Whole Hog Butchery

So I have been taking a class at the local community college and the class is called Animal Evaluation and Processing. This is a class a bunch of students have to take as part of different ag sci courses.

I knew that we had a slaughter and breakdown coming soon and today I was really excited to find out that we were doing a pig slaughter today.

I was hoping to to hang up my GoPro and shoot the whole process from beginning to end but the teacher said "No". So out of respect for my teacher I pulled it down. I do hope to video as we start breaking down the primal cuts over the next two weeks.

So before the teacher stunned the 350 lb pig all I could think was the Lords Prayer making sure I gave a sense of gratitude for what was about to happen. With a whole class of students the process started at 10:02 pm and ended at 11:32 am.

I was asked by a friend about the kill method.The instructor used a gun that had a captive bolt that was backed by the charge of a .22. This rendered the pig OUT! The next step was to quickly cut the animals throat. This was something that had to be done quickly before  rigor mortis starts to set in.

There are may procedures used to slaughter and animal and due to what we had at the school it was a bit crude and not like a million dollar plant The truth is the way we did it at the school is the way people have been doing it for hundreds of years. Truth is first thing I did was call my dad and tell him about what I just done. He began to tell me about his grandparents and how they would raise pigs and use everything. He told me his grandma would render all the fat, put it in jars and put it in the basement of there home and use it during the years.

Our instructor started  and showed us how to pull the skin off and so I finally get my hand dirty and start helping pull the skin off by cutting against the skin and the fat. As I am watching the process and we are half way through pulling the skin off I look at the teacher and say "I want the head" and that is what I got.

I was talking to the instructor and I made the comment that there is something surreal about this whole process. Watching an animal go from death to what becomes a usable product for consumption.

We as consumers do not think about where are food comes from and how we get it. Today I have a better understanding of where it comes from.

This weekend I am going to be making a batch of my Irish sausage and my goal is to make sure I do not waste a single ounce of meat. Did this change my life....I am not sure. Did it change my point of view on a few thing....DEFINITELY!!!!

Recommended reading: The Ethical Butcher by Berlin Reed

Starting To Get It

So as you see in the pictures I have been working on another
batch of pork belly/bacon. I am going to be honest trying to find quality products to make a good bacon is not easy. Here in the Central Valley there are very few places to purchase pork belly.

I have one meat market that only sells is cryopacked and frozen. I have found another that does not sell it unless you are buying bulk. I have found a mexican market that I am able to buy belly but the only problem is you do not know how good the quality of the meat is going to be.

The first time I purchased 4 pounds of it and the quality was not bad. This last purchase where I purchased 8 pounds the quality was not as good as I would of liked. A lot more fat and a lot less meat which gives you a mediocre bacon.

There is a meat market I still need to pay a visit to and see what they off if anything at all.

When I was younger in Madera,Ca there was a place called the Meat Locker which was where my dad had our pigs butchered after there were slaughtered. It was a meat market and butcher shop and when I was in high school it was where we would go to get all or our deep fried goodness for lunch (deep fried burritos and potato wedges rule)!

You really do not realize the importance of quality over quantitiy until the time comes for you are trying to learn and make your own food. Meat that is raised well is better then meat that is "industrially" raised.

As I learn more about bacon and get ready to start learning how to even make my own sausage my goal is to used some of the best products I can. I want to give my family good food and if I plan to make food available to the public I want to know that I am giving the public a quality food that I can be proud of!

FOODxCORE.....Sweet Chili Pulled Pork

Sweet Chili Pulled Pork is a working title.So when getting ready to prepare this unless your neighborhood market has a real meat counter find a real meat market who actually know something about meat. I personally visit Glick;s in Visalia,,CA or The Meat Market in Fresno,CA. There is something about going to a meat market that has a staff that knows about what cuts of meat are what but more importantly selling meat that has been cut there in house....Enjoy!!

After cooking for almost 12 hours...There were no leftovers!

 
Ingredients:
1 T oil
2 chopped onions
6 minced garlic cloves
1 T chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
12 oz chili sauce (1 small bottle)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire
3 lb. pork shoulder






Supplies:
Crockpot
Small Sauce Pan

Saute the onions in the oil until soft. Add garlic, chili powder, and pepper and cook another minute or so. Add chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Heat till boiling stirring constantly.

Put the pork shoulder in the crockpot and pour the sauce over it. Cover and cook on low 12 hours or on high 6 hours, until pork is basically falling apart.(Leave it in a little longer, it will not hurt anything). Shred the meat with a pair of forks and return to the pot and keep warm in the sauce. Serve over buns on a pile of steamed rice.

This makes a LOT of pork but I have found that if I am making it for a show there is not going to be anything left. In the off chance you have leftover you can freeze it for later!

6 lbs. of pork shoulder at 7 am!!

Pork Belly...What to do with it!!

    So recently my father-in-law was involved with the butchering of a 350 pound pig (do not ask the kind of pig because I have no idea). With him slaughtering the pig meant he got half the pig and I made sure I got a few pounds of the belly.Cut the skin off of it and put the pork on hamburgers.

  If you are looking for pork belly you may have to search for it. I found it originally at a carniceria. I was able to get it with the skin on but you can ask the butcher to cut the skin off.

    I got my hands on curing salt (yes it came from William-Sonoma and no they did not appreciate the bags of change!). I have learned that if you do not have curing salt you can used kosher salt. I have found curing salt is not as east to find as you would think.

   So I started digging around my cupbourds to see what I had for my rub. So I made a rub of brown sugar, Hawaiian pink salt, black peppercorns, dry mustard (for a little spice) and bay leaves.
    
After putting the dry rub on I bagged and tagged it and stuck it in the bottom drawer of the fidge for the the next 7 days.......To be continued in 7 days!.

   If you read this and have attempted to cure pork let me know....any ideas or advice post comments!!

3 lbs of pork belly

Curing salt or you can use Kosher salt

Experiment,experiment,Experiment!!

Bagged and Tagged for the next 7 days