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Episode-1165- Marjory Wildcraft on Using 100% of Slaughtered Livestock — 38 Comments

  1. Interesting episode, not a fan of things like liver and kidney myself..probably due to the massively overcooked ones I was force fed as a kid. Even now I think of liver as a shrivelled rubbery lump with a burnt metallic taste, makes me shudder at the thought.

    My mates dad was always “that guy” who ate everything. We’d all be enjoying one of his homemade curries or something and he’d be sat there finishing off a plate of hearts or eyes.

  2. Marjory, I’m sure this is from another podcast, but what method of rabbit slaughter do you prefer? Not to be too graphic, my father used the pop on the head, bleed out method, while the French use a broom stick and dislocate the neck and bleed out. I’d like your take as the easiest and the humane method to do it.

    Second, regarding your comment about like healing like, I’ve almost healed the tendons in my left hand little and ring fingers. An MD said strained tendons don’t heal much as an adult, and hand surgery doesn’t work. I dropped a lot of items before the fingers are almost healed. Every 2 weeks, I’ve been eating tendon (Phat combination soup with tendon in it) or tripe (boil the tripe, throw away water, boil a second time, cooked it with dash of cloves, poultry and garlic powder until extremely soft, cut tripe into tiny, tiny bits, put the bits into beef soup stock with polenta to disguise it.) Marjory, you are right on!

  3. I was in the store the other day and the frozen rabbit was almost $8/lb! I went home and looked at my rabbits like they were gold.

    I was raised a lot by my grandparents and I remember helping my grandma render hog fat and we ate tons of it – this was rural Oklahoma. She kept a bucket of it in the kitchen and used it for everything. Good stuff! Man, we ate porch chops for breakfast when there was extra heavy work to be done. I’m still kicking!

    I think Jack has pointed this out before about his life, but I learned so much living with my grandparents and that knowledge was lost in once generation. Their kids just walked away from all of it. It was from my grandparents that I learned how to dry fruit of the roof, can food, render fat, sew, whatever.

    Question for anyone here: do you leave the fat that’s on the rabbit’s shoulders or do you cut it off? I’ve done both but I find the fat a little weird.

  4. Jack, I just want to say great show today! Marjory is a great guest! I plan to look back through the podcasts for her other material. I raise Icelandic sheep and meat goats here in the Adirondacks under the oppressive reign of Mario the Second, and have eaten the organ meats talked about in the show sauteed in olive oil with a little fresh chive and garlic. I was curious, as a fisherman, have you ever fried up trout nice and crisp and eaten the tail fin? As a kid, we trout fished here in the hills all the time and the crisp tail fin was grand prize.
    Keep up the good work.
    Truly yours in Liberty,
    Adam

  5. truly enjoyed todays podcast, I love Marjorie and lots of great info! Have had possum turnovers that I enjoyed, some of the tougher wild animals do well when ground into sausage and well spiced. Organ meats are something I’m not used to, but using them in sausage as well may be a good way to utilize them. Jack, could you please post the breed of goose that you own? Only geese I’ve known are mean and agressive…

  6. Charlie, agree very much that much was lost between our grandparents and our generation. Luckily I learned some, as did you, and others obviously. This country does not honor its elders properly IMHO

  7. Paul Wheaton let out a series of videos of guy butchering and preparing a pig. I never thought I would want to try headcheese or blood sausage but it does look good the way he makes it.

    The first of a 4 part series.
    On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Side Butchery
    http://youtu.be/UcqQtVuNOFI

  8. I grew up in South Texas eating sweetbreads, tripe ( tripas in tacos) and cow stomach (menudo). I have also had haggis in Scotland and who knows what in German sausages. A lot of this stuff people eat everyday in bologna and hotdogs without much thought. I think that we should look at how people not just here but all over the world prepare offal to see how we can make it taste good. Seems like a follow up show of ” Cooking organs with Chef Kieth Snow” would be a natural follow up.

      • Also from Texas. I had menudo a couple times at my brother of choices house. (hispanic) It was…. ok…. lol. He asked me after the first time if I knew what I was eating. (He wouldnt touch it. His mama raised him “white”, his word not mine.)

  9. Truly enjoyed todays podcast and it will on my list of shows I listen to over and over again.
    I am a firm believer in using as much of an animal as possible. It is the ethical thing to do and a skill that will become very valuable in the future.

    Thanks to Jack and Marjory for a great show

    aman

  10. Marjory is a great person to interview.
    Do you plan to interview Jackie Clay? Bought one of her books and met her at a Self Reliance Expo. She has quite a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of topics.

  11. I do very similar to jack with the “free broth” from freezer scraps.

    I must caution though, anything in the onion family is toxic to dogs. It is best not to give them the solids left after the broth has had onions/leeks/ etc in it. Anything from grapes is also toxic. There is some debate on garlic.

    To get past this, I make my broth in 2 steps. First is 24-48 hours in the crock pot with just bones/meat scraps, and a shot glass of vinegar. Pull out the solids and feed anything soft to the dog. Once that is done, add the vegetables which can now safely include onion.

    We keep a plastic pail of bones and meat scraps, and a plastic pail of fruit, herb, and vegetable trimmings (or past prime) in the freezer. When they fill up its broth day. I found a pretty good article on this over on Mark’s Daily Apple that got me started with broth making. I now pressure can the surplus from each batch, as the fridge was getting too full. This broth is much healthier, and you have complete control of the ingredients, including salt and other preservatives.

  12. This might sou d silly but how do you prepare raw liver to eat? Do you need to soak it or anything?

    • I have read that soaking it in lemon water for 12-24 hours does help with the taste a bit. I have never tried it. I put it in sausage, meat loaf, and freeze pill size pieces to eat raw or in a smoothie.

