Y'all, we've been busy over here learning proper ways for butchering a pig.
My head must be thick as a rock. Almost three months later, I realized that I have yet to post some super-awesome footage that I shot when the Farmstead Meatsmith came to visit our farm and taught us how to butcher pigs.
Dang it. All this time I've been holding out on you! Not because I don't love you. But because I'm a brain-fart.
Unfortunately, in that three months of brain-fart time, it's been easy for me to forget the exact layout of these clips and how they all pieced together. And naturally, in the bustle of the holidays, I didn't have the time to edit them into a masterpiece anyway. And thus, you'll be getting a 30+ minute video that's strewn together clips – if you listen, you can even hear my camera trying to focus in the darkness of the shop where we butchered the pigs.
You're welcome for this incredible cinematic feature on butchering a pig.
Regardless, it's still pretty fun! Watching back through the videos brought me all kinds of fun, fuzzy homesteader joy. It was the art of learning a new skill. The fun of trying to think about a common and familiar product in an entirely new way. The adventure of a task!
I love tasks. And I find a serious, sick pleasure in accomplishing them. Filling the freezer with these two ‘ol pigs was no exception. I can't wait to do it again in the Spring. In fact, I think we'll even add another one on for good measure. There are a few things I know for sure in life…. and one of them is that girlfriend always needs more pigs.
And more bacon. Let's just be honest here.
But we shan't be distracted with that delicious bacon. Back to the task at hand.
Butchering A Pig
After the pigs were slaughtered and eviscerated, they were taken to the local flower shop where I used to work. The owner lovingly agreed to let me put the pig carcasses in her giant floral cooler, which reminds me, I need to take her some pork chops…
The coolness of the cooler helped the meat to stiffen up a bit which made the cutting the next day much easier. Had we butchered in November or December, which we're planning to do next year, we could have just hung the pigs in our cool shop instead and saved ourselves the trip.
Note to self: butcher later in the year when it's cool. Not only does this help with storage but it also helps with flies and yellow jackets!
Once we got the pigs set up on tables in the shop the next morning, we all stood back (there was about 6 of us at the class) to watch Brandon and learn his ways. Man. What a talent that guy has.
The finesse and care he took for the pig butchering was incredible. His knives gently slipped through the muscle and fat like butter. Where I just saw giant muscle groups, Brandon saw grooves and crevasses and natural curvature for cuts. His entire style was devoted to honoring the pig for being that particular pig – each chop was hand cut to the actual size of the bone spaces. The loin was gently removed by a pair of well-trained hands. The back fat was also separated by hand, in one giant, delicious, white pieces of lard.
Nothing was standardized. Everything was completely customized based on our beautiful pigs. It was beautiful and honoring to watch.
Literally, not one scrap went to waste. Not. A. Single. Scrap.
The little bits and pieces that were trimmed off went into our pork rillette. Anything with blood on it from the killing process went to Toby (our dog who is on a natural foods based diet). Even the head was utilized in the form of headcheese (the scraps of which went to the laying hens).
It was an entirely, full-circle approach to butchering a pig. And it was fantastic.
Thanks to some of Brandon's online resources (the ‘How To Kill A Pig Nicely' DVD and ‘The Butcher's Salt' book in particular) we will be able to harvest our own pigs next year. And though I'm sure we'll fumble through in a much less elegant way than Brandon did, it'll still be worth it to invest the time into learning. Like so many of our farm tasks, it's a skill that must be learn by time invested.
Dare I say (and I may eat my words and completely deny that I ever said such a thing), I think we'll always have pigs on the farm. In fact, I'm trying to convince Stu that we need to raise our own heritage pigs. They are such an incredible resource – besides the intestines, not a scrap was wasted.
The backfat has been rendered down to lard and utilized for cooking in a thousand ways. The heart was sauteed in butter, fresh from the day of the butchering, for supper – so good! The kidneys, lungs, and liver went to the dog. A few extra scraps and bits to the chickens.
And while they were alive, the pigs ate every single scrap of food from our kitchen. This included leftovers, fruit peelings, soured milk, garden scraps, rotten vegetables, and more. They were my garbage disposal. And they turned it into bacon.
On top of that, even with being fed super-high-quality, organic, local, non-GMO feed, grain, the price per pound equated out to less than $2/lb.
INSANE.
Money can't buy pork that delicious. That has been cared for, loved on, killed humanely, and harvested with care.
This is why life on the farm has value. This is what makes life on the farm so dang good.
And Amen.
Quinn
Can you think of any better way to start 2015? No, me neither. Better get to bed for tomorrow is pig butchering day on Reformation Acres! May God bless the Elliott homestead abundantly in the New Year!!
Ellie
This might sound like a silly question, but have you noticed any behavioral changes in your dog after you started him on the raw food diet? Our family has a dog that is extremely allergic to all dog foods and all plain cooked (boiled) meats that we’ve tried ( beef /pork /rabbit /chicken /lamb /deer) and I have wondered if maybe giving raw meats, or raw organ meats might help. However, we have a “primal breed” (Shiba) and have heard many reports of this kind of dog becoming more feral and aggressive after beginning raw food. This is worrisome, because our dog in particular already has behavioral problems. on the other hand, given that he’s only been able to eat plain white rice for a long time (obviously incredibly deficient in necessary nutrients and protein), I’m really looking for other alternatives.
Eva Coleman
Ellie, I feed my dogs a raw food diet. They eat a lot of chicken. We also have chickens that are free range. The dogs and chickens are always outside together. The dogs do not try to eat the chickens at all. Feeding them raw does not usually make them feral. I hope this helps you.
Debbie
I’ve enjoyed and learned so much on your blog even though we aren’t farmers. I was wondering if you are planning to do any smoking and curing later?
Deb
Shaye Elliott
We’re trying to get a set up started!
Shawn heeney
Love your butchering series. Something I would love for my boys to learn. We raise pigs, but growing up around butchering our own meat would be something!! A wonderful hertiage to pass on!! Thank you
Jo Anne
We purchased half of a hog from a loc farm here in VA. One of the cuts we got was “sliced ham”. I cooked it for the first time yesterday and was expecting it to taste like HAM! But it just tasted like PORK CHOP. It actually tasted like a good STEAK! Is that right? Still learning about the different cuts. IF you watch Dexter I thought for sure it was going to come out like the ham he cooks in the opening credits buuuutttt…. It didn’t 🙁
Jennifer
Love Love Love Brandon!! I went to a class in So Oregon last fall. So informative and knowledgeable about his craft. I love his videos as well. time and money well spent. I attempted my first half and have to admit got a little scared and called my butcher friend to finish. Have since cured and smoked my own bacon and have a ham curing right now.
Rose
Quick question (haven’t watched the video yet, but looking forward to it!) – is using the pigs intestines as sausage casings something that you ever considered? Or is that a practice that you think is better left in the past?
Shaye Elliott
We wanted to, but this year, our pigs had worms. We’ve since remedied how to care for that (ACV in the water, diatomaceous earth in the feed). This go round, it was easier to just buy the casings.
tessa
This is perfect – thank you for this!
Genie Tillery
I wish I could eat meat. I lose protein due to a kidney disease so one would think I’d have to make up for it but instead its just the opposite. I’ve had to go vegetarian for the most part and cut my protein down by more than half. It’s very difficult to change the way you eat and the way you want to eat.