Article Contributed on: 2/23/2009 9:56:46 AM
It's pretty quiet in the processing room of Steve's Meat Market on a recent morning, just employee
Scott Pike, some very sharp knives and three wild pig carcasses.
Pike takes one of the pigs off its hook and puts it on a large cutting board, gives the knife a few swipes on the sharpener and begins to trim the fat off the meat. After just a few minutes of slicing and trimming, there's a nice pile of pork chops ready to be bagged, frozen and picked up by the customer.
Steve's Meat Market specializes in wild game processing, and these particular pigs were dropped off by a hunter who bagged them in Texas. Since the hunting season is pretty much over, the pace of things at Steve's is dialed to "normal," but from early October to Thanksgiving, it gets cranked up to "crazy," and there might be upwards of 30 people working in the processing room, cutting up everything from deer to elk to buffalo, with the occasional mountain lion or bear making an appearance.
Pike's been working at Steve's since it opened in 1986. He came out to Colorado from Maine. He's always worked in the food business, he says, but didn't know a thing about deboning a caribou -- or anything else, for that matter -- when he started at Steve's.
He still has 10 fingers, too, thanks to an "old-timer" who taught him how to use a hook instead of his hands to hold the meat.
"I've never had to leave for stitches or anything, so that's good," he says. "We go through a lot of Band-Aids."
In addition to the meat processing, Pike also watches over the various types of jerky and "stix" -- such as pepperoni or teriyaki -- drying in the ovens and helps with the sausage-making, one of the Steve's specialties. He's been at Steve's since the beginning, so he's something of a jack-of-all trades at the store.
Pike's not a hunter, but says his favorite meat is elk meat. He says an animal typically yields 55 percent meat after it's been processed (so a 300-pound elk would yield about 165 pounds of meat). He says bear is the hardest animal to process because it's so fatty after spending the summer and early fall getting ready to hibernate.
Depending on the animal and how the customer wants it done, meat can be processed into steaks, roasts, burger, chops, sausage and jerky, Pike says.
The small retail part of the store is open year-round and sells USDA-inspected meat products separate from the processing side of the business, such as elk and buffalo burger, sausage, jerky and stix.
The game processing is a seasonal business and pretty much shuts down during the summer, which gives Pike a welcome break after working some 90 days straight, sometimes upwards of 80 hours a week, during the fall hunting season.
"You've got to do it (the game processing) while it's here," he says. "I don't mind doing it knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
Steve's Meat Market
5751 Olde Wadsworth Blvd.
303-422-3487
www.stevesmeatmarket.com