My 1/2 pig has finally arrived!
Discussion
Well, after several months growing in a mates paddock, 4 Royal Berkshire pigs were slaughtered last week and mine was butchered on Thursday. Slaughter weight was 65kg's, so smack bang in the middle of the targeted 60-70kgs.
The total cost of the project, (purchase, feed, slaughter and butchering), has worked out at approx £1.80-£2 per lb of butchered meat (~28-30kgs per half), so well below shop price for something we can trace fully back to the grain! We went for, and started off on organic feed to begin, but as we couldn't guarantee any of the other fruit/veg being organic, and of course his paddock isn't certified either, we settled for non-GM feed from my dad's animal feed mill given the extra cost of organic feed.
The butcher had a chop from each pig, and said it was a very tasty meat, full of flavour, but with slightly more fat on than he'd go for if he was selling it - that's not to say it's a bad thing, as the fat itself made for lovely crackling and was "exceptionally tasty". Looking at them, both as a carcass and now, having been jointed, he's right. We need to tweak the food mix for next time, as whilst the offers of free windfalls and dried fruit were very much appreciated and helped both keep the cost down and really add flavour, I think they had too much fruit in their diet - the sugars went straight on as fat - and the proportion of sugars/carbs/protein was slightly out.
So, what's the plan with my 1/2 porker? Well, I'll be going down the route of bacon, hams, and sausages, with a superb-looking joint put straight into the freezer for roasting at Christmas. The butcher kept a good bit of meat on the ribs, so they'll make lovely sticky ribs for the New Years day buffet!
I've got half a belly, which has been halved again, one to be dry cured for streaky bacon to wrap the turkey (but to be honest I don't think it'll last that long!!)
and the other will go towards sausage and a roasting joint. The back has been boned, so that'll make some nice smoked bacon, with possibly some sweet cured unsmoked too..
The cheek and some of the shoulder will go with the belly to make snorkers, and I'm going for a medley of flavours - fresh sage and onion, apple and cider, and chilli, and a couple of ready made traditional herb mixes from Sausagemaking.org. This afternoon's job, is to prep and start the production line going!!
A couple of joints have been given away to family and friends, and my mate's having the kidney/liver for a pate and the bones to be roasted for his dogs... all of which leaves me with a rolled and boned shoulder to halve and cure for a roasting ham and gammon.
For the next few months, I shall mostly be eating pig.
The total cost of the project, (purchase, feed, slaughter and butchering), has worked out at approx £1.80-£2 per lb of butchered meat (~28-30kgs per half), so well below shop price for something we can trace fully back to the grain! We went for, and started off on organic feed to begin, but as we couldn't guarantee any of the other fruit/veg being organic, and of course his paddock isn't certified either, we settled for non-GM feed from my dad's animal feed mill given the extra cost of organic feed.
The butcher had a chop from each pig, and said it was a very tasty meat, full of flavour, but with slightly more fat on than he'd go for if he was selling it - that's not to say it's a bad thing, as the fat itself made for lovely crackling and was "exceptionally tasty". Looking at them, both as a carcass and now, having been jointed, he's right. We need to tweak the food mix for next time, as whilst the offers of free windfalls and dried fruit were very much appreciated and helped both keep the cost down and really add flavour, I think they had too much fruit in their diet - the sugars went straight on as fat - and the proportion of sugars/carbs/protein was slightly out.
So, what's the plan with my 1/2 porker? Well, I'll be going down the route of bacon, hams, and sausages, with a superb-looking joint put straight into the freezer for roasting at Christmas. The butcher kept a good bit of meat on the ribs, so they'll make lovely sticky ribs for the New Years day buffet!
I've got half a belly, which has been halved again, one to be dry cured for streaky bacon to wrap the turkey (but to be honest I don't think it'll last that long!!)
and the other will go towards sausage and a roasting joint. The back has been boned, so that'll make some nice smoked bacon, with possibly some sweet cured unsmoked too..The cheek and some of the shoulder will go with the belly to make snorkers, and I'm going for a medley of flavours - fresh sage and onion, apple and cider, and chilli, and a couple of ready made traditional herb mixes from Sausagemaking.org. This afternoon's job, is to prep and start the production line going!!
