Pig products

[yukon cornelius]

On Sunday we butchered one of our pigs. We are making all we can from it and learning a lot. Lard rendard in the crockpot and homemade cracklings. Bacon and hams get cured tomorrow and sausage will follow. Learning how to do this is a great experience for my boys.

[Chuck White]

There's a lot more to it than most people realize.

We are scheduled to get a 250 pounder hanging at the processing plant, in late Spring!

[sandsawmill14]

yep its good to teach them how and let them know where food actually comes from i fooled around till its to late for me to cure 1 this spring but i will have smokehouse finished and ready for fall. we have never killed hogs in the spring but i thought i would give it a try but it just didnt work out. i am going to raise 50 or so broiler chicken for the freezer though

[sandsawmill14]

yukon is this something yall always do or just starting ???

[yukon cornelius]

First pigs for us. As A kid we raised and bucherd pigs and a couple cows. I missed the curing part and we never made lard. We have always butchered our deer and have had chickens. We have a goal of eating whole food and raising all we can of it.

[sandsawmill14]

thats a good goal   we always cook the lard off on the stove in dishpans but the hogs we get here are so lean it takes almost all the fat to make the sausage barely get enough cracklins for cornbread. if you dont have a favorite sausage seasoning leggs is a real good one. if you already know disregard but put plenty of fat in the sausage and DONT over mix when mixing saesoning it will be tough when you cook it. good luck

[yukon cornelius]

I didnt know that about the overmixing. we have made sausage before from hunks of pork we bought on sale and ground. we don't use a mix though. we use our own recipe.

I found a simple curing recipe for the bacon and ham we are going to try. we don't plan on the meat needing to be actually cured as we are going to freeze it but more like marinated or seasoned for flavor and smoked.

we raised red wattle pigs this time and this one is really fatty. the second pig needs a bit more time. she was small from the start.

[LeeB]

If you want it to taste like ham or bacon you will need to do a full cure on it. Otherwise only the outside will taste like it and the inside will just taste like regular pork. Brining is a good way to do it. If your hams are very big you may want to inject it with the solution to get it cured all the way through. Try to get it injected as close to the bone as you can. With a brine cure it doesn't have to be as salty. Check with your local meat processor for curing agent. I like it much better than the Morton's Tender Quick which is way too salty for my taste.

[sandsawmill14]

those red and the old spots and black p&c are good fat hogs. when i worked at the feed mill ( i was 18-20 yo) purina came out with lean generation supplement to replace the 36d to try to reduce the fat on a hog and it worked pretty good we had 2 test barns on different farms and the hogs looked completely different just from changing the feed this was right before all the rr seed and all the other gmo stuff came out. but the hogs us country boys remember are all but gone. sorry i got to rambling :D i dont know anything about curing other than about 6-7 days per inch of meat for full cure and it needs to be kept from freezing and under 55-60 degrees with 40-45 being the best.here thats normally around the first of november but if your gonna freeze anyway weather shouldnt give you any trouble

[Magicman]

 

 
Da great Yukon/Furby pig roundup.   

[sandsawmill14]

maybe he overheard the discussion ;D :D :D :D

[WV Sawmiller]

YC,

   Are you making souse (Hoghead cheese) out of the head? Feel free to send me a nice thick slice and I will act as the official food critic for the FF. Maybe we can chip some up in a pot of grits.

[yukon cornelius]

YC,

   Are you making souse (Hoghead cheese) out of the head? Feel free to send me a nice thick slice and I will act as the official food critic for the FF. Maybe we can chip some up in a pot of grits.

that is something we didn't try this time. That topic is in the foxfire book I have been reading.
The plan for butchering in the spring would have been better if we had normal temperatures. It has been so warm we were in a rush to get it done. Overall we estimate having around $0.80\ lb for the edible meat. This could have been lower with a cheaper and bigger feeder pig.  We started with pigs sold to be 25-30 lbs but when we got them home they weighed 15. Lesson learned.
I do know that supermarket meat is allowed to be sold injected with more than 40% weight of water. When cooking it shows. Their meat runs water out when cooking and ours just cooks.

[sandsawmill14]

homegrown is certainly better than what you get at the store and you know what your eating the broilers i raise are the same way their is no comparison between them and a store bought chicken

[sandhills]

See, I know I was a little late, but still tried to warn you guys, never rope a hog  :D :D.  MM that pictures priceless!

[yukon cornelius]

Roping was certainly not what I wanted to do but as we were quickly getting farther from home it became the choice between roping and butchering that day. :D

[yukon cornelius]

Now she is "cured" from wanting out and is resting comfortably in the freezer.  ;D

[sandhills]

Darn those dirt raised hogs anyway, they think they can run anywhere!  :D  We used have about 60 or so sows and didn't have much for facilities, so I got a real kick out of MM's picture, I sure wish I could've been there to help, I'm always in for a good rodeo  ;)

[Raider Bill]

I've been thinking of making some mild Italian sausage out of the next hog we get from the Amish. They make real good southern sausage but never heard of Italian.

Having never made sausage before my understanding is to not grind it too small [bigger than 3/8] and add seasoning at the end just before casing it. Is that correct?

[21incher]

Great thread. I would love to raise a pig, but my wife won't let me. She says she would not let me butcher any animal that she would name. So I am stuck with store bought pork that contains god knows what, while enjoying all my home grown canned food that I know what is in it. Someday I hope to change her mind and this thread will get me started on it.
As a side note I went to the store the other day to buy some fresh chicken breast and after reading the fine print on the package it said it had 15% broth injected in it even though it said fresh. Enjoy your pork Yukon and I hope you have a smoker.

[Magicman]

Just name it Bacon, Pork Chop, or Ham.  Problem solved.   

[coalsmok]

21incher. Find a local farmer to buy a hog off of, its better than store bought without the naming of the animal.  We are doing that until I get the homestead up and running better.   

[sandsawmill14]

i remember when i was 5 or 6 years old the the first part of november dad killed ELMOE  i was was there for the entire process helping what a 5 yo could but i wouldnt eat a bite of bacon or sausage till dad started buying it at the store for me :D :D :D that went on till the next hog killin . every time we had fried meat i would ask if that was elmoe  >:( i learned not to make a pet out of livestock because you might HAVE to eat it someday . i have always loved all animals some just in different ways ;D we have had alot of fun out of elmoe and dad still ask me if i want some elmoe and eggs every once in a while :D :D :D  i know thats a useless story but alot of fond memories with it

[sandsawmill14]

mm my oldest daughter did name one porkchop when she was about 8-9 years old but i taught my girls from when they were old enough to talk what which animals were for and i am sure it was because of the story i just told :D :D :D

[thecfarm]

Freezer Camp will fix just about any animal problem.  ;D