HOW TO SKIN GOAT & SHEEP
Hanging the goat makes it easy to use your body weight to pull the skin off. It also assures that the meat will stay clean. You can either hang it from the neck or from the legs. Most people prefer one way or the other. I like them both. Goat should be hung using strong ropes (I had one fall on me once when the rope broke. The goat tines hit my forehead.
Those things hurt!). Do it within a few hours of the goat's death and it will peel off especially easily. Make sure your knife is sharp, and proceed as follows:
If you want to get better hides, tell your friends who hunt about good skinning techniques, or post a flyer around town.
To hang a goat by its back legs, find the large tendon that connects the lowest leg segment with the rest of the leg. Poke a hole in between that tendon and the leg bone. Use your fingers to feel the lump that is created by the double jointed bone.
Then sever the lower leg at the lower of the two joints as illustrated.
Cut skin and tendons around the joint, then snap it over your leg.
Make the incisions as shown in the illustration. Once you've made the initial incisions, put that knife down. Then use your hands and body to pull, yank, and pry the skin from the goat.
Getting a clean start: use finger tips and thumbs to separate the hide from the meat. Notice how clean and encased both the meat and hide are.
Once you've gotten a good start, grab the hide with your hands and pull. You can also push your thumbs, fist and elbows in-between the skin and meat to release areas that are sticking.
Use your body weight to help pull.
There will be a very thin layer of meat that wants to come off with the hide. This is the muscle that the goat uses to twitch flys off of its back. Nobody that I know of eats this meat because it is so thin and membraney. It is easily fleshed off later, so most folks let it come off with the hide.
Hanging the goat makes it easy to use your body weight to pull the skin off. It also assures that the meat will stay clean. You can either hang it from the neck or from the legs. Most people prefer one way or the other. I like them both. Goat should be hung using strong ropes (I had one fall on me once when the rope broke. The goat tines hit my forehead.
Those things hurt!). Do it within a few hours of the goat's death and it will peel off especially easily. Make sure your knife is sharp, and proceed as follows:
If you want to get better hides, tell your friends who hunt about good skinning techniques, or post a flyer around town.
To hang a goat by its back legs, find the large tendon that connects the lowest leg segment with the rest of the leg. Poke a hole in between that tendon and the leg bone. Use your fingers to feel the lump that is created by the double jointed bone.
Then sever the lower leg at the lower of the two joints as illustrated.
Cut skin and tendons around the joint, then snap it over your leg.
Make the incisions as shown in the illustration. Once you've made the initial incisions, put that knife down. Then use your hands and body to pull, yank, and pry the skin from the goat.
Getting a clean start: use finger tips and thumbs to separate the hide from the meat. Notice how clean and encased both the meat and hide are.
Once you've gotten a good start, grab the hide with your hands and pull. You can also push your thumbs, fist and elbows in-between the skin and meat to release areas that are sticking.
Use your body weight to help pull.
There will be a very thin layer of meat that wants to come off with the hide. This is the muscle that the goat uses to twitch flys off of its back. Nobody that I know of eats this meat because it is so thin and membraney. It is easily fleshed off later, so most folks let it come off with the hide.