# Does anyone do there own butchering?



## mtngrl812 (Sep 27, 2016)

I am curious if anyone butchers their pigs themselves? Is it a difficult process? I know a couple chickens must be nothing compared to a 250# pig. But is it a pretty big hassle for one person? Just more reasonable to taken them to a butcher?


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

Yes it is a huge hassle for one person.  In a month  or two I hope to have a step by step tutorial of my husband and I doing one.  

@misfitmorgan you posted pics of butchering a pot belly right? Sorry if Ihhave the wrong person. My memory has its moments... 

My husband was trained to do it.  Not professionally but by an experienced old timer. And it is a huge undertaking.  I would never attempt it without  him! Not trying to discourage but it's a big thing!


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## frustratedearthmother (Sep 27, 2016)

We have butchered our own - but it was more of a group effort.  My neighbor did the killing, and gutting.  Several of us skinned.  He quartered it up and we kept it on ice for almost a week.  The next weekend we cut and vacuum packed the cuts we wanted and made sausage from the rest.  It IS a big undertaking, but mostly it's just very time consuming!


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 27, 2016)

The thing is you typically don't skin a pig.
You kill them, and then dip the carcass in scalding water and scrape the hair off, leaving the skin in tact.
That is difficult without the right set up.
People do skin them though.


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 27, 2016)

I also butcher my own. It takes my partner, father and I. We could do it just us two but my father is a massive help. I would not want to do it alone, in fact I would send it to a butcher before I did. Personally though I do not 'trust' butchers and prefer to keep everything in house. But as @OneFineAcre said, you have to have the right set up. In American I notice alot of people raise the pig then dip it in scolding water and then scrap the hair with it hanging. In Lithuania we boil the water and pour it over the skin as another scraps the hair off. I would also highly recommend getting a vacuum sealer and make sure you have a whole chest freezer ready for some pork!


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

We skin them. Unless you are doing a pig roast no one my husband has ever butchered  for has asked him to scald.


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 27, 2016)

@NH homesteader Woah, that must be a lot of extra work! We do not do that in Eastern Europe (we're poor and need every bit of the animal, haha) I wonder what the taste difference is?


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## frustratedearthmother (Sep 27, 2016)

I can't imagine the work involved in dipping, scalding and scraping.  Or even pouring boiling water over the carcass....but admittedly there is the loss of the skin when you don't.  Even the slaughter houses around here won't scrape - they skin.  (at least the ones I called way back then...)


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 27, 2016)

Back when I was a kid, my grandfather was a small tobacco farmer.
his 2 brothers farmed down the road and his sister and her husband.
They would all raise 4 or 5 hogs and we would all get together and have a "hog killing" in the fall.  So, they would kill and process like 20 in a day.
Always when the weather turned cool after we finished barning tobacco.
I sometime will go into a meeting and the conference room will be cold and I'll say "you could kill hogs in here".  I get some odd looks sometimes. But, most know what I mean.


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 27, 2016)

@NH homesteader & @frustratedearthmother Woukd you say it a cultural thing to skin a hog? I've personally never known someone who skins them but most I know are European or South Asian. I thought it was normal to scrap, not skin.


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

Ha ha! Yep that's awesome. 

I would think scalding sounds way more difficult than skinning.  This will be my first year truly helping  though. He says it's not that bad


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

Double post .

I don't know...  Good question!


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## secuono (Sep 27, 2016)

I've done PBs, the small ones that don't grow to the original 300# size. Skinned it and that was h=ll. I can't imagine doing a huge pig....


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

As far as butchers go...  If you use one take the time to find a good one. A lot of them keep some of your meat to resell.  And some even give you back someone else's meat.  Know approximately  how much meat you should be getting.


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## mtngrl812 (Sep 27, 2016)

we have a used a butcher before that has a very good reputation here in town. So hoping we get the same meat we take in.


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## secuono (Sep 27, 2016)

NH homesteader said:


> As far as butchers go...  If you use one take the time to find a good one. A lot of them keep some of your meat to resell.  And some even give you back someone else's meat.  Know approximately  how much meat you should be getting.