A couple of joints have been given away to family and friends, and my mate's having the kidney/liver for a pate and the bones to be roasted for his dogs... all of which leaves me with a rolled and boned shoulder to halve and cure for a roasting ham and gammon.
For the next few months, I shall mostly be eating pig.
Sounds fantastic!
You must have a BIG freezer, though!
I'd love to have enough room to rear some animals for the pot but alas I live in the town and my wife prefers a landscaped garden to a smallholding. Ah well..
Enjoy! Thanks for sharing. Post up when you cure your hams and bacon. WITH PICTURES!
You must have a BIG freezer, though!
I'd love to have enough room to rear some animals for the pot but alas I live in the town and my wife prefers a landscaped garden to a smallholding. Ah well..
Enjoy! Thanks for sharing. Post up when you cure your hams and bacon. WITH PICTURES!
Right, it's been a bit of a long day, but finally the 2/3 of the belly is curing (both smoked and unsmoked) along with some loin to make into bacon.
You can see what the butcher meant by it being a bit fatty for sale, the extra layer the pig had put on is very visible on the loin
A number of roasting joints have been cut up ready for handing out to friends, and I've got a nice joint to start a wet cure with, tomorrow. There's also been a good helping of skin put in the freezer to make extra crackling!
As we've gone halves on a meat grinder and sausage filler, tonight was the night for making the sausages. We both underestimated the time it would take to grind, chill, blend, and finally fill, so what was to be a 2hr job ended up taking the best part of 5hrs and that's without cleaning everything down afterwards!! Unfortunately the kitchen worktop was just too thick to clamp the grinder to, so it was into the garage and the trusty B and D workmate to the rescue.
I made up just under 4kg of sausage mix, 3 flavours were absolutely spot on, but the 4th, what I hoped would be a nice apple and cider flavour just didn't work. It was too bland. I added a bit of wholegrain mustard, to see if that would give it a bit of flavour, but it's not helped. I'm going to leave it overnight to see if it'll make a difference, but if not, I'll have to have a play with some different herbs and spices. My mate just made up 2 flavours from the bought herb mix, and both of his tasted superb. I think as much as it pains me to say, that when it comes to flavouring sausages, stick with the mix, as my fresh flavours were just too unpredictable. It doesn't look up to much now, the skins need to take on the moisture from the pork overnight before I can start to make individual sausages, but the smell while making them was lovely.
I put a bit of skin the oven while doing all my prep, and it crackled up lovely. There was nothing done to it, bar a twist of salt. It went into a hot oven and came out really tasty.
As it was a fatty pig, I thought I'd use the fat for the Christmas roasties, so while prepping and curing the bacon, I kept putting the extra fat into the oven to render down. The quality of the melted fat was really good - very very clear and looked just like a bought oil. Will update when I've made a roast dinner as to how it flavours the spuds!
Right, that's it, time for bed. Got to practice my link making somehow, as I fancy a sausage for breakfast!!
You can see what the butcher meant by it being a bit fatty for sale, the extra layer the pig had put on is very visible on the loin
A number of roasting joints have been cut up ready for handing out to friends, and I've got a nice joint to start a wet cure with, tomorrow. There's also been a good helping of skin put in the freezer to make extra crackling!
As we've gone halves on a meat grinder and sausage filler, tonight was the night for making the sausages. We both underestimated the time it would take to grind, chill, blend, and finally fill, so what was to be a 2hr job ended up taking the best part of 5hrs and that's without cleaning everything down afterwards!! Unfortunately the kitchen worktop was just too thick to clamp the grinder to, so it was into the garage and the trusty B and D workmate to the rescue.
