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Chapter 11

Care of Wild Game

Excerpted from Out Of Harm's Way 2

Edited by Kenneth D. Nunn ©2012

- Keeping and Dressing Game and Fish -

Taken from "Camping and Woodcraft" By: Horace Kephart ©1917

  

   Butchering is the most distasteful part of a hunter's work - a job to be sublet when you can; but sometimes you can't.

   When an animal is shot, the first thing to do is to bleed it, unless the bullet itself has gone clean through and left a large hole of exit through which much blood has drained.

   Even birds and fish should be bled as soon as secured. The meat keeps better, and, in the case of a bird, the feathers are more easily plucked. Speaking, now, of large game, do not drop your gun and rush in on a dying beast to stick it, for it might prove an ugly customer in its death struggle. First put a bullet through its heart or spine.

   To cut a deer's throat would ruin the head for mounting. Twist its head to one side, with the throat downhill, if possible, so that blood will not flow over the hide; then stick your knife in at the point of the breast, just in front of the sternum or breastbone, and work the point of the knife two or three inches back and forth, close up to the backbone, so as to sever the great blood-vessels. Then if you must hurry on, perhaps after another animal, toss some brush over the carcass, or hang a handkerchief over it, to suggest a trap, and make a brush blaze here and there as you go along, to guide you back to the spot.

  If practicable, remove the entrails at once. To do this, it is not necessary to hang the animal up.

  If you are in a hurry, or if the camp is not far away, it will do merely to take out the paunch and intestines; but if this is neglected gas will accumulate and putrefaction will soon set in. A bear, especially, will soon spoil, because the fur keeps in the vital heat, so that the body will smoke when opened, even after it has lain a long time in hard freezing weather.

  If the animal is not to be butchered on the spot, slit the skin only from vent to stomach, using the point of the knife, and taking care not to rupture the paunch. Sever the intestine at the rectum, cut the genitals free, then cut off the gullet as high as you can above the stomach and pull all out. The carcass should lie so that this is done toward the downhill side.

Dragging A Deer -

  If the ground is not too rough, nor the distance too great, a deer may be dragged to camp over the snow or leaves; but drag it head-foremost; if pulled the other way every hair will act as a barb against the ground. Before starting, tie the front legs to the lower jaw. The carcass will slide easier, and the hide will not be so disfigured, if you first drop a bush or small tree by cutting through the roots, leaving a stub of a root projecting for a handle, then tie the animal on the upper side of the bush, and drag away.

Carrying A Litter -

  Two men can carry a deer on a pole by tying its legs together in pairs, slipping the pole through, and tying the head to the pole. Unless the carcass is tied snugly to the pole such a burden will swing like a pendulum as you trudge along, especially if the pole is at all springy.

  A more comfortable way is to make a litter of two poles by laying them parallel, about two and one-half feet apart and nailing or tying cross-pieces athwart the poles. Whittle the ends of the poles to a size convenient for your hands, and fasten to each end of the litter a broad strap, in such a way that it may pass over the shoulders of the carrier and thus take up much of the weight. Then lash the animal securely to the top of the litter.

Carrying Single-handed -

  One man can carry a small deer entire by dragging it to a fallen tree, boosting it up on the log, lengthwise and back down, then grasping one or both hind legs with one hand and the fore legs with the other, and carrying the load so that its weight is on the back of his neck and shoulders.

  Or you may prop the deer on the log breast down, squat with back of your neck against the body, put one arm under near front leg, the other under near hind leg, get the carcass on your shoulders, and arise.

  A better scheme is to cut a slit through the lower jaw and up through the mouth, and another slit through each of the legs between the tendons, just above the hoof; tie the head and legs together, but not too close, and then, by the loop thus formed, swing the burden over your shoulder.

  To carry a larger animal piggy back: gut it, cut off the head and hang it up to be called for later, skin the legs down to the knees and hocks, cut off the shinbones, tie the skin of each fore leg to the hind leg on the same side, put the arms through the loops thus formed, and "get up." Or, remove the bones from the fore legs from knee to foot, leaving the feet on, tie the hind legs together and the fore legs to them, thrust your head and one arm through, and carry the burden as a soldier does a blanket-roll.