I've heard on hog FB forums that, that practice is standard! I was so angry about that!  =/
So your expensive, specially cared for, loved, grass fed, drug free, cruelty free meat is traded for golly knows what else in the heap....Uh, no!


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## NH homesteader (Sep 27, 2016)

I just told my husband I'd like to see a butcher try to do that to us. We are happy doing our own! And I know what Old Spot meat looks like so he wouldn't be getting away with that!


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## micah wotring (Sep 27, 2016)

Alexz7272 said:


> @NH homesteader & @frustratedearthmother Woukd you say it a cultural thing to skin a hog? I've personally never known someone who skins them but most I know are European or South Asian. I thought it was normal to scrap, not skin.


I'm pretty sure scalding is considered 'normal' in the USA. I may be wrong about that though.

Me, my dad and my sister butchered our 260# gilt a year or two ago. It wasn't that hard. We skinned ours just because we didn't have a  big pot to dip 'r in. Since then I realize that we could have boiled towels and laid them on her but we didn't think of that at the time. Anyway, here's a few pix for anyone who's interested.














































Hope this helps!


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## Mini Horses (Sep 27, 2016)

Had two AGHs butchered about a month ago, ADGA slaughter house & had them "kill & chill".  Went to pick up and had them do some cutting to be able to handle them  (basically, slit down backbone & then in thirds  plus, heads & feet cut off) .  So, I got it all back AND they were mine.  Plus, they had been scraped.   My bacon slabs in the freezer (waiting for me to decide it's time to cure when it's cooler) still have skin on them.

YES it is a big job for one person.   I would not do 2 again knowing I would be only one to then cut & package.    One, I could.   And I didn't have to kill, gut, dip, scrape, or do the big cuts.   LOT of work.


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## Eddy Winko (Sep 27, 2016)

Scraping is the norm here in Poland, a 50l pot of boiling water and a sharp knife (even a cut throat razor will do). Pour the water on a small area and scrape, the whole process takes about 30 minutes. Lets face it you can't beat a bit of crackling on your roast  Also I can't imagine a bacon without the skin holding it together.
As for the original question, on your own if would be a hell of a job, two people at least required, if only to hoist it up to gut.


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## frustratedearthmother (Sep 28, 2016)

Alexz7272 said:


> Woukd you say it a cultural thing to skin a hog?



Sorry, I musta missed this question.  I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing, or a geographical thing, or just a personal choice.  I might try to do the boiling water/towel thing on one just because I'd like to have the experience - and I'd like to be able to make an informed choice on what method I like better in the future.  I have to say that it bothered me a bit to toss that skin, but it wasn't totally wasted.  My dog drug it around and chewed on it forever it seems, lol.  But, I'd like to try my hand at making cracklings.

Anybody made head cheese from one?  I had a fellow helping with the butchering who took control of that for us.  We put the head in a pressure cooker and cooked it down.  Peeled off every speck of the meat (but sorry - I couldn't do eyeballs!)  We did use the tongue and the ears though... put lots of spices, onions, garlic, peppers, carrots.  Rough chopped all of it and packed it into loaf pans where it sets up because of all the gelatin in the head (I guess).  I was definitely a little leery of it, but man-oh-man, some of that on a cracker with a little bit of tabasco is good eating!


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## NH homesteader (Sep 28, 2016)

Yeah..  I'm all set on that head cheese thing! 

What exactly do you do with the skin,  those of you who scald? I don't eat chicken skin either.  I guess I figure skin is there to protect the meat from the outside world!


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## micah wotring (Sep 28, 2016)

Yeah, we thought about making pig-head cheese but we were busy.



NH homesteader said:


> Yeah..  I'm all set on that head cheese thing!
> 
> What exactly do you do with the skin,  those of you who scald? I don't eat chicken skin either.  I guess I figure skin is there to protect the meat from the outside world!


Pork rinds I think.


