Butchering pigs

[mystang89]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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.

 

[mystang89]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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

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

 

[mystang89]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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.

 

[Mini Horses]

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!

 

[Baymule]

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

 

[Pastor Dave]

[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?