Hog Slaughter and Smoke at My place. HBT people invited

[adamjackson]

Hey Adam,
This looks awesome!
I'm thinking of a summer vacation sometime in July.
Is there somewhere we could rent a couple of ATV's?
Also, how long would it take to drive over to Lake Winnipesaukee. My cousins have a couple of cabins on Bear Island.
Bull

I don't know about ATV rentals. I'm not as outdoorsy as people think But I'm about 1 to 1.5 hours from the lakes region

So is this on Saturday or Sunday?

Still floating. Slaughter should be Saturday with processing / roast on Sunday. The weather looks to be VERY warm this weekend so I'm having some doubts about this weekend. Ideally, it's below 40F at night and looks to be in the 50s.

 

[bluemoose]

I will be slaughtering the following weekend. I will keep checking back here. I have some people coming up next weekend for Dartmouth football, and the Pats game is at 1 on Sunday. I'll see what I can do to stop by. PM me the your contact info.

 

[adamjackson]

I will be slaughtering the following weekend. I will keep checking back here. I have some people coming up next weekend for Dartmouth football, and the Pats game is at 1 on Sunday. I'll see what I can do to stop by. PM me the your contact info.

Sweet. I'd love to stop by. Thanks for the invite? Mind if the GF comes as my +1? I can bring some beer. I'll keep you up to date on the date. I hope it's this coming Saturday. Don't want to resort to an ice bath. Would rather just hang it but that depends on the weather.

 

[bluemoose]

Weather permitting (and electricity), I will be slaughtering on Friday morning.

 

[adamjackson]

Weather permitting (and electricity), I will be slaughtering on Friday morning.

Cool! Best of luck! Need any help?

We did our yesterday. Today I am butchering and storing all of the meat and starting cures of the Ham roasts and bellies.

 

[bluemoose]

Looks like we have to push it back to next Friday.

Adam, I'll give you a call next week.

 

[adamjackson]

Looks like we have to push it back to next Friday.

Adam, I'll give you a call next week.

Thanks!


Photos of our slaughter / processing at my house.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamjackson/


Going to get a blog post up soon since it was my first one. Everything went fantastic!

 

[bottlebomber]

The picture of you with the semi auto in one hand and the knife behind your back is a little frightening lol. Ooh come out to my remote cabin pretty gnarly set of pics. I wonder how many people could do this instead of just picking up nice little packages of meat from the cooler at the supermarket.

 

[adamjackson]

The picture of you with the semi auto in one hand and the knife behind your back is a little frightening lol. Ooh come out to my remote cabin pretty gnarly set of pics. I wonder how many people could do this instead of just picking up nice little packages of meat from the cooler at the supermarket.

My friend who helped me with skinning saw that and said, "why in the hell were you hiding the knife like an assassin? The pig already had a gun to its head."

I was amazed at how well things went. I've NEVER stuck a pig before. I got both arteries perfectly on the stick, it bled out fast and it was a silent death. I didn't cut too deep to get the heart and didn't cut into any of the meat. Most people who knew I was doing it myself thought I would screw that part up and taint the meat. It was down right perfect.

-----

A lot of friends do this to brag about how sustainable they live. I did it so I could learn something and increase my confidence in life. It's why I brew beer, travel, make things, etc. It's all about moving forward and I wanted to feel and learn about this.

this was the easy part. Now, curing, smoking, processing the meat, making pancetta, bacon, headcheese, blood sausages and pate'. Trying to use every part of the pig so the next 3 weeks is all about using all parts and learning about that.

...overall, this wasn't any cheaper than grocery store food once it's all said and done but I had a pork chop today. it was 2 inches thick, tasted amazing. so tender and delicious.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

My friend who helped me with skinning saw that and said, "why in the hell were you hiding the knife like an assassin? The pig already had a gun to its head."

Epic. That was my favorite pic. Looks like a great time, and a $hit ton of hog in the freezer. Yum!!

 

[bluemoose]

Any thoughts about their weight? They didn't look huge, but perspective is tough in the pictures.

 

[bluemoose]

The picture of you with the semi auto in one hand and the knife behind your back is a little frightening lol. Ooh come out to my remote cabin pretty gnarly set of pics. I wonder how many people could do this instead of just picking up nice little packages of meat from the cooler at the supermarket.