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## NH homesteader (Sep 28, 2016)

Rinds.  Yeah...  That freaks me out. I don't know why but the skin and head are off limits to me.


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 28, 2016)

Eddy Winko said:


> Scraping is the norm here in Poland, a 50l pot of boiling water and a sharp knife (even a cut throat razor will do). Pour the water on a small area and scrape, the whole process takes about 30 minutes. Lets face it you can't beat a bit of crackling on your roast  Also I can't imagine a bacon without the skin holding it together.
> As for the original question, on your own if would be a hell of a job, two people at least required, if only to hoist it up to gut.


 
Polska! Hello from your neighbor Lietuva! I knew it had to be a Eastern European thing


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## MiroslavZivic (Sep 28, 2016)

I would honestly advise against doing it all on your own. Surely, it can be done, however, whenever we do it, I have seven other people working with me and it still takes us about five whole hours of nonstop work to butcher two pigs, and all these men are very expeirenced.


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## Baymule (Sep 28, 2016)

@Eddy Winko welcome to the forum from Texas! So glad to have you here!


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## farmerjan (Sep 28, 2016)

The whole thing behind scalding and scaping was to be able to keep the bacons and the hams from drying out when they were being cured.  You use the scalded scraped skin to protect the meat, tuck any salt for curing into any crannies of the ham where the skin is as well as sometimes injecting the cure into it with a long needle especially around the bone.  They are often put in to be smoked after the cure and the skin keeps the bacon and hams  in shape and offers a bit of protection from bugs too, once it gets cured(hard).  Most put them in old pillowcases after they are cured to hang and store in a smokehouse or attic.  Since they were often killed in late fall, Thanksgiving was a popular time in the south, scalding and scraping would make the animal more ready for hanging for a bit, before cutting up.  If you skin the hog as most butchers do today, the animal also is put into a cooler/locker so the bug situation is not as much of a factor.  The meat takes the cures quicker so you have to be careful to not over cure.  The old style salt cure hams of the deep south was done that way so that they would be able to keep the meat through the winter.  You had to soak it to get some of the salt out or it was practically inedible.


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## misfitmorgan (Sep 29, 2016)

Sorry i have been busy.

For commercial practices skinning/scalding is the most common in the US. Yes both, let me explain. They scald the pig and then drop it in a drum scraper it scrapes all the hair and everything off in about 15-45seconds depending on settings. The next machine is the skinner, this machine takes the skin off of the barrel of the pig only along with 1/4" of fat underneath and take approx 3-6seconds. The scalded and scrapped skin is left on the hind end for hams, on the head because it is "waste", and on the feet/hocks for making smoked pigs feet or even pickled pigs feet.

For home slaughter i would say scald and scrap is the most common method i have seen used and is traditional in the US.

Most butchers around us will scald and scrap. When we butchers the potbelly pig DH skinned the pig only because it was the wrong time of year to be butchering for us and we were in a hurry to get her in the freezer and not prepared for scalding.

We have two different "local" butchers one is a standard butcher and the other is a USDA butcher both will kill, scald and scrap, as well as gut and then give you the pig back wrapped in plastic. The standard butcher will kill, scald, scrap, gut, and split if we wish any pig for us for $30. The USDA butcher will kill, scald, and scrap any pig for us for $95 and that pig comes with a USDA inspection stamp on its hide. Often if they are not busy and have cooler room they will even hang the pig for you for up to 30 days at no extra charge.

DH used to work for the largest meat packer in the US before he moved out of Iowa so he is fast at butchering but even so it takes us several hours just to cut down the carcass even if we pay the butcher to do the initial work. I would not recommend butchering a pig to one person unless you have a few days to devote to it and a place to chill it down every few hours, as the warmer the carcass gets the harder it is to cut it nicely. Professional butchers can dismantle a pig into cuts ready to cook/cure/smoke in approx 30-45mins after it has been gutted, scaled and scrapped etc....with equipment specifically meant to do the job and many years of experience breaking down whole and half carcasses.

To sum my ramblings up....