The Indian Pack -

  When one has a long way to go, and can only carry the hide and the choice parts of the meat, the best way is to make up an Indian pack, as shown in Figure 1. Skin the deer, place a stick athwart the inside of the skin, pack the saddles, hams, and tidbits in the latter, and roll up and tie in a convenient bundle.

 

 

Figure 1. - Indian Deer Pack

Hanging to Butcher -

  It is not necessary to hang a deer up to skin and butcher it; but that is the more cleanly way. One man, unassisted, can hang a pretty heavy animal in the following way: Drag it headforemost to a sapling that is just limber enough to bend near the ground when you climb it. Cut three poles, ten or twelve feet long, with crotches near the ends. Climb the sapling and trim off the top, leaving the stub of one stout branch near the top. Tie your belt, or a stout withe or flexible root, into a loop around the deer's antlers or throat. Bend the sapling down until you can slip the loop over the end of the sapling. The latter, acting as a spring-pole, will lift part of the deer's weight. Then place the crotches of the poles under the fork of the sapling, butts of poles radiating outward, thus forming a tripod. First push on one pole, then on another, and so raise the carcass free from the ground. If you do not intend to butcher it immediately, raise it up out of reach of roving dogs and "varmints."

  It is common practice to hang deer by gambrels with the head down; but, when hung head up, the animal is easier to skin and to butcher, drains better, and does not drop blood and juices over the head and neck, which you may want to have mounted for a trophy. Dried blood is very hard to remove from hair or fur. If the skin is stripped off from rear to head it will be hard to grain. And if the animal is not to be skinned for some time it is best hung by the head, because the slope of the hair then sheds rain and snow instead of holding them, and the lung cavity does not collect blood, rain, or snow.

  The more common way of skinning a deer, when the head is not wanted for mounting, is to hang it up by one hind leg and begin skinning at the hock, peeling the legs, then the body, and finally the neck, then removing the head with skin on (for baking in a hole), after which the carcass is swung by both legs and is eviscerated.

  If there is no time to hang the deer, open it, throw the entrails well off to one side, then cover the carcass with boughs as if it were a trap, or hang a handkerchief, or the blown-up bladder of the animal, over it, to scare away marauders. Place the deer so it will drain downhill. And don't neglect to blaze your way out, so you can find it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. - Hanging Deer

- Butchering Deer -

  Now let us suppose that you have killed a deer far away from camp, and that you wish to skin and butcher it on the spot, saving all parts of it that are good for anything. You are alone. You wish to make a workmanlike job of it. You carry only the choicer parts with you that evening, and must fix the rest so it will not be molested overnight.

  Of course, you have a jack-knife, and either a pocket hatchet or a big bowie-knife - probably the latter, if this is your first trip. First hang the deer, as described above. (Figure 2) By the time you are through cutting those poles with the knife your hand will ache between thumb and forefinger; a tomahawk would have been better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. - Cuts of Deer, Elk, Moose

Skinning -

  This is your first buck, and you wish to save the head for mounting. For this the skin of the whole neck must be preserved, clear back to the shoulders. Cleanse away any blood that may have issued from the nose and mouth, and stuff some dry moss, or other absorbent, in the beast's mouth. Stick your big knife into a log alongside; it is only to look at, for the present.

  Open your jack-knife, insert the point, edge up, where the neck joins the back, and cut the skin in a circle around the base of the neck, running from the withers down over the front of the shoulder- blade to the brisket or point of the breast on each side. Do not skin the head at present - you may not have time for that. Insert the point of the knife through the skin over the paunch, and, following the middle line of the chest, slit upward to meet the cut around the neck. Then reverse, and continue the slit backward to the end of the tail, being careful not to perforate the walls of the belly. Then slit along the inside of each leg from the hoof to the belly-slit. If you wish to save the feet for mounting, be particular to rip the skin in a straight line up the underside of the leg, starting by inserting the point of the knife between the heel-pads.

