We sold one of our two hogs and today was the day that the sold hog was butchered. The purchaser chose to use a butcher that kills the hog on the farm and then takes it back to the shop to cut and wrap. It was a new experience for me and one that I will not soon forget.
They started by shooting the pig in the pig pen. The butcher went into the pen and was trying to get a perfect shot, kneeling down in front of Abraham. Of course, Hammy thought that this was an invitation to get pets so she ambled over and started nosing him. This was not condusive to a simple, quick kill, so I went into the pen to distract Hammy. Once she was happily rubbing on me, the butcher took the shot. It was true in the center of his forehead and Abraham was dead.
The butcher immediately went for his knife and cut a large gash down the length of his neck, soas to bleed him out quickly. The body was quivvering at this point, which seemed pretty normal to me. But within an instant, the entire body went into huge convulsions, flipping and thrashing in the mud and blood. I had a hard time getting out of the pen without getting dirty. It was kindof disturbing, but I just kept telling my wide-eyed boys that Abraham was already gone and this was just the energy left in his body leaving.
Once the pig was quiet, the butcher dragged him out of the pen and began the process of cleaning the carcass. He washed it down with a hose...probably the cleanest I've ever seen that pig...then began at the feet. He removed the feet and started slipping the skin away from the legs. Once at the shoulder, he made a shallow incision down the center of the pig, and began to open it, peeling the skin back like a jacket.
After all of the skin was removed from the front, the butcher hung the carcass with large metal hooks through the hind legs. He then lifted it with a hydralic lift attached to the back of his truck. As the body lifted, he slowly pulled the skin down the back toward the head. Once it reached the head, he severed the neck and the skin and head came off together.
He then gutted the pig, saving out the heart and liver for the buyer. Once the pig was evicerated, he washed it out with water and grabbed his saw. This saw resembled a large sawsall, the blade was about four inches tall and at least fourteen inches long. He used this saw to cut through the center of the spine, all the way from the base of the tail to just before the shoulder blades. At that point, he picked up his knife and cut through the remaining meat. The carcass fell apart into two halves and he lifted them into the truck and onto the rack in the cooler.
All in all, the whole process took about an hour and a half. We were able to take lots of interesting pictures and ask all sorts of questions. The butcher praised our farming skills, noting that the meat was exactly the way that he would want his pig to look. Sounds like we're doing something right. Maybe $1.75 on the hoof is too cheap...we ended up with a total live weight of 263lbs and 185lbs of hanging weight (meat and bones). Not bad for a pig!
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