Piggy

[pops6927]

My son was given a small farm raised wild pig and split with it's owner.  Paul, the owner, raised the little piglets, captured from the wild and farm raised.  (there are gabazillions of wild pigs and hogs in West Texas!)

Not a real big pig, dressed out about 130 lb.total.

piggy.jpg

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

Brought here in  4" cooler, both haves, so you can see they weren't large.

On the table:front shoulder:

009.JPG

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

remove hind leg:

011.JPG

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

split the loin and rib:

013.JPG

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

Then remove the sparerib from the belly and the backfat from the loin.  Then we boned out the loins and the shoulders, put most of the shoulders into sausage meat, the boneless loins and tenderloins into roasts, and done!

016.JPG

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

017.JPG

• pops6927
• Dec 26, 2013

All packaged up, from each end of the cutting table.  Put the ham and the backbones in the brine for future smoking.   Son took the rest to split with the farmer and will return to pick up the bratwurst link sausages I'll make tomorrow!  First piggy this older son has ever seen cut up; he did it, I just showed him where to cut.  He enjoyed it, but agreed he'd leave the meatcutting to me and prefer to work on computers, lol!  At least he knows what it takes to cut up a pig, and why I was tired after working and then cutting and processing hogs at night, but I got good money for it and he benefitted also.  He was definitely tired from the experience!

 

[disco]

That creature is going to make some fine food!

Disco

 

[pc farmer]

Sweet, I am getting a half very soon.

 

[woodcutter]

Time well spent with your son. He will remember those skills for the rest of his life.

 

[foamheart]

Yes sir, nothing finer than sharing knowledge with your family because they want to learn, or at the very least experience what it is like.

I was laughing thinking about scraping the hair off a pig.

Yeppers, Time well spent.

 

[bdskelly]

Looks like great fun Pops. I'm curious how that hog will taste.  It's a feral thats been raised in a pen. Interesting.  I'll bet its gooood!  

Brian 

 

[cgaengineer]

The last wild hog I ate was nasty...the meat smelled like pine needles when it was cooking...the dogs liked it, maybe yours will taste better since it was penned and likely fed a diet that a non wild hog would eat. Im interested in finding out how it tastes.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 4

 

[pops6927]

The meat was just fine.  Made the trim into brat sausages yesterday, was delicious!  

 

[pops6927]

 
Looks like great fun Pops. I'm curious how that hog will taste.  It's a feral thats been raised in a pen. Interesting.  I'll bet its gooood!  

Brian 

Yes, it was!  Made the brats and they were delicious!

 

[pops6927]

Now, 3 weeks later or so, took the meat out of the brine!

001.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

meat w/ziploc bag on it, just as I put it down.

002.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

took the bag out.  This is a "normal" condition of a cured meat brine.  Bits of fat floating, a dark red color of the brine a/c juices from the meat coming out while brine soaks in.  The consistency was thickened, almost like a syrup.  And as you can see, the brine needed no further stirring or mixing.  Once the ingredients are dissolved in the brine, it is like a suspension, with no settling or separation and requires absolutely no heating to mix the brine.  The thickening is normal.

003.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

I went ahead and sacked up the ham and the vertebrae bones off the loins we boned out.  Still plenty of good eating on those bones; if you've ever bought a package of smoked neck bones you will know what I mean!  Please note how the product hangs, with the items  as skinny a width as possible so to be able to hang as many pieces per smokestick as possible (smokehouse management) and none of them touching, which would leave white spots wherever they touch.

004.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

Started the propane burner and put in some small wood chunks, enough to get smoke started..  don't want to have billowy white smoke filling the smokehouse with creosote-laden smoke.  Just add a few pieces at a time to keep a gentle  thin blue smoke going, will post a Qview of it starting in a few minutes.

 

[pops6927]

The smoking process has begun!  As you can see, some smoldering has started, and some thin smoke is rolling out!  I will increase the size of the chunks as they burn out for a little more smoke, but you want it to be thin and blue, not billowy and white. (And, this documentation helps to qualify you for the coveted OTBS - Order of Thin Blue Smoke!).