  Now comes a nice trick, that of severing the shanks. Nearly every inexperienced person starts too high. Study the accompanying illustrations of these joints, noting where the arrow points, which is the place to use your knife. In a deer the joint is about an inch and a half below the hock on the hind leg, and an inch below the knee on the fore leg.

  Cut square across through skin and muscles, in front, and similarly behind; then, with a quick pull backward against your knee, snap the shank off. The joint of the fore leg is broken in a similar manner, excepting that it is snapped forward.

  Having stripped the vertebrae from the tail, now peel the skin off the whole animal, from the shoulders downward, assisting with your closed fist, and, where necessary, with the knife; but wherever the knife is used be careful to scrape the skin as clean as you can, without cutting it, for every adhering bit of fat, flesh, or membrane must be thoroughly removed before the skin is ready for tanning, and that is easier to do now than after it dries. The whole operation of skinning is much easier while the animal is still warm than after the body has become cold. To skin a frozen animal is a desperately mean job. I have known four old hunters to work nearly a whole afternoon in skinning a frozen bear.

  The skin of the body and limbs having been removed, stretch it out flat, hair side down, alongside of you to receive portions of the meat as it is butchered.

Gralloching -

  Now take up your big knife, insert its point alongside the breastbone, and cut through the false ribs to the point of the sternum. In a young animal this is easy; but in an old one the ribs have ossified, and you must search for the soft points of union between the ribs and the sternum, which are rather hard to find. Here your knife's temper, and perhaps your own, will be put to the test. The most trifling-looking pocket hatchet would do the trick in a jiffy.

 

 

 

Figure 4. - The Place to use Your Knife from Forest and Stream

 

  Open the abdominal cavity, taking care not to rupture anything, and prop the chest open a few inches with a stick, or by merely pulling the ribs away from each other. Cut the diaphragm free at both sides and at the back. (It is the membrane that separates the organs of the chest from those of the abdomen.) Everything now is free from the body except at the throat and anus.

  Reach in and take in your grasp all the vessels that run up into the neck. With knife in the other hand, cut them across from above downward, taking care that you do not cut yourself. Now pull away gradually, helping a little here and there with the knife until all the contents of the visceral cavity lie at your feet, save the lower end of the rectum, which is still attached. With a hatchet, if you had one, you would now split the pelvis. The thing can be done with a large knife, if the animal is not too old, by finding the soft suture at the highest part of the bone and rocking the knife-edge on it. But you may not be able to accomplish this just now. So reach in with the jack-knife, cut carefully around the rectum and urinary organs, keeping as close to the bone as possible, and free everything from the cavity. If water is near, wash out the cavity and let it drain, or wipe with a dry cloth if you have one. Be particular to leave no clotted blood.

  To remove the head; flay back the skin for several inches at base of neck, cut through flesh, etc., to the backbone. Search along this till you find the flat joint between the faces of two vertebrae, separate these as far as you can; then twist the attached part of the body round and round, until it breaks off.

  In butchering, save the liver, heart, brain, milt (spleen), kidneys, and the caul fat. The caul is the fold of membrane loaded with fat that covers most of the intestines. In removing the liver you need not bother about a gall-bladder, for a deer has none. Many a tenderfoot has been tricked into looking for it. In the final cutting up, save the marrow-bones (especially of elk) for eating; the ligaments that lie on either side of the back-bone, from the head backward, for sinew thread, the hoofs for glue (if you are far from supply stores and expect to remain a good while); and perhaps the bladder, paunch, large intestine, and pericardium (outer skin) of the heart, for pouches and receptacles of various kinds, and to make catgut. The scrotum of a buck, tanned with the hair on, makes a good tobacco-pouch.

Butchering on the Ground -

  If one is in a hurry, and is not particular about the hide, he can do his butchering on the ground. In that case, lay the animal on sloping ground, with its head uphill; or bend its back over a log or rock; or turn it on its back its head twisted around and wedged under one side. The old-time way of butchering a buffalo was to turn the carcass on its belly, stretching out the legs on either side to support it. A transverse cut was made at the nape of the neck; then the workman, gathering the long hair of the hump in one hand, separated the skin from the shoulder, laid it open to the tail, along the spine, freed it from the sides, and pulled it down to the brisket.

