Slaughtered Pig....Bacon soon to come...

[Luke P]

I posted weeks ago that I'd be slaughtering 2 gorgeous heritage pigs. My friend and I completed this process over 2 days this week. One day for slaughter, dehairing, gutting and splitting 2 pigs. 1 day for processing 2 pigs down to useable chops. We estimated prior to slaughter yielding 150 lbs per pig. We think we underestimated their weight and are closer to 190lbs per pig. Once we started hauling sides around, we realized how much heavier they were than we expected.

Below I will share some pictures of the process. This is how you get YOUR bacon, chops, and spare ribs. This is how pigs become pork. If you're uncomfotable with this, I'll leave some space before I put up pics. For those that are interested, I'll tell you these pigs were treated humanely during their lives, fed well, and were slaughtered in the quickest way possible.







Fat and Happy.

Hung to bleed out and transport to next phase.

Scalded and scraped in old tub. This went well, but had its challenges in 29 degree weather.

Dehaired, split, and gutted. Split down spinal cord after this pic.

Chilled until the next day.

Side of pork, tools to breakdown, friend who raised them and a tv set up to use Scott Rae's "Ultimate Pig Butchery Video: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DaXPmxWEXrRU&sa=U&ei=f4tuVJrGENejyASdnIGgBg&ved=0CBsQtwIwAQ&usg=AFQjCNHP1lkG1qjruEPSC2mzCD0zYlew-g I know it sounds stupid, but we both prepared for this day, sought advise, watched this video 100 times, and having it there saved us a few key mistakes. Neither of us are butchers by trade, so any help we could get was huge. Only needed it for first few minutes on first side and then got the hang of it.

Quickly, we had this....

Some individual cuts....

And the crowned jewel of this forum....

I've got 20-30 lbs of belly in my fridge/freezer now to make into bacon. I'll be keeping everyone updated and asking some questions as I go. Thanks so much for everything on this forum that has helped me thus far.

 

[Bob Correll]

Great pictures of how it's done Luke, it brought back memories!
Sorry, had to laugh at the term dehairing.
We at first 'dehaired' our hogs by scalding and scraping, but later used carton knives to cut the skin into strips. then used vice-grips to strip off the skin.
Kudos for doing your own butchering too, we left that to a local butcher.
Bet that will be some excellent eating!

 

[Luke P]

Scalding and scraping is exactly right, Bob! I only said dehairing, because we also used a blow torch to get the last bits of hair.

I'm about to post my first cook in the photo gallery. This is the chop that I decided to taste first.

 

[Bob Correll]

Wish I was there for a sample!

 

[Clint]

thanks for sharing this Luke. My friend just got a large piece of property and he's planning on raising pigs etc, said I could raise on there too if I wanted. I've never butchered anything, or killed anything other than small game....but I would like to get a deer or elk... anyway, I found it interesting & also shared it!

 

[Dwain Pannell]

Well done sir. I've only done this once. Wish I had more opportunities. Looks fantastic!

 

[ChuckO]

Wow pigs are a lot of work compared to deer. You just gut them and then cape them and hang them for a few days before butchering. No scalding or hair removal

Nicely done!