004.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

006.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

 

[bdskelly]

Excellent tutorial Pops. How long of a smoke and what temp do ya think?  I see its going to me about 72 degrees today.  A pretty Sunday for a smoke!

Brian

 

[pops6927]

Well, the spareribs on top will take 6 hours, the vertebrae the same, probably 8-10 hrs until the ham is to temp.  Oh yeah.... added some spareribs seeing's how the smoke house is running!, lol!

010.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

I just put an oven rack across the smokesticks, a Q-Matz on it and lay on some ribs.  These are off the piggy, we didn't bother cutting the spare rib from the loin rib, just boned out the loin and put the rest in the freezer for later,which is today!  Lots of meat on them, should be delicious!

You can see the thin blue inside the smokehouse, there was more but had to let it clear to snap the QView!

 

[disco]

Great project and qview. Thanks for this post.

 

[pops6927]

One of my neighbors stopped by (smelled the smokehouse), at the perfect time!  My tank had run out and I was struggling, as usual, to change it as you have to unscrew the end from the inside of the tank nipple vs. the quick-disconnect threads on the outside.  The hose I'd bought had no quick disconnect on it.  He helped me get the old tank disconnected, then I showed him something I'd bought to solve the problem, picked these up on closeout last fall, a tank fuel gauge..  I could screw the bare end of the hose into the adapter, then use the quick disconnect to attach to the tank!  But, I didn't have the strength in my hands to do it and any time the boys came over we were doing other projects like cutting up piggies, lol.  So.... I promised him some of the ribs if he'd do it for me, and wow!  He hooked it up in a flash and got everything super tight!  A Qview!

011.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

Now that looks kind of Rube Goldberg but it's working.  From the tank on the left is the fuel gauge adapter with the new quick disconnect thread which I can handle, then the hose connection to the inner threads, then the micro adjustment valve, then the regulator anf finally to the hose!  Now I can quickly change tanks plus know how much gas is left and still slowly adjust my flame as necessary based on box temp!

 

[bdskelly]

 
One of my neighbors stopped by (smelled the smokehouse), at the perfect time!  My tank had run out and I was struggling, as usual, to change it as you have to unscrew the end from the inside of the tank nipple vs. the quick-disconnect threads on the outside.  The hose I'd bought had no quick disconnect on it.  He helped me get the old tank disconnected, then I showed him something I'd bought to solve the problem, picked these up on closeout last fall, a tank fuel gauge..  I could screw the bare end of the hose into the adapter, then use the quick disconnect to attach to the tank!  But, I didn't have the strength in my hands to do it and any time the boys came over we were doing other projects like cutting up piggies, lol.  So.... I promised him some of the ribs if he'd do it for me, and wow!  He hooked it up in a flash and got everything super tight!  A Qview!

011.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

Now that looks kind of Rube Goldberg but it's working.  From the tank on the left is the fuel gauge adapter with the new quick disconnect thread which I can handle, then the hose connection to the inner threads, then the micro adjustment valve, then the regulator anf finally to the hose!  Now I can quickly change tanks plus know how much gas is left and still slowly adjust my flame as necessary based on box temp!

I use to have one of those. As I remember it was surprisingly accurate.  Now the gasser has a scale on it. Nice shout out on the TBS. 

 

[foamheart]

004.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

Be careful someone will be trying to re-cure your well seasoned chip tray <chuckles>

 

[pops6927]

Just pulled the spareribs (uncured as in fresh with rub) and the vertebrae sections from the loins, cured and smoked.  Of course, couldn't have patience for Qview and broke apart the verts into sections and "tested" them... o.m.g... delicious! (cut down between the bones and broke apart from the backbones).

012.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

A lot of fine munching on them and will strip the meat off them to bare bones, will package them up in a few pieces per ziploc and pull out, heat up and munch!

The spareribs:

013.JPG

• pops6927
• Jan 12, 2014

I can again cut down the ribs and break them apart at the joints; once cooked, the rib bone joints break apart fairly easily.  I'll let you know after dinner, lol!

 

[bdskelly]

Awesome Qs Pop.  They all look delicious. But those ribs are off the chart. Rustic. Simple. Primitive. Tempting….

B

 

[huskerfan1414]