WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES OF ANIMAL BUTCHERING. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
Today we're talking about how to butcher pigs. Truthfully, I thought it would be harder to say goodbye to our pastured pigs – Wallace and Chester. And as Brandon Sheard (aka: The Farmstead Meatsmith) (aka: Super Awesome Advocate for Home Butchery and Old School Preservation Methods) was sharpening his knives on my kitchen counter last Tuesday morning, I'll admit – I was actually looking forward to it.
Perhaps it was the giddiness of having Brandon in our home (he's kind of a celebrity amongst us homesteaders) and sharing in wonderful conversation about pork products over a breakfast frittata and puff pancake. As people began to show up for our butchering seminar, hosted at our very own Beatha Fonn Farm, I felt ready and prepared for what was to come.
These pigs had been with us since early last Spring, when we picked them up from Farmer Steve's (just down the road from our own farm). Truthfully, I never grew too attached to the pigs. Sure, I enjoyed their company on occasion and appreciated the fact that they made cleaning out my garden and refrigerator very easy, but since I was pregnant for most of their stay on the farm, I was never the one to carry the giant bucket of slop up to their home on the mountain. I left that to my handsome farm-hand and baby daddy.
And then, of course, there was the occasion when they escaped into my neighbor's yard and I had to chase them around… in my pajamas… when I was nine months pregnant… by myself…. in the dark. I was pretty much ‘over-them' at that point. Read more about that here.
And, on top of all of that, they were here for one purpose: meat. And when harvest time comes, it's not time to get sentimental. It's time to busy.
Because this was our first year raising pigs, we elected to hire Brandon to come and teach a two-day seminar on how to properly kill and butcher the pigs. We wanted to ensure that our hard work in raising these delicious (and expensive!) pigs was not wasted. Sometimes, it's totally worth it to hire a professional. I know my strengths. This ain't one of 'em. And thus, Brandon came.
We began our first day with Chester, the less dominate of the two pigs. Brandon spent a good deal of time demonstrating and explaining how to properly shoot and stick the pig. A .22 caliber rifle was used and a single shot was placed between the eyes, two inches up. Here's a video of Brandon shooting Chester. Notice his incredibly calm demeanor and patience. Both pigs died perfectly calm and happy.
How To Butcher Pigs
(Sorry about the camera noise. It was too bright to see what I was shooting and manually focus. Also note: The videos are completely unedited.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouLx8eghOtE
After a single shot killed the pig (the convulsions are involuntary and the pig's natural response to the damage done in the brain by the bullet), Brandon jumped into the pen and stuck the pig (with an incredibly sharp knife) in the artery that runs right behind their jowl. This causes the pig to bleed out while it's heart is still pumping.
After the blood was drained, Chester was drug from the pen and the tendons that run alongside the bottoms of the hooves were cut open. Man, these tendons are STRONG! Just one is enough to bear the entire weight of the pig. Incredible!
The drag down to the shop:
Chester was then hosed down to remove all of the mud and such:
And hooked up to a wench that made lifting him so easy, it was a dream. Sometimes, I really love technology.
Into a barrel filled with 145 degree water:
Much like butchering a chicken, the warm water helps to loosen the skin and hair. Half of the pig was dipped at a time, for roughly 5 minutes or until the hair was easily pulled out of the skin.
Brandon then had a method of ‘dancing' with the pig to encourage water circulation around the pig and make sure the pig didn't sit on the bottom of the barrel (over direct heat) for too long:
Post warm water bath, the pig was lifted and we got to work scraping the outer layer of skin from the pig. These are the super high-tech instruments we used:
But don't let the tool fool you. Much of the skin was removed by some good ‘ol fashioned elbow grease. Seriously, dude. This stage was by far the most time consuming – but a very important one, at that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFF7t8Gwq0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmauW7Zx-PQ
Now, here's where some real magic started to happen because Brandon let me use one of his knives. And that knife was the best thing that has ever happened to me. Never, ever, ever, ever can I use another knife again. And it wasn't a fancy knife – just an old carbon steel knife that he'd picked up at a thrift store but had wet-stoned sharpened the blazes out of. Must. Learn. How. To. Sharpen. Knives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbJjW-47kAc
The process is simple: with super sharp knife, scrape against the grain of the hair to remove it. Essentially, you're giving the pig a straight razor shave. Every hair must go. Between the toes, around the nipples, ALL OF IT. One must be patient. One must be diligent. One must have a cold beer in hand (it just makes it a bit more fun that way).
