Another Hog hits the Freezer

Processing a pig is a rewarding challenge. Those of you raising pigs for meat sales, you must send your animal to USDA certified Slaughter and butcher houses. You are gonna pay around $5.00 per pound for them to do their thing. The only legal way to slaughter and butcher yourself and sell the meat is to have the customer take part. Ultimately, the customer is buying the live animal and you then assist them in the slaughter and butchering process. The theory is that as an active participant, you saw the process and approved of every aspect of the process in real time. Of course you can process your own animal and give away meat. That is fine.

I must admit that I had never pondered why it is forbidden to sell what you process but it is absolutely fine to give it away? I highly doubt that paying for it makes the situation more likely to harbor food borne illness. I have discussed why we have meat inspected when processed, but if we the people cannot be trusted to safely process meat without an agent of the government watching when it is for sale, I would think the same laws would apply to all meat.

This pig is for our freezer and our family only so the USDA situation does not apply, still it deserves a mention on any post regarding slaughter.

This particular animal was a breading sow named Rosie. She was a great pig, a kuni kuni by breed, and a real pleasure to have on the farm. Rosie has provided us with a freezer full of pork for about five years with litters of up to 7 piglets. One or two litters a year.

This year we breed her to our Berkshire boar with 2 cross breed piglets being produced. We also did a post earlier this year about the cross breeding project. After this birthing, Rosie started to show her age. She was not moving around much and had ultimately become too fat and heavy for her short legs. One must keep in mind that Kuni's are a pot belly pig and they can get too fat to move. It was clear that our options were clear. She had to move to the final stage of farm life for a pig...the freezer.

Kunis are slow growing animals. Generally birth to slaughter is at least a year. We went up to two to get them built up with enough muscle mass to make it worthwhile. Most livestock in our country is harvested around 6 months of age with many among us refusing to eat meat from an animal that is more than a year old. I have found some legitimacy with Chickens on this topic, but all of the "older" animals I have eaten have been tender and delicious so I just don't buy into this theory that older animals are less enjoyable to eat.

The morning of, I found her resting in the middle of her pen. I could have rousted her out of the pen and made her walk to a more convenient spot for me, however I did like this animal and thought it would be better for her to drop her where she lay. So that is what I did. A perfect shot with a 30-30 just below the ears. During the butchering, I took a series of photos for EMT class that will show the effects of a rifle round. I also confirmed that my placement was perfect, scrambling the brains and severing her spinal cord. The bullet wound section of the skull was saved for EMT class.

Getting her out of the pen was the first challenge. I did not want to drag her through the muck and I did not have a straight pull out of the pen. I had to use a winch pulley to get her out. I attached the pulley to the gate post and ran the rope from the tractor through the pulley to Rosie. We still had the muck to consider. I rolled her onto a tarp and then did some fancy rope work. I pulled the rope past the pig to the far end of the tarp and tied the ends of the tarp with the rope. I then made a half hitch around a hind leg and tied the front corners of the tarp to the rope. Back to the tractor and pulled her up to the gate. I was worried that she would roll as I pulled but my tarp hammock worked great and she slid right up to the door. I was able to move the tractor a bit and remove the pulley and pulled the rest of the way out of the pen. Using Meat hooks with the tow hooks on the bucket, I hoisted her up and drove out back to our processing kitchen.

There are three ways to begin this process. First is to dip the carcass into a vat of 160 degree water to loosen the hair. After the dip, all the hair is scraped off. Option two is to use a propane torch and blister the skin, then scrape off the burnt layer and hair. The third method is to skin the animal like any other animal. I chose to skin it. I do not yet have a tank big enough to dip a whole pig and nobody in my family really likes to eat the skin so I end up cutting it off. The other reason I skin our pigs is the fat. The Kuni kuni is a lard pig. Rosie had a fat layer 6 inches thick on many parts of her carcass. To keep the skin on and cook with such a thick layer of fat is not appealing to me. Also, we use the lard to make soap and to fill our deep fat fryer. Getting below the skin is necessary with these pigs if you intend to use the fat for anything.

Skinning is the longest part of the slaughter process. I hang the animal from the hind feet and begin skinning at the hind feet and quarters working my way around the animal, and from the top down. Many people stop at the neck, cut off the head, and dispose of it all together. Given that the pig cheeks are a delicacy, I skin all the way from ham to snout. As I am working, knowing that I will be disposing of the pelt, I cut finger holes in the skin. This allows me to pull the skin out effectively as I cut it away from the carcass. If we ever save hides for tanning, I will stop puncturing the skin. An important detail to focus on at the beginning is the anus and urethra. You don't want G.I. contents on your meat. I carefully cut the anus away from the flesh and reach in and either cut the connective tissue or just rip it away with my fingers. Once the large intestine is separated, I put a zip tie around it and pull it as tight as I can. Then push it through down to the pelvic cavity. Then continue with the skinning.

Once the skin is free, it is time to remove the guts. Lacerate the abdominal cavity up top at the hind quarters. Make sure the intestine and the urethra and vessels are all disconnected from the frame. Now I place my hand inside the peritoneum and push the organs in, away from the peritoneum. All the intestines and stomach want to fall out and will press forward on your hand. Remember you do not want to puncture any part of the G. I. system. So keep your hand in there and carefully, and slowly, lacerate the lining all the way down to the breast bone.

Prior to this step, I like to put something under the carcass to catch the guts. I have used wheel barrows, buckets, and the animal skin. This time I used the animal skin to land the yuck on. Keep in mind that there are some very delicious organs in there.

What do I use?

• Liver

• Kidneys

• Pancreas

• Heart

• Lungs

Many cultures eat the intestines as well...I do not. The liver is only delicious if you like liver or are dying of starvation. (explained in a previous post) I enjoy Liver and my daughters love liverwurst which is labor intensive to make, but worth it if you like it. I used to use the heart and lungs for Soffritto (also explained in another post) but over the past few years they have all gone to EMT Classes as they are virtually identical to human organs at a 1:1 ratio. Pancreas and Kidneys all go into my grind for sausage. The pancreas has a unique flavor which I do not enjoy on its own. Attached to the pancreas is a unique piece of fat that looks like lattice. I save this lattice and wrap a roast with it. The finished product looks amazing when presented at the table.

Other oddities in the pig are the tongue and the cheeks.

The tongue is gross. Many cultures find it to be a delicacy, but I just cannot eat tongue. I have added it to the grind in the past and it does good there. This time, I am using the undesirable bits for the next batch of dog food. I have had tongue prepared by others in the past and enjoyed it just fine, however having seen the tongue in action...

Guancialli, pork cheek, on the other hand is quite possibly my favorite part of the animal. Tender meat with velvety soft fat swirling throughout, this is some of the best eating you will probably never experience in America. The problem with the cheeks is that it is labor intensive and time consuming to get the face meat. The skin and hair are thick. There are tons of little bone points that you must scrape the meat off of. The lips and jaw then pose an additional challenge. Still, after all the work, you will have two beautiful velvety pillows of heaven for your devouring delight. There are several ways to prepare, but I use the cheeks for pancetta (Italian Bacon) and other times I cure it like Capicola.

If you are looking to learn how to slaughter and butcher animals, send us a message and we will teach you how.