A follow up from this thread
Good pig butchering video

When I have more time I'll write an AAR, for now pictures will have to do

I saw this guy in this original thread above, tracked him down (he's pretty close to me) , and additionally within two days he was recommended to me by a teaching chef in the area, and two different people told me they knew of him. So given all that, I decided I needed to take a class.

He was full mid week when I had time, but I asked to be put on the cancellation list, two days prior I was told there was room for me in the slaughter day. When the day was finished I told them if anyone cancelled that night for the butchery day,  to let me know, and here I am waiting for another ferry to get there for day two (got an email before bed)


So here are pics from day one

Tamworth pigs

You are one lucky SOB.  I watched that video and all I could think of was how I wish I could be living in Port Angele's again.

So,mas I said in my post, I received an email before bed that they had a cancellation for the second day so off I went

Butchering and traditional dry salt curing

Here are some pictures.

Prosciutto , hanging two years, plus other meats



Guanciale. , died salted pig jowls.

Brandon is good people. I will be doing a lamb roast with him in a couple weeks.

Where in the world couldi find a class like that!?!?!?!?!

Quick question as I have never seen this step yet. Did you just peal the skin off to get rid of the hair? Just like you would skin a deer?

Man, those videos from the prior post got me all warm and tingly about this guy and now hearing that someone from here took the class makes me want to drop what I'm doing and butcher.

Thanks for the pics, OP.  My jealousy has envy right now.

That is AWESOME! Good for you man, living the butchering dream! Now you have knowledge that you can pass down to others regarding this. Thanks for posting the pics.

No you don't want to skin it, you lose too much fat what you do.

We scalded and scraped which didn't even take 30 minutes.

For a bunch of the cures, you want the skin on, and even for roasts etc they cook good with it on.

Since this happened last minute, I'm a bit behind in life; so it will be a few days possible before I can write a decent AAR.

OK with in 3 days please

Thanks for the info.

Here is a unedited version of the notes I took. These were just taken on my pjhone when I had time and they were to remind me of things



Get the pig drinking water so it sits still

Two inches above eyes perpendicular

Let other pigs be there. The gun doesn't mean anything to them.

Separating them causes major anxiety.

Kill submissive pig first

Bleed direct in line with back of ear. Knife to spine blade out clip artery. Capture 1 gallon blood. Kneel on neck. Push pooling blood out.

Push on bladder to empty.

Do tendons on all feet.




Nitrate to nitrite conversion.  With skin on curing.  Traditional Italian salami


Scalding

145 degrees 5 min

55 gallon drum. 2/3 full

Chickens 150 1 minute
Ducks 150 2 minutes

Really agitate the duck until you see down and skin

To check under and over scalding. If scraping pulls skin. It's over scalded.

If under scalded. You can rescald but get everything off you can first or that area will be over scalded after


Shave w sharp knife.
Against grain



Pull nails

Pulls pads off feat. Just scrape loose and pull off

Cut around head to spine right behind the ear.

Then hyperextend head and spine snaps and head comes right off.


Make sure everything is shaved.

Lamb, deer, cow all slaughter the same

Clean out ears.

Cut out gross parts of ear.

Head cheese. Skim stock never let boil

Let sit overnight in refrigerator then pull fat cap and then reduce

Head cheese = Bruan sp? In English

Spray off head   Cut around anus and vulva and then tie it off

With penis cut along top until you free it completely.

Tie string around colon.

Gentle score from anus to sternum until you see meat. Then rip with finger

Gently break fasia around colon until you can pull anus through.


Gently remove guts without removing fat.

Lift stomach up and out.

Call fat. Lead fat and liver. Try not to pull on or damage.

Once you find the esophagus cut. Leave heart and lungs.

If you leave gall bladder in too long it leaks bile and ruins liver.

Better to take some liver off than cut gall.

Sweet breads. = thalamus

Call fat. Wrapping of fat.

Small intestine. Can clean

Andouille. Sausage.
Intestines and stomach.

Kidney.
Cook in two pans. Cook pee out and the switch pans.

Bladder is a casing

Lungs. Air out and cube. Simmer. Cool like tofu. You add flavor.

Cut out hAnger steak

Line knife up w spine on inside and cut all meat down to spine

Bone saw sternum at high angle.

Packer saw. Gets small towards end. Shorter is actually better. As blade doesn't roll

Saw through pelvis and down spine. Splitting feather bones.


When hanging head up pull on tail. And evacuate bowls


Intestines. Moisture only goes one way. Perfect casing for drying

Canadian bacon is top bacon. Before refrigeration

Shoulder and loin to make sausage. Naturally 30% fat

Leaf fat. Grind to increase surface area. Then melt.

60-70% more lard if you grind it

1-2 quarts of lard.
Don't mix w back fat etc.

Leaf fat doesn't taste like pork.


Proper salt curing is forever. Freezing is delaying decomposition. Freezing makes things go bad.  Curing makes things go good.



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Great Post.
Love dry curing meat.
A book I highly recommend,
"Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing", by Rytek Kutas.
I learned SO much from his book.

That book looks good. I'm making a list of them all, that one has high ratings.

This next year I plan to try to get a handle on dry curing, meat and vegatable canning, and pickling.

Maybe by next year I'll be ready for more things like smoking, dehydrating, and fermenting.

A good article about the first day of class, the slaughter day

Article

And another good article about the people

Article