9.183 hours later, the pig was flipped around and the process was repeated on the top half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vXWVkRzDk
…and then 15.193 hours after that, we were done scalding and scraping! Whoop whoop! We all celebrated.
So far we've killed, scalded, and scraped. The last stage for the pig was to remove the innards. And the head, of course. I wish I could have captured this all step-by-step but I was trying to participate, carry a baby, and film and/or photograph. Whew. That was a lot. I did manage to snap a few videos of Brandon explaining the gutting process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8vsc0qjQnc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AJU13bFFXA
And, naturally, nothing went to waste:
The last stage of the process involved cutting the pig in half, which was done with a bone saw and instruction from Brandon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maTw_s3qwcY
5 hours. And then, it was time for a quick lunch break and the entire process was repeated with Wallace – our second pig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGPVPqMJB0o
The best part was the carcass storage. Because the pigs needed to be in a cooler overnight (and none of the local butchers would allow us to use their space because of ‘FDA regulations') I called in a favor of my old boss. The pigs spent their night in the flower cooler of a floral shop that I worked at for many, many years back in the day.
The next day, they smelt of roses. And bacon.
…but we'll cover the meat butchery in tomorrow's post!
Phew. Even recounting the butchering process left me tired! I think I need seventeen hired farm hands. And Amen.
More about raising Pigs:
- Pig Butchering
- How to Make Homemade Bacon
- How to Make Pork Rillette (and why you should!)
- Homemade Headcheese Recipe
- Homemade Ham Recipe
- Lessons in Raising Pigs
Great post! We butchered two pigs ourselves this past spring. We completely skinned our pigs (very hairy mule foot). What is the purpose of scrapping the hair off verses just skinning them? It seems like an extremely long process and we didn’t feel the need to do it. Thanks! Love your blog!
As one who was raised on a farm that butchered all of our meat. The point of scraping instead of skinning is the lard you get from the hide as well as the cracklins after you render the lard. Like daddy always said use everything from the rooter to the tooter.
Growing up we would kill hogs on the first hard freeze. Sometimes 12 at a time. My dad’s whole family would get together and kill one for each family. We had a pit with a fire in it and would have a barrel in at a angle with water to skin. There would be sheet metal laid out in front of the hot water barrel. The men would put the hog in and let it set to loosen the hair. They would pull it in and out a couple of times to help get it evenly. We all had a butcher knife that was sharpen and would hold it on both ends and scrape the hog until all hair was off. Might have to put in back in the hot boiling water a few times to get it all scraped.
We would cut pieces of the skin and fat to render the lard. We made cracklens. We cooked all this down in a large cast iron wash pot on an fire. We made lye soap from the not so pretty lard that was in the bottom of the pot. We cured our hams too.
The skin can be cooked to,there is a lot of recipes.
What did you do with the leaf fat? I hope you turned it into lard, there’s nothing better than lard for making biscuits and pie crusts and such!
I can not begin to describe to you how wonderful it is that you posted this, and the plethora of videos. I love it that you do all this, love it even more that you POST all of this. Thank you thank you!
Wow, that is quite the workout! I have been privileged to have tastes fresh pork from a local pig farm. I regret not being able to have a real ham!
I especially loved listening to Will’s newborn squeaks while watching your second pig be slaughtered. Like you were doing life like all of our ancestors. The way God made it to be, having dominion over all the creatures.