I made up just under 4kg of sausage mix, 3 flavours were absolutely spot on, but the 4th, what I hoped would be a nice apple and cider flavour just didn't work. It was too bland. I added a bit of wholegrain mustard, to see if that would give it a bit of flavour, but it's not helped. I'm going to leave it overnight to see if it'll make a difference, but if not, I'll have to have a play with some different herbs and spices. My mate just made up 2 flavours from the bought herb mix, and both of his tasted superb. I think as much as it pains me to say, that when it comes to flavouring sausages, stick with the mix, as my fresh flavours were just too unpredictable. It doesn't look up to much now, the skins need to take on the moisture from the pork overnight before I can start to make individual sausages, but the smell while making them was lovely.
I put a bit of skin the oven while doing all my prep, and it crackled up lovely. There was nothing done to it, bar a twist of salt. It went into a hot oven and came out really tasty.
As it was a fatty pig, I thought I'd use the fat for the Christmas roasties, so while prepping and curing the bacon, I kept putting the extra fat into the oven to render down. The quality of the melted fat was really good - very very clear and looked just like a bought oil. Will update when I've made a roast dinner as to how it flavours the spuds!
Right, that's it, time for bed. Got to practice my link making somehow, as I fancy a sausage for breakfast!!
Pferdestarke said:
jep said:
The cheek and some of the shoulder will go with the belly to make snorkers,
Don't waste the jewel in the cheek on sausages. It needs browning in oil and braising in red wine and stock until tender. Best bit of the whole animalDon said:
Sounds fantastic!
You must have a BIG freezer, though!
I'd love to have enough room to rear some animals for the pot but alas I live in the town and my wife prefers a landscaped garden to a smallholding. Ah well..
Enjoy! Thanks for sharing. Post up when you cure your hams and bacon. WITH PICTURES!
We're going to do it again next year, but with a different breed. I'm sure that if you wanted a half or a quarter then we can work something out... There were 7 households sharing the 4 pigs this time, and those that didn't want to feed/get involved didn't have to. Admittedly, it may be a bit of a trek to get the finished product down the M4/A34 to Hants, but hey, hopefully it'll be worth it! You must have a BIG freezer, though!
I'd love to have enough room to rear some animals for the pot but alas I live in the town and my wife prefers a landscaped garden to a smallholding. Ah well..
Enjoy! Thanks for sharing. Post up when you cure your hams and bacon. WITH PICTURES!
jep said:
You can see what the butcher meant by it being a bit fatty for sale, the extra layer the pig had put on is very visible on the loin
It looks a wonderful pig Jep. That extra fat layer just gives you lots of options. Your butcher is thinking of his usual customers; the ones that walk in and spend a fortune on fillet this and loin that. Personally I'd remove the skin prior to cooking and leave about half the thickness of fat attached to the loin. I'd then score the fat in a diamond pattern and rub salt, pepper and mustard powder in to it liberally. Tasty fat, succulent lean, crisp, salty skin done seperately. Amazing!I would buy your chubby pig over the scrawny, tastless animals reared purely for the highest, fastest financial gain.
Your curing, smoking and brining are great and I imagine the bacon to be top-notch.
I would however, savour the best roasting joint, the shoulder, and invite 25 fellow PHers for Sunday lunch next week.
Excellent! I'll bring dessert.
Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No
Homer: Pork chops
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No
Homer: Pork chops
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
Edited by Mattt on Sunday 4th October 12:24
Pferdestarke said:
jep said:
You can see what the butcher meant by it being a bit fatty for sale, the extra layer the pig had put on is very visible on the loin
It looks a wonderful pig Jep. That extra fat layer just gives you lots of options. Your butcher is thinking of his usual customers; the ones that walk in and spend a fortune on fillet this and loin that. Personally I'd remove the skin prior to cooking and leave about half the thickness of fat attached to the loin. I'd then score the fat in a diamond pattern and rub salt, pepper and mustard powder in to it liberally. Tasty fat, succulent lean, crisp, salty skin done seperately. Amazing!I would buy your chubby pig over the scrawny, tastless animals reared purely for the highest, fastest financial gain.
Your curing, smoking and brining are great and I imagine the bacon to be top-notch.
I would however, savour the best roasting joint, the shoulder, and invite 25 fellow PHers for Sunday lunch next week.
Excellent! I'll bring dessert.