  While the skin was thus still attached to the belly it was stretched upon the ground to receive the dissected meat. Then the shoulder was severed, and the fleece, which is the mixed fat and lean that lies along the loin and ribs, was removed from along the backbone, and the hump ribs were cut off with a tomahawk. These portions were placed on the skin, together with the boudins from the stomach, and the tongue. The rest of the meat was left to feed the wolves.

 

 

 

 

Figure 5. - Butchering on the ground

Drawing taken from: FM 21-76 U.S. ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL

Elk and Moose-

  Such large animals are generally butchered on the ground. If the beast has antlers, first remove the head. Then turn the body on its back and prop it in position with a couple of three-foot stakes sharpened at both ends, a hole being dug for a moose's withers. Sometimes only the haunches, sirloins and tongue are saved, these being cut away without skinning or gutting the carcass.

  If there is a horse, or several men with a rope, to elevate the body, the animal's lower legs are skinned, the shanks removed, the hide split from throat to tail, the sides skinned free, the windpipe and pallet raised, the pleura and diaphragm cut loose and the carcass then raised high enough so that the hide can be removed from the rump and back. The rectum, small intestines, and paunch are then loosened and allowed to roll out on the ground. The gullet is cut, the liver taken out, and the diaphragm, lungs and heart removed. Then the skinning is finished over the shoulders and fore legs.

  It is best not to cut up the meat until it is quite cold and firm. Then split the carcass in halves along the backbone, and quarter it, leaving one rib on each hind quarter. The meat may then be put on a scaffold, and covered with the skin to protect it from moose-birds.

  Two men can raise a very heavy animal clear of the ground with three stiff poles, say twelve feet long, which are sharpened at the butts and notched at the tips. Lay these on the ground with notched ends together over the animal's hind quarters and the sharpened ends radiating outward and equal distant from each other. Tie the notched ends rather loosely together with a short piece of rope, the other end of which is tied to a gambrel thrust through the hind legs under the hamstrings (or attach to antlers, nose, or through lower jaw). Lift the tripod until the rope is taut, shove one pole forward a few inches, then another, sticking the butts in the ground as you progress, until the hindquarters are raised, and so on until the beast swings free.

Bears-

  These beasts, too, are generally butchered on the ground. In skinning, begin the incisions at the feet, and leave at least the scalp, If not the skin of the whole head, attached. It is quite a task to skin a bear, as the beast usually is covered with fat, which adheres to the hide and must be scraped free. All of the caul fat should be saved for rendering into bear's oil, which is better and more wholesome than lard. The brain, liver, and milt (spleen) are good eating.

  Owing to its greasiness, the skin of a bear is very likely to spoil unless carefully scraped, especially at the ears. Slit the ears open on the inside, skin them back almost to the edge, and fill with salt; also salt the base of the ears. The feet likewise must be skinned out and well salted.

Preserving Skins -

  If a hide is to be preserved for some time in a green state, use nothing on it but salt. Spread it out flat, hair side down, stretch the legs, flanks, etc., and rub all parts thoroughly with salt, particular pains being taken to leave no little fold untreated. A moose-hide will take ten or even fifteen pounds of salt. As soon as the salting is done, fold in the legs and roll the hide up.

- Small Mammals -

  Now for what Shakespeare calls "small deer." The easiest way for a novice to skin a squirrel is the one described by "Nessmuk."

  Chop off head, tail, and feet with the hatchet; cut the skin on the back crosswise, and, inserting the two middle fingers, pull the skin off in two parts (head and tail). Clean and cut the squirrel in halves, leaving two ribs on the hind quarters." The objection is that, in this case, you throw away the best part of the squirrel, the cheek meat and brain being its special tidbits.

  A better way is this: Sever the tail from below, holding your left forefinger close in behind it, and cutting through the vertebrae close up to the body, leaving only the hide on the top side. Then turn the squirrel over and cut a slit down along each ham. Put your foot on the tail; hold the rear end of the squirrel in your hand, and pull, stripping the skin off to the fore legs. Peel the skin from the hind legs, and cut off the feet, then cut off the fore feet. Skin to the neck; assist here a little with the knife; then skin to the ears; cut off the butts of the ears; then skin till the blue of the eyeballs shows, and cut; then to the nose till the teeth show, and cut it off. Thus you get no hair on the meat, and the whole thing is done in less than a minute, when you have gained deftness.