Not as tough as you might expect. Hard to miss from that distance.

 

[adamjackson]

Any thoughts about their weight? They didn't look huge, but perspective is tough in the pictures.

Great question. They look MUCH smaller than they were. I'm 6'3" These photos taken before slaughter of them in their pen is a better perspective. Big, long, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamjackson/sets/72157631808536765/

I'd say live weight was 200-225. Hanging weight per half was 70-80 pounds? I think live versus hanging is a 30% difference, right? So yeah..200-60 pounds = 140lbs per pig.

 

[bluemoose]

Mine should be just a bit bigger than that. Looking forward to being done feeding them and starting having them feed me. A bit different flavor that store bought, huh?

 

[adamjackson]

Mine should be just a bit bigger than that. Looking forward to being done feeding them and starting having them feed me. A bit different flavor that store bought, huh?

It's exceptional how great they taste.

So, as far as things to remember for next time. I need to wait longer. I don't want them fatter but the pork bellies we got were total crap. The hams were also too small. The hogs were a lot of work but I wish I had less roasts and twice as much bacon. It's not about volume, it's that there just wasn't a lot of fat for what I was expecting.

 

[bluemoose]

They have vacuum sealers at bj's for $99. The meat will keep much longer.

 

[adamjackson]

They have vacuum sealers at bj's for $99. The meat will keep much longer.

YEP!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JPU6XI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Used that. Double-sealed all bags, wrote cut + pound on each bag. Filled up 2 freezers full of meat.

 

[adamjackson]

Posted a blog post with a summary and some thoughts

http://adam-jackson.net/blog/2012/10/31/a-summary-of-my-home-hog-slaughteran-exhausting-experience/

 

[bottlebomber]

So, are you gonna make some chicharones?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Now I'm hungry.

 

[bullinachinashop]

Hey Adam,
Great Pics!
I have a great book for you to check out if you haven't already.
The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery is great. Worth the $20.
Check it out if you get a chance.
Bull

 

[adamjackson]

Hey Adam,
Great Pics!
I have a great book for you to check out if you haven't already.
The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery is great. Worth the $20.
Check it out if you get a chance.
Bull

Hi. You're probably the 5th person who has recommended that to me. I guess it's time to finally buy it!

 

[bluemoose]

Adam, sorry I never contacted you. We are slaughtering tomorrow at 9:30. You are welcome to come. Give me a call tomorrow and I will give you directions.

 

[user 125772]

Interesting .....I've never seen a hog skinned when slaughtered ...they've always been scalded in a tub of hot water and scraped clean and hairless down to the clean skin, then gutted and split, (or quartered) .

Looks like you got 'er done just fine tho. :rockin:

 

[adamjackson]

Interesting .....I've never seen a hog skinned when slaughtered ...they've always been scalded in a tub of hot water and scraped clean and hairless down to the clean skin, then gutted and split, (or quartered) .

Looks like you got 'er done just fine tho. :rockin:

YEP! Finally finished curing all of the belies.

Smoking everything today on apple wood.

 

[bullinachinashop]

I'd be interested in helping out next time, just for the learning experience. Keep me posted end if I can make it, I'd love to help!
Bull

 

[SuperBreeze]

Cool pictures my man

 

[Fly_Rodder]

Great thread. It doesn't have to be about living off the land or being entirely self-sufficient. Every fall, some of us at the office get together and butcher 7-8 hogs and one big ol' sow (she's strictly for sausage). One guy raises them at his house in the sticks. We buy the piglets in the spring and turn them into meat in the fall. The sow we picked up this year was ~700lbs live weight. In the end, we averaged nearly 45 lbs of sausage, bacon, and canadian bacon per person plus whatever they had out of the pigs (some people sign up for 1/2 a pig instead of whole one).

It's a lot of work spread out over two days (executions and sow butchering on Friday and butchering/sausage making/wrapping on Saturday). Usually there are 8-10 of us. The farmer we got the sow from this year finished her off with avocados, squash and tomatoes leftover from regional farmer's market and the meat was exceptional. It's nice to use the whole hog for sausage because you get ham, rib meat, shoulder, etc in the sausage.

Right now my freezer is packed full with lamb, pork, venison, and 25lbs of kraut.