Hog Butchering Our Way

[pitw]

Morning fellow's I wasn't hunting but managed to bag a couple of hog's anyway.  Thought I would show you how we do it at my place.  If anyone has any pointer's I'd appreciate them.  If anyone has a problem with my post let me know and I will delete them. Started out the day [yesterday] by getting a fire going to heat the water.



Three hour's later I went to the pen and checked to see how stressed the participant's were.



They appeared to be ready.



Then after a little medicine to relax them even more the process was to begin.



Just like in a barber shop they got there whisker's warmed up for easier removal.



Got a little carrried away with the depth control.



First one end get's shaved.



Then the other.



Lose the head as unlike other's I'm not into head meat.



Then the tail.  This lady wanted to help butcher her half a hog so I told her she would have to help on the other half too.  She and her family ran a butcher shop in Ontario until coming out here last year.  She could pull a butthole out your mouth I think and I told her I would never sleep with her because I'd be afraid to wake up without my hole.  She replied "why am I too ugly",  "Heaven's no",I blurted "I'll do the good part but I sure as heck ain't going to sleep".  She was a real help and showed us even more way's of organ checking to make sure an animal is healthy.



Open the brisket.



Get the zipper opened for the removal of the entrail's.



Then my favorite part [now] is the splitting of the hog.



9 seconds with this toy that a bud found in the garbage dump and sold to me for $20. [reconditioned one's sell for $2,200 at Halford Hide in Edmonton]



And you end up with this.



Thank's for looking.  Anyone who has or does make cracklin's would you be kind enough to post your way of doing it[making cracklin's not the other thing] for me as I have enough here to experiment with and would like some help.  We'll cut tthem up today and turn them into some fine table fare.  Took me longer to do this post than to do the job.
Barry

[northern coyote]

we ussually lop off the apendages and head, skin'em half'em and let someone else do the rest :)

[nastygunz]

My 2 thoughts on this is it sucks to be a hog and now i want a jimmy dean sausage patty 

[yucca]

Good write up. Thanks for taking us along.

Chichirone kettle:

[Hawks Feather]

Well, once again you have made me hungry.  I have been a spectator at hog butchering, but never a participant.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

Never done myself either Barry, heck I may have learned something here.

One question, whats the purpose of shaving them? Dont they get skinned anyway?

[Bills Custom Calls]

We  done our own butchering when I was a youn ladd.We have scalded and scrapped very similar to the way
you did there.
When I turned 15 years old I went to work in the slaughter house 1 mile from my home and there we just skinned the hogs.

Jim have you ever ate pork rinds,well the ones you buy in the bag at the store is just deep fried fat they are not as good as cracklins.

That is what you get when you render lard which is,you cut the fat off the meat cook it down and then run it through a lard press and you eat whats left,called cracklins,and the is the skin of a hog.

The old saying is when you butcher a hog the only yhing you throw away is the squeal 

[bigben]

we do ours in a similar fashion.  we scald the hogs in a trough though.  craklins is what comes out of the fat when you render it down other then that I cannot help ya any

jim the reason why we scald em is mainly tradition.  in the old times they left the skin on to keep the meat clean.  but you scald em to get the hair off em and to basically clean em.  we actually put "skins" in our scrapple.  so you want em clean.  normally the skin off the hams.  I will be sure to get video this year off everything when we do hogs.  we normally do it before febuary.  many people think it is mean or barbaric to butcher your own animals but I tell em to take their comment and put it where the sun does not shine.  I like fresh pork.  my uncle raises the hogs and I know they are good hogs grown without hormones. I really like fresh sausage.  I could eat that a couple times a week for brekfast lunch or dinner. 

like bill said when ya butcher hogs with ol timers that have been doing it for a long time they throw nothing away.  the only thing that gets thrown away is the guts lungs and feet.  we do not clean the intestines for sausage casing.  too much work but a heart and stomach "maw" goes with every hog.  the bones get cooked off to make puddin and scrapple.  along with the livers head meat tounge it is a way of life that is going by the wayside but like ol hank sung years ago country boy can survive.  after all the work is done for the day normally the liqour and some white lightnin normally makes it way out on the table and the ol timers talk about the old days over fresh liver and onions.  makes for a hard next mornin to get up at 4 to start all over again.

