Curing 200+ pounds of pork 3 different ways. Dry cure, wet cure and salt only cure.

SGH

Canugghead said:

Awesome! if this is not pork heaven I don't know what is. Must confess I was afraid to open your butchering thread though 

Thanks man. But this is not the buthering thread. I'm still awaiting permission on what I can and cannot post due to graphics. The post will be titled: Home Butchering, Killing, Slaughtering and Processing Part 1. If approved, it will be a 3 part post. One dedicated to the killing, one to the cleaning and one to breaking.  I knew there would not be any problem with posting the cut up meat curing so I went ahead and showed 3 of the ways to do it. Glad that you liked it my friend. 

Spaightlabs

Awesome work Scotty, and looking forward to seeing final results.

food safety has a place, but so too do tradition and self reliance.

most food safety concerns came about as a result of our proxying out our raising, slaughtering and butchering of food to large factory operations and the lack of cleanliness appurtenant thereto.  

We we we a heartier breed back then in more ways than one.

I've got a dozen geese and a few more ducks than that hanging whole and uncleaned in the garage for the last 2 weeks.  We've had some 50s and 60s and they will be fine for another week...

Darby_Crenshaw

Hey @SGH

How far do you break down?  When we buy a hog or half up here, no matter what you write on the ticket they grind too much, throw away the head and caul fat and offal...  It sucks

i would LOVE to receive a hog tjat has been split, and receive the two halves and head. Trotters and all. Organ meat, everything. 

How much do you save and do you ise the whole thing (cheeks or the whole head, head cheese, liver, etc.)?

i'm a bit of a pvssy. I wouldn't mind receiving everything, and watching or particpating in breaking it down. just not sure i could actually maintain the tuff-giy act during the salughter and bleeding out. Hahaha

ruhlman and polcyn have a follow up to "Charcuterie" called "Salumi". It lightly discusses the American and Italian ways of breaking down a hog

if i had frigging time, i would make this stuff all day. 

Roadpuke0

If any one can find this book it is very very informative. It wa my dad and was published in 1943 and tell all from Morton salt comany. A few photos of just some of the stuff In it. Wish I could share the whole thing.

Darby_Crenshaw

That's actually available as a PDF online. I'll see if i can find it

morton has a lot of resources. They still produce the most widely available universal basic cure (Tenderquick)

you guys have no idea how much Thirdeye is missed in these forums re curing. Guy knew EVERYTHING 

SGH

@Darby_Crenshaw - Above you asked how far that I break them down. Well it just depends my friend. If I'm breaking them for someone other than myself, I will take it all the way down to primals, subprimals and commodity cuts if that is what they want. Some folks request just primal breaks, some a combination of the 3. So it just depends. Now that I'm getting older I prefer to stop at the subprimal stage. Anything beyond this is really hard on me now that I have semi-paralyzed hands. I still do it all with a knife and manual hand saw. So it can get real labor intensive due to my hands. However on a good day I will still reduce them to commodity cuts if requested. For myself, I take them down to primals and call it good enough unless my wife wants pork chops and them I will break the vertebrae on down. You also asked how much do I save. Again it just depends on what I'm making, how much time I have to dedicate and so forth. These 4 hogs that I just slaughtered, I did keep the livers and hearts but no other innards. With this much meat on hand I just didn't have time to process the innards. I also did cut the head out and leave the jowls still intact to the carcass. This is a old trick that you don't see much now days. If I would have killed only one hog I would have kept everything and processed it.  So again, it just depends on the volume and what someone wants. When I was younger, I was pretty good at breaking. Now I just get by my friend. Here is me separating the belly from the ribs and the jowls still attached to the carcass with the head cut out and the livers and hearts that I kept. 
 

Roadpuke0

Scottie, here is the blood sausage recipe, hint hint, wink wink.. 

Darby_Crenshaw

Much respect

good stuff. i'd pay to spend a day peeking over your shoulder. Hahaha

SGH

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Much respect

good stuff. i'd pay to spend a day peeking over your shoulder. Hahaha

If you are ever down my way, it won't cost you a thing my friend. I will gladly show folks anything that I can. We are killing some goats for New Years if you happen to be in the area you are more than welcome to come by. We will be cooking some of this pork as well. I like to pick and carry on, but I will always answer questions and demonstrate things for folks if I can. Love to help folks out. 

Little Steven

SGH said:

@Darby_Crenshaw - Above you asked how far that I break them down. Well it just depends my friend. If I'm breaking them for someone other than myself, I will take it all the way down to primals, subprimals and commodity cuts if that is what they want. Some folks request just primal breaks, some a combination of the 3. So it just depends. Now that I'm getting older I prefer to stop at the subprimal stage. Anything beyond this is really hard on me now that I have semi-paralyzed hands. I still do it all with a knife and manual hand saw. So it can get real labor intensive due to my hands. However on a good day I will still reduce them to commodity cuts if requested. For myself, I take them down to primals and call it good enough unless my wife wants pork chops and them I will break the vertebrae on down. You also asked how much do I save. Again it just depends on what I'm making, how much time I have to dedicate and so forth. These 4 hogs that I just slaughtered, I did keep the livers and hearts but no other innards. With this much meat on hand I just didn't have time to process the innards. I also did cut the head out and leave the jowls still intact to the carcass. This is a old trick that you don't see much now days. If I would have killed only one hog I would have kept everything and processed it.  So again, it just depends on the volume and what someone wants. When I was younger, I was pretty good at breaking. Now I just get by my friend. Here is me separating the belly from the ribs and the jowls still attached to the carcass with the head cut out and the livers and hearts that I kept. 
 

