Our rams' "one bad day" (Part 3)

What started more than a year ago has now come full circle.

This weekend we watched P-E butcher our first three lambs, after they had been hung in his cooling room for a week. 

P-E in action. That saw was just shouting out "let me saw your finger off!" to me...

Although we want to be able to slaughter and butcher our own animals at some point, it is reassuring to have a professional do it for now. A professional who is also happy to share his wisdom with curious onlookers!

Homemade and home reared liver pâté 
Most amazing ever and a nice break before kicking off major freezer filler action

After spending all morning in the car and standing around watching P-E, we prepared ourselves for a long afternoon and evening in the kitchen. One would not believe how much work is involved in organizing the meat cuts from just three animals. Good thing mamma is ever the well-organized accountant! She may be bossy, but in this situation it is a relief to be bossed around. :-) So while watching P-E do his thing, we separated the main cuts into bags and labelled them, making our life a bit easier at home. 

Bag number 5 contained or roast beef for want of a better description (we're not too fussed about
correct anatomy, as long as we have an inkling of what's in the bag...)

The reward for all that work was a few odds and ends (we're saving the proper cuts for when the rest of the posse return from the UK) cooked on the wood-fired stove. I swear it was some of the best meat I have ever tasted. No bias at all. :-) 

Guaranteed grass-fed and grash finished. Ta-daaa!

Random cuts, sublime taste

Our rams 'one bad day' (Part 2)

On recommendation from Mr.B (our sheep mentor) we took our 3, six month old ram lambs to his friend P-E for their 'one bad day'. It was P-E who made the whole experience very calming with his measured approach and the careful way in which he handled our beloved ram lambs. In the end, it happened so quickly, without any panic or distress that we returned home feeling a sense of pride that we had managed the whole process from birth to slaughter for the very first time.

Our 3 ram lambs including offal

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had began our journey to a more sustainable lifestyle knowing that we would have to one day slaughter our own animals to provide us with food. Firstly, we wanted to know that the food on our plate had had a good life and had been reared properly and secondly, it had been given a natural diet i.e grass-fed. Ultimately, we wanted to know everything about the meat we were eating. So for us this was a very important stage in realizing this dream.

The 'one bad day' started with us driving the ram lambs to P-E who owns a little farm not far from ours. P-E has a professional set-up in one of his barns. and with no one else around, in tranquil surroundings, we immediately felt at home. We brought out the first ram lamb and made sure the others could not see or fear anything (they were well-stocked with good grass to munch on). P-E slaughtered the first, removed the skin, bagged the intestines and removed the internal organs. The remainder of the body was weighed and then moved into a chilling room to hang at the correct temperature. It all happened so smoothly.

The skin being removed.

We wanted to make use of the entire animal, even down to the blood that was drained into a bowl for us. And we will use everything, if not to eat, then to use as compost, or for our other animals to eat.

The remaining two rams were slaughtered at the same time, with the third one brought out directly after the second, so it was not left on its own.

Offal cuts: lung, liver, heart and kidneys

Being our first time, we were incredible nervous and wanted to make sure that our ram lambs were well looked after and they were kept as calm as possible. In essence the ram lambs' best interests were a priority for us. We feel that we achieved this and are pleased with the outcome of our first lamb slaughter.

Fifty shades of brown

Cat and I held our second offal cooking course in the local hotel kitchen (Tallhöjden).
Heart, liver and tongue were on the menu for five excited students.

Obligatory welfie ahead of course

 We started with a bit of background information about offal:

• Offal is not just organ meat such as liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach... It also includes other odd bits such as tongue, cheek, tail, feet. The kind of stuff that your grandma used to eat but you no longer find in the supermarket shelves.
• Offal is cheap! When we switched to better quality meat - primarily freerange and grassfed - we needed to widen our repertoire of cuts to keep the bills down.
• Offal is the multivitamin of the animal - liver and heart are two of the most nutritious foods you can eat. CoQ10, iron, vitamins A and B, trace minerals, to name a few...
• Throwing away large parts of the animal is no longer an option for us! It isn't just about the waste of resources, it is simply unethical to kill an animal and not use as much as possible of it. (See note on "cat jar" below - we try to make use of EVERYTHING.)

Slicing liver - note the "cat jar" for the leftovers to the right

The aim of the course was to give the participants a few simple dishes to start their journey into "offal land" with.

• Beef liver pâté with butter, onion, garlic and various spices - very creamy and delicious if we may say so ourselves! 
• Fried lamb heart, thinly sliced and marinated in garlic, ginger and chili - my favourite every time. 
• Tongue - boiled as well as fried.

We added salad to the final dish to avoid too much of a meat overload.

The tasting session last time around was a bit too heavy on the meat, so we added in a bit of salad, sauerkraut and lingonberries to break up the brown on the plates.

To wash it all down, we made our students a shot of bone broth. Beige on brown is such an attractive combination...

Mr K with a plate full of brown (tongue, liver pâté, flash fried marinated heart, served up with a glass of beige (bone broth)

We'll see if we get around to developing the next level offal course sometime later in the year. Kidneys, brain and lungs, anyone?

The Lowdown on Lamb Offal

Well, the butcher did ask us if the lamb kidneys, liver and hearts were for the dog... I now understand why. Sort of.

The reason we got lamb offal was simply the short notice we gave him. And since we're generally feeling pretty adventurous, we said "why not?".

So what was the verdict? Not too favourable, I'm afraid.

• Lamb kidneys behave like little bouncy rubber balls and taste of barn. A barn full of sheep. Pooping sheep. 
• Lamb liver tasted plain weird. The pâté tasted as if a whole bottle of shampoo had been dropped into the batter. Lil T didn't seem to mind too much though. 
• Lamb heart stuffed with lamb mince and wrapped in bacon was a winner though. Tasted of lamb, yet not too strongly. The free anatomy lesson was a bonus. Let's just say that some parts are easily recognisable. 

Anyhow, next up is organic, free range beef offal. Lamb was just a bit too weird.

Meat and the Internet

We go through a fair amount of meat in our household and I am always on the lookout for quality organic, free range, grass fed meat. The best way to access this meat would be to live on a farm and care for your own animals. Second best would be to live in the country and visit some farms to check them out. If you are a city dweller like me, the digital era has opened up a third option: ordering over the internet and having all the goodness delivered directly to your door. Hooray for the internet!

These guys got recommended to me: Fordhall Farm. They have some great meat on offer and it is community owned.

I went a little crazy with my order and the fridge is now filled with chicken, beef, pork, offal, marrow bones... Don't worry, half of it is for Cecilia. I can't wait to try the Gloucester Old Spot pork!

Eat More Liver!

Liver is a great source of iron, protein and vitamin A, and it is a cheap cut of meat. I have honestly never been a great fan of the flavour, apart from in pâté, which effectively disguises the liver taste. Even though pâté is so lovely, I was a bit sceptical about making my own, but after encouragement from mother Paulsson and Cecilia, I took on the challenge. I have now made a few batches, this was my latest recipe (makes two 300ml jars of pâté):

500g chicken livers
400g yellow onions (sliced)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Swig of whiskey
100g butter

Fry onions in some of the butter until soft, add salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary towards the end. Fry chicken livers in some more butter until brown, but still pink inside, add a swig of whiskey at the end and scrape up what has got stuck at the bottom of the pan. Whizz liver and onions in a blender with the rest of the butter until you have your desired consistency. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mixture into glass jars. These keep in the fridge for about a week, but also freeze very well.

Serve with crudités for a nice lunch or starter.