Traditional in the US is scald and scrap, many still do this and prefer it.

No i would definitely not recommend one person butchering a whole hog.

Call around to butchers near you and see what they charge to kill,scald,scrap,and gut. Honestly for $30 to save the hassle it is so worth it for us and our butcher threw in splitting the large hog for free. If your going to go this route ask them to split it for you makes your job much easier.

Yes i have made head cheese(no eyeballs lol) i do not like headcheese....the jelly nature of it grosses me out. We do however use the jowls/cheeks and the tongue in charcuterie applications....waiting for the world outside to cool off so we can make Guanciale!


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## Bruce (Sep 29, 2016)

I have watched a few pig butchering videos and while *I* have no personal experience, yep, it sure looks like a LOT of work even for a group of very experienced people. I'm with @misfitmorgan. $30 to kill, scald, scrape, gut and split? No thought necessary unless you have no way to get the pig to the butcher.


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 29, 2016)

Bruce said:


> I have watched a few pig butchering videos and while *I* have no personal experience, yep, it sure looks like a LOT of work even for a group of very experienced people. I'm with @misfitmorgan. $30 to kill, scald, scrape, gut and split? No thought necessary unless you have no way to get the pig to the butcher.


Go ahead and pay them to cut up, vacuum seal and freeze
Our local slaughter house doesn't do what others mentioned giving you pork other than your own 
And they make great sausage


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## Alexz7272 (Sep 29, 2016)

@misfitmorgan I wish I could find a butcher around here to do that for only $30!


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## NH homesteader (Sep 29, 2016)

Uh yeah that's what I was thinking. My husband charges $75 for one pig and $50 each if there are multiple pigs. It costs $90 to hire the local guy that will kill, gut scald and scrape.

ETA: those prices include traveling to your farm...  So that's a bit different too.


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## frustratedearthmother (Sep 29, 2016)

X2!


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## misfitmorgan (Sep 30, 2016)

Yeah its $30 and you have to take it to their slaughter house. We had two pigs done there and we had one pig done at the USDA for public sale by the pound.



OneFineAcre said:


> Go ahead and pay them to cut up, vacuum seal and freeze
> Our local slaughter house doesn't do what others mentioned giving you pork other than your own
> And they make great sausage



Because ironically that same guy would be another $228 roughly to cut, seal and freeze and we like to cut them up ourselves because we like to smoke our own hams, bacon, etc and make some charcuterie stuff.....he has offered before to save off the blood for us for making blood pudding but i havnt gotten brave enough to try it yet either making or eating it.

FYI $30 a pig is not his normal price...this is his "off season" so he will butcher for cheaper. Starting tomorrow which is opening day for bow season his prices go back up, normal price is $50 each. So you might look into that as well to see if a local butcher near you has an "off-season"..our off-season is the month of September and in the late winter/early spring. It would vary by location...September is an off season here because it is late enough after the fairs that 4-h animals are already done, most critters being raised to fill freezers are done and adult deer season hasnt started yet.


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## farmerjan (Sep 30, 2016)

The local slaughter houses here also have "off-season" rates, and you can get a kill date alot easier too.  Once hunting season comes in, there are very few slots available until after christmas.  I try to do most of my stuff in June, July, Aug  when there is less demand.  Alot of people will wait til after the first of the year to do their beef, knowing that they will not get an appt. in the fall, and not wanting to feed too long through the winter.  We have a big market animal show here in early May so they are swamped them and the fairs here run from July through Sept so there is some then. Hunting season varies by area and state so try to get done before or after.


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## Baymule (Sep 30, 2016)

I haven't found an "off" season for butchering around here. We did find a custom butchering place run by Mennonites. Reading reviews on some of the other places where people didn't get their own animals back was enough to keep us away. We heard nothing but good from the place owned and operated by a Mennonite family. They processed our pigs and just recently, 3 lambs. We are very satisfied.


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## Mini Horses (Sep 30, 2016)

Gotta love a good butchering facility!


