Posted: 1/22/2009 6:50:16 AM EDT
This is a continuation of The Family Hog, part 1.
Picked up our pork yesterday, less 2 bacons and a smoked ham. They'll take a few weeks. We kept our order very simple: one ham divided into fresh roasts, one ham smoked and divided, two bacons and the rest into sausage trimmings. Here's one and a half pigs in the back of the truck. 
The center tub has 60 pounds of sausage trimmings, the tub on the right has our roasts and chops. If you don't order vac packing and freezing, you get your meat in tubs which have to go back to the butcher. 
We got 5 fresh roasts in the 3-4 pound range. 
The chops are really nice. Here's a little one, most are larger: 
I put the chops in packs of four as that's the best quantity for us. The narrow 8" bags worked well for this which was nice as I've got a surplus of 8" rolls. Got ten bags of chops. 
I wanted to get the roasts and chops out of the way before dealing with the sausage. We eat a lot of sausage so I was excited to get rolling on it... 
The trimmings were pretty lean, so I didn't get really fancy here. I removed and reserved some fat, but mostly just ground the trimmings as they were. I would NOT do this without a big grinder.....really can't imagine trying to put 60 pounds of pork chunks through a little grinder. 
After grinding, we ended up with two medium size meat totes full of sausage. Doing this in cold weather really made a difference.....could just stick the finished totes outside (covered, of course) and bring them in one at a time. 
Made about 25 pounds of hot italian sausage...here it is in the mixer. The mixer makes things pretty easy. 
And 15 pounds of hot breakfast sausage using Chef's hot breakfast sausage recipe. Mrs. Feral is putting the finishing touches on the breakfast sausage. The Italian sausage got vac packed in 3 pound bags and we packed the breakfast sausage in 2 pound bags. The remainder of the unspiced ground pork went into 5 pound bags. I'll use that to make meatballs and will make some chorizo with it eventually. 
When it was all said and done, we had many, many packs o' pork to deal with. Some went in the freezers right away while others stayed in the cooler. We have three freezers to work with, but it's still takes a while to get all this meat into them and effectively freeze it. The cooler below is packed to the top with vac packed pork goodness. 
|
|
Nice job. I'm sure you feel quite satisfied with yourself. I'm thinking of getting a couple hogs myself this spring. I've been watching your "hog" thread off and on over the last few months.
Are you ready to raise a couple more yet? Or are you glad it's over and they are in the freezer? Anyway, congrats and what time is breakfast? I'll bring the eggs. One of my hens laid a pink egg today ... if that's possible. 
Shane |
|
Quoted:
Mrs. Feral is putting the finishing touches on the breakfast sausage. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0461.jpg Good work! Can you share the recipes? |
|
Quoted:
This is a continuation of The Family Hog, part 1. 
Picked up our pork yesterday, less 2 bacons and a smoked ham. They'll take a few weeks. We kept our order very simple: one ham divided into fresh roasts, one ham smoked and divided, two bacons and the rest into sausage trimmings. Here's one and a half pigs in the back of the truck. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0436.jpg The center tub has 60 pounds of sausage trimmings, the tub on the right has our roasts and chops. If you don't order vac packing and freezing, you get your meat in tubs which have to go back to the butcher. 
We got 5 fresh roasts in the 3-4 pound range. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0439.jpg The chops are really nice. Here's a little one, most are larger: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0443.jpg I put the chops in packs of four as that's the best quantity for us. The narrow 8" bags worked well for this which was nice as I've got a surplus of 8" rolls. Got ten bags of chops. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0444.jpg I wanted to get the roasts and chops out of the way before dealing with the sausage. We eat a lot of sausage so I was excited to get rolling on it... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0450.jpg The trimmings were pretty lean, so I didn't get really fancy here. I removed and reserved some rat, but mostly just ground the trimmings as they were. I would NOT do this without a big grinder.....really can't imagine trying to put 60 pounds of pork chunks through a little grinder. 
After grinding, we ended up with two medium size meat totes full of sausage. Doing this in cold weather really made a difference.....could just stick the finished totes outside (covered, of course) and bring them in one at a time. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0451.jpg Made about 25 pounds of hot italian sausage...here it is in the mixer. The mixer makes things pretty easy. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0455.jpg And 15 pounds of hot breakfast sausage using Chef's hot breakfast sausage recipe. Mrs. Feral is putting the finishing touches on the breakfast sausage. The Italian sausage got vac packed in 3 pound bags and we packed the breakfast sausage in 2 pound bags. The remainder of the unspiced ground pork went into 5 pound bags. I'll use that to make meatballs and will make some chorizo with it eventually. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0461.jpg When it was all said and done, we had many, many packs o' pork to deal with. Some went in the freezers right away while others stayed in the cooler. We have three freezers to work with, but it's still takes a while to get all this meat into them and effectively freeze it. The cooler below is packed to the top with vac packed pork goodness. 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/FredFeral/HogMeat/IMG_0464.jpg that is not fda approved. unless you promptly turn over all processed meat to me, i'll be forced to have them intervien |
|
Quoted:
Are you ready to raise a couple more yet? Or are you glad it's over and they are in the freezer? Shane Both.