We get penalised for every pig that leaves the farm with more than 12mm backfat, because the buyers (supermarkets) say the consumer wants a lean pig. And yet the only time I hear an opinion expressed about the amount of fat on meat, it's always that there isn't enough.
Oh and for a 65kg liveweight animal, that is one fat pig.
pad58 said:
Good for you matey ,you wouldn't get that in a supermarket.
top man
Cheers Pad top man
Pferdestarke said:
It looks a wonderful pig Jep. That extra fat layer just gives you lots of options. Your butcher is thinking of his usual customers; the ones that walk in and spend a fortune on fillet this and loin that. Personally I'd remove the skin prior to cooking and leave about half the thickness of fat attached to the loin. I'd then score the fat in a diamond pattern and rub salt, pepper and mustard powder in to it liberally. Tasty fat, succulent lean, crisp, salty skin done seperately. Amazing!
Yep, he did say it was a bit fatty for selling, but that it was a good tasty pig, and what I've tasted so far, I'd have to very much agree! I've already kept a lot of the fat for just that, but I didn't think to add mustard powder to the rind... must give it a go!Pferdestarke said:
I would however, savour the best roasting joint, the shoulder, and invite 25 fellow PHers for Sunday lunch next week.
Excellent! I'll bring dessert.
Lol... That joint went straight in the freezer as soon as I got it back, and it will be roasted over Christmas. I'm not sure about dropping turkey from the main event, but there will be a meeting of pork and oven at some point! Shame, would have enjoyed cooking for 25 random internet bods! Excellent! I'll bring dessert.
Garlick said:
Fantastic
Cheers Paul! CatherineJ said:
I love reading stuff like this.
Thank you Been nice to do something that's just a little bit different for a change. Sure as hell beats powerpoint!bitwrx said:
Really galls me every time i hear that.
We get penalised for every pig that leaves the farm with more than 12mm backfat, because the buyers (supermarkets) say the consumer wants a lean pig. And yet the only time I hear an opinion expressed about the amount of fat on meat, it's always that there isn't enough.
My old man is in the trade as he has 3 mills up in Cheshire, so knows what you mean about the tolerances put on growers by supermarket buyers. I have to say I've not bought supermarket meat for a good long time, (unless it's that or turn veggie for the evening! We get penalised for every pig that leaves the farm with more than 12mm backfat, because the buyers (supermarkets) say the consumer wants a lean pig. And yet the only time I hear an opinion expressed about the amount of fat on meat, it's always that there isn't enough.
) and prefer to get mine straight from the farm/local butchers. The difference in quality is noticable, as is the amount of edible fat on the cut.bitwrx said:
Oh and for a 65kg liveweight animal, that is one fat pig.
Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, 65kg is a feather compared to a baconer! sleep envy said:
I hope you've kept the trotters, they're lovely stewed
Fraid not, I donated my half of the head, 2 trotters and some of the offal to the other half owner, as he wanted to do a brawn. My OH still doesn't like the look of nice jointed cuts, never mind what she'd think if she opened the fridge to see a foot looking at her! 
stuart-b said:
The rest looks fantastic! Nice
Cheers Stuart! Well I tried a few other ingredients to improve the flavour of the apple/cider/mustard combo, and have finally got something that brings out the apple, whilst still giving a nice flavoursome sausage. It's in the fridge chilling and I'll make some more sausages tomorrow.
Overall, a very good weekend
Fat = Flavour.
Nice.
We had a cow butchered and bought a huge chest freezer to keep it all in, the only thing is, usually a freezer like this will be outside the house, garage or something, be mindful when you are looking for a plug to put the drill into or whatever else it could be...
My dad did this and didn't realise it was the freezer he had unplugged so he could use the angle grinder and a whole cows worth of meat went to waste when he left it unplugged
We had a cow butchered and bought a huge chest freezer to keep it all in, the only thing is, usually a freezer like this will be outside the house, garage or something, be mindful when you are looking for a plug to put the drill into or whatever else it could be...
My dad did this and didn't realise it was the freezer he had unplugged so he could use the angle grinder and a whole cows worth of meat went to waste when he left it unplugged
Edited by okgo on Sunday 4th October 23:40
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