Slaughter update
Warning: This post will describe Slaughter in graphic detail. If you do not want to know how your food gets to the table, pass this post.
Another Pig hits the refrigerator. One of our last two remaining Kune Kune's has been processed. Last Friday I put it down with a distant shot from our Mini 14. I have discussed how pistol ammo has failed to penetrate past their fat layer. Kune's are lard pigs and have a thick fibrous fatty layer around their ears and the top of their heads. The Jowl is a light, fluffy fat that should not be a problem, however, with a hollow point 9mm, it mushrooms and deflects. This time the bullet did deflect and ended in the right shoulder. This does bother me as damaging meat hurts my soul. I will say, the animal was dead before it hit the ground and with little tiny legs, that is not much time. That part makes me feel better. After butchering, I found there was very little brain left. I definitely had a "where'd it go" Moment
The bullet was a 5.56 55 grain Hollow point. Fired from a Ruger Mini-14. I aim for the ear. It was feeding time and separating this hog from the rest would have been difficult and frustrating, so I threw the grain and then tried to line up the shot. After several minutes, I had a clear sight line and sent it. The animal dropped immediately.
Now there are several ways to dispatch an animal. Professional slaughterhouses use a bolt gun. That alone does seem like a humane practice. Put the lights out then cut the carotid. When you put this together with the rest of the slaughterhouse process, it quickly loses its humanity. Pigs go in by the tractor trailer load. They are not fed, stay corralled on cement pads and then are forced through the chutes to a dark and dank kill room, pushed along with the sharp poke of the electric cattle prod. Cortisol and adrenaline levels skyrocket. The oldest method is to hold down the animal and cut its carotid artery. This presents several issues. For this particular animal, the biggest problem is finding the carotid. with 7 inch thick jowls that wrap around and down the neck, it is very difficult to tell where the cheek ends and the shoulder begins. We don't want to damage any more meat than absolutely necessary. A perfect shot wastes no meat and I do prefer to shoot them first.
We have a customer that comes out from a city for Lamb. For religious reasons, they must kill the animal themselves and use a knife at the neck to do it. For this process, we coral the animal that morning or the night before. Then catch it, drag it out to a convenient area, hog tie the animal, then hold it down and put it down. Then we put it in their big cooler and toss it in the their honda. Maybe it is all a fallacy, but I do believe that having the animal calm and relaxed before lights out is just a better choice. We all know that there are cultures that prefer to beat their food to death, believing that it is the most tender meat can be with the best flavor. That idea does not sit well with me.
Most of the time, I get a clean shot through the brain. Just behind the ear is the best target. When you hit this target, the brainstem gets destroyed and the spinal cord connection is severed. Instant death with the least amount of pain or awareness. Cutting the carotid is still best practice as this will get the most blood out in the fastest possible way. This time, the bullet went in the left side of the skull. The cavitation turned the brain matter into a smoothie. Half the copper jacket lodged in the right side of the skull and the rest of the bullet took a hard right turn and landed in the right shoulder.
I still have not created a dunk tank for a whole pig, and torching the hair off is an arduous task. Once again, I chose to skin the beast. Not the easiest process as the skin is directly attached to the fatty layer. Skinning is the longest part of the slaughter process. Once that is accomplished, getting the organs out goes pretty fast. I managed to protect the heart and lungs right up until I sawed the carcass in half. During that process, I cut the heart and destroyed the pericardial sack. I got curious during the slaughtering and thought I would try sawing the carcass in half and then taking the heart and lungs out of the animal. I theorized that I would be able to see in there better and would not have to contort and blindly reach. While I was correct that it became easy to get the heart and lungs out, I did not factor in how close the saw blade would be to the heart. This would not matter to any butchers as very few are placing a heart in the display case, but mixing them into the sausage grind. In our case, I promised this heart to my EMT class. I do have two sheep hearts still in the sac, so we can still see the sack in class. I was also hopeful to get the trachea all the way from the vocal cords, still connected and undamaged, to the lungs. I like to intubate and then let the students "bag the patient". The bullet destroyed the larynx but the lungs and trachea do appear in tact.
This pig hung in the cooler for three full days and was butchered on the fourth. Butchery did not go perfectly. I normally view a you tube video from Bon Aptetit which shows and explains everything very well. If you are interested to see the process, here is the best video I have found. Scott Rae and the Bearded Butchers videos are also
very well done. chose to skip it this time and ended up cutting the picnics too short and forgot to cut the ribs off. I am actually rather interested in eating the ribs after they cook with the picnic.
In an earlier post, "Another hog hits the freezer, I discussed separating the guanciale from the skull. When it came time to saw the carcass in half, I did so prior to removing the head. It wasn't until the saw got to the neck that I realized this. I gave a shrug and left the head attached to the right half. This did make carrying it into the cooler and then up to the house on butcher day. that thing was heavy. Once I got to butcher day, I did sever the head and set it aside until the rest was done.
I separated the leaf lard and packaged it in two-pound packs. In the past I have had people ask about leaf lard for their baking. I had always just threw it in the vat with all the fat. Then I had several people request leaf lard. Now we have it. Along with the leaf lard is another 40 quarts worth of trimmed fat that will become soap.
As far as the waste trimmings; dog food. The bullet-effected picnic and all the blood clots and the tongue and anything that I did not want to eat will be the next batch of dog food.
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