Butchered Two Hogs A Few Weekends Ago

[WonderMonkey]

One for me, one for my Brother In Law. They were larger than the typical market size. I'd say these were between 280-330 lbs. I do field dress and butcher my own deer, but I would say I'm not good at it. When the opportunity to do these hogs came up, I figured it was time I did it and knew it would help me with deer. A bunch of us took a class and it was led by several very experienced people and they helped us go through the entire process, including trimming and bagging it all up. My BIL and I then spent the next few evenings doing more prep, doing the first grind on parts that will eventually become sausage, and so on. After a full week (from day 1) of aging in the cooler, I put it all in the freezer.

Because I had my hog in the freezer, and plan on doing more with deer, I was not terribly upset when my smaller electric smoker quit on me two weekends ago. I researched and bought the RT-590.

I just took some of the course ground hog from the freezer and will make some mild Italian sausage, which will go on a pizza this Saturday. I'm hoping to use my pellet smoker to explore and properly prepare all of the hog I currently have.

The results of being walked through the entire butchering process is that I feel confident I could get a live hog and do it again on my own. When I watch a "start to finish" video it now makes more sense. I'm not a professional at it, and never will, but each time I now do a deer I'll be better at it, and then if and when I do another hog, I'll feel good I'm doing a decent job.

 

[Greg Jones]

Nice! I grew up on a farm, and we would raise our own hogs and steers. My dad taught me how to kill them, dress them out, and quarter them, but we never did our own butchering. While what we did was close, I’ve always regretted that we never did the entire process ourselves.