DIY Home Butchering, Supplies, Equipment, & Instruction List
Mar 22, 2016 23:14:25 GMT -5
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Post by bountifullacre on Mar 22, 2016 23:14:25 GMT -5
If you're interested in raising and processing your own pork, below is our compiled sources of helpful info and equipment that inspired and equipped us to do ours.
The How To's of Processing Your Own Pork, DIY Home Butchering, Supplies and Equipment, etc:
Processing our own pork was a momentous feat for us to accomplish. Figuring out how to not only raise pigs, but how in the world to slaughter, scald and scrape, what equipment to use (knives, scalding barrels large enough to fit our huge pig -- it wasn't -- how to hang the pig to bleed out when we have no mature trees, etc), make the cuts, do all that curing for bacon, recipes for making sausage, what grinder to use, wrap it all up so it holds up in the freezer and how to use the parts we don't normally know about...whew.
We did one pig per weekend, with two weekends being three days long. The extra processing of curing bacon, grinding and mixing spices for sausage added a third more work than the beef, goat and lamb we processed earlier. It kicked our butts...but everyone has rejoiced a lot in all the breakfast sausage, sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage, bacon, pork chops, ribs, roasts, etc. and they say it was worth it.
I think part of the reason everyone was so thrilled is because we previously only ate pork once a year, on Christmas Day, because we could not afford humanely raised pork more than that. We've truly celebrated abundantly in the fruits of our hard labor and God's goodness in His creation.
Amazing, thorough How To butcher book with tons of color photographs: Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork: The Comprehensive Photographic Guide to Humane Slaughtering and Butchering by Adam Danforth www.amazon.com/dp/1612121829/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1AY6GNX80V31Y&coliid=I20K0T922SZHIZ
For the pigs' water, we put a pig water nipple in an old water heater that was insulated (given to us for free). We used troughs at first, but the red pig liked to just dump it immediately to make a beloved mud puddle.
Below are the things we bought after many, many hours of research and deliberation (we're very happy with all of it):
Here's the awesome grinder we bought: LEM Model 781 Big Bite Grinder (#22 Head) pleasanthillgrain.com/lem-781-big-bite-meat-grinder-22 . We also bought the optional foot switch -- very helpful and necessary.
We bought antique pig bell scrapers off of ebay to scrape the hair off, but unless you are saving the fat you can save a lot of time and energy by just skinning the pig instead.
We bought used meat cleavers off of ebay.
From www.sausagemaker.com/ we bought (2013 prices):
#31381 Super Mag 6:1 Ratio Lift System with Magnum Gambrel $39.99
#31355 18" Packer Meat Saw $29.99
#31357 18" Stainless Steel Saw Blade $6.99
#81228 Mundial 6" Curved Flexible Boning Knife x 2 @ $11.99 each
#81227 Mundial 6" Narrow Stiff Boning Knife $11.99
#81397 Plastic Bone Duster $4.99
#31781 Stainless Steel "S" Hook, 8" x 8mm $4.99
Order Total: $122.92
We bought this highly recommended instructional dvd on blade sharpening:
www.amazon.com/…/ref=pe_385040_30332190_pe_175190_21…
We bought these knife sharpening stones:
www.amazon.com/…/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26… (Ben uses this one most)
and
www.amazon.com/…/B001D…/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage…
We purchased a food grade 55 gallon steel drum locally for around $20. Our pigs were too big to be dunked and scalded in it, so we took the boiling water from it in pans and poured it on a patch of hair, scraped that part, then repeated on other parts of the pig.
We bought this propane jet burner to heat the scalding water:
www.amazon.com/…/B004S…/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage…
We wrapped the meat in Costco's bulk plastic saran wrap and then butcher paper. Two years later, our meat was fine. No freezer burn.
Cabela's ground meat bags are also an option for storing the sausage (if you're not making it into links or patties). We did both patties and just a pound of ground meat wrapped up in the plastic wrap and butcher paper. We used the Cabela's bags for our ground beef. www.cabelas.com/…/Cabelas-Ground-Meat-Sto…/716081.uts
We also bought two white, folding, portable tables from Costco. We used them outside and inside during the butchering process. They cleaned up well with boiling water, hose water and sprayed with bleach.
At Walmart, we bought numerous white bins. Critical for holding, transporting, etc the chopped meat, fat, curing bacon, etc.
