Feeder Pigs

[norseofcourse]

Last night I actually dreamed I was raising a few pigs.... I am blaming @Baymule and @Devonviolet !!!

This whole thread - the good and the challenges - has been great reading. I never thought pigs would be something I would want to have, but now I can almost see myself raising a couple pigs someday. I'm further north, so it would have to be a summer project for me. Healthier meat, raised more naturally, and better tasting - maybe, just maybe....

 

[Mini Horses]

So -- after all this work and raising ordeal, what was weight on hogs & hanging? Was that available from this butcher, since he's more of an "independent" ? Just curious....

I have AGH hogs, so far, far smaller, which is why I have those as I don't want/need all that at one time. But, looking forward to taking one to freezer camp in not too distant future. Since mine are so much smaller, I may do just kill and chill...depends on my own work schedule at butcher time, actually. It is a lot of work.
A butcher I know will come to house & do but, not sure if I want to do that either. LOL Oh, he's from CO and a big time hunter as well as experienced butcher -- for a living.

Look at how nice and dark the meat is there, not the washed out stuff you get at store. Now that's why such nice flavor. Allowing them to "root & scoot" makes a much tastier carcass.

 

[Ferguson K]

We do all of ours here at home, start to finish. We "do the deed" as far as killing them as well. Depending on the size of the hogit either gets a .22 or a blade through the third rib into the heart. Both ways are humane and painless.

A 270lb pig should hang at 245 lbs if you're figuring 20% for organs.

Depending on how much you cook and eat. One pig fills our freezer for about a month of that's all that's in there.

 

[Devonviolet]

I thought that last piece, in the fridge was a rack of pork chops. Turns out it was a belly piece with spare ribs on it.

Once we cut the ribs off, we had a slab of bacon meat left. Since we weren't curing the meat, and still had a lot to do (Thurs & Fri), we had just cut up the belly meat, to use in sausage.

This morning, when we ended up with a slab of uncured (very meaty) bacon meat, we decided to cut it into bacon strips.

Before we put it away, we decided to fry up a few strips, to see if we liked it that way.

When I put it in the pan, on low heat, it seemed to be getting a bit rubbery. So I thought adding some water & cooking slowly before frying it would help. We have some "liquid smoke" in the cupboard, so I added about 1/4 tsp to 2 Tbsp of water & poured it over the meat. A few shakes of Himalayan Sea Salt. On the lowest setting (with the lid on) I let it simmer until the water was gone. When I heard it sizzling, I turned the "Bacon" & browned it on the other side.

OMG! This tasted better than store bought bacon, with just a hint of smoke flavor.

Now I wish we had saved all the belly fat!

Oh well, ya live & learn. We keep telling each other, "we didn't know what we didn't know"

I wish we had "smellavision!" it smells just like bacon!

 

[Devonviolet]

Before we wrapped it, for the freezer, I thought I should take a photo, to show how nice & meaty our bacon is. We ended up with seven 1/2 pound packages.

I love bacon so much, but can't eat commercially cured bacon, since I am very sensitive to nitrates [they give me nasty migraines].

When Baymule said she would raise a pig for us, I wanted to name it Bacon, so we could make nitrate free bacon. Then, with all the work learning to butcher the meat, making sausage PLUS learning how to cure meat, it was too much. We decided to forego curing bacon this time & I was feeling bad, that we weren't making bacon. Now we can safely enjoy bacon for breakfast!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Woohoo! BACON! That's awesome - cherish that stuff cuz I know it's delish!

 

[Bossroo]

I started writing this before you posted your comment above. So, we were writing at the same time.

We picked up our pig (Bacon) yesterday. We decided to not have it smoked & to butcher it ourselves to save money. We did what is called a "Kill & Chill", which means they kill & gut It & skin It. It ended up costing $150 less doing it that way.

It was quite a sight, seeing the butcher's son pull the 2 halves out of the cooler, on the track, hanging up on hooks. He cut it into 6 parts, so it would fit into our two coolers.