  In dressing mammals larger than squirrels be particular to remove the scent glands. Even rabbits have them. Cut directly between the fore leg and body and you will find a small waxy kernel which is a gland. The degree to which this taints the flesh depends a good deal on the season; but in most of the fur-bearers it is always objectionable.

Dan Beard gives the following directions for dressing small animals

  To prepare a muskrat or any other small fur-bearing animal for the table, first make a skinning stick of a forked stick about as thick as your finger. Let the forks be about one inch to each branch and the stick below long enough to reach up between your knees when the sharpened lower end is forced into the ground. If you squat on the ground the stick should be about a foot and one-half long, but longer if you sit on a camp stool, stump or stone. Hang the muskrat on the forks of the stick by thrusting the sharpened ends of the fork through the thin spot at the gambrel joints of the hind legs, that is, the parts which correspond with your own heels. Hung in this manner (with the one and one-half foot stick), the nose of the animal will just clear the ground. First skin the game, then remove all the internal organs, and, if it be a muskrat, not only remove all the musk glands, but cut into the inside of the forearms and the fleshy part of the thighs, and take out a little white substance you will find there which resembles a nerve.

  This done and the meat well washed, it may be cooked with little fear of the food retaining a musky flavor.

  To skin a 'coon: begin with the point of the knife in the center of one hind foot and slit up the inside of the leg to the vent and down the other leg in a like manner. Cut carefully around the vent, and then rip from it up to the chin. Strip the skin from the bone of the tail with a split stick gripped firmly in the hand. Then flay the animal, scrape the pelt clean, and put it on a stretcher to dry.

Dressing a Squirrel - Figure 1.

  • Cut the front and rear feet of at the first joint.

  • Cut the skin around the girth of the squirrel in middle of the body.

  • Work two fingers under each side of the hide, pull turning the skin inside out, until you reach the front and rear legs.

  • Work the skin from the legs.

  • Cut the head off.

  • Split the squirrel from the neck to the tail. Keeping the shard edge of the knife to the outside, making sure not to puncture the entrails.

  • Remove the entrails and discard.

  • Remove two small glands in the small of the back and under each front leg between the ribs and shoulders.

  • Wash the cavity and body with fresh water, cool as quickly as possible.

 

Figure 1. - Cut the hide around the body

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. - Insert two fingers under the hide on both sides of the cut and pull both pieces off.

Drawing taken from: FM 21-76 US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL

Dressing A Rabbit -

  • Cut the skin around the front and rear legs at the first joint.

  • Cut the skin around the hips and just above the tail.

  • Pull the skin from the hip cut towards the rear feet.

  • Tie the rear legs together and hang the rabbit by the rear leg.

  • Now take hold of the skin at the hip cut and pull down turning it inside out and as you would a pair of socks. Fig. 2.

  • Pull the skin down up to the neck and sever the neck and discard saving the skin.

  • Split the rabbit from neck to tail, keeping the cutting edge to the outside taking care not to puncture the entrails.

  • Remove the entrails and discard. Some may want to keep the heart and liver.

  • Wash the carcass with fresh water cool the carcass.

Beaver -

  Dress the same as rabbit being careful not to cut the musk glands. These are located beneath the skin in front of the genital organs. There are also glands located in the small of the back and under each front leg.

  To prepare the tail hold over an open fire until skin blisters. Let cool and remove the skin.

Game Birds -

  The methods for handling larger animals also apply to birds. It is a good practice to dress and keep the carcass as cool possible. Clean the gut cavity; place the bird where air can circulate. Do not lie in a pile with other birds.

  Either skin or pluck the bird while they are still warm. After plucking the down can be removed by singeing them over an open fire.

