Hair in the meat. Your opinion. Do you think it spoils meat. Myth or No Myth

[RightPlace-RightTime]

Just wanted to hear everyones opinion on what they think when alittle hair is left in the meat when you take it to the butcher.  My neighbor comes over and cuts my my animals for me and i was watching him.   So I asked him what he thought and knows.  Just wanted to see what everyone else thinks,  Then ill tell you his answere. He works for B&E meats in DesMoines.  The shop is pretty reputable.  Lets hear em

[billythekidrock]

 We do our own. Way better then sending it in, but you are always going to have one or two somewhere. I have never found anything wrong with a piece that has had a hair. I have never had a package with more then one hair and never more then one or two in packages from an entire animal.

Shops normally don't worry about it and the proof is in the packages.

[sisu]

We try like heck to remove all the hair. I really doubt a person ever really gets it all, and I doubt a wee bit does not hurt the meat any just make sure you get it out before serving.

[UPBert]

A little hair won't hurt ya!!!

On a side note, I was up at a friend's camp (In the Huron Mountain Club - Sisu will recognize it) for the weekend fishing or some such, and brought some venison for eats.  Found a perfectly mushroomed bullet in it, thank goodness before cooking/eating it!   

Rob

[high country]

I hose them down at home. if I have to quarter/bone my meat I always seem to trim a thin layer off anyhow. I am not a fan of hair, but I am not gonna turn my nose to peice of meat that has a hair on it.....nor will my wife.

I have learned that a little more care in the field is a lot less work on the cutting table.

butcher.......what is that?

 I killed it and ripped its gut out before I tore the meat off the bones, you damn well better believe I am gonna chop it up into little pieces and throw it in the freezer to look at later on......just me though.

[high country]

A little hair won't hurt ya!!!

On a side note, I was up at a friend's camp (In the Huron Mountain Club - Sisu will recognize it) for the weekend fishing or some such, and brought some venison for eats.  Found a perfectly mushroomed bullet in it, thank goodness before cooking/eating it!  

Rob

I assume it was a previous wound? I can tell where every single piece of bullet goes in my critters......pretty obvious.

[mkcj]

I can't help but think that a hair from the inside hind qtr of a buck or bull will do nothing but ruin the taste.

[UPBert]

HC, it was quite a while back, and the deer was cut up by a processor, and assumed it was my bullet.  I do my own now, and would not tend to leave hunks of lead in the meat!

[ICEMAN]

We wash and pick until the hair is gone. If any shows later, simply rinse it off, meat is fine.

[coonhound]

My vote is Myth...

However I still do everything in my power to get rid of all I can.  I keep several damp rags while I'm cutting it up and wipe and pick.  I probably spend as much time picking hair as I do cutting meat.

That's why I don't send it to a butcher, time is money to them, if you do take it to a butcher you better do as much cleaning as you can prior.

Coon

[high country]

I hose them down at home.

I've also heard of people using torches to burn the hair off .  I use a wet cloth and just rub the hair off while its hanging, before cutting/quartering.

A buddy of mine took his first elk this year. he had it skinned and cut in half hanging in his shop. I told him to hose that hairy thing off before it dried and stuck all the hair to the meat. He told me that was un needed since he was gonna cinge it with a torch.

I'll take 10 minutes with the garden hose to get it spick n' span....worked good on the last twenty or so.

[ICEMAN]

Yep, nothing makes my mouth water more than the smell and flavor of burnt hair! 

[mossback91]

I like hairless kitty.

[robodad]

Take a trip to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite entree and they serve it piping hot just the way you like it so you put on your bib and grab your shovel , take a big scoop and gently blow on it to cool it a bit and WTF there is a piece of hair wrapped up in your food and around your shovel and you grab it to unwind it and it keeps coming and coming and gets longer and longer and you say to your self "I ain't eatin this sh!t".

Yep hair spoils your dinner no matter if it came from you the deer or the grease monkey in the kitchen, YUCK !! It is not a myth...

