Butterfling Meat

 Butterfly cuts is the first thing I learned to do as a child old enough to handle a sharp knife. In fact all I ever remember doing was the loins, trimming and wrapping the meat and writing on the packages.  My mom, dad, and later brother did all the technical stuff and so it went when I got married. With little ones to get to bed at the same time Kirk launched into cutting up a hind or font quarter after work each night meant I once more did the same tasks as a child.

And though I've cut up a few deer on my own since then, for the most part, I still do the trimming, loins, wrapping, and marking. But now I'm head cuber also.

Loins are always butterflied. It's what you do when the piece of meat isn't large enough for the traditional cut. The loin above  had the inner loins trimmed off and saved whole for marinating. The narrow strip that was left is prime meat but small.  

You begin your first cut but only go 9/10th's of the way through the meat leaving a small amount of tissue holding the two sections together. The second cut you slice all the way through.

This gives you double the size piece of meat. The one side which is on the bottom is quite flat but the top picture depicting the backside has two little ridges along the center. You can pound this out a bit or just cook it as is which is what we do. This method could conceivably be done to make a long rectangular strip if you made a series of 9/10th's the way through cuts and then a final 10/10ths. It would look a bit like an accordion.

I do this for chicken breast too, only sliced horizontally instead of vertically.  I'll have to show you sometimes as this is super handy on thick breasts that you want to pound out and bread. If you simply pound away, they turn mushy before becoming flat. This horizontal butter fly gives me a nice thin piece and fools my mind into thinking I'm getting a bigger piece of meat.

So tell me, is butterflying meat just a Wyoming thing or is it done around the world?

If you haven't gotten enough of me, check out The Calico Bush I'm talking about knitting socks toe up.