[alscalls]

I usta hate doing that crap.......now I miss it.

[KySongDog]

That's real interesting.  Thanks Barry.   Brings back memories from a long long time ago. 

[vvarmitr]

Cracklins are best fresh out of the lard press.    Sprinkle 'em w/ salt.  Mmm mmm good!    You need to be eating some apples too to keep from getting an upset stomach. 

[pitw]

Thank's guy's, the wife declined my offer to use her kitchen so I guess I'll be doing it outside with a large cast iron kettle.  Anybody need any Lard?  Man those two were fat.  I was going to cure the ham's myself but they are too big and I'm afraid I won't get the cure in all the way.  Guess I'll take them to my local butchershop as he can inject the cure in and I think these are going to need that.  Do any of you know if I can pore off the lard and leave the cracklin's in the pot to add salt?

[Bills Custom Calls]

All I cna say to that Barry is YOUR Good
I can already taste those fresh cracklins   

[Jimmie in Ky]

Cracklins will float to the top, all you have to do is skim them off with a strainer. I do remember being a kid a long time ago and fighting for the strainer  Now just who the heck needs salt when they are that fresh?  Poor everything else through cheese cloth to get the rest. You can make molds similar to brick molds and line them with wax paper and poor the lard into them.

You can probably pick up a brine pump at a cabelas, gander mountain or tractor supply stoe near you. For a salt box you use sycamore or poplar to build it out of. 2 ft by 3 ft and 2 ft deep holds about any hog you want to salt down. Or you can use burlap bags loaded with salt and hang tem in the smoke house for a cold smoking.

You fry th lungs or lights as we call them in my neck of the woods and pickle the feet. Intestines are used for sausage casings or chitlins, tree slung or hand washed, however you prefer  Jimmie

[pitw]

Cracklins will float to the top, all you have to do is skim them off with a strainer. I do remember being a kid a long time ago and fighting for the strainer  Now just who the heck needs salt when they are that fresh?  Poor everything else through cheese cloth to get the rest. You can make molds similar to brick molds and line them with wax paper and poor the lard into them.

You can probably pick up a brine pump at a cabelas, gander mountain or tractor supply stoe near you. For a salt box you use sycamore or poplar to build it out of. 2 ft by 3 ft and 2 ft deep holds about any hog you want to salt down. Or you can use burlap bags loaded with salt and hang tem in the smoke house for a cold smoking.

You fry th lungs or lights as we call them in my neck of the woods and pickle the feet. Intestines are used for sausage casings or chitlins, tree slung or hand washed, however you prefer  Jimmie

I'm afraid I put salt on almost everything .  We pour our lard in 1 quart jar's.   What would I use the brine pump for?
We do wash and clean the casing for sausage.  It's the only idea my mother in law had that was any good, I guess having kid's and idea's were the same to her,  as she only got one good one of each out of a lifetime of trying.

[Jimmie in Ky]

Brine pump is a large needle you inject the cure into th meat with. Then salt down the outside with youyr favorite mix of salt and seasonings to cure.

I have seen a half dozen diferent smoke houses over the years and all were set up diferent . Just depends on the ancestry of ht owners or builders. One thing they all had in common was the salt box. Jimmie

[pitw]

Thankyou.

[alscalls]

I just love that saw you got.........Thats a keeper for sure.

[pitw]

I just love that saw you got.........Thats a keeper for sure.

That is the best $20 I ever spent Al. 

[pitw]

Been doing a little surfing and found this page on cracklin's for those of you that are interested.
http://www.deltablues.net:80/cracklin.html