We bought the bulk spices for sausage making at www.mountainroseherbs.com/ Very happy with them. Their policies that focus on quality control, organic, sustainable production, social responsibility, and fair trade make them our favorite company. How many companies care about fair trade and that the workers are treated well and make a livable wage?? Mountain Rose Herbs is *awesome.*
The maple sugar for the bacon was from: www.vermontpuremaple.com/
We never bought a digital food scale, but should have, for easier measuring out of the packages of meat to be frozen.
THANK YOU to the following people for their empowering info:
Walter Jeffries at Sugar Mountain Farm:
sugarmtnfarm.com/animals/pigs/ This man has tons of helpful information on his blog and the posts he makes on forums. He is innovative and polite.
sugarmtnfarm.com/2014/03/30/keeping-a-pig-for-meat/ Keeping a Pig for Meat?
sugarmtnfarm.com/…/what-good-is-a-pig-cuts-of-pork-…/ What Good is a Pig -- Cuts of Pork Nose to Tail
sugarmtnfarm.com/2007/10/12/how-much-land-per-pig/ How Much Land per Pig?
Brandon Sheard at Farmstead Meatsmith:
In the spring of 2013 Brandon was still offering affordable options to audit a class he demonstrated at on how to slaughter, butcher and do charcuterie of pork. Ben audited the classes and learned a ton. I think he is working on free webinar classes. Thank you, Brandon, for affordable options on such necessary knowledge!
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/blogroll/ Different education services he offers
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/upcoming-classes/
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/a-sample-day/
Bruce King at Ebey Farm:
Bruce was generous with his time and very willing to talk on the phone and answer pig raising questions in general or possibly work with us to buy whatever kind(s) of pigs that would work for us. We ended up buying pigs closer to us, but his blog is a helpful resource.
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/…/can-i-slaughter-my-own-pig.h… Can I Slaughter My Own Pig?
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/…/question-from-email-scraping… When we realized our largest pig would not fit in the 55 gallon scalding barrel, Bruce's blog post saved us!
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2009/02/slaughter-and-farm.html Laws regarding on farm slaughtering
Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm and his "Pigerator Pork" -- our first inspiration years ago to one day raise pigs:
www.polyfacefarms.com/2011/07/25/pigaerator-pork/
The How To's of Processing Your Own Pork, DIY Home Butchering, Supplies and Equipment, etc:
Processing our own pork was a momentous feat for us to accomplish. Figuring out how to not only raise pigs, but how in the world to slaughter, scald and scrape, what equipment to use (knives, scalding barrels large enough to fit our huge pig -- it wasn't -- how to hang the pig to bleed out when we have no mature trees, etc), make the cuts, do all that curing for bacon, recipes for making sausage, what grinder to use, wrap it all up so it holds up in the freezer and how to use the parts we don't normally know about...whew.
We did one pig per weekend, with two weekends being three days long. The extra processing of curing bacon, grinding and mixing spices for sausage added a third more work than the beef, goat and lamb we processed earlier. It kicked our butts...but everyone has rejoiced a lot in all the breakfast sausage, sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage, bacon, pork chops, ribs, roasts, etc. and they say it was worth it.
I think part of the reason everyone was so thrilled is because we previously only ate pork once a year, on Christmas Day, because we could not afford humanely raised pork more than that. We've truly celebrated abundantly in the fruits of our hard labor and God's goodness in His creation.
Amazing, thorough How To butcher book with tons of color photographs: Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork: The Comprehensive Photographic Guide to Humane Slaughtering and Butchering by Adam Danforth www.amazon.com/dp/1612121829/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1AY6GNX80V31Y&coliid=I20K0T922SZHIZ
For the pigs' water, we put a pig water nipple in an old water heater that was insulated (given to us for free). We used troughs at first, but the red pig liked to just dump it immediately to make a beloved mud puddle.
Below are the things we bought after many, many hours of research and deliberation (we're very happy with all of it):
Here's the awesome grinder we bought: LEM Model 781 Big Bite Grinder (#22 Head) pleasanthillgrain.com/lem-781-big-bite-meat-grinder-22 . We also bought the optional foot switch -- very helpful and necessary.
We bought antique pig bell scrapers off of ebay to scrape the hair off, but unless you are saving the fat you can save a lot of time and energy by just skinning the pig instead.
