Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

I love the pig pictures! I get my Hereford fix through you. LOL Hope you have a nice litter of piglets to come home to.

That bacon looks so good already! Lady hog we had butchered, we had the bacon cut, they don’t cure it. We thought it would be ok, but it’s not. NEVER will we do that again! We aren’t raising pigs this year, still have a lot of pork in the freezer and our customers still have pork.

Yeah if the bacon isnt cured it's just think sliced fatty pork...lol. Make it yourself next time it's super easy.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Yeah, uncured it is just pork. I made bacon once, didn't use the pink salt, nitrates are migraine makers and it isn't part of the curing process, just a "color keeper". It came out OK but too salty, should have rinsed it a lot longer.

You can skip pink salt in bacon...you can not in ham though. It won't taste like ham, we have tired it.

Speaking of ham I made that too.

This ham is actually not from Laverne. This is a leg we put in the freezer a year and a half ago...waiting on bacon or more legs because we are not smoking one leg at a time. So i pulled it out..took off the skin, hockend and cut it in half...not the prettiest cut job but the cure/smoke will firm it up. you can make ham with any peice of pork, skin on or not.

This is the brine(cure), we do wet brine because we are not set up to do country ham yet as it takes about a year. Brine is salt, sugar, pickling spice, and pink salt.

The ham and brine in bags in a pot..then they went into the fridge too. These i will rotate every other day for 6 days..then off to the smoker with the bacon. Without skin on the brine works faster normally its a day per 2lbs.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Then I also turned about 20 lbs of very cold ground pork into breakfast sausage.
DH ground it on friday, then we dropped it in the freezer with the rest of the pork on friday night and i pulled it out saturday morning(wasnt frozen yet just really cold).

This is the pork seasoned up and after the second grind. I put it it into 1.5lb approx baggies and put it back in the freezer.

 

[Mike CHS]

Is the freezer time on the ground pork to make it easier to do the second grind or was it just late that night?

 

[CntryBoy777]

The meat sure looks Good!!....was tastin it as ya was explaining........the little ones are so Cute!!....love the herefords....glad things are "settlin" for ya some....

 

[misfitmorgan]

Is the freezer time on the ground pork to make it easier to do the second grind or was it just late that night?

Easier to do the second grind. We usually always use this same system. We butcher, let the pig chill 3 days, then process all the raw meat and raw/green cuts to process further, single grind meat. Then we put everything in the freezer, the amount of meat makes it take about 48hrs to freeze things fairly solid so between 18-24hrs after we place it in the freezer we take everything to process further.... out. The single ground pork will have ice crystals, it is frozen together but you can break it apart with your hands. It makes a big difference for the grinder. I did that entire lot of pork without having to take the grinder apart to clean it until i was completely done. If you have ever ground anything you can tell when it gets to warm because every couple of pounds you have to take apart the grinder and clean out the silver skin or any bits that get stuck..esp with something like venison. Pork you want cold mostly because it is so greasy and cold/almost frozen fat grinds easier.

 

[misfitmorgan]

The meat sure looks Good!!....was tastin it as ya was explaining........the little ones are so Cute!!....love the herefords....glad things are "settlin" for ya some....

Hopefully it will be good and hopefully i get pics for you guys. Latest report at 7.30am check in from our friend is that hereford girl had 4 alive piglet....so shall see when I get home. That would make 5 total which isnt bad for a first timer.

 

[Bruce]

You can skip pink salt in bacon...you can not in ham though. It won't taste like ham, we have tired it.

I get an uncured applewood smoked ham at the deli and it tastes like ham. Not like boiled ham but that is a plus!

 

[Baymule]

Yeah, uncured it is just pork. I made bacon once, didn't use the pink salt, nitrates are migraine makers and it isn't part of the curing process, just a "color keeper". It came out OK but too salty, should have rinsed it a lot longer.

I've made bacon without the pink salt, and smoked it. It turned out sooooo good! Wilbur's bacon is just raw sliced bacon. Just. Not. Bacon. BIG MISTAKE.

 

[Baymule]

That's good to know about the half frozen pork making grinding easier. Where we have hogs processed, they chop/grind the fat. It makes it a lot easier to render for lard.