Hog Butchering. WARNING: Graphic photos.

Got to attend a 4 hour seminar on hog butchering today. We did everything but dispatch the hog. Really good class for only $15. tomorrow we will take all of the cuts we butchered and go through a period (mid-19th century) curing process.

Getting the scalding bath ready


two minutes per dunk. The bath must be between 140F and 150F to loosen the hairs, but not set them.


Using bell scrapers to remove the hair. These are actually from the mid-19th century when this process was used. The reason for removing the hair is to preserve the skin which helped with the curing process.


After a couple of dunks of the front section, the spreader bar is repositioned to the front legs to facilitate dunking the rear portions of the sow.


About an hour and a half and 6ish dunkings into this, the hair is nearly gone.


A gorgeous little red barn was just in the next field over, tempting me all day.


Now the hair is gone, we can eviscerate the hog.


Now that she's eviscerated, we can behead:


Video here:



Then we can split into two sides:


And because I know many of you are as sick as I am...a slo-mo video of the bone saw going through the spine:



Now we have two sides on the butchering table, ready to break down into individual cuts:


And a little kochi pron:

Yeah, I know...that's not what it's for...but I had yet to use it and thought this would be a great way to christen it. I'll do a forum bird sometime soon.

After a demo of each cut on the RHS of the pig, I scored a prime position to do the ham on the LHS. Here I am with the instructor talking about the lines of the muscles and how to shape the cuts:



I had some trouble finding the ball joint, so the instructor got back in there and helped me locate it:


Then I was able to get in there and pop the tendons holding the joint together. Was cool to see the joint open up when the last tendon was cut. Great feedback.


This little kochi cuts damn well.


Making the last cut, tracing along the pelvis to separate the ham.


A few shots of the cuts as they were coming off, into the holding bin:




BACOOOOON!


Classmate taking off the 2nd belly.


Fat ass rooster, guarding the hen house:


Fun macro shot of the bone saw at the end of the day:


The butchering knives supplied by the instructors, made by Green River:


The full set of photos are here...including some more gory ones that I redacted for this post:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/84378626@N05/sets/72157650336631211/

I'll do another post tomorrow after the curing class....if I get enough photo-worthy opportunities, which isn't a given. Hope you guys and gals enjoy and this wasn't too gory for you. I had an absolute blast and learned a lot.

 

Fantastic report! Do you happen to know what breed she was? The meat looks wonderful.

 

Looks like a good day. It is surprisingly easy to break down a whole hog to primal cuts once ya get going. Did you de-bone he ham?

 

I've never seen this done before. Actually being there couldn't compare to photos but you didn't good. Thanks for sharing!

 

Yup, a 200lb Duroc sow. Apparently one of the hairiest breeds around.

 

I did not. Tomorrow we will go through the curing process to turn it into a ham.

In fact, I didn't get to take anything home. Not even a single one of those amazing pork chops....had a good 3/4" of fat on them. <sigh>

 

Thanks for sharing all this Danny. Every carnivore should go through this at least once. You look pretty confident.

 

Pretty sweet. I live down the street from a local slaughter house and got the full tour once. Interesting how different the commercial process is to what you've shown.

 

Looking forward to part II:

 

Awesome. that looks like fun!!

One question: What happened to the head? There are some good parts in there

 

Very nice. Much better than doing it inside on steel tables in white coats. Looking forward to part 2.

 

One of the staff members took the head home to make hoghead cheese. All of the internal organs were taken to be used as well. Nothing was wasted.

 

Really interesting! Thanks for posting this.

 

I grew up in a village and some of my friends slaughtered a pig every year. We kids tried not to get in the way and usually our task was to stir the fresh blood for the blood sausage. The sow as usually killed on the premises and that could be a bit of an ordeal with lot's of screaming. But that was just part of it and never bothered me as much as the gutting, always found that disgusting. Our own family usually only took half a pig and the butcher came with the half side and cut it up in my Grandparents kitchen. He always insisted on getting fed cheese sandwiches because he could not eat sausage while cutting up the pig. The sausages were hanged to dry over broom sticks in the living room which was hardly ever used. The old house still has a smoker in the attic, built half way into the chimney. Best part of the day - dinner when everything was done. The broth that was used to cook meat and sausages all way is one of my favorite culinary memories. Served with cooked belly meat, fresh blood, liver and other sausages, sometimes with sauerkraut, and sourdough bread from the brick oven. Doesn't get much better than that.

Sorry, didn't want to hijack this, just brings back memories...

Stefan

 

That's a nice memory Stefan. Thanks for sharing.