From Bacon Seed to Bratwurst...a day on the farm

Legume

Those prices, is that for dressed weight or what you walk with?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Legume said:

Those prices, is that for dressed weight or what you walk with?

We walked with all of it. Head, Bones and all. If I understand it right The $7 is for whatever you want.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I was wrong on the pricing. it's $5 per if you buy the whole thing but they have a price list for individual cuts. 

anton

Looks like an awesome day was had, I'm jealous like a mfer! Enjoy that fine porky goodness.

Hi54putty

Cool experience. I buy a side of beef every year but just this week will place an order for my first half hog. I will decide how to have it butchered but won't do it myself. I am paying $5/lb out the door. Sounds like that is a fair deal. My pig is supposed to be all natural everything too. Looking forward to adding to my very expensive freezer stock. 

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Hi54putty said:

Cool experience. I buy a side of beef every year but just this week will place an order for my first half hog. I will decide how to have it butchered but won't do it myself. I am paying $5/lb out the door. Sounds like that is a fair deal. My pig is supposed to be all natural everything too. Looking forward to adding to my very expensive freezer stock. 

They charge $3 per lb to butcher it so these would be $8 per lb if you don't do it yourself. $5 seems like a really good deal to me. I wish the bellies were a little thicker on these. I have a Berkshire belly in the cure that is 3X bigger than the bellies on these. 

hapster

Awesome... 

LetsEat

What an adventure!

caliking

I've been hearing about this caper all afternoon. I'm so fvcking jealous. Serves me right for skipping town. 

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caliking said:

I've been hearing about this caper all afternoon. I'm so fvcking jealous. Serves me right for skipping town. 

It was great. You will have to join us next time. Right up your alley. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mmmmmmm. Chorizo, potato, egg and cheese breakfast tacos. 

I think this sausage making thing is going to be expensive. I'm hooked. 

20stone

(warning - pic heavy)

I have been conjuring this sort of thing for a few weeks, thinking I would do it in Houston at my favorite butcher shop (Revival Market in the Heights).  My BIL, Mike, found this spot, which ended being its own crazy adventure.

However, I kicked it off early, as the World of Outlaws was having its inaugural race at the Cotton Bowl Raceway in Paige, TX.  Good times if you ever have the chance:


The next morning, we got a good look at the raw material.  I have to say, as a dirty hippie, it is nice to see livestock raised with so much space and with so much care:


I smoked the butt (6.5 lbs) yesterday for general use, and figured I'd take advantage of the Adjustable Rig and cook up the St. Louisita ribs as well.


As @The Cen-Tex Smoker indicated, this wasn't a huge pig, so everything was pretty dainty.  One of the drawbacks of such a small farm is that they don't always have hogs ready to slaughter.  In our case, the sows were still nursing their bacon bits, so we got whichever other hog was biggest when we were going to turn up.  The meat, however, has been delicious


Two of the belly slabs became pancetta.  They were cured for a week and are now covertly hanging in our wine locker at the storage facility (60F and 60%).  Two more weeks and yum! 


Ms Stone and Tex were thinking alike yesterday morning.  We had chorizo (made at the farm), veggies from the pork stock we made from the bones, sauted peppers and onions, mushrooms and aged cheddar.  Yum!


One of the other very satisfying elements of this was that almost nothing went to waste.  We started with a whole hog, minus guts, skin and feet.  From all of our butchering, we could fit our waste into a large handful (that all went to the dogs).

Head:

• Cheeks - into a sous vide
• Jowls - for lardons
• Rest of head - tbd

Shoulder:

• One made into shoulder bacon
• One made into pulled pork
• Fat into the sausage pile

Loin:

• Double chops (the front halves)
• Roast (one back half)
• Canadian Bacon (the other half)

Belly:

• Skinny St. Louis ribs
• 2 small slabs of bacon
• 2 pancettas

Ham:

• 1 chopped into sausage chunks (and became brats and chorizo)
• 1 to be smoked

Other

• Bones used for stock
• Leaf lard saved for pies and biscuits
• Other "pork butter" rendered and used for cooking

Next time, we'll get a bigger pig, but I really enjoyed butchering it and curing all the bits that needed it.  More to learn on making bacon, as it was pretty salt heavy this time around.  The sausage, however, has been phenomenal.

Now, I am planning on something else for Salado, as I am hoarding the swine for personal use.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Nice score on the Pancetta. Forgot you had a wine storage room. Perfect spot to hang that. Great day- thanks for putting that together. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

love the tomahawk ribs

20stone

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Nice score on the Pancetta. Forgot you had a wine storage room. Perfect spot to hang that. Great day- thanks for putting that together. 

As you know, we've been looking around for a house.  It may not surprise you that every place we go in, I look to see where the meat locker.

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20stone said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Nice score on the Pancetta. Forgot you had a wine storage room. Perfect spot to hang that. Great day- thanks for putting that together. 