We bought a Kindle book on Amazon, that did a good job of telling us how to butcher our pig. Some places were a bit confusing, but we muddled our way through getting two chances too cut each section. it had photos, that really helped

http://www.amazon.com/Butchering-Po...TF8&qid=1458955764&sr=8-1&keywords=Butchering

Here are the photos I took this afternoon. This is only part of the meat. We still have a rack of ribs, to cut into pork chops, as well as meat in our fridge (with the temp set at 34°F, to allow one batch of meat to freeze, so we don't over tax the freezer all at once. We also have a nice batch of fat, to be rendered at another time.
View attachment 15874
This is the back leg (the ham) which we boned. It doesn't look like it, but there are two ball joints & was quite a job to do the boning.
View attachment 15875
Top shelf of our full size upright freezer. The loin roast was done yesterday (3/24/16). DH got the date wrong when he labeled the packages of meat yesterday.

View attachment 15876
Bottom drawer, of the freezer, full of meat.
View attachment 15877
Precious Filet cuts. YUM! Looking forward to cooking those!

View attachment 15878 Shoulder (Butt roast)

View attachment 15879
Bones to be used for bone broth.

View attachment 15880
While we were cutting meat today, DH was drooling, so I suggested he take some of the smaller pieces, that we are going to use to make sausage & fry it up. About the same time, I found a beautiful piece of muscle that looked a lot like filet. So, I cut it across the grain, which made it look like medallions. OMG! It was so tender & full of flavor! YUM!

When everything is said and done ... share the bones with your dog and throw some to Bay's dogs too. As you know, bones are the BEST and HEALTHIEST chew toy

 

[Devonviolet]

When everything is said and done ... share the bones with your dog and throw some to Bay's dogs too. As you know, bones are the BEST and HEALTHIEST chew toy

We were planning to do that. Then we saw a comment in our butchering book, saying that pork bones are the only bones you shouldn't give to your dogs for two reasons:
1. Trichinosis
2. If you cook pork bones - to kill the Trichinosis, they become brittle & will splinter when the dogs chew on them.

I decided to look online, to see if they were right. Sure enough. What I found seems to confirm what is says in the butchering book.

 

[Bossroo]

We were planning to do that. Then we saw a comment in our butchering book, saying that pork bones are the only bones you shouldn't give to your dogs for two reasons:
1. Trichinosis
2. If you cook pork bones - to kill the Trichinosis, they become brittle & will splinter when the dogs chew on them.

I decided to look online, to see if they were right. Sure enough. What I found seems to confirm what is says in the butchering book.

That piece of information was included in the "butchering book " is to cover themselves in case of a law suit. Today, most Veterinarians do not recomend the practice to protect themselves against a law suit too. Besides, cleaning dogs' teeth is quite profitable. Congress passed a law way back in 1980 to outlaw raw garbage containing raw meat being fed to commercial and other pig operations . Since then Trichinosis has been very rare. Unless that is, if a backyard owner feeds his/her pigs garbage containing partially cooked / raw meat that may be infected with trichinosis , or the dog hapens to find and then eat a dead pig or another animal with trichinosis, then all bets are off. As for cooking bones and becoming brittle then splintering when a dog ingests it. While cooking bones may splinter is true, in the real world of dogs eating those bones, being stuck in the mouth ,esophagus, stomack , or intestines is prety rare. My family, friends and I have fed raw and cooked bones to our dogs for well over a half centurey and never had an issue.

 

[Latestarter]

Concur with what Bossroo posted... Trichinosis has pretty much been eradicated in most commercial pork over the years through better laws and awareness. The trich worm actually curls up in the center of a large muscle masses, and if there, you most likely would have seen/found it when butchering the carcass. I wouldn't give the thin bones to the dogs, but large joint bones and thick bones like shin and leg, oh yeah! I've been giving them to my dogs as long as I've had them (dogs and bones). Even bones and such from store bought hams after cooking them. Have never had an issue or problem.

Go with what your gut tells you is right!