# Butchering pigs



## mystang89 (Aug 17, 2018)

For those of you who butcher your own pigs can you please tell me how you do it? A friend and I went into this together. I'm ready to butcher these things but he says that the weather needs to be cooler outside because the pigs need to hang for two days because something about an enzime or other. I don't know anything about it but u do know I want these things processed pronto.


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## Baymule (Aug 17, 2018)

We slaughtered 3 last summer. This is Texas, it was hot. We can’t hang ANYTHING outside no matter what month it is. Cooler weather does make it better but when you’re done, you’re done. I get it.


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## Baymule (Aug 17, 2018)

Here is the thread of how we butchered our pigs. Wish I had more pictures, but I was sorta busy. LOL In one picture you will notice the tail and a patch of skin still around it. This detail is very important. We had finished skinning the hog and were ready to gut it. I CAREFULLY cut around the tail, anus and cut CAREFULLY alongside the anus and tail, making sure I didn't nick the intestine. I had a piece of feedsack string handy and I tied it around the anus. Then I cut through the tail bone, lifting it clear. Then I cut the belly open, being careful not to nick anything. I cut down to the sternum and let the guts fall into the wash tub. 

Back to the anus. There is a bone that goes across where the hams join and the anus/intestine is behind it. I used a meat cleaver to cut that bone, and tapped it with a hammer to drive it into the bone. That broke the back legs open so that I could slit the belly and gut the hog. 

I couldn't cut through the sternum, so had to dig out the heart, lungs, etc  and drop them in the buckets. 

We packed the quarters in ice chests, that's hanging meat, Southern style. Even in the winter with a deer carcass, we do the ice chest thing. Drain the water off daily and add more ice for a few days, then go to work! Or, like we did, we just started cutting up the pig. We do the water/ice drain on wild game to get the blood out of the meat. With the hogs, we drained them good when we killed and hung them up. 

I am no professional, but if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer. If your friend wants to wait until cooler weather, let him raise the next bunch.


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## mystang89 (Aug 17, 2018)

Thanks baymule. I didn't see the link but i think I'm definitely going to be having him raised them next time. I have a few freezers I can combine the contents of and I think I'll just "rest" the pigs in there.


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## Baymule (Aug 18, 2018)

You didn't see the link, because I didn't post it.....duh.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/feeder-pigs-2017.35395/


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## mystang89 (Aug 19, 2018)

Thank you baymule! I'll talk to him after church today and tell him the best he's getting is letting them sit in my freezer or refrigerator a couple of days, but like yours, they aren't staying here anymore.


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## Baymule (Aug 19, 2018)

Have seveal large ice coolers so you can put them on ice. It took  two 50-something quart coolers per pig. Do one at a time, consider one per day. It will take a couple more days to process and package each one.


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## Mini Horses (Aug 19, 2018)

Trust me --  You do NOT want to do more than one at a time!!!!  I did two smaller AGHs at a butchers  -- just kill and chill, then cut into quarters --- which I brought home in huge ice filled coolers.   Even those were too much at once.  Wish I had done only one, then the other.   My two were about the size of ONE large hog.   (143# hanging each).  Of course I was cutting/packaging by myself, only me.

Never again  

Bay, are you planning to take that the new one you just got to a butcher?    Guess you know, I would!


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## Baymule (Aug 19, 2018)

Yes. Wilbur will go to slaughter. Going to do the USDA thing this time. Same with the next batch of lambs.


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## Pastor Dave (Aug 20, 2018)

[QUOTE="Baymule, post: 564130, member: 

Back to the anus. There is a bone that goes across where the hams join and the anus/intestine is behind it. I used a meat cleaver to cut that bone, and tapped it with a hammer to drive it into the bone. That broke the back legs open so that I could slit the belly and gut the hog.[/QUOTE]

When I do this, I grab both hind legs and with brute strength, push back and together, breaking that pubic bone to be able to slit the gut and gut the rabbit.

Oh, did I mention I was not processing pork?


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## AlaynaMayGoatLady (Aug 23, 2018)

Here are some pictures from our first home butchering:  http://mychickenscraps.blogspot.com/2015/03/this-big-piggy-stayed-home-butchering.html
We did hang the meat overnight because it was a very chilly day/ night in February, so we got away with it (even though we are in N. Central FL!)  But I don't think you need to worry about hanging it for two days.  If/ when we raise another pig, we will likely take it to our cousin's place...  they have a huge walk-in cooler.


