[Nelson International]

We're sending our first sheep to the abattoir this week, and whilst I've read a lot of threads about cutting lists, I'm still a bit unsure what to ask for. They are 3 hoggets - 2 south welsh mountain rams, and 1 ewe that's a texel-SWM cross, but is going because she's always been on the small side and I don't think we can really breed from her.

Because the ewe is a bit smaller, we're thinking of asking for it to be 50/50 minced and diced for stews and burgers etc. But I'm a bit uncertain about the other two. This is what I have at the moment:
- Legs and Shoulders - 1/2 joints
- Neck - as fillet?
- Shanks - yes,
- Loin as a rack (we don't eat chops)
- Chump as steaks
- Breast - minced

Am I missing anything/double counting/getting anything wrong? Last time I took some pigs, I got told off for getting the cutting list wrong 

[Fleecewife]

I don't know how your sheep would cut out.  Best to discuss it with the butcher once he has them in front of him - he's the expert. 
For Hebrideans, we get no belly or neck (I've always longed to have 'scrag end of neck - it sounds weirdly wonderful), and half joints are tiny - not worth turning on the oven.  We usually get rolled shoulders x2, gigots x 2, (occasionally we get a single steak cut from these, but it makes them quite small. Sometimes we have shanks, other times they are folded back and roasted with the gigots. We have had rack, but it's really just lots of chops stuck together in a row, and we love chops anyway, so we get them done as doubled valentine chops.  Filets are so tiny on Hebs so we would either eat the whole lot from several sheep in one meal, or keep them on the chops.
Sometimes we mince the shoulders, especially in an older ewe or a particularly small hogget, and add this to any meat from over the ribs to make burgers or sausages.
I don't know what chump is - there isn't any on Hebs!
So let the butcher assess your carcasses and he will talk you through what he can do with them.


On the other hand your carcasses may have all those fancy bits Hebs and many other Primitives don't have in which case just ignore me 

[Badger Nadgers]

Whether you want them bagging - good idea, not much more expensive, our doesn't like to vac pack lamb due to bones, means you can just unload to freezer, removes the food handling risk from you.

What you want in a bag - i usually say pack for a family of two as that covers different size leg steaks etc, and for mince max 500g approx.

Get it labelled as not all customers recognise joints, also comes withte required dates, source etc info., as well as weight,  Again, not much more expensive.

I've posted my usual cutting list before.  Depends what your customers like.  Mine are mostly small families so I even have Hebs shoulders halved.  Neck comes as is.  Breast best minced (too fatty for many people).

If I get legs, or legs halved, the shanks are on them.  It's only if I ask for leg steaks I'll get shanks seperate.

Best still, talk to the butcher at the abbatoir - they are really helpful.   

[twizzel]

Just tell the butcher what type of things you like (joints, mince, chops) and he should cut to accommodate that. Better to do that than give him a cobbled together cutting list that’s not going to cover the whole carcass.

[Foobar]

Rolled loins are good, rather than a rack.


Minced breast?  I give mine to the dog ... depends how much fat / sinew you like in your mince.


Regardless of cutting, the most important thing is how long are you asking for them to be hung for before being cut?  If it were me I'd be looking for 7 days minimum.  This will really improve the flavour and tenderness of the meat.

[Womble]

Minced breast?  I give mine to the dog ... depends how much fat / sinew you like in your mince.

We don't have the breast minced, but instead roast it for ages on a low heat with spices and garlic until all the fat has dripped off. We then shred it and eat it in a similar way to pulled pork or aromatic crispy duck   

[Foobar]

Depends on the breed I guess, not much meat on my breasts ... errr ... my BWM sheep breasts.

[Nelson International]

Update:

They killed out at between 19.5 and 25kg, so I think it was right to let them over-winter, turns out you do get some neck, breast, and (what I assume were) chump steaks from a south welsh mountain hogg. The abattoir butcher was fine, but I think if we want to go for more adventurous cuts next time we might need to look to getting a separate butcher to do the cut for us. They were perfectly happy to hang it for a week, though. We had the first leg this evening.