  13. I LOVED this episode! We have slowly been trying to live and eat like this in a suburban setting. The old motto ‘waste not want not’ is said a lot around here. It also justifies the price I pay for grass fed meat and eggs when I use all the body parts. I am encouraged to do a better job with butchering our deer this year and use the hooves and the part about the spine was a good thing to know as well. I am hoping to purchase her video soon even though we only have 1/5 of an acre.

    I also do bone broths and have seen a tremendous amount of healing from leaky gut, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, etc. (I am GAPS/Paleo). I could fill a page with the healing we have had eating bone broth, rendered fats, and organ meats. We make fish broth out of the bones but I let it simmer down at least 24 hours and freeze it in ice cube trays (I suggest cooking it in a crock pot outside, it stinks!). The reason is, the stuff is full of good nutrients for you but it tastes terrible. I will then add 2-4 fish ice cubes to other broth for dinner and you can’t taste it. Organ meat- if you can hide the organ meat in something it is worth the effort for your health. I struggle with iron levels so I cut my liver into pills and freeze them. I then either put it in a smoothie a day or swallow the frozen pill whole (know the source, I wouldn’t do this with factory farmed animals).

    I do have a question about the bones in the garden. Do I use them as a topping by my tomatoes? I have struggled with getting my compost hot so I was worried about adding bones. Am I being overly cautious? I think I will also give them to my dog now. He has gotten into the garbage and ate them without getting sick anyway. Smart dog.

  14. I just heard about this book on Charcuterie and have to say it looks so amazing. I think this like will go to a bit of the introduction and what is covered. Lots of inspiration here for using the cuts that in the U.S. are usually overlooked.

    http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-French-Pork-Cookery-Grigson/dp/1902304888/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp#reader_B004SHJJ44

    I know in Mexican cuisine tripe is used a lot. And also in Florence, Italy, it is common to find tripe stands where they make sandwiches of tripe. They are popular and considered a food for the working class. I asked around and a lot of my friends like it a lot.

  15. I always love listening to Marjory! Great episode.

    I also love big dogs and Jack you’ve mentioned a couple times how big your shepard is. Is it a specific type of breed? My St Bernard is pretty big at 140; I’d love a big German Shepard to go with her!!! Thanks.

  16. great show. I haven’t found a way to make beef kidney palatable although the couple I’ve gotten may have been pulled out of the gut pile as an afterthought. Now pig kidney is wonderful. The trick to getting away from the odd odor when cooking is toss it in the freezer for a month before cooking. I split the kidney in half, with a sharp filet knife I slice out the majority of that large central vien. Slice it in strips about 1/8″ across the kidney (you end up with little 1/4 moon shaped slivers) toss it in clean water. When I finish put all the strips in a freezer bag, they are now wet enough I can push all the air out, seal and freeze.
    To cook just thaw and drain so they are mostly dry, dredge in salted flour, cook in a skillet with butter or lard, some onions, maybe a minced clove of garlic. If I am outside working the wife has to save some aside for me or the kids will scarf them all up. Pig kidney has a very mild flavor and while it is not muscle the texture is nothing like liver. Liver is also good but kidney is the favorite with my household.

  17. follow up: I raise 15-20 pigs every year. It pays for the 3-4 I put in my freezer. No one wants heart liver or kidney so we get all those. Sometimes I am asked “what is leaf lard?” I tell them it is the fat inside the ribcage and it encases the kidneys. People usually hear kidney and decide I can keep that too lol

  18. unless I am mistaken both links do not work? the one here and the MSB link either…?

  19. Just getting caught up on shows. This was SUPER. I am realizing more and more my weight problems are due to my hormone issues. I found a source for New Zealand deer antler velvet extract that is supposed to be very beneficial for a woman’s health. Since I took birth control in my early years, I will be messed up until I can find a doctor that specializes in bio-identical hormone treatment and adrenal gland malfunctions.

    As for feathers…don’t forget us artists!! Next time you go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels, price a bag of pheasant feathers. A teenie weenie little bag of them is around $10!!! I’m always begging for any feathers. Pheasant, turkey. wood ducks. One woman saves her birds that fly into her picture window and die. I’ve gotten Cardinals, Gold Finches, a Cedar Waxwing and many others.

  20. My personal feeling is that if a feather lands on my property it is mine. That said if you are using them in making items for sale be careful about using migratory bird feathers, especially identifying them as a selling point. You can legally possess the feathers of migratory birds if there is a season for them and you have purchased the required hunting licenses. If there is no season anywhere you can not legally possess them. EX: I have or did have the required licenses to take Canadian geese so I can keep and use those feathers but Robins do not have a hunting season so I can not legally possess any Robin feathers.

  21. I loved the podcast. I would like to get the scientific reference about toxins in store bought meat. I have a micro biologist brother who said there was no scientific fact and I’d like to prove him wrong.

    Thanks again for the awesome show.

  22. She mentioned very briefly about eating such to help with teeth health. Is there a source for more information.
    Thanks

  23. Hey okie,
    I can not give a good or bad recommendation because we just got the book and are trying the suggestions. The book is “Cure Tooth Decay” by Ramiel Nagel who talks a lot about Weston Price. The basic process I got from it was 1-2 tsp/day of grass fed butter oil, 1-2 tsp/day of cold processed cod liver oil and 1-2 tsp/day of bone marrow preferably cooked in a hearty stew with meat and veggies. As this is day 2 for us I don’t have an opinion.
    Paul

    • Paul, thank you for the info. Don’t have the need but as an old boy scout, I plan on being prepared for if I do in the future.