Arthritis? Nothing worse.

Darby_Crenshaw

Nothing worse. Except being a canadian. 

SGH

@Little Steven No sir, not arthritis. I have a severe nerve neuropathy.

KiterTodd

I love the 1/2 keg, top removed, handle added, filled with pork.  That's not a sight you see often!

Reading with much interest.  Thanks for sharing.  

SGH

KiterTodd said:

I love the 1/2 keg, top removed, handle added, filled with pork.  That's not a sight you see often!

Reading with much interest.  Thanks for sharing.  

If you look close, those kegs actually have raised medal letters that read: Anheuser Busch, St. Louis Mo. And thank you brother.  

SGH

@Darby_Crenshaw - Darby if you have never read it, I highly recommend this book. It probably will not tell you anything that you don't already know when it come to curing, but it contains a plethora of old school methods. Truly a wealth of good, solid info on all things related to curing and preserving  

DMW

@SGH - thanks for this thread, and mentioning that book again. I've seen you mention it before and wanted to get it, but finally saw it when I was able to order. I should have it in time to read over during the Christmas break I have off work.

SGH

@DMW - I feel that you are certainly one of the ones who will appreciate and enjoy the book. It covers many, many topics from curing to equipment. Some of it is beyond the scope of the home curist, but 99 percent of it can be used and applied. Hope that you enjoy and use it as much as I do. 

Darby_Crenshaw

Thanks @SGH

I'll grab a copy. I have been reading a lot of older recipes and cookbooks. Actually centering around pates and similar stuff (rillettes, pickling, etc etc), but there are always sections on curing pork

SGH

@Darby_Crenshaw
Back on page 1 of this post, I asked a question (addressed to you) about upper temp curing limits. If time allows, will you read it and share your thoughts? I don't recall ever seeing the answer in any book or writing that I have read myself. Thanks in advance for you thoughts. 

Darby_Crenshaw

Sorry man

i will check into it.

i will say off the top of my head my understna is that this is almost always an autumn endeavor. We get fresh meat and hogs all year now, but that is a recent modern thing. Not long ago, maybe a generation or so (or at least MY generation, which is two or three generations ago :( ), that wasn't the case

you slaughtered and cured the pork in the fall. That meant cool temps

my dad would hamg his deer a day or two at about 60 degrees or less

i think the italian prosciutto and our country hams were similar. Cool days preferred, in the fall. 

I think you mentioned not going above 90. 

I believe it is a combo of enzyme action (protein breakdown) and bacterial problems. As in, too high a temp and the bacteria may find a foothold despite the salt

but that's guesswork

you have done more of this than I

and i always threw it in the fridge. 

bgebrent

SGH said:

@Darby_Crenshaw - Darby if you have never read it, I highly recommend this book. It probably will not tell you anything that you don't already know when it come to curing, but it contains a plethora of old school methods. Truly a wealth of good, solid info on all things related to curing and preserving  

Thank you for that reference brother!  Gonna get.

Canugghead

Damn, this forum is a bottomle$$ pit.
The consolation: Thanks to the battered canuck buck, amazon.CA is cheaper than amazon.com  CAD 25.04 = USD 17.95

Thank you, your order has been placed.

We've sent you an e-mail confirmation.

Order Number: 702- ... 
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SGH

@Canugghead
Hope that you enjoy the book as much as I have. I feel that you will my friend. 

Canugghead

Thanks for the recommendation my friend, really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll get it before Xmas.

20stone

SGH said:

 

[separating the belly]

I went to a hog butchering class at my local dirty hippy butcher (Revival Market in Houston).  They do what they called "seam butchering" and separated the animal along the breaks in the muscles, rather than the cuts you see now for box meat.

They do a ton of charcuterie, and they do two things very differently than we are accustomed to.  First, they generally take off the whole collar, and either sell it as steaks or turn it into coppa.  The second thing they do is use a nylon cord rib cleaner, to get all the rib meat off with the belly (which they also cure).

I personally dig StL ribs, so I would just a soon leave it on, but its interesting to see how many different ways you can chop things up.

Thanks for posting your process.  My current pipe dream is to get a rifle, shoot some free range boar (vermin, in this neck of the woods), bring it house in my truck, butcher it and cure/freeze/etc.... All I lack is a rifle, a house and a truck, but I'm working on it.

theyolksonyou

@20stone you gotta start somewhere

SGH

20stone said:
 All I lack is a rifle, a house and a truck, but I'm working on it.

If you can come up with a house, i will gladly loan you a rifle and a truck brother Stone. As to the belly and spares, I had 4 hogs and made spare out of two of them. So I ended up with some of each. To be honest, it's been a while since I cut the belly off of the ribs by hand and wanted to see if I could still do a decent job of it. It took me a minute but it turned out pretty. 

tfhanson

I know some of the curing guys live here around Atlanta. I would love to hang out with you and learn some curing skills.

SGH

20stone said:
 The second thing they do is use a nylon cord rib cleaner, to get all the rib meat off with the belly 

My grandfather use to do something very similar to this. Instead of using a nylon cord he used a medium piano wire with two handles made from oak tied to each end. I never developed the technique to do this type of stripping. Just didn't have the knack or feel for it I guess. I have always used a cut down skinning knife to strip. This was a 6" Dexter skinner that I cut down 3 & 3/4 and put a point on it. 

SGH

tfhanson said:

I know some of the curing guys live here around Atlanta. I would love to hang out with you and learn some curing skills.

Brother when it comes to curing, I'm certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. However I would be more than glad to show you what little I do know. If you are free in Febuary, we always kill around 15 hogs. You are more than welcome to come watch and/or participate if you like.