I've been wanting to have a go at this for ages, mainly because I've been itching to have a go at homemade sausages, hams and bacon and just to see if a complete novice could do it. It really was an experiment.
Well what can you make from Half a Pig in a weekend:
2 large pork liver, port and Shiitake mushroom pate's
4lb sausages
Large dish of assorted bbq ribs
10 large tennis ball size faggots
Large terrine of brawn
4 litres of pork stock (which will be bagged into portions for extra gravy for the faggots, well you can't have to much gravy...lol..)
Two large hams wiltshire cure
2 hocks and bones plus pork skin wiltshire cured, the hocks and bones for soup, the skin for scratchings
Loin or back bacon dry cured
Collar bacon wet cure
Loads of Pork scratchings from the skin
One whole tenderloin
Small roasting shoulder joint
Small piece of belly pork
3 large loin chops
It wasn't a large pig it was half a free range berkshire that I collected from a local smallholder, Total weight 22kg. 20kg of meat and 2kg of offal. The couple I bought it from had also given me their liver and heart as they wouldn't have time at the moment to deal with it.
I dont have a butchers saw so I asked their butcher to take off the head and trotters and cut the rest into large pieces that I could debone and deal with it myself.
We collected it last Friday evening and brought it home and put it on the work top to see if we could fit it back together again... lol... Basic pig anatomy
The head and trotters came in another bag and so did the offal
We put it all in the fridge and went to bed.
Up early Sat morning to start and I have to admit to a bit of 'pig fright' at first but I decided just to get stuck in.
Now we had been told that while you're butchering your pig everything must be kept as cold as possible, so following instructions, the kitchen window fully open, (it's a tilt and turn over the sink) and the back door wide open, my other half was in the kitchen with his coat, wooly hat and gloves on taking down notes, taking photo's and looking things up for me and I was in a knee length quilted coat with the sleeves rolled up the elbows.
I managed to debone the large shoulder joint and keep the whole collar (well we hoped it was the collar after much deliberation and watching of youtube videos, dam those experts for making it look so simple... lol... )for making into bacon, a nice small lean roasting joint and 2kg of shoulder to be made into sausages.
Hurrah... one deboned shoulder looking like something from Alien....
Chuffed I managed to get the hock from the back leg
The whole bone out of the back leg
It took me an hour and a half to debone all the joints and another hour and a half at least to decide what I was going to do with it all but the fridge ended up full of labelled bags as to what was what.
Our first ever homemade sausage
Ta da... Sausages
Homemade pate
and apart from making brines and cures that was all we got done on Saturday.
Sunday was much easier as I had a plan for the day.
Wash and shave Pigs head and trotters ready for the brawn pot
Assorted ribs marinating in homemade BBQ sauce
Homemade faggots
This is what my fridge looked like by Sunday night with all the goodies...
One terrine of brawn
Dry cure already working
By Sunday night all that was left were a couple of small recycling food bags of bones and unidentifiable bits and pieces.
I had intended to crispy fry the pigs ear but I was so busy