Thinking about doing own pig ? Is it worth buying the video?

[Jcran]

I have a pig who is ready to slaughter. I live in Northern California about 5 miles from the coast so foggy in the morning, high 60s to mid 70s during the sunny days. It is going to cost .75/lb to process the pig AFTER paying the mobile slaughter man $40 to come out and $60 to kill, skin, gut, and split. So I am thinking I might process my own after paying the slaughter man. There is a video by askthemeatman.com which costs about $27 that shows how to cut the whole hog up. First, if I don't have a place to chill my pig, can I just do it the day he kills the pig? I could probably fit half at a time into our largest cooler with ice and ice water over it. The weather is NOT going to be cold. I'd appreciate any and all advice.

[highlands]

Even better is if you know someone who can do it with you this first time. If not, check out YouTube. There are several videos. AskTheMeatMan is a good source. There are some others that are pure junk which I won't name since you've already named the good one...

Chilling the carcass is a big issue. Get that figured out. Work in the very late PM after things have cooled to give it time over night. Your temps are too high though. Lots of ice.

Other big thing is several very sharp knives, stone, steel, a bucket of warm water to wash your hands in time to time. A bucket of cold water for cleaning organs. Clean containers for organs and such. Refrigerate them immediately. Have a helper. Set the pig up on a sawhorse for skinning on its back. Can do it on the ground but easier up. Works hanging too with practice.

Have fun and realize that this first time will take you a LOT longer, probably four to six hours if you have no experience slaughtering and butchering. You'll get better and faster. Don't rush.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[Jcran]

Originally Posted by highlands

Chilling the carcass is a big issue. Get that figured out. Work in the very late PM after things have cooled to give it time over night. Your temps are too high though. Lots of ice.

Why the importance of chilling? Does it affect the quality of the meat? Or just the cutting bit? Or both? I thought this one time, I might pay for the slaughter and then just process myself. If I borrow my bro-in-laws ginormous cooler, coupled with ours, I should be able to get 1/2 pig in each. THEN I could ice them, or would it be better to put in ice water? How long would I have to keep them chilled before I could cut? I've got a nicely sized table for cutting outside, or a large enough counter space indoors. Thanks.

[highlands]

Short answer: Chill to below 41°F within 24 hours to remove animal heat and prevent spoilage. Then you can cut.


Long answer:

Chilling is critical. You need to get the heat out of the meat so that you do not get spoilage. The carcass starts at 103°F. You want to get it down below 41°F in less than 24 hours and lower is better. Meat doesn't freeze until about 25°F. 27°F is an ideal storage temperature although most people can't achieve that - not a home setup. Ice will get you down close to 32°F and that is very good.

It is ideal to let the carcass hang chilling past rigor mortis and I like at least three days of hanging for any species. More is better up to a point. Do not freeze it during this period. For aging hanging it is done in humidity and temperature control actually above the above ideal storage temps but still well below 41°F.

If you don't have space to hang it then cut it into primal cuts and get it into a fridge or at least a cooler with ice and then add more ice each day. It is critical to get the animal heat out of the carcass or you may end up with rotten meat.

Simplest thing to learning cutting the meat is to just do deboning. That is how I taught myself. It served us well as a family for 15(?) years. My wife, our son and I have been apprenticing with a butcher to learn commercial meat cutting for the past 18 months. Fascinating but not necessary for getting one's own meat into the freezer. Keep It Simple and don't worry about the cutting. Key is cold and clean.

You'll likely do the slaughter outdoors but I would suggest cutting (butchering) indoors to avoid dust blowing onto the exposed surfaces of the meat. Work in the cool hours.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[Jcran]

Thank you so much; it sounds like I can easily do the primal cuts and then get things into the fridge our our biggest ice chest. I'm sorry for asking so many questions, but should I wrap the cuts before putting on ice? I ask this because in the wonderful world of rabbits, one is NOT supposed to let rabbit meat sit in water for long (if any) time. I used to toss carcasses into ice water until finished processing. Now I bag them first then drop the bags into ice water. If I lined the bottom of the chest with block ice, put in the primal cuts unwrapped, then topped with crushed ice would that suffice, and add crush ice for the number of days you specified?

[highlands]

No problem on the questions. The first time you will learn _SO_ much. The second time will be much easier. Plan on it taking a long time. Pace yourself. Having a helper makes a big difference.

