The Day of Pigs

Debbie got me a sausage grinder for Christmas, so as night follows day, it’s not unexpected that you would soon find large amounts of unprocessed meat in our house.

pig1  pig2

Half a Hog.

I got half a pig from Krider’s Meat Processing in Columbia City.   We’ve raised our own hogs for meat, but the last time we tried that it turned into a pet and ended up living a long and happy life on the farm and eventually dying of natural causes. (R.I.P. Arthur).

Does the ham look large to you in the picture on the right?  It was huge!  I ended up cutting it into the shank and rump portions.  I didn’t weigh it, but I’d guess the whole ham at 28 pounds.

I got Grandma’s butchering book out and went to work.

book

Grandma’s Butchering Book (A Family Heirloom.)

Note the highlighted paragraph in that picture.  It’s titled “It Pays to Do a Neat Job of Butchering and Trimming.”  I wonder what the story is behind that.  Why did someone outline that paragraph?  I’ll ask Mom & Dad tomorrow and see if they know.

Carnage ensued.

mess1

What a mess.

It’s a mess, but there’s a really nice loin roast in the back, and some dandy spare ribs in the middle.  But the foreground is just various nasty bits for sausage.

Order begins to arise out of chaos.

mess2

Pork Chops.

Look at those chops!   Some weighed nearly a pound each so I packaged them individually.   Note: I received no consideration from Coca-Cola, despite what looks like blatant product placement.

I tried making a few cracklings on the stove top.  I thought they were rendering a little slow, so I cranked the heat and then got distracted with the sausage grinder and burned them up.

Cracklings

Cracklings Before I Ruined Them.

Too bad, they were looking and smelling really good before I burned them.

Here’s the bacon.

Bacon

Bacon.

That’s a 5 pound slab.  I’m doing a dry cure where you rub it with salt, Prague Powder #1, and brown sugar.  It’ll cure for a week, then I’ll smoke it.  I’m doing the ham in a wet cure and I’ll smoke it too.  We have nearly perfect weather conditions and the bacon and ham are curing outside in the refrigerator-like temperatures.

By 2pm I was flagging and I still had the sausage to grind.  Time for a Cuban!

Cuban

Break Time.

It’s a double espresso and you add brown sugar to the ground beans so it dissolves into the coffee as it’s brewed.   Spirits restored, it was time to make sausage.

Grinder1

The Grinder that Started it all.

Grinder2

The Colonel Watching Over my Shoulder.

After grinding I mixed up a batch of breakfast sausage, hot Italian sausage, andouille,  and a batch of salt-free for my dad. Then it was time to stuff it.  Grandma always stuffed the sausage when we butchered, and I soon discovered it wasn’t as easy as she made it look.

Sausage1

Misshapen Sausages.

But after a few batches I was starting to get the hang of it.

Sausage2

Getting Better.

I smoked the andouille.

Smoked Sausage

Smoked Sausage.

And by 5pm cleanliness and order had been restored.

Done

Done!

We had fresh sausage for supper and even after spending the day up to my elbows in pork, it was wonderful!

3 thoughts on “The Day of Pigs

  1. My favorite part is that you burned the cracklins. Makes me feel better to know you aren’t perfect when cooking.
    I would have liked to see you make some shapes out of the ground pork – like the old Playdoh factories. 🙂

  2. Looks great! Makes me wonder if there is a place around here where I can buy half a pig. Of course, I’d also have to find a place to stay since I’m sure my wife would not let me home with half a pig.

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