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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Butchering Pigs

We did our first pig the other day....I didn't take pics of the actual slaughtering process. But, we have the other two pigs due to be done this Thursday or Friday, so I will try and take pics then and post them...

Basically, we did in the pig and got it to the point where we cut it in half....then hung it down at the Barn in the Meat Bird room. ...now, we're pretty anal about the cleanliness of where we put, hang, cut our meat.

So, yes, that whole room had been cleaned out months ago and has been airing ever since. Then, we put down some fresh hay, put papers underneath where the pig would hang....and then, wrapped old clean sheets around the two halves and held the sheets on using lots of clothespins!
We left the meat hanging overnight....it's the perfect time of year for doing that, no bugs anymore, and outside temps are very cool, but not freezing.
Here's one half...you can barely see the other half on the left (wrapped up in sheets) You can see a Cut, that is the Third Rib, where the Gman separates the front shoulder from the rest. (For ease of cutting)














And here's the other side of the half.....


















We use this reference book, given to us by friends a couple of years ago...an excellent reference!

















We had the radio on, and Billy Idol's Rebel Yell came on...ever seen a Pig Farmer playing the Bone Saw to Rebel Yell????? Yeah, well, here's your chance! A Once in a Lifetime Experience, I'm telling ya!















The Wolfie knows he is NOT allowed in that room...and he's very good at obeying...but he did stand at the door, as Close as He could get away with.....














Some of the cuts......the cutting was done on the Feed Freezers, they had been Bleached down and we had a bucket of warm bleachy water, so we could periodically wipe things down.














Bacon, and Lots of it!










A Heck of a Nice Looking Ham (we cut it in half)

We have put the Bacon and Hams into the freezer. We have no time right now to do the smoking - so, as time permits, we'll pull out a bunch and smoke them....The Gman built a Smoker several years ago!











Day-ummmmmmmm! Nice looking meat!















Three nice looking Pork Roasts....













The Gman using the Bone Saw to cut thru the ribs....












And here is what we ended up with....
NOTE: These packages represent One Half of the Pig....the other half was traded off to a friend, in exchange for a Whole Lamb...to come next month. We did this last year, and the barter worked Very Well!


You can see two bowls of meat in the pic...those are all the trimmings, and will be ground up into Pork Burger....10 pounds worth.



After the packages went up to the House, I took the time to weigh it all....came to 101 pounds of meat per HALF, and that includes the Bones (which we wrap, freeze and give to the Wolf during Winter) and also includes the Fat (which we wrap, freeze and either use ourselves for on top of Roasts....OR we give it to our Chickens during the winter...they LOVE it!)





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6 comments:

pamela said...

I miss good ole hog killing days-we always had to wait later than Oct.I lived in Alabama at the time and daddy always had a hog he was fatting up. But one day he became tender hearted so we have no more cold hog killing days.
My husband has been on his way to work-and hit a deer he'll bring it back home and I'll cut the tendons and string it up,clean it and cut it up-all by myself.We always soak them in ice water for about 3 days

Aunt Krissy said...

Love Love Billy Idol, Rebel Yell. I would have the tunes cranked!
I helped friends butcher chickens
to bad we didnt have some tunes

Unknown said...

We have a smoker my husband and friends built; a smoking is upcoming the middle of November. BEST bacon ever in my life. I have been lurking watching the piggies get bigger. Thanks for posting about this!

Christy said...

This was really interesting to read. We don't eat a lot of pork so I'm not real familiar with the different cuts. My son does love bacon though.

Annie said...

Pamela, that is what the Gman said after we were done pigs..he said he must be getting soft hearted.

Welcome so there and Christy! Thanks for reading our blog, if you have a blog, please leave a comment with your blogsite, ok?

Krissy, the Gman and I are aging ourselves with that song, lol...nuttin like the ole days!

Cheers,

Annie

moni said...

I remember one day many years ago when my two large hogs escaped their pen. I had to chase them in the rain. I was waving a small tree limb at them, banging it against the ground and crying in the pouring rain. Well, I did round them up and gave them back to my mom.

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