There is a very good and old guide to pig slaughtering and butchering on the internet. Let me see... Found it:

http://www.kerryz.net/pork-fb2265/

Here's another very old one but worth reading:

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/historicpubl...Pubs/SC076.PDF

Correct - don't let the meat sit in water. This is why we hang and why I slaughter in the cold months for our own family as is traditionally done. Warm month slaughter is a bit trickier...

[Jcran]

Our "cold-months" are probably your warmer months, LOL. Our winters are traditionally 30s morning to 50s daytime. We get few freezes. So I'll bag em and keep em on ice; thanks! And thanks for the sites. I went ahead and bought the dvd as much for my own curiosity as anything.

[highlands]

*grin* It is amazing how the world is so varied. I have lived virtually my entire life in our climate and am adapted to it. It is what I know although I've visited every state and a few other countries.

My young daughter and I were watching a BBC video on the ice age and they said something along the lines that the temperatures were 'far colder then with only a few months of they year staying above freezing and the winters getting as cold as negative 30°C - too hard a climate for modern humans to survive.' She and I laughed because that describes our climate and we survive, ney, thrive, quite nicely as did our native American ancestors. I suspect that the BBC narrator was writing from his perspective in England where things are so much warmer due to the ocean effect.

You're right, our nights are still dipping down into the 40°F's, thankfully not the 30's, and the days are in the 60's touching up into the low 70's. But, even down the mountain a thousand feet it is quite warmer. I rarely go off but my wife goes on delivery route to take pigs to market and meat to stores every week and brings back the "Holly Report" - her story of what's happening in the outside world and among other things she often comments about how warm it is in town.

So, do it in the coolest weather you can. If you have air conditioning then use that while butchering. I think you'll be fine with lots of ice in chests. Use a thermometer in a thick part of the meat and not touching bone. Ham's are good for this.

Cheers,

-Walter

[Jcran]

Air conditioning? Tee-hee; then I'll have to process in the car. In our town, 70 is a heat wave...we get ocean effect as well. which means we get the fog when summer temps heat up inland. The days have been absolutely GLORIOUSLY sunny and gorgeous this week but in the afternoons, the wind picks up off the ocean and we get a breezy cooling off. Right now at 8:52 its still in the high 50s but it will warm to the low 70s today. During the school year when it gets over 70, my poor students crowd the door asking to come in and cool off-they are such fog-dogs. When we visited my sister's wildlife refuge in Kansas 7 years ago, my own daughter, a toddler at the time, turned hot pink from the heat and humidity. People thought she was sunburned but no, just HOT!

[highlands]

*grin* Ah, another sensible person without AC. Our AC consists of living on the mountain where the wind blows almost constantly. It works! Speaking of temperatures. I was measuring the water of our pond and other things this week. After a spot of cloudy days our swimming pond got down to 45°F - the temperature of the spring water coming out of the mountain. This morning it was back up to 50°F after three days of sun warming the rocks and water. The cold period was shockingly refreshing. Now it is refreshingly refreshing. It is surprising how much difference that extra five degrees makes.

[Jcran]

So this morning the butcher man calls and can do the pig; however, its warm. So I call the teeny tiny isty bitsy general store that is 4/10 mile down the road in our little valley (it IS the downtown-only thing there besides our volunteer fire dept). I tell them I need a LOT of ice and explain. Richard, the owner, says, "why don't you just hang the pig in our beer cooler..there are even hooks in the ceiling". Holy buckets! I forgot the store is 100 years old and probably used to cut and sell meat. Yippee! I'm hanging the pig in a sheet and hanging it there for the required amount of time! Then I can bring one-half at a time home to process! We're just going to barter some pork meat!

[highlands]

Yeah Richard! Good things about small towns.

[Lazy J]

Originally Posted by Jcran

Richard, the owner, says, "why don't you just hang the pig in our beer cooler..there are even hooks in the ceiling". Holy buckets!

Awesome news for you!!! Good luck with the meat cutting.

Jim

[Jcran]

I just finished butchering and gutting/splitting our lamb this morning; I'll bring the pig home and cut it tomorrow.

[Jcran]

The video came. It was good up to the point when they start using the bandsaw. Without having one, I stopped watching. Overall, a really good video though. It showed me how to bone out certain cuts, how to make good ham roasts, and shoulder roasts, etc.