[Grizzlykiller]

Hair in the meat?
 Seems to go hand in hand with most meat I see.
 Does it make meat taste differently than if it was not there?
 I don't know and am curious what the guy from B&E has to say about it.
I was the meat manager in one of the two stores here in town for 16 years before I went to work for D.O.T. and yes I would cut moose, musk ox and caribou/reindeer.
I now cut it in my shop in my garage, this fall I ran about 8500 lbs. through.
 I don't know if all my fellow hunters here in Nome are the exception but to say a lot of hair shows up is an understatement.
 If someone asks "is there too much hair here" I just tell 'em I'll put the hair filter on the grinder.
 I also don't know much about the science of hair and cooked meat. I do know that there is no reason for hair to make it to the grinder. It's a sign of laziness I think. Not a big fan of water on the meat either, as in washing it off.
You pick and pull every piece off before it goes in the game bag.
Simple. If it takes a bit of time, take the time.
I suppose a good coarse hair would make a good toothpick.
  Now as far as it being a myth about spoiling meat or not, enlighten me.
I do know i'm not too jazzed about having a human hair subbing as dental floss and if I was in some steakhouse and one showed up that is a problem.
More of a creep me out type thing. However that is U.S.D.A. inspected meat.
Might not be much of a difference but there is a difference.
 

[edmondshunter]

Help keep the hair out

We keep an old beard trimmer around to shave a stripe up the belly, then cut from the inside out.  It keeps the hair out pretty well

[M_ray]

I've been told by more than one butcher that "this might be the cleanest animal I've seen come in" But there is allways some hair in there somewhere, It doesn't bother me after it's cooked I never notice anything that would keep me from eating it.

[sisu]

I hose them down at home.

I've also heard of people using torches to burn the hair off .  I use a wet cloth and just rub the hair off while its hanging, before cutting/quartering.

Ya Filipino Christmas Goat! We watched a family next door to us in Papaikou, HI pour white vinegar down the goat's throat, then let it spazzz awhile so the acid would soften the stomach Next they slit its throat  not losing a drop of the blood, which was collected in a big bowl for some blood recipe.
The animal was then gutted VERY carefully because a bunch of the innards were delicacies; liver, kidneys, spleen, gall from the gall bladder etc. The intestines were all cleaned for making sausage, the horns were saved so the material in them could be extracted along with the hooves. By the way the underlined stuff was the women's work. As they were doing this the men took out the torch and burned off all the hair. Finally they got down to the skinning and butchering. Bones are not thrown out but saved for the marrow and soup.
The same process is done on a dog but instead of vinegar they use rice so the dog is pre-stuffed for the meal.
The Filipinos that I met, made friends with and ate with were the most efficient hunters, fisherpeople, gatherers, and butchers I've EVER met.
Oh, never found any hair in their food either.

[high country]

thanks, but I'll just continue to hose em' off and wipe the hair and blood from them. after all it helps in the cooling process and I don't have to puke my guts out from the smell of burning hair.

funny thing, everyone has a different way to skin a cat.

[RightPlace-RightTime]

The hair dies when animal is dead, has no affect of spoiling meat, just how much you want ground in with your sasage.

[DOUBLELUNG]

My experience, hair will not taint deer, elk, or moose meat, and I didn't notice any ill effects with bighorn sheep or Mt. goat either. So, MYTH.

However, FACT, pronghorn antelope hair has very strongly scented and flavored oil, and will impart a taste most people don't like to meat.  So with antelope, it is pretty imperative to keep the hair off the meat, and if there is any contact remove the hair ASAP.  Antelope are very different than other big game, hanging ruins the meat (unless you love steaks with the consistency of liverwurst), it is just ultra-delicate compared to the deer and bovine families.  I believe this is why so many people, including experienced deer and elk hunters, "don't like" antelope - they inadvertently ruin the meat with care that would be just fine for deer and elk.  Quickly killed, skinned, boned out, kept clean and immediately chilled, pronghorn is the finest meat around. 

Got a bit off subject there, but hopefully that little manifesto will help someone out in the future.  I've eaten over 70 pronghorn, and the two that were bad, were REAL BAD, and had to do with the care received.

[DOUBLELUNG]

P.S. - from a friend who has killed more bears than anyone else I know, the same goes for fish-eating bears - treat them just like the pronghorn, keep that fishy hair off the meat and the meat is fine.  He and his wife prefer bear to any other animal, he's killed around 20 here in WA, and he kills about 1/2 and 1/2 berry field bears and streamside bears, so I believe what he says.

[high country]

after living in alaska and hunting bears I would not touch a fork to a fish eating bear......or rutting bou'