How to remove hair from meat

[WhistlingBadger]

Full disclosure:  This is not my idea.  I liberated it from another hunting forum, over where they use bullets and stuff.  But I feel pretty safe assuming that most people hard-core enough to take to the hills with a primitive bow are probably processing there own meat

I might be really inept at field dressing, but my meat always ends up with random hairs on it.  Sometimes quite a bit.  This year's was cleaner than usual, since I actually killed it in a level spot for once in my life (I have a gift for running into deer on the sides of horrendous, high desert canyons miles from the nearest road).  But there was still some, and it is a pain to remove.  At least, it used to be.

Here's what you do:  Before you start the clean-up-and-wrap-up phase of processing your critter, take a half cup or so of wheat flour.  Add water a few drops at a time and knead until you have a blob of nice, sticky dough:  Not wet and slimy, but sticky enough that it adheres to your fingers just a little bit.  Keep it in a cup next to your working area.  When you find a hair, squish that blob of dough onto it, and more than likely it will pick it right up off the meat.   If it doesn't, use a gentle wiping motion and it almost certainly will.  Squish the dough a few times so the hair gets enveloped and doesn't go right back onto the meat.

If the dough dries out, add a couple drops of water and knead it until it's sticky again.  If it gets hairy, knead it a little.  After a while (about half a deer's worth, for me) it starts getting pretty slimy and quite working.  So I just mixed up a new blob.

Easy!  I sure wish someone had told me about this 30 years ago...I could have taken a second career with all the time it would have saved.  Or practiced shooting more.  Or something.  Anyway, there you go.  Give it a shot and see if it works as well for you.

Thomas

[Hawkdancer]

Them hairs are sticky little buggers! . If we can hang the carcass, we blast it With a flame thrower, I.e. A propane brush torch, a few passes, and you get 99.5% of the stray hairs, the rest are for flavoring!  Of course, this only works if you remember to load the torch and a 20# propane tank!  Got that from a buddy, then noticed my far distant cousin doing it in his meat processing operation!  Of course, I forgot to. Load it last year!  Those nifty pet hair rollers might work, too - not as hard to pack!
Hawkdancer

[JW_Halverson]

To quote Homer Simpson as I smack myself on the forehead for not thinking of something so simple, "DOUGH!"

[WhistlingBadger]

To quote Homer Simpson as I smack myself on the forehead for not thinking of something so simple, "DOUGH!"

Go to your room.  ha ha ha

[Stickhead]

Sounds like a great solution.  Unfortunately, I can’t have even a trace of flour coming in contact with my meat, because my daughter has celiac.

I find that grabbing the hairs with a paper towel works well.

[archeryrob]

After skinning, which seems to get hair on the hams and front shanks the most. I have a 5 gallon bucket with warm water and a scrub pad. I wash the hanging carcass and keep cleaning the sponge in the bucket. Rinse and cuts that have a hair with just water from the bucket before tossing them in the meat lugs.

[bowtarist]

I usually pick them off while they are in the skillet or just about to be put on the grill. 🤣

Jdub strikes again!

[Outbackbob48]

Just hit them lightly with your propane torch, instant hair remover, fast and not messy Bob

[bjrogg]

Just hit them lightly with your propane torch, instant hair remover, fast and not messy Bob
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I do like outback
bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

I need a pressure washer.

(put the h back in)  ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKnFF9THSBU

[Woody roberts]

I know this is an old post but as long as there are critters to kill and eat there will be hair to deal with.
Ive used a pressure washer in the past and it worked pretty good.

However for several years I’ve been brine curing my deer and by the time that’s done most of the hair has floated off.

Not sure why but I tend to get less hair on my meat while skinning than many people I see do. I believe it’s the way I use my knife.

[Hawkdancer]

YUP!  And a new season is upon us!  The torch method only works if you are near the torch!  I think there is a flame spreader for the bernzamatic torch, but the added weight may not pass muster.
Hawkdancer

[Pappy]

I don't get much hair on mine as a rule, if you will cut the hide from inside out on the hams neck and shoulders you don't get much loose hair, what I do get I just pick or rinse it off before packaging or if it is bad enough I do Like Bob, hit it with a torch.
 Pappy

[WhistlingBadger]

I always seem to get a lot of hair on my meat.  Probably because I'm a klutz.  Oh well, I wish I had that problem this year.  No hoofed critters for me.     But once we get moved and settled in, the bunnies better look out.

[Woody roberts]

While I don’t have much trouble with deer I cut up my first Antelope today. No real problems but they are a lot harder to keep hair off than deer.

I use my knife from the inside out but their hair slips so easy.