Does anyone do there own butchering?

[misfitmorgan]

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.

 

[Kotori]

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.

 

[misfitmorgan]

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.

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.