We bought used meat cleavers off of ebay.
From www.sausagemaker.com/ we bought (2013 prices):
#31381 Super Mag 6:1 Ratio Lift System with Magnum Gambrel $39.99
#31355 18" Packer Meat Saw $29.99
#31357 18" Stainless Steel Saw Blade $6.99
#81228 Mundial 6" Curved Flexible Boning Knife x 2 @ $11.99 each
#81227 Mundial 6" Narrow Stiff Boning Knife $11.99
#81397 Plastic Bone Duster $4.99
#31781 Stainless Steel "S" Hook, 8" x 8mm $4.99
Order Total: $122.92
We bought this highly recommended instructional dvd on blade sharpening:
www.amazon.com/…/ref=pe_385040_30332190_pe_175190_21…
We bought these knife sharpening stones:
www.amazon.com/…/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26… (Ben uses this one most)
and
www.amazon.com/…/B001D…/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage…
We purchased a food grade 55 gallon steel drum locally for around $20. Our pigs were too big to be dunked and scalded in it, so we took the boiling water from it in pans and poured it on a patch of hair, scraped that part, then repeated on other parts of the pig.
We bought this propane jet burner to heat the scalding water:
www.amazon.com/…/B004S…/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage…
We wrapped the meat in Costco's bulk plastic saran wrap and then butcher paper. Two years later, our meat was fine. No freezer burn.
Cabela's ground meat bags are also an option for storing the sausage (if you're not making it into links or patties). We did both patties and just a pound of ground meat wrapped up in the plastic wrap and butcher paper. We used the Cabela's bags for our ground beef. www.cabelas.com/…/Cabelas-Ground-Meat-Sto…/716081.uts
We also bought two white, folding, portable tables from Costco. We used them outside and inside during the butchering process. They cleaned up well with boiling water, hose water and sprayed with bleach.
At Walmart, we bought numerous white bins. Critical for holding, transporting, etc the chopped meat, fat, curing bacon, etc.
We bought the bulk spices for sausage making at www.mountainroseherbs.com/ Very happy with them. Their policies that focus on quality control, organic, sustainable production, social responsibility, and fair trade make them our favorite company. How many companies care about fair trade and that the workers are treated well and make a livable wage?? Mountain Rose Herbs is *awesome.*
The maple sugar for the bacon was from: www.vermontpuremaple.com/
We never bought a digital food scale, but should have, for easier measuring out of the packages of meat to be frozen.
THANK YOU to the following people for their empowering info:
Walter Jeffries at Sugar Mountain Farm:
sugarmtnfarm.com/animals/pigs/ This man has tons of helpful information on his blog and the posts he makes on forums. He is innovative and polite.
sugarmtnfarm.com/2014/03/30/keeping-a-pig-for-meat/ Keeping a Pig for Meat?
sugarmtnfarm.com/…/what-good-is-a-pig-cuts-of-pork-…/ What Good is a Pig -- Cuts of Pork Nose to Tail
sugarmtnfarm.com/2007/10/12/how-much-land-per-pig/ How Much Land per Pig?
Brandon Sheard at Farmstead Meatsmith:
In the spring of 2013 Brandon was still offering affordable options to audit a class he demonstrated at on how to slaughter, butcher and do charcuterie of pork. Ben audited the classes and learned a ton. I think he is working on free webinar classes. Thank you, Brandon, for affordable options on such necessary knowledge!
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/blogroll/ Different education services he offers
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/upcoming-classes/
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/a-sample-day/
Bruce King at Ebey Farm:
Bruce was generous with his time and very willing to talk on the phone and answer pig raising questions in general or possibly work with us to buy whatever kind(s) of pigs that would work for us. We ended up buying pigs closer to us, but his blog is a helpful resource.
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/…/can-i-slaughter-my-own-pig.h… Can I Slaughter My Own Pig?
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/…/question-from-email-scraping… When we realized our largest pig would not fit in the 55 gallon scalding barrel, Bruce's blog post saved us!
ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2009/02/slaughter-and-farm.html Laws regarding on farm slaughtering
Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm and his "Pigerator Pork" -- our first inspiration years ago to one day raise pigs:
www.polyfacefarms.com/2011/07/25/pigaerator-pork/