Hog day!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Put our hog up today. 275 lbs. I'll grind tomorrow, then cut chops and cure bacon next week. Pork rinds are in the oven!

[gwpercle]

In Louisiana we call it having a boucherie' ! In the days before refrigeration and freezers were common families would take turns supplying a hog , the hog was killed and butchered and the meat divided among three or four families . It could be quickly used up before spoilage . My father and grandfather were good at making sausage and smoking cuts of pork for preservation .
I kind of miss the get togethers , meat processing and the cracklings that were made during the lard rendering process . Momma would say we used up every part of the hog except the squeal .
Gary

[buckwheatpaul]

My hogs are free range critters.....brats, sausage, ground pork.....not generally enough sow belly for bacon though!

[JBinMN]

Good to read about folks who still do the "traditional" " old school" ways.
;)

Thanks for sharing that ya'll still do it! It is really becoming rare. Just like canning up meats, fish & vegetables, or even now, raising a home garden to feed the family. My family still does a lot of the same, but it is getting to where the youngsters do not want to do it, unless us older ones are there to do it as well with them.

I hope such doins stay in tradition after we are gone. Not so sure that will happen... Just hope that the teaching, experiences & remembrances will help motivate the doing of it...

Thanks again! for sharing your doins!
:)

[jsizemore]

In Louisiana we call it having a boucherie' ! In the days before refrigeration and freezers were common families would take turns supplying a hog , the hog was killed and butchered and the meat divided among three or four families . It could be quickly used up before spoilage . My father and grandfather were good at making sausage and smoking cuts of pork for preservation .
I kind of miss the get togethers , meat processing and the cracklings that were made during the lard rendering process . Momma would say we used up every part of the hog except the squeal .
Gary

Ford will buy that squeal for the brakes on their cars.

[brewer12345]

How do you kill the pig? Bullet through the brain? After butchering some small wild hogs, it doesn't seem like cutting up a domesticated hog would be that difficult.

[dangitgriff]

Ford will buy that squeal for the brakes on their cars.

They circled the problem!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

How do you kill the pig? Bullet through the brain? After butchering some small wild hogs, it doesn't seem like cutting up a domesticated hog would be that difficult.

Yep. Lee 158 RNFP cast out of 50/50 COWW/Pure +.5% tin (pewter) powdercoated. Pushed at 900 fps with Promo out of a 3" Sp101. Not difficult, but at 275 lbs, it is quite a bit of animal and takes some time. We scald and scrape which adds to the work.

[gwpercle]

How do you kill the pig? Bullet through the brain? After butchering some small wild hogs, it doesn't seem like cutting up a domesticated hog would be that difficult.

Grand Paw had an old single shot 22 LR , he would angle a 22 bullet through the ear hole and into the hogs brain ... one shot clean kill , I never saw him need 2 .
I was glad when He and Dad stopped raising hogs... I was the one who had to slop the hogs and didn't enjoy it .
Gary

[ACC]

There is some good eatin' on them feral hogs. Very little fat.

ACC

[shortlegs]

A friends son killed a 300 pounder yesterday also. 45 colt 255 grn lee over 17 grn of 2400. a little over 1300 fps. 75 yd shot high on shoulder. Boolit exited and I guess is still going. He skinned his instead of scalding and scraping.

[brewer12345]

I have only skinned (once, hoping to do a pig hunt again in the next year). How does scald and scrape work?

My buddy and I split the odd pig from a 4H kid or local small farmer, but the butcher does everything.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

We didn't find an exit. Went looking for the boolit, but just found a small fragment. Metal detector didn't turn up anything. Either the boolit fell out or deflected in the skull and exited where we weren't looking. I might run the detector over the dispatch site.

[Hogtamer]

Gotta skin feral hogs. No matter how much you scrape you get blood running out of the pores, no fat I guess.

[10x]

A lot of hard work to put up a hog. That was over 50 years ago and I miss it.
Fresh pork liver cooling on the snow, then cooking in the frying pan with bacon and onions.
Home cured maple smoked bacon and hams, making sausage casing from the intestines, Head cheese, pork chops, pork roast, pea soup from stock made from the ham bone. We did not throw much away.
What ever happened to Habicure? Probably outlawed by now.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Got all my chops cut, wrapped, and frozen yesterday. Used some of the excess fat to mix with venison. Froze the rest of the extra fat to render for lard at a later date. Bacon is curing.