Our 1st Beast

I clearly remember the summer about four years out at Grandma's when I started feeling guilty for eating a man's share of cracker-breaded, fried fish without ever having cast a line, sat for hours in the sun, or worse yet...stood for hours behind the shed cleaning the catch.  I knew I must learn this, so I went out to help my uncle Bob and he showed me how.  Ever since I've felt total peace of conscience about eating as much fish as I could.  :)  This series of events, along with many years of pondering and being amazed by muscular structures, has adequately prepared me to deal with four kilos of beast...beef since you're wondering.

There were a few obvious lines that led me to a good place to start.

 

I was absolutely in awe at what I was seeing!  Each muscle was completely surrounded by smooth, very elastic, and very strong membranes allowing each muscle to contract and move independently of the others...how amazing!  This is where I must yet again assert that these kinds of things are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Even though evolution as a theory is crumbling in the scientific world, and even though the beauty in what has been made is self-evidencing to all that there is a maker, people still suppress these great truths.  One day soon, all will be made plain...and those who believe will rejoice!

Well, here we go!  It has to get worse before it gets better!  :)

 

This is about half of the meat we collected.  These two large pieces we cut into yummy looking steaks, and yes, we are definitely looking forward to eating these!

And now we grind our 1st beast!  Even though we cleaned the grinder beforehand I still thought we should run some of the scraps through to get any oil residue off of the machined parts.

Just like that, several pounds of steaks and ground beef...all for about $1.15/lb.  It won't take long to pay back the 30,000₮ (about $21)  for the grinder, and better yet, no more chunks of bone and sinew in our meat!  As of this post, Jess made some mashed potatoes and meatballs for lunch...mmmm, mmmmm!

Hopefully now you appreciate more what goes into getting good meat to the table...we sure do!  :)  We are so thankful that our every need is being met and we pray with thanksgiving for all of you.

Love, Matt-n-Jess