I'm going on a "hunt" in a week for a meat hog. One of those deals where they put some meat hogs in with the exotics at a ranch. Several hundred fenced acres with critters in it, you pay for what you shoot.
I want pork, so I'm after a meat hog....essentially a domestic swine that's got a bunch of room to run around in and I pick the one I want.
I've butchered more deer than I can count, but deer aren't pigs.
So, for those who are more familiar with pigs....can I pick your brains?
Animal selection- my understanding is I want a sow in the 150-200lb range. Bigger won't be better, from what I've been told. Boars are not going to be good, either.
The ranch will be quartering the hog on site for me.
I'll have whole front shoulders to work with.
The pelvis will be split leaving me two separate hinds, and the chest will be split down the spine, leaving two halves with ribs, loins, and belly.
I usually just bone off rib meat on deer, but pork is another animal, literally. Any advice on how to cut the ribs for...well...ribs?
Belly....this is bacon to my knowledge. Anything I need to do/know with the meat while cutting it?
Loins I can handle.
Hinds.... with deer, I usually pull apart the cuts/muscle groups, and to make some roasts I'll likely do the same with one hind. Ham is on my mind, though. My family doesn't tend to like actual ham (my wife gets that chopped ham steak stuff), so I don't have use for making the entire ham into a cured ham. I'm assuming I could pull all the hind cuts apart and just cure one "roast" into a mini-ham?
Any words of wisdom as I enter into this adventure?
If this goes well, this will likely be an annual thing for me. I need some pork to cut ground venison with for sausage and bologna and the like, plus I wanted some pork to supplement the freezer. This seems like a more fun way of getting it than going and just buying a hog.
I'm set up with equipment to take deer apart and I would imagine the tools aren't going to differ much. I use a Cabela's fish cleaning table (workbench height, table-sized cutting board)....an assortment of knives of my preference, and I have an ancient (and well made) bone/meat saw my dad had before he had me (I'm 46) and he gave to me when he stopped butchering his own deer. I use a Cabela's 1/2hp grinder and I have a vacuum sealer.
And of course...a smoker.
Any tips or suggestions are more than welcome, and thanks in advance!
I want pork, so I'm after a meat hog....essentially a domestic swine that's got a bunch of room to run around in and I pick the one I want.
I've butchered more deer than I can count, but deer aren't pigs.
So, for those who are more familiar with pigs....can I pick your brains?
Animal selection- my understanding is I want a sow in the 150-200lb range. Bigger won't be better, from what I've been told. Boars are not going to be good, either.
The ranch will be quartering the hog on site for me.
I'll have whole front shoulders to work with.
The pelvis will be split leaving me two separate hinds, and the chest will be split down the spine, leaving two halves with ribs, loins, and belly.
I usually just bone off rib meat on deer, but pork is another animal, literally. Any advice on how to cut the ribs for...well...ribs?
Belly....this is bacon to my knowledge. Anything I need to do/know with the meat while cutting it?
Loins I can handle.
Hinds.... with deer, I usually pull apart the cuts/muscle groups, and to make some roasts I'll likely do the same with one hind. Ham is on my mind, though. My family doesn't tend to like actual ham (my wife gets that chopped ham steak stuff), so I don't have use for making the entire ham into a cured ham. I'm assuming I could pull all the hind cuts apart and just cure one "roast" into a mini-ham?
Any words of wisdom as I enter into this adventure?
If this goes well, this will likely be an annual thing for me. I need some pork to cut ground venison with for sausage and bologna and the like, plus I wanted some pork to supplement the freezer. This seems like a more fun way of getting it than going and just buying a hog.
I'm set up with equipment to take deer apart and I would imagine the tools aren't going to differ much. I use a Cabela's fish cleaning table (workbench height, table-sized cutting board)....an assortment of knives of my preference, and I have an ancient (and well made) bone/meat saw my dad had before he had me (I'm 46) and he gave to me when he stopped butchering his own deer. I use a Cabela's 1/2hp grinder and I have a vacuum sealer.
And of course...a smoker.
Any tips or suggestions are more than welcome, and thanks in advance!