As you know, we've been looking around for a house.  It may not surprise you that every place we go in, I look to see where the meat locker.

can't wait to see it. 

caliking

Ya know , I hate y'all a little more with each post on this thread. 

We started looking for a new house and sort of gave up, since there were none with a built in tandoor on the waterfront, or even a commercial grade kitchen adjacent to an expansive patio. 

texaswig

That's cool. I don't know alot of people that would be down to go butcher hogs for a day outing. That's why I like this forum there's just more people like me. 

nolaegghead

Awesome bacon seed story! 

On Saturday my homebrewer's club made 300+ pounds of chorizo, Italian and green onion sausage.  My arm was burning after cranking the mixer for about 40 pounds.  There were a bunch of people in the process.  I took home 6 pounds of chorizo and it was delicious. 

We had about 7 different home brews and limited production brews from a couple local breweries.  Grilled oysters and sausage for lunch.  Good group of people.

saluki2007

Thanks for sharing CTS.  I have never tried non-commercial pork but did just recently buy 1/4 cow from a local farmer and it was amazing how much of a different taste it has.  I could only imagine what the difference would be with pork.

@blind99  if you come across a place in IL that does something like that please let me know.  I would love to do something like this.

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nolaegghead said:

Awesome bacon seed story! 

On Saturday my homebrewer's club made 300+ pounds of chorizo, Italian and green onion sausage.  My arm was burning after cranking the mixer for about 40 pounds.  There were a bunch of people in the process.  I took home 6 pounds of chorizo and it was delicious. 

We had about 7 different home brews and limited production brews from a couple local breweries.  Grilled oysters and sausage for lunch.  Good group of people.

That sounds like my kind of day. Awesome. And That is a Metric sh!t ton of sausage! 

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

Awesome bacon seed story! 

On Saturday my homebrewer's club made 300+ pounds of chorizo, Italian and green onion sausage.  My arm was burning after cranking the mixer for about 40 pounds.  There were a bunch of people in the process.  I took home 6 pounds of chorizo and it was delicious. 

We had about 7 different home brews and limited production brews from a couple local breweries.  Grilled oysters and sausage for lunch.  Good group of people.

That sounds like my kind of day. Awesome. And That is a Metric sh!t ton of sausage! 

It was at this guy's house out of town in a little community called "Crown Point" near Lafitte.  I almost turned around when I got there and saw the confederate flag.  But I hung in there, diverse group of people.

KiterTodd

Thanks for sharing.  Looks like an educational day.  I'd like to do something about that just to learn more about butchering and where all the cuts come from.

One question, though.  To be honest, what is in your cooler doesn't look like $400 worth of meat.  Am I not seeing it all (being cured, split with others) or is this the going rate for what an organic LGBT friendly pig goes for? 

GATraveller

That is awesome!!!  I gotta get my buddies in on something like this.

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KiterTodd said:

Thanks for sharing.  Looks like an educational day.  I'd like to do something about that just to learn more about butchering and where all the cuts come from.

One question, though.  To be honest, what is in your cooler doesn't look like $400 worth of meat.  Am I not seeing it all (being cured, split with others) or is this the going rate for what an organic LGBT friendly pig goes for? 

There were 2 other coolers with as much or more in there. I actually took a little less of the glory cuts because I had some Berkshire bellies in my fridge already. The $400 included the butchery class, sausage making class and her assisting for the whole day. she put 10 solid hours in with us. I probably ended up with close to 35lbs of meat and sausage. I got a ham and a shoulder, a few chops, some sausage, 2 lbs of ground pork and a few lbs of backfat. There is a shank in there somewhere too. 

If we had butchered it all ourselves it would have been $670 for the whole thing ($223 per guy instead of $400)

It also included free beer and wine and lunch. We got our money's worth out of the beer.

20stone

KiterTodd said:

One question, though.  To be honest, what is in your cooler doesn't look like $400 worth of meat.  Am I not seeing it all (being cured, split with others) or is this the going rate for what an organic LGBT friendly pig goes for? 

What you are looking at is $200 lbs of meat (40# or so).  The first time out there we ponied up for butchering and curing lessons, which we won't do next time.  We can just show up and rent the kitchen for a couple of hours.

KiterTodd

Got it.  That is awesome, then.   Definitely nice to make a mess in someone else's kitchen that is outfitted with all the right tools.

I hear ya on the instruction and the beer!  Solid. Thanks again for sharing that.

CTMike

What an awesome day. My Berkshire bacon factory will be headed to the butcher the end of April. I am getting the entire animal for $4/lb out the door, including butchering costs. Helluva deal. 

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CTMike said:

What an awesome day. My Berkshire bacon factory will be headed to the butcher the end of April. I am getting the entire animal for $4/lb out the door, including butchering costs. Helluva deal. 

That is a score. 

blind99

I'd say you definitely got your money's worth. 

@saluki2007 I'm starting to look. Likewise let me know if you find anything like it. It'd be a lot of fun.