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

[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'