Beef Bone Char - HOW?? & What can my dog eat from the slaughter that isn't meat?

I have a smoker which gets really hot. Can I put unbroken cow bones on the hot coals and just let it burn... What's double burnt? just this process done twice?

Trying to use as much of a cow that is being harvested mañana.

It's an older steer. Can I use its liver? Or are there too many toxins accumulated?

Your dog can eat those bones, depending on the size and strength of the dog. Bones are safest for dogs when they are raw. We just cut up a half steer last weekend, and we got over 30lb of bone for our Beauceron puppy. (She's 7 months old and 80 lbs. A Beauceron looks like a cross between a Rottweiler and a Doberman, except they have a long tail and are borderline shaggy on their backs.) The big femur and humerus bones I cut with the bone saw close to the ends, to expose the marrow, and she has made large parts of even that huge and strong bone disappear.

Bones can be cooked to charcoal, and then they can be a soil amendment, but given that I have to pay $2/lb for CAFO bones ($3/lb at New Seasons) around here, almost all the bones from my steer went to the pup. Far better for her to chew bones than shoes! (Or wallets. She seems to have a thing for wallets.) I separated the spine into individual vertebrae, most with a rib attached. Of course, this was a half steer, so the spine had been cut down the middle, exposing the marrow. Those will disappear almost completely, I expect.

The liver's toxicity depends on the life experiences of the animal. What do you know about that?

One thing I did this year that worked well was that I saved all the connective tissue bits, like the silver "skin" on a lot of cuts, and tendons, and other gristly bits or ugly bits (like blood vessels, but NOT the lymph nodes - those taste gamy and go to the cat or dog) and I roasted them in the oven on half sheet pans until they were well browned and then loaded them into my big pressure cooker with water and some onion skins. There were a few bones, and it is traditional to do this (roast and then make stock) with beef bones but like I said I needed most of them for the pup. Anyway, it smelled pretty good when roasting and then I brought the pressure cooker up to the second ring (high pressure on my model) and kept it there for 24 hours. I got almost 2 gallons of really nice beef bone broth, full of gelatin, which will make amazing french onion soup.

I am in your debt Julia! Thank you!! The bones are free for me, so I'll make some char, some for the dog.

You saved my morning manana!! THANK YOU!!

Julia Winter wrote:One thing I did this year that worked well was that I saved all the connective tissue bits, like the silver "skin" on a lot of cuts, and tendons, and other gristly bits or ugly bits (like blood vessels, but NOT the lymph nodes - those taste gamy and go to the cat or dog) and I roasted them in the oven on half sheet pans until they were well browned and then loaded them into my big pressure cooker with water and some onion skins. There were a few bones, and it is traditional to do this (roast and then make stock) with beef bones but like I said I needed most of them for the pup. Anyway, it smelled pretty good when roasting and then I brought the pressure cooker up to the second ring (high pressure on my model) and kept it there for 24 hours. I got almost 2 gallons of really nice beef bone broth, full of gelatin, which will make amazing french onion soup.

My mouth is salivating just reading this.
I do the same thing when we get a deer - all the scraps, including meat, connective tissue, and bones get roasted, then go into the pressure cooker with some veges (carrot, celery, garlic, onion etc) and I end up with such a flavourful thick stock.