I'm happy to have a bit of a breather, but also looking forward to the next go-round. I have some changes I want to make with how I do things. We also very much miss having some four legged garbage disposals around. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
quite the food processing setup you have there feral. i'm impressed and jealous. Thanks......I figure there are many things that are painful to purchase, but you only need purchase them once. yessir, as long as you buy quality. which manual were you using to raise your hogs and do all of the calculations? |
|
Quoted:
which manual were you using to raise your hogs and do all of the calculations? van Loon's Small Scale Pig Raising and the Storey's Guide. Both are good.....if I could have only one it would be van Loon's book. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
which manual were you using to raise your hogs and do all of the calculations? van Loon's Small Scale Pig Raising and the Storey's Guide. Both are good.....if I could have only one it would be van Loon's book. thanks man. |
|
Quoted:
Good work! Can you share the recipes? The breakfast sausage is from Chef's recipe listed near the bottom of the linked thread. The italian sausage has salt, sugar, fennel seed (crushed and whole), black pepper, red pepper and red wine vinegar. |
|
Well, we're much lazier than you, we have the butcher do everything.
Ours were done today with everything, so we picked them up and had all the customers pick ours up. We did 4 pigs, and we kept the small one in whole. 194lbs hanging. It was a lot of meat, these were better genetic pigs and we got a lot more bacon than out of the others. So, we were very pleased with that. It BARELY fit in the freezer We charged our other people, $2.25/hanging weight pound (since that's exact) plus the butchering fees, but not the kill charge. (we covered that) the other pigs weighed 208, 218 and 230. The total butchering fee was $1005 for everything. Kill truck, kill, rendering, curing, cutting, etc. One guy with 1/2 pig didn't do a ham or bacon and one lady wanted to cure her own 1/2 pig. we grossed $2000, figure we had $600 or so in food, $50 in straw and such (straw is outrageous!!!) and just selling the 3, still made about $400 AND ended up with a "free" 170 lbs of pork. Yes, i would say that worked. 
next batch in april. |
|
Quoted:
and why is all that salt all over the ground in the outside pics??? Last Texan we had visit wondered the same thing. Told him it wasn't salt on the ground, it was powdered sugar. He didn't believe me but dutifully walked the property and sampled the white stuff in a few places. Came back to the house with a dejected look on his face and said "Damn, it don't lay on the ground in Texas, but at least there the sugar's sweet." 
|
|
Quoted:
The trimmings were pretty lean, so I didn't get really fancy here. I removed and reserved some rat, but mostly just ground the trimmings as they were.
So how much rat do you use per lb ?  One rat per 20 pounds sausage seems to give a nice edge to the flavor.....kinda like pumpkin pie. 
|
|
Quoted:
We charged our other people, $2.25/hanging weight pound (since that's exact) plus the butchering fees, but not the kill charge. (we covered that) the other pigs weighed 208, 218 and 230. The total butchering fee was $1005 for everything. Kill truck, kill, rendering, curing, cutting, etc. One guy with 1/2 pig didn't do a ham or bacon and one lady wanted to cure her own 1/2 pig. we grossed $2000, figure we had $600 or so in food, $50 in straw and such (straw is outrageous!!!) and just selling the 3, still made about $400 AND ended up with a "free" 170 lbs of pork. Yes, i would say that worked.
next batch in april. Good deal! 
I like charging a hanging weight per pound––that sounds like a great idea. People can decide early on if it's worth it to them and they then get what they get. I like your numbers.....I'll have to try to match 'em next time around. April/May will be when our next bunch rolls in, I think.
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
We charged our other people, $2.25/hanging weight pound (since that's exact) plus the butchering fees, but not the kill charge. (we covered that) the other pigs weighed 208, 218 and 230. The total butchering fee was $1005 for everything. Kill truck, kill, rendering, curing, cutting, etc. One guy with 1/2 pig didn't do a ham or bacon and one lady wanted to cure her own 1/2 pig. we grossed $2000, figure we had $600 or so in food, $50 in straw and such (straw is outrageous!!!) and just selling the 3, still made about $400 AND ended up with a "free" 170 lbs of pork. Yes, i would say that worked.
next batch in april. Good deal!
I like charging a hanging weight per pound––that sounds like a great idea. People can decide early on if it's worth it to them and they then get what they get. I like your numbers.....I'll have to try to match 'em next time around. April/May will be when our next bunch rolls in, I think.
I'm in a pretty lucky spot. We're a island of the county surrounded by the city (so lots of customers, but we can do ag) and it's a pretty well to do county (boulder county) with lots of organic hippies. But, you always have to remember, you're selling retail, not wholesale, why is your pig different? I like the hanging weight because it's exact, no questioning. BTW, we had breakfast for dinner (sausage AND bacon) and damn, once again, killer Incredibly lean again. I find you have to cook it on lower temperatures (like Buffalo), or it burns. |
|
Quoted:
Umm, with all due respects, I don't suppose we could get more pics of Mrs. Feral, could we??