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## Pastor Dave (Aug 23, 2018)

For deer I have seen folks kinda gut out a fridge and hang the carcass where they can control the temps. Sometimes here in IN Fall hunting stays too warm.


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## mystang89 (Aug 27, 2018)

Nother question. One of my relatives (one of the more crazy ones) told me that the way they used to cure pigs when she was young was to dig a 3 ft hole, line it with metal (tin roofing would do) pour coal in it and lite it. As you let the coal simmer like you would for a cookout you take a blanket that you have had dialing in a solution of your own choice (for taste), wrap the pig in said blanket (pigs in a blanket) and toss it in the now simmering coals. Bury all with the dirt and let sit for 3 days or so. Unbury and you have a cured pig. 

Has anyone ever heard anything like this?


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## Baymule (Aug 27, 2018)

mystang89 said:


> Nother question. One of my relatives (one of the more crazy ones) told me that the way they used to cure pigs when she was young was to dig a 3 ft hole, line it with metal (tin roofing would do) pour coal in it and lite it. As you let the coal simmer like you would for a cookout you take a blanket that you have had dialing in a solution of your own choice (for taste), wrap the pig in said blanket (pigs in a blanket) and toss it in the now simmering coals. Bury all with the dirt and let sit for 3 days or so. Unbury and you have a cured pig.
> 
> Has anyone ever heard anything like this?


WOW!  To me, that sounds like a sure fire way to wind up with a rotten and dirty pile of stinky meat!   Not to mention the hot metal will turn loose of some Dee-licious  toxins. Yup she sounds crazy to me. Every family has one......Maybe all that hot tin galvanize molecules lodged in her brain... I really should shut up


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## Latestarter (Aug 27, 2018)

What you described with some subtle changes is a "buried pit barbecue". You won't be "curing" the pig, you'll be cooking it (for the first 6-10 hours) and any time after that will be just wasted time and drying it out. I also would NOT use coal as I wouldn't want my meat to taste like petroleum... Charcoal, yes. I also wouldn't recommend galvanized roofing tin... Most folks build a pit fire, then add large rocks to collect and hold the heat and when down to coals, they add moist material, then the meat, then more moist material then cover/bury.


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## mystang89 (Aug 28, 2018)

Thanks. I think I'll just end up smoking the pig little by little.i don't want to cook the entire thing. I mean, with 10 mouths here we can put a serious hurting on some food but even that may be a but too much lol


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## Pastor Dave (Aug 28, 2018)

Back in the day most that raised hogs had lots of salt on hand and a smokehouse. Lots of salt for curing and low heat with lots of good wood smoke. Even cuts not smoked went into a salt barrel for curing.


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## mystang89 (Aug 28, 2018)

Pastor Dave said:


> Back in the day most that raised hogs had lots of salt on hand and a smokehouse. Lots of salt for curing and low heat with lots of good wood smoke. Even cuts not smoked went into a salt barrel for curing.


I'm still in the process....erm... Very beginning process... Of making a smoker to attach to my wood stove in the garage. I say very beginning process cause it's still all in my head... Along with that money I'll need. Really trying to get that money to not just be imaginary.

In the meantime I'll use my little electric smoker and just do a shoulder at a time.


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## Pastor Dave (Aug 28, 2018)

I understand a good curing salt has sugar in it too. I don't know the percentages, but sugar can cure as well as salt, but obviously the taste would be very different. Can you imagine ham or bacon not being salty? I have the big charcoal grill with Texas side smoke box. It smokes meat to cook it, but doesn't cure it. Haven't really tried I guess.


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## mystang89 (Aug 28, 2018)

Pastor Dave said:


> I understand a good curing salt has sugar in it too. I don't know the percentages, but sugar can cure as well as salt, but obviously the taste would be very different. Can you imagine ham or bacon not being salty? I have the big charcoal grill with Texas side smoke box. It smokes meat to cook it, but doesn't cure it. Haven't really tried I guess.


Not sure I'd be a fan of Sugar and Pepper smoked bacon lol


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