Ordered a side of Heritage Pork

Post by **redzed** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 06:39

Butterbean wrote:Just curious, but you say you are getting a half with the head on, how do they do this? Split the carcass from snout to tail? Or, like here, many don't want the head and its your choice and you are getting the whole head?

Hmm, good question. I don't know how they slaughter at the place where the farmer will take it to. When my dad had his slaughter house in the 70's and 80's, he split every pork as you say, "from snout to tail", well actually it was from the tail to the snout as the pork was hung upside down and they had a large circular saw to do the job.

Post by **Butterbean** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 23:02

Nowadays a lot of people don't want the head and just leave it with the butcher. If that is the case in your situation you may get a bonus and get the whole head. Hope so. Lots of neat things you can do with the head and free meat makes things taste better somehow.

Post by **Butterbean** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 21:43

After reading this thread I got to thinking about all the neat stuff you can do with a whole pig. Haven't raised any pigs since the price of corn skyrocketed and and the pig pen is a grown up mess. An eyesore for sure. Really needs mowing and a herbicide application but I imagine there is a snake or two in the pen so I hesitate. On top of that its hot and I have enough chores to do. And I'm getting old and lazy. Maybe more of the latter. But the thought of having having a pig to carve up the way I want is tempting.

As fate would have it I spoke to a friend yesterday and he has too many pigs and is willing to part with some at a reasonable price. His pigs are not heritage, only mongrels. Crossed up duracs, hamps, landrace, blue butts and berkshire's.

This has got me to thinking. Thinking the pigs could do a lot better job of cleaning up the pig pen than I could ever do. They will surely take care of the snake problem. Corn is cheap and I can buy it in bulk straight from the field and cash brings the price down even more. Pigs aren't but $50/each. Probably enough weeds and growth in the pen to keep two pigs content for at least two weeks.

Temptation is tearing at me.

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 15:52

Butterbean wrote:Nowadays a lot of people don't want the head and just leave it with the butcher. If that is the case in your situation you may get a bonus and get the whole head. Hope so. Lots of neat things you can do with the head and free meat makes things taste better somehow.

Here here!

I take my pigs to be slaughtered, and hang around while the work is done. If you do this, you can make sure that you get the pieces they are accustomed to tossing. Show up with a cooler with ice in it. Trust me almost nobody wants heads, so when they split your hog, ask them to split it all the way through the head and cut off the head. Then take both pieces. Heads make THE best broth, ideal for posole. Plus you get the jowls, which you can remove before boiling the head.

I don't know how it's done everywhere, but where I go they've got a well saw, which is pretty much a butcher's chain saw. They ask me how many pieces I want the pigs cut up in. I go with the head plus 3 pieces per side. Those are manageable pieces to carry (still heavy though), and a size that I can fit into the spare fridge that use for aging. That size is again manageable when it comes to cutting them up - I can do one or two pieces at a time if I want, leaving the rest in the fridge to stay cool (just above freezing).

I also bring a ziplock bag for the blood. They collect that for me, and then dump the entrails in a 5 gallon bucket. I dig through them to get the liver, kidneys, spleen, heart, lungs, stomach and caul fat. They are not supposed to give you the lungs but maybe you'll get lucky. You might think you are being a bother doing this, but at least where I go the guys doing the work are very happy to see this stuff not going to waste.

And Butterbean yeah! get yourself those pigs. I have been looking at piglets on Craigs List. Prices are good right now...not sure why. Maybe most people prefer to start them in the Spring to butcher in the Fall.

Jeff

Post by **Butterbean** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 20:53

The butcher's I know welcome the company too. I mainly carry the livestock to them just for the gov't inspection stamp. I'll get them to kill it and break it in half or whole quarters then I take it from there.

Post by **redzed** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 22:38

Butterbean o'le boy, if I had the means of raising my own pork I would do it in a heartbeat! Buy a few piglets and raise them, sell them, keep one or two for the family and your pork will pay for itself. More and more people are willing to pay big bucks for free range pork from small producers. Go for it!

Post by **Butterbean** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 14:18

I probably will get a couple. I won't be breeding them anymore though because the cost of keeping the boar just can't be justified on my small scale and insemination isn't practical without some better facilities.

Post by **redzed** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 04:56

Well so much for my side of heavy heritage pork. Earlier in the week I went to pick up my order and was surprised that what they had for me was a side of a skinny white pig, weighing all of 70lbs! And here I was getting excited about getting a Berk/Tamworth cross, half weighing 110-120lbs. Turns out some restaurant got mine and I was left with this thing. There was absolutely no fat on this animal, the meat was light pink colour, making it useless for dry curing. I broke it down into roasts and chops, will smoke the thin bacon, make headcheese out of the head, trotters, hocks and tongue and decide what to do with the ham later. The few pounds of trimmings will go into sausage. Tried a roast and while very tender, the meat was almost perfectly white and greatly lacking in flavour.

Needless to say, I am not happy.

Post by **Bob K** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 16:33

Bummer. You would think if they had to substitute you would have been given a choice!
Modern day pig in a poke

I wonder if BiCan got the other half.

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 06:48

BriCan wouldn't have accepted the other half. I bet, he would've told them to bend over and change suppliers.

BriCan · Post by **BriCan** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 09:18

Bob K wrote: I wonder if BiCan got the other half.

Sad to say I did not ... transportation charges would have put it out of reach for this time ... and here was me thinking it would have been too big/long for the car

BriCan · Post by **BriCan** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 09:21

redzed wrote: Turns out some restaurant got mine and I was left with this thing.

Needless to say, I am not happy.

One look at that I would have told them where they could stick it

BriCan · Post by **BriCan** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 09:25

crustyo44 wrote:BriCan wouldn't have accepted the other half. I bet, he would've told them to bend over and change suppliers.

To true mate

I do have an offer of an carcase/side of organic pork ... breed unknown as yet to do with what I will ... a special tribute to a 100 year old farm

Post by **redzed** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 07:28

As far as telling the farmer to stick the pig, it would not have been that easy since I put down a $100 deposit.

And I did not want to burn any bridges. Of course in the end I ended up paying a premium for the small amount of meat I got.

Next time I will take the time to drive out and take a look at the pork while it's still running around.

Win some lose some