Oh, and the pork looks good also. Ok, real question: Make and model of your mixer and grinder? Thanks, Merlin No, you can't get any more pictures of Mrs. Feral. 
But thanks for asking.
The grinder is Cabelas's 1.5 HP model. It's a nice unit, didn't even get warm processing 60 pounds of pig. We'll see how it lasts––so far so good. It has a tomato juicer attachment, so it'll do double duty for us when we do our tomato sauces this summer. Apple sauce too. |
|
Quoted:
FYI - my wife cried last night when I showed her the meat in the tubs. "you meet those cute pigs?" Yes dear. R. There's some sadness involved with the demise of these pigs. I don't know how it could be otherwise with a small scale operation and a "farmer" who likes animals. I miss seeing these pigs out romping and playing.....but they existed to put meat on my family's table––and that's what they've done. I'll enjoy the next batch just as much.....and I'll be sad when they go to the butcher. Such is the way of the world. |
|
Feral first off, thanks for your post (both the original thread and this one).
Secondly: What were your reservations with butchering the animals yourself? With all due respect, you spent money needlessly as with a few simple tools, a place to hang the pigs and some freezer space, you could've easily butchered the pigs in perhaps 8 man hours from hanging to freezer. |
|
Thanks for the update feral!
I'll have to check, but I think one of my brothers had a similiar Cabels's grinder and smoked it during a marathon session, but Lord only knows what he was shoving thru it! He just picked up big commercial unit that needed a motor for free, so I suspect as soon as he scrounges up a freebie, he'll fire it up. Hopefully, before I start killing mine. 
|
|
Quoted:
Secondly: What were your reservations with butchering the animals yourself? With all due respect, you spent money needlessly as with a few simple tools, a place to hang the pigs and some freezer space, you could've easily butchered the pigs in perhaps 8 man hours from hanging to freezer. I'm not even considering "on farm" processing until I have: (a) More help available. (When you mention "man hours"....well, I'm the only man available.  )
(b) More equipment infrastructure. It's easy to say "Oh, you should butcher them yourself" but when the rubber meets the road the butcher's kill/cut charge looks like pretty cheap hired labor to me. |
Put some of our breakfast sausage into patties and fried it up. Mmmmm good. Chef's recipe is solid. The sausage was less fatty than the storebought version, but still had plenty of fat. Not really used to these hamburger size patties, but I think I can overcome that.
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Secondly: What were your reservations with butchering the animals yourself? With all due respect, you spent money needlessly as with a few simple tools, a place to hang the pigs and some freezer space, you could've easily butchered the pigs in perhaps 8 man hours from hanging to freezer. I'm not even considering "on farm" processing until I have: (a) More help available. (When you mention "man hours"....well, I'm the only man available. )
(b) More equipment infrastructure. It's easy to say "Oh, you should butcher them yourself" but when the rubber meets the road the butcher's kill/cut charge looks like pretty cheap hired labor to me. I'd be more than happy to walk you through the process via email if you'd like. Here's a few pictures of the process: 
You'll need a trough (see the one above, it was built out of scrap metal) A waterhose and some Dawn dishwashing liquid to wash the pig A skinning knife A hanger and someway to hang the pig. If you can get a used swingset Aframe and a few yards of rope, you'll be way ahead of the game. A pair of bolt cutters (to remove the feet and break the pelvis) Saw A safe place to hang the animals or enough cooler space to cover the quarters in ice. The above may represent $50 worth of gear. If you see the pictures above, I typically clean between 2 and 12 hogs in a night with one-2 helpers. Your task of 3 pigs in a day is entirely doable. |
|
Quoted:
I'd be more than happy to walk you through the process via email if you'd like. Here's a few pictures of the process: http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/allusakid/100_0138.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/allusakid/100_0141.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/allusakid/100_0132.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/allusakid/100_0139.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/allusakid/Picture057.jpg You'll need a trough (see the one above, it was built out of scrap metal) A waterhose and some Dawn dishwashing liquid to wash the pig A skinning knife A hanger and someway to hang the pig. If you can get a used swingset Aframe and a few yards of rope, you'll be way ahead of the game. A pair of bolt cutters (to remove the feet and break the pelvis) Saw A safe place to hang the animals or enough cooler space to cover the quarters in ice. The above may represent $50 worth of gear. If you see the pictures above, I typically clean between 2 and 12 hogs in a night with one-2 helpers. Your task of 3 pigs in a day is entirely doable. Great set-up you got there!
I'd consider doing hogs here if I had that kind of facility. It's in my three-year plan to get equipped for processing meat chickens here......won't be too big a jump to do hogs once I'm set up to process chickens. |
| Feral, you said earlier that on the next batch you have some things you're going to do different. What changes are you gonna make? What worked, what didn't? We used to have a large pig pen on the farm decades ago, before my time. Been thinking about getting into pigs lately. I have 6 goats and 1 sheep right now as pets. They eat as much as you fed those pigs and I not getting anything out of them. On a related note, anyone have any experience with pig watering nipples? Could you use them on a stock tank or water barrel? |