I checked off one of my Bucket List items today - be part of a hog butchering!

M

music-city-missy

Well-known member
Of course it was really just a watching class and I was dying to get hands on. But it was GREAT! Everyone should do this at least once to see how things are done. This farm uses pretty traditional methods with just a few modern conveniences.

They shoot it. Bleed it laying down. Rinse. Scald it. Run it through a roller thingy to remove 99% of the hair. Scrape. Rinse. Singe. Hang. Scrape again. Rinse. Singe again to make sure all the hair is gone. Gut. Cut the head almost all the way off. Finish gutting. Cut the backbone. Cut the head off. Move to the table and then break it down depending on what they want to get out of that hog.

It was SOOOOO good. A local chef was there and cooked up three cuts of it and then two types of sausage - fresh and one that had dried slightly.

You haven't tasted pork until you taste pork that is fresh and raised traditionally. It's not just a little different, it's a world of difference.

 
Missy, we butchered a goat this summer. My understanding is the meat is better if it

hangs for a couple days. Did they talk about that?

Also, do you know who Chef Chris Costentino is? He's a SF based chef that had a show on the Food Network and he's got a restaurant that specializes on offal. Anyway, I interviewed Chris and he said when he started working with whole animals, he bought a vet book to learn how to seam out the animal. Chris has a book coming out (next year?). I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

One book I'd highly recommend laying your hands on is Deborah Krasner's "Good Meat". She covers pig, lamb, chicken, rabbit, etc. The photos - -step by step butchering, are incredible.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Meat-Complete-Sourcing-Sustainable/dp/1584798637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327300787&sr=8-1

 
Could you please tell me if this book covers slaughterig, butchering goat

along with goat recipes? Thanks

 
Ewww ewwww ewwwwww... I'll go for it under plastic in the meat case thanks smileys/smile.gif

 
Not goat. It covers: pork, beef, lamb, poultry, rabbit, and game. Full page photo

essays on animal breakdown - my guess, about 30 photos for each pork, beef, and lamb. It's a terrific resource.

 
By the way, the owner of the infamous goats is giving a talk next week. I won't be attending.

Don't let that sweet face fool you. She and her husband made my life a living hell for two months--threatening emails, harrassing the gardeners, circulating petitions, hacking our website, trespassing--all because we didn't allow their goats.

LOL, now she's some sort of garden expert.

http://www.everythinglongbeach.com/donna-marykwas-plans-for-local-gardens/

 
I went to a slaughter house in Kansas; work related. (Yrs ago). Still effects me. Notice how

I ask about Salad? Although I still eat meat. But, it took me a while.

Kudos to you MCM, for understanding and appreciating what they were doing. I was there for QC reasons, and they got a glowing report; but like Cheezz, prefer to have it in the grocery section.

 
No! We never would have won the contest with her as narrator.

Her haughty "greener than thou" attitude would have made you all vote for someone else.

 
Actually I asked about aging pork and the answer is no

Several years ago when City House opened Chef Tandy Wilson (See Bon Appetit this month)menionted in a newspaper article that he was buying whole hogs from the guy I was buying my pork from - a heritage breed with a nice fat percentage. Chef Tandy said that he talked about it being fresh in the article and at culinary school we were talking about it not being aged and rigamortis - we thought the article was wrong and left something out. But according to this farmer, pork is best fresh and starts loosing flavor after 3 to 4 days.

 
USDA has issues with everything!!!

That is one of the reasons this farmer started doing this to try and teach, preserve, and build some 'support'. He said he's made about all the improvements he's going to or can afford to make to keep butchering hogs for other small farmers around the area or for himself for the hams and side meat they sell. Sad considering they have been doing it since 1805 without killing anyone or making anyone sick.

 
Agreed. Lots of restos w/ in house charcuterie are dealing with HACCP plans woes, etc.

Question. How much was your class? Classes like that around here are running about $250 per person.

 
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