Sticky dough on hand

Sticky Dough: The Handy Hair-removal Helper

(As featured in the November 2009 issue of Practically Seeking)

Okay, I'll admit this isn't so much a "Skill" of the month as it is a "Tip" of the month, but when it came up during our Using the Whole Animal workshop a couple of weeks ago it had enough of a "Cool!" factor that we decided to share it with you all in this month's newsletter.

This is one of those things that falls under the "Why didn't I think of that?!" category. 

And with hunting season in full swing we figured that it might just come in handy to all of you out there who are dressing, quartering and storing your next year's meat.

Those of you who have attended any of our cooking or edible plants workshops will have heard our mantra that "sand is not a food group". Well neither is hair! And this handy little trick will make it easy to remove any hair that sticks to the meat as you dress your deer or other animal.

Step-by-step Instructions on How to Quickly and Easily Remove Hair from Meat:

  1. To make a small dough ball, take about 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of cold water. Add about half of your water to the flour and begin mixing it together with your hands.

    2. Dough Ingredients Add water to flour

  2. Slowly add the remaining water to your mixture until all of the flour holds together in a sticky dough ball. It should be tacky enough that the dough begins to come off of your fingers and stick to the ball, but wet enough that it pulls away with a little bit of reluctance. (If your dough is flaky and does not want to stick, add an egg to the mixture to help it bind.)

    3. Mix water and flour Sticky dough

  3. You'll know you have the correct consistency when you can slightly flatten your ball and the dough will stick to your hand for at least a few seconds. If it does not stick, carefully add small amounts of water until you reach the desired texture.

    4. Dough ball Dough sticking to hand

  4. Carefully look over your meat to find the places where hair is sticking on.

    5. Check for hair on meat

  5. Take your dough ball and press it firmly on to the meat over top of the hair.

    6. Cover hair with dough ball Press dough firmly onto hair

  6. Remove the dough and voila — the hair is now attached to the sticky dough!

    7. Hair removed from meat Hair stuck to dough

  7. Continue to press and release the dough over the rest of your meat, removing all of the stray hairs.

    8. Wrap the other end

  8. If your dough loses it's stickiness, just add a few more drops of water and continue until you have removed all the hairs you can find.

    9. Dough losing it's stickiness.Many hairs on dough

     

An easy, safe and quick way to leave only meat on your meat!
I hope you'll find this tip to be as useful as I have over the years.
Until next month, Have Fun!