TIL my old way of hanging beef sides was stressing the hip joint

I switched to a double gambrel setup after seeing a demo in Kansas City, and it's way faster with less strain on the meat. Anyone else tweak their hanging method recently?

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3 Comments

holly2566mo ago

So a double gambrel, huh? What's the actual time difference you're seeing on a full side?

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the_ben6mo ago

Honestly, holly256, it's a bit embarrassing. My last full side took me almost four hours. The second gambrel adds a ton of steps. You're basically doing the whole skinning and quartering process twice on the same animal. Saves maybe twenty minutes of awkward knife work later, but costs you an hour up front.

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leo_harris4mo ago

Yeah, have you tried splitting the gambrels like a day apart? Like hang it on one, do the front half, then let it rest overnight before you bother with the back legs. It breaks up that hour of extra work into something way more manageable, especially if you're doing it solo. Also, a good sharp boning knife makes a huge difference on those second gambrel cuts, dull blades just drag everything out way worse.

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