be able to accom-
'40 CAMP COOKERY.
plish this just now. So reach in with the jack-
knife, cut carefully around the rectum and urinary
organs, keeping as close to the bone as possible,
and free ever^'^thing from the cavity. If water is
near, wash out the abdominal cavity and let it
drain.
To remove the head; flay back the skin for sev-
eral inches at base of neck, cut through flesh, etc.,
to the backbone. Search along this till you find
the flat joint between the faces of two vertebrae,
separate these as far as you can; then twist the
attached part of the body round and round, until
it breaks off.*
In butchering, save the liver, heart, brain, milt
(spleen), kidneys, and the caul fat. The caul is
the fold of membrane loaded with fat that covers
most of the intestines. In removing the liver you
need not bother about a gall-bladder, for a deer
has none. Many a tenderfoot has been tricked
into looking for it.
If one is in a hurry, and is not particular about
the hide, he can do his butchering on the ground.
In that case, lay the animal on sloping ground,
with its head uphill; or bend its back over a log
or rock; or turn it on its back with its head
twisted around and wedged under one side.
In butchering an elk or moose that has antlers,
first remove the head. Then turn the body on
its back and prop it in position with a couple of
three-foot stakes sharpened at both ends, a hole
being dug for a moose's withers. Sometimes only
the haunches, sirloins, and tongue are saved, these
being cut away without skinning or gutting the
carcass.
*Dircctions how to skin a head for mounting are given
in my Camping and Woodcraft, Chap. XIX,
DRESSING GAME. 41
Page 19
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The skin of the body and limbs having been removed, stretch it out flat, hair side down, alongside of you to receive portions of the meat as it is butchered. Now take up your knife, insert its point alongside the breastbone, and cut through the false ribs to the point of the sternum. In a young animal this is easy; but in an old one the ribs have ossified, and you must search for the soft points of union between the ribs and the sternum, which are rather hard to find. Here your knife's temper, and perhaps your own, will be put to the test. The most trifling-looking pocket hatchet would do the trick in a jiffy.
Open the abdominal cavity, taking care not to rupture anything, and prop the chest open a few inches with a stick, or by merely pulling the ribs away from each other. Cut the diaphragm free at both sides and at the back. (It is the membrane that separates the organs of the chest from those of the abdomen.) Everything now is free from the body except at the throat and anus. Reach in and take in your grasp all the vessels that run up into the neck. With knife in the other hand, cut them across from above downward, taking care that you do not cut yourself. Now pull away gradually, helping a little here and there with the knife until all the contents of the visceral cavity lie at your feet, save the lower end of the rectum, which is still attached. With a hatchet, if you had one, you would now split the pelvis. The thing can be done with a large knife, if the animal is not too old, by finding the soft suture at the highest part of the bone and rocking the knife edge on it. But you may not be able to accom-
plish this just now. So reach in with the jackknife, cut carefully around the rectum and urinary organs, keeping as close to the bone as possible, and free everything from the cavity. If water is near, wash out the abdominal cavity and let it drain.
To remove the head; flay back the skin for several inches at base of neck, cut through flesh, etc., to the backbone. Search along this till you find the flat joint between the faces of two vertebrae, separate these as far as you can; then twist the attached part of the body round and round, until it breaks off.*
In butchering, save the liver, heart, brain, milt (spleen), kidneys, and the caul fat. The caul is the fold of membrane loaded with fat that covers most of the intestines. In removing the liver you need not bother about a gall-bladder, for a deer has none. Many a tenderfoot has been tricked into looking for it.
If one is in a hurry, and is not particular about the hide, he can do his butchering on the ground. In that case, lay the animal on sloping ground, with its head uphill; or bend its back over a log or rock; or turn it on its back with its head twisted around and wedged under one side.
In butchering an elk or moose that has antlers, first remove the head. Then turn the body on its back and prop it in position with a couple of three-foot stakes sharpened at both ends, a hole being dug for a moose's withers. Sometimes only the haunches, sirloins, and tongue are saved, these being cut away without skinning or gutting the carcass.
*Dircctions how to skin a head for mounting are given in my Camping and Woodcraft, Chap. XIX,