[cmartin78]

I am going to be eating beef for a year

[Sunnybunny]

All I can say is MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And yum!

[femmecreole]

I had a friend once who owned a cow...it was a precious little black calf who was headed for doom from the gitgo...bless his little heart, his name was "Freezermeat"...

If I don't know em, I can eat em, but I never ate meat at their house again.

[beachgal]

Femmecreole, have you ever read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe? In the book, the guys are eating at the restaurant and order some kind of beef. A cow shows up at their table and asks them to select the part of her they want to eat. They are horrified and try to change their order but the cow keeps trying to convince them that it's fine for them to eat her. It's surreal! I could never do that!

cmartin, you might want to check out cuts of beef online and see what parts are the leanest. With the rest, you can cut out the visible fat or use it in recipes where the fat tends to rise to the top (like in the crock pot) so you can skim it off. That way there won't be too much saturated fat. Too bad DH didn't buy you a dozen chickens!

[Kelly J]

Originally Posted by femmecreole

If I don't know em, I can eat em

LOL Femme - I'm the same way. As long as I don't see it before hand or think about it too hard, I can eat them. I still do feel guilty though!

CMartin - we buy 1/2 a cow each year and you'd be suprised how quickly it goes. I guess it probably depends on the size of the cow, though. I was also suprised how much leaner the meat was. A friend of ours buys & raises 3 or 4 a year for other friends. They get healthy food, good vet care, no antibiotics and other stuff that the cows on mass farms get. Most of the cuts we get, even the ground beef, are very lean - like only a tbsp or two of grease when browning a couple of pounds. I drain that off and we're good to go.

Good luck!

[Kim_Star060404]

We just butchered one and split it w/DH's boss (who bought it with us). Our "winter cow" is currently in the feed lot getting fat. The only way I can handle doing it is that I don't see the cow until after it's butchered -- YIKES! Couldn't imagine meeting him then eating him!!

[Schatzi]

Down here, we can order our cow every tuesday and thursdays by appointment Haven't tried that yet...we once picked out a pig to have fattened up for a Pig roast/Luau me and my cousin were throwing.. We named it Petunia, and visited her twice...by the time the luau came - We just couldnt do it --our DH's had to go and pick out another pig... I still think it was petunia, though they still aint sayin!

[Ophelia924]

Here is my rule of thumb - Never name your dinner. That makes it more like I am eating my cat than an animal that is being fattened up just to make my yummy dinner.