Shaye,
This is really amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to take and post the videos. We are getting pigs in the next year or so and this will be my go-to source when it comes time to butcher them.
Jen
Agh, I can not wait to watch the videos- I’m nursing an almost-sleeping baby right now so I can’t. Excellent post though, loved it!
Thank you, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with us!!
This is super awesome and informative! I was also wondering what the advantage is in shaving the pig vs. skinning it? We live in Alaska and process a lot of wild game but have yet to tackle a pig, so I appreciate the in-depth look at how the whole process shakes out. I was also wondering if giving your pup raw pork is safe? We use all our game scraps for dog food as well, but have always been under the impression that it is important to cook because of tapeworm cysts that can occur in meat. No worries about those type of things with home-grown pork? Thanks for keeping this awesome space up and running. I feel like I’ve learned so much here!
Wow – what a plethora of amazing information. My husband and I are also raising our first round of pigs this year and are in preparation for their butcher date in about 2 weeks. We’ve been researching online, books, etc to for self-butchering and this will be amazingly helpful. Thank you so very much for taking the time to share your experiences!
– Katie and Mark
Love it! I don’t see video #2 though…
I just gave up pork from my Naturopath suggestion. I grew up on a farm and we raised pigs and slaughtered them. This was a tough decision to make. However, I have read so many things regarding pigs being toxic and carrying bacteria that can live in the muscle meat.
Does anyone have any insight on this?
Isn’t this very dependent on what the pigs eat? Since pigs don’t have a filtration system for toxins (which is how they can survive snake bites) to exit their body, I’m sure if you take care in what they are fed it would make a huge difference in the nutrition of the meat. Just my opinion
A lot of the time if the ham meat isn’t cure correctly, bacteria can grow. If you have a ham with the shank in it. My father would in inject a brine made up with salt to cure it and keep bacteria from growing. People in the US have been eating wild hogs for years. They root up anything and eat it and sometimes other wild animals. We always made sure out area that we handled the meat in was very clean with cotton sheets covering tables. As you clean the hog and making sure intestines never get cut and bile get on the meat and ruin it.
Thank you for sharing!
Very cool.
We have only butchered small stuff so far and it was so helpful to see the thrashing about that they do. I will remember to stay out of the way of the hooves.
Carrie, if you raise your pigs yourself and know what they are eating, how their health was during the growing process, how they were wormed, what vaccinations if any were given, etc., then you know what you are eating. Pork is delicious, nutritious and does not have to be raised on concrete or in confinement. Pastured pork or pork fed on natural ingredients other than corn is wonderful. Pigs fatten nicely on acorns, pumpkins, sugar beets, everything that you don’t eat in the kitchen, garden waste, etc., etc. However, there are people everywhere that don’t want to eat pork for whatever reason. I think that is a waste of a wonderful gift from God. Pigs are natural bulldozers, wonderful plows, and great fertilizers, to say nothing of providing wonderful food for the family. I was amazed that the lungs were given to the dog and that the blood was let go to waste. I hope to make blood pudding and various sausages out of mine.
We wanted to keep the blood but Brandon advised us to focus on making a few things right the first time, since we had some much to work through after the butchering before it went back. Next time, we’ll keep the blood because hopefully the rest won’t be so overwhelming!
Excellent post. A lot of information. I’ll be going through it a few more times and saving it for future reference. For our first time we opted to hire out the deed, unlike our first time butchering chickens where I wanted to be sure I could do it. I knew I wasn’t emotionally attached to the pigs, but my lack of knowledge and no source for learning known I thought it the best and easiest way.
I’m curious though, pigs being such social animals I would have thought it disturbing to pig # 2 to experience the death of its fellow pig. Did it appear to notice after the initial thrashing?
Not at all… he couldn’t have cared less.
My family used to slaughter 12-16 hogs every year after it became below freezing overnight. Pigs are social, but they’re also omnivores and cannibalistic. We used to toss the intestines from the first pigs processed back into the pen and the other’s would happily feed on them. They don’t seem to react to death as humans do.