- Dressing Birds -

  Turkeys, geese, ducks, and grouse are usually dry picked. If this could be done while the bodies were still warm, it would be no job at all; but after they are cold it generally results in a good deal of laceration of the skin - so much so that sometimes the disgusted operator gives up and skins the whole bird. It would be better to scald them first, like chickens. In dry picking, hang the bird up by one leg; pluck first the pinions and tail feathers; then the small feathers from shanks and inside of thighs; then the others. Grasp only a few feathers at a time between finger and thumb, as close to the skin as possible, and pull quickly toward the head. Then pick cut all pin-feathers and quills. Singe the down off quickly, so as not to give an oily appearance to the skin. Ordinarily the down can be removed from a duck's breast by grasping the bird by the neck and giving one sweep of the open hand down one side of the body and then one down the other. In plucking geese or ducks some use finely powdered resin to remove the pin-feathers. The bird is plucked dry, then rubbed all over with the resin, dipped in and out of boiling water seven or eight times, and then the pin-feathers and down are easily rubbed off.

  To draw a bird: cut off the head, and the legs at the first joint. Make a lengthwise slit on back at base of neck and sever neck bone close to body, also the membrane which holds the windpipe. Make a lengthwise incision from breastbone to (and around) the vent, so you can easily draw the insides, which must be done carefully, so as not to rupture the gall-bladder (pheasants have none).

  Small game birds, such as snipe and plover, can be cleaned very quickly by pressing a thumb on each side of their breasts, and, with a swift push break the skin back, carrying feathers, backbone and entrails with it, and leaving only the breast. Grouse can be treated in the same way if the skin of the breast is first slit. The legs and rump, if wanted, can be removed separately.

- Cleaning Fish -

  Brook trout have no noticeable scales, but they should be scraped free of slime. Rainbow trout need scaling.

  Remove the vent, cut the gills free from the lower jaw and back of head, and slit open from head to anal fin. Draw the inside out by the gills, and scrape the clotted blood away from the backbone. If the fish are only for the pan, not to be exhibited, cut the heads off; then they are easier to clean. Large ones anyway should have heads and tails cut off before frying.

  A small trout may be cleaned without splitting, by cutting out the vent, tearing out the gills with the fingers, and drawing the entrails with them.

Cleaning Scaly Fish -

  To scale a fish: grasp it by the head (or lay it on a board and drive a fork through its tail), and, using a knife that is not over-keen, scale first one side and then the other, with swift, steady sweeps. The scales below the gills, and those near the fins, are removed by moving the point of the knife crosswise to the fish's length. Next place the knife just below the belly fin and with a slant stroke cut off this, the side fins, and the head, all in one piece.

  Then remove the back fin, and the spines beneath it, by making a deep incision on each side of the fin and pulling the latter out. The ventral part is removed in the same way. Open the fish, wash it in cold water, scrape off the slime, and then wipe it dry with a clean cloth or towel. Large fish, for broiling, should be split open along the back and the spine removed.

  A special fish knife, with saw-tooth back for scaling, can be bought at a sporting-goods store. A good scaler is extemporized by nailing a common bottle cap on the flattened end of a stick.

  A slippery, flabby fish is more easily handled for scaling if you sharpen one end of a stick as thick as your little finger and run it down through the fish's mouth about two-thirds the length of the body.

  Fish taken from muddy or mossy water, or from cedar swamps, taste strong if cleaned in the ordinary way, unless special precautions are taken in cooking. The taint is not removed by scaling, for its cause is hidden deep in. the roots of the scales. Such fish should be skinned. That is also the best way to prepare yellow perch.

Skinning Fish -

  Grasp the fish firmly, belly down. Cut across the nape of the neck, run the point of the knife along the back to the tail, and on each side of the back fin. Remove the fin by catching lower end between thumb and knife blade and pulling smartly upward toward the head. Skin each side by seizing between thumb and knife the flap of skin at nape and jerking outward and downward; then the rest, by grasping skin as near the vent as possible and tearing quickly down to the tail, bring away the anal fin. Remove the head and the entrails will come with it. Trout and pickerel should be scraped free of slime.