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## Ron Bequeath (Oct 29, 2018)

Alexz7272 said:


> @NH homesteader Woah, that must be a lot of extra work! We do not do that in Eastern Europe (we're poor and need every bit of the animal, haha) I wonder what the taste difference is?


The taste isn't much different,  the butchers here in PA skin when butchering because they just fasten the skin to a wench and pull it off, I like and prefer scaulding but you need a crew and don't forget to share, that's why you raise 2.


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## Ron Bequeath (Sep 11, 2019)

Having lived on a farm for 68 years and as a youngin as far back as i can remember we would raise a hog, kill it, scald it, scrape it, gut it, divide it in half then quarters, take it in to the garage or house which had been cleaned, cut it into cuts, saving the various types of lard, ground and stuffed the sausage, wrapped the cuts, rendered the lard, kept the cracklins. Why did we scald? In your 7th grade biology book it says the skin protects the meat (muscle) from bacteria. Our hams and bacon always had a skin on them and mom would cut it off after cooking, extra cracklins that night. Now days its just easier for the butchers to skin. So..  now people do it on the homesteads.


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## misfitmorgan (Sep 12, 2019)

Ron Bequeath said:


> Having lived on a farm for 68 years and as a youngin as far back as i can remember we would raise a hog, kill it, scald it, scrape it, gut it, divide it in half then quarters, take it in to the garage or house which had been cleaned, cut it into cuts, saving the various types of lard, ground and stuffed the sausage, wrapped the cuts, rendered the lard, kept the cracklins. Why did we scald? In your 7th grade biology book it says the skin protects the meat (muscle) from bacteria. Our hams and bacon always had a skin on them and mom would cut it off after cooking, extra cracklins that night. Now days its just easier for the butchers to skin. So..  now people do it on the homesteads.



What you describe is what we have graduated to when we butcher our pigs. We no longer use anyone off the farm. We do skin sometimes still depends on the pig, our time, and the weather.


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## Kotori (Sep 12, 2019)

As someone who admittedly has never done it, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say: its as difficult as you want to make it. Little elaboration there, you could kill,gut, skin and quarter and call it a day, or you could kill, gut, scald and take the time to debone every cut. If your goal is just sausage, you might not even separate the cuts of meat, just cube it up enough to fit in a grinder.

For a first time person I'd recommend just having extra freezer/fridge room because while getting the meat cool is time-sensitive, you could take as long as you need to debone and package the meat.

ETA the skin vs scalding: I was always told scalding gives you more 'bang for your buck', but most of the weight would be skin and fatback. If you want lots of lard, scalding would probably be most superior, but a careful skin job shouldn't remove too much fat. Scalding would be the hardest part imo, since you have to have a scraping tool, a way to heat the water, and protective gear to not burn yourself.

I believe I've also heard of 'singeing' a pig, which is basically just burning the hair off, but that sounds pretty stinky to me.


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## misfitmorgan (Sep 18, 2019)

Kotori said:


> As someone who admittedly has never done it, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say: its as difficult as you want to make it. Little elaboration there, you could kill,gut, skin and quarter and call it a day, or you could kill, gut, scald and take the time to debone every cut. If your goal is just sausage, you might not even separate the cuts of meat, just cube it up enough to fit in a grinder.
> 
> For a first time person I'd recommend just having extra freezer/fridge room because while getting the meat cool is time-sensitive, you could take as long as you need to debone and package the meat.
> 
> ...



It is as easy or hard as you make it for sure...just depends on what your after. Scalding isnt actually to hard and you can scrap with about anything with a thin metal edge. We boil water in an old....never used fuel oil tank over a fire. Stack up pallets and toss the pig on top then pour the water over and start scraping when the hard starts coming loose.

Yes you can singe but if your planning to make skin on bacon, ham or do anything with the skin DONT singe. Singing only burns off the hair outside of the skin so you have all the hair follicles and bristle shafts embedded in the skin with no way to get them out. The only reason to singe is if your doing a whole hog roast...because you dont eat the skin.


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