Hey Shaye,
In the book “Living with Pigs” (Chuck Wooster, Lyon Press) they describe a method of slaughter for the pigs in which the pigs are given about a quart of Vodka mixed in their feed a couple of hours before slaughter. The Vodka relaxes the pig – gets him drunk and very sleepy. The pig is then very still and it makes it much easier to shoot him properly. Moving pigs are hard to shoot humanely. Thought I’d pass on the info. Once again, a great article.
Thanks
Awesome article. I’ve been feeling rather crappy today and when I came across this it perked me right up. I don’t have my happy little homestead yet. Still stuck in an apartment in the city. But whenever I can I take the time to read these kinds of articles so I know what I’ll be getting into later on lol.
This is such a great post! We’re really hoping to be able to raise a couple of pigs of our own in the not-too-distant future, and I’m always excited to see success stories!
Back in the early 80″s we moved to upstate NY and took off on our own to homestead, both of us from small towns and our 2 children ages 9 and 12 we dove in head first and although we made mistakes when it came to butchering our pigs the first time we bought a book thinking it would give us all the answers, not so, after the second or third time we butchered we did get it right and butchering became just another chore that had to be done as a homesteader. We are now 77 and have moved to MO. and live on 3 acres on the edge of a small town in the Ozark Mountains we still try to live the life of a homesteader with a rather large garden and canning what we grow it is not quite what we had but close enough for a couple of old folks. We try to to provide for ourselves and leave as small of a footprint on mother earth as possible.
Shaye: Where can I purchase the gambrell like the one pictured of ya all butchering the pig? Thanks.
I’m not sure… that was our butcher’s!
Just wanted to thank you for sharing this experience. I was never raised around farming or hunting, but recently, I have been become much more interested in connecting with the food we put on our table. This is the part I’ve always been curious about, but most seldomly have a chance to see. For me, I was very happy to see the process in the most honest way possible, and the animals treated with honor and dignity. Again, thank you!
Great post! My family still does this on an annual basis. We have an average of 40-50 people show up for the day and passer-bye’s sometimes stop and observe. It’s neat to see the different methods but essentially they are the same. I have attached a you tube video of our 2012 butcher. We just butchered four on January 3rd, 2105. The pig virus has really brought the price of pigs down this year so now is a good time to stock up on piglets!! Thanks for sharing. http://youtu.be/s1T_FnZ1fvo
Hi 🙂
Great website! I just stumbled upon it while trying to find some info. I’m hoping you can help with some advice..
I have gotten myself some pig trotters direct from a pig “harvest” and they are completely straight from the pig. Dirty and hairy. How do I clean and prepare them so they are safe to cook with?
Perhaps blanch and shave them to remove the dirt and hair? Scrub them clean, remove the nails (this was possibly done during the butchering process?). Then cook!
Ok we have raised our pigs but I’m freaking out ! How do I know if they are healthy to eat? They don’t have scours. But the amount of mud they have made our yard into a mud pit all the up to my shins!
a great video i am going to say a few things hope no one gets offended but it may help you instead of shooting the pig an then dragging it put a rope around the neck and the pig will walk with you to the site you want to clean it shoot it there lift it from its hind legs and cut its throat letting the blood drain out of the body for about an hour use something to catch the blood this is how we have been doing it for years hope this helps someone
We have a dozen feet in our freezer from our 3 pigs we had butchered this past Spring. We would like to give them to our dog, but I wasn’t sure if anything had to be done to prep them before we give them to him? Is it okay to give them raw or should we boil them first? Thanks for all the great info!
This is an awesome post with so much information! Thank you so much for sharing as much of this processes as you could. My husband and I will be raising pigs soon and I was always weary about this processes. But watching and reading this post doesn’t make me as nervous about it. I look forward to reading more of your blog ???? Keep up the great work!!
I enjoyed your clips But I do have one question?
Seems to me you left the innards in for over 15 hours or more is that not a very long time to leave the guts in the carcas?