How-to Home Hog Harvest! Details and more about hog harvest '09!

[noobiechickenlady]

Quick question. Does pork do well aged or is that just beef & venison?

This just in from The Lurker.. I mean, The Pig Man.... about aging pork:

No - pork does not improve with age. Hanging two days in a very cool place just helps firm up the meat that much more and gets a more thorough chill on it. The firmer meat grinds better, etc - in my opinion.

It won't hurt a pig to hang for 2, 3, 4 days - whatever - as long as it's COLD (but not freezing!) if that's what it takes for you to get to it and get it done. But in general you should aim to have it killed and in the freezer/cured as soon as you can. Beef, sheep, etc. - yeah - hang them by all means. Pork - nope.

Thank you!! And thank The Pig Man, too

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

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[big brown horse]

We need more men around here! Even if he does make sissy bread.

 

[modern_pioneer]

I miss hogg'in in a lot of ways, I don't miss the smell though.. We did mostly yorkies, reds and chinas back on the farm, we'd process 20 head a week to be sold locally here. When the price of pork fell due to the big farms out west, we lost the farm. But thats why I am here now and do what I do...

Need a copper sink? I barter you a sink for a whole hog..

 

[modern_pioneer]

We need more men around here! Even if he does make sissy bread.

 

[big brown horse]

I got modern_pioneer to laugh!!! MP you don't make sissy bread do you? (hee hee, I doubt it)

 

[Bourbon Red]

OK - for the record I don't use the food processor to make bread - shoot - I don't even have some fancy 'marble table top' like some fellow Puget Sound escapee I could mention... Butter, on the other hand, can be made in 60 seconds in a food processor leaving the other 20-30 I'd otherwise spend cranking the old Daisey Churn doing better things.
That said, I am he to whom OFG refers to as The Pig Man - not sure how I feel about that. Better than The Piggy Man I suppose.... and I've been called worse than both so hey - why not. I chose Bourbon Red for a username because I'm not that creative and I'm having Bourbon Red leftovers for supper. (I thought I was killing one of this spring's hen turkeys yesterday, but it turned out so chewey I suspect I may have accidentley nabbed mamma - please, band your breeders....).

Anyway, I raise and butcher about 15 pigs a year for friends and family and kill and dress several more for friends who raise their own. I'm here to give OFG a hand with the butchering thread.

It really is that easy. I learned when I got fed up trying to load live hogs, haul them to the processor and pay $$$$$ to have it done. I scalded the first one and it took me somewhere around 8 hours to cut it up. Alone. In a freezing garage with a copy of "Basic Butchering of Livestock and Game" in one hand and a $19 meat saw (garbage) in the other. I've gotten a little faster and am happy to preach the gospel of pork wherever, whenever I can.

OK - I've gotta head to Cub Scouts. More later.

PS - I have some sheep to get rid of - I'll post over on the for sale board - if you're looking for sheep....

 

[big brown horse]

This is going to be fun!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

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[ohiofarmgirl]

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