Don't trust Google....... :-D

E

evan

Well-known member
So I have this friend who owns a farm and raises anilamls. I usually buy 20-30 pounds of Piemontese beef from her every year, because her meat is outstanding!

She also raises pigs. On my way up to her farm to pick up the meat I had ordered, I saw that she posted a message onm FB about having a no show for one pig. I had a quick conversation with DH (should we get half a pig too? Isn't that convenient? Yes it is), and Googled "How many pounds in a half pig" and got the answer, "around 40 to 60 pounds".

I said to DH that sure, some of our friends is going to want some of that meat (it's great quality and pretty affordable) so I called my friend and said "I'll take half of the no show pig" and added "if you have some extra gound beef from the Piemonteses I'll take what you have (I make a lot of lasagna for family get togethers...).

Turns out, pigs are heavier than Google thinks. And my friends had a lot of ground beef. I now have 150 pounds of meat in my freezer. Guess we won't be converting to vegetarianism any time soon...... smileys/bigsmile.gif

 
Every time I go to the store, meat cost more. Ground beef for $8? Chicken breasts for $8?

Cost averaging will be to your advantage since it seems to always to up. Not sure what running the freezer is costing, but you'll never want for pork popcicles.

 
I just Googled "how much does a half a pig weigh and got this...

A typical slaughter weight is between 250-300 pounds. A 250lb pig will yield on average about 180 lbs of hanging weight. If you just take the prime cuts you will get about 120lbs of meat in the freezer. If you take the whole pig home - nose to tail - you will get about 160lbs of meat in the freezer.

My take......this is simply a general answer.....pigs come in all sizes and weights. Best to call the grower and inquire how much meat you will be getting, as they have it all weighed out and packed.
You are well stocked, for sure. It was great you had that much space in your freezer(s)

 
Grind your own. My best purchase this year, other than getting a top of the

line KA stand mixer (wedding present) on my neighborhood list serve for $150.00 is then buying the meat grinder. I buy chuck roasts on sale and grind them myself. Delicious and economical. Just be sure the meat is very cold or partially frozen when you grind it. I learned the hard way. READ THE DIRECTIONS! smileys/smile.gif

 
You know, Janet, that's an excellent point. Now that I think of it, the very, very best

Burger we ever made combined organic ground beef with boneless beef ribs ground up in the KA. Larry seasoned with Season-All, pepper, garlic powder and Pickapepper. Absolutely wonderful burgers.

I never think to buy stuff on sale for future use.

 
I think the pigs over here are smaller. I have learned that an average pig is about 200 pounds here.

 
I would totally agree about that but the seller of your pig would have done you a favor

to tell you how much it would be!! LOL

 
does your friend age the beef before selling it to you?

Just curious because years ago I bought a side of freshly slaughtered beef from a neighbor. I was eagerly anticipating the best beef of all time but It was really gamey/grassy and nobody liked it. It took a LONG time to go through it in our freezer. I learned later that all the beef from retail sources is aged before going to market and ours hadn't been. Since I have no knowledge or skill of how to do that, I haven't done this again.

 
apparently now the big thing is "gas packing"

It used to be dry aging or wet aging. Some steak houses pride themselves on how they age their beef inhouse. Generally I think dry aging is considered superior but I believe it is Ruths Chris chain that says their wet aging method is superior.

Anyway in 2004 the FDA approved a process to preserve meat using a combination of gases including carbon monoxide (think car exhaust). I read somewhere that over 70% of all of the meat in the U.S. is now gas packed and pretty much all of it from supermarkets other than those that are specifically avoiding it or selling at a premium like Whole Foods. Gas packing is cheaper and also makes the meat look fresh longer even when it isn't actually fresh.

 
Oh, yes! In my childhood, my dad and a couple of his friends raised a steer and then

would slaughter in the fall. Had to hang it for a while to age!! I think it is about 10 days for "normal" meat case meat.
This is NOT the dry aging that is prized by restauranteurs--just normal meat processing.

 
I do that...

my local IGA has amazing reductions on meat that is approaching sellby dates (I got some 1-inch T-bones slabs last week for $4/apiece). The roasts and steaks in the mark down are usually half or more off the price of the fresh ground mystery meat, gristle, tendons, and fat.

Also, if you don't want to take the trouble to get the KA out, you can do it the old fashion way and chop it with a knife or cleaver. They still do this in Austria where "hamburger" is called Hackfleisch, "mince" in the UK, etc. It's also the correct way to prepare beefsteak tartar. Just freeze a little, slice thin, and just start hacking at it like Norman Bates. Makes a wonderful meaty textured burger, chopped steak, or meatloaf.

 
Depends on what I'm doing with it.

I would guess that most roasts contain less fat than commercial ground beef which is 20% fat. I watched a local grocery making the hamburger back when they used to do that. They had a huge tub of chunks of fat they were grinding up with the meat cuts.

I trim what I need for what I'm doing and what the roast is like. It's an amazing deal doing it this way and as I said, the quality of the product is miles past the mystery grind of your average supermarket ground beef which could come from many different slaughterhouses by the time it's all ground up in those big factories and packaged.

 
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