  Large fish for frying are best steaked. Robert Pinkerton gives the following directions:

  "Cut off the head, run the knife down either side of the bones of the back the entire length. Cut down to the backbone and continue along the ribs. This gives you two slabs of boneless meat and leaves the entrails in the skeleton. Lay the pieces, skin side down, on a paddle blade and run a sharp knife between the flesh and skin. You now have boneless, scaleless, skinless fish, which may be rolled in flour or cornmeal, fried in bacon grease, and eaten with as little difficulty as though it were moose steak."

  To skin a catfish or bullhead, do not scald it, for that makes the meat flabby and robs it of its fresh flavor. Cut off the ends of the spines, slit the skin behind and around the head, and then from this point along the back to the tail, cutting around the back fin. Then peel the two corners of the skin well down, sever the backbone, and, holding to the corners of the skin with one hand, pull the fish's body free from the skin with the other. A pair of pliers will be appreciated here.

  Or, cut through the skin clear around the neck near the gills. Stick a large table fork into the gills and pin the fish to a board by its backbone. Then catch the skin at neck between thumb and knife-blade, and strip it off by a steady pull.

  To Skin an Eel: Drive a fork through the back of his neck, slit the skin around his neck with a sharp knife, make a longitudinal slit half the length of the body, peel the skin back at the neck until you get a good hold, and then strip it off.

  Another way is to rub the tail under your foot until the skin splits, or nail the eel up by the tail, cut through the skin around the body just forward of the tail and work its edges loose, then draw the skin off over the head; this takes out all of the fin bones, and strips off the skin entire.

To Keep Fish -

  It is very bad practice to string fish together through the gills and keep them in water till you start for home. It makes them lose blood and torments them till they die of suffocation. Why sicken your fish before you eat them? If you must use a stringer, push its point through the fish's lower jaw. Then it can breathe freely. A single fish on a good length of line, strung in this way, can fight off turtles till you notice the commotion.

  If you are not fishing from a boat, with live box or net, then by all means kill your fish as fast as you catch them. Some do this by giving the thing's head a quick jerk backward, breaking its neck ; others hit it a smart rap on the back of the head with the handle of a sheath-knife (many English fishermen carry a " priest," which is a miniature bludgeon, for this very purpose). It is better to break the fish's throat-latch (the cord that joins head to body on the underside), because that not only kills the fish but bleeds it, and one's finger does the trick in a second.

  The reason for killing fish at once is two-fold; first, it is humane ; second, it keeps the meat firm, as it should be for the pan, and it will not spoil so soon as if the fish smothered to death.

  Fish spoil from exposure to sun and moisture, especially the latter. They keep much better if wiped dry before carrying away. Never use fish that have been lying in the sun or that have begun to soften. Ptomaines work in a mysterious but effectual way.

  To keep fish in camp: scale, behead, and clean them; then string them by a cord through their tails and hang them, head down, in a shady, breezy place. They drain well when hung in this way, and that is important.

  If you stay long in one place, it will pay to sink a covered box in the sloping bank of a stream, to keep your fish in. Such a bank is always cool, Hang the fish up separately in the box with rods or cords. If you lack a box, make a rock-lined cache, covered with flat stones to keep out mink and other robbers.

Filleting Fish -

  • Wash the whole fish in cool fresh water.

  • Lay the fish on a flat surface.

  • Place a sharp knife, cutting edge down just behind the gill. Cut down to the backbone.

  • Twist the blade to where the cutting edge is towards the tail of the fish. The knife blade should be resting flat on the backbone.

  • Moving the blade, in a sawing motion, cut all the way to the tail. Keeping the knife blade on the backbone. Do not cut all the way through. Leave the skin attached to the tail.

  • Take the head end of the fillet and lay it on the flat surface skin side down. Cut the skin from the meat by slicing starting from the tail. Keep the blade next to the skin.

  • Do the same with the other side of the fish.

  You should now have two clean slabs of fish. If you want you can now cut the ribs of the fillet. But make sure you save them and cook the ribs also. Another often overlooked item is the backbone.

  Remove the entrails and cut of the tail. Coat with a little seasoned cornmeal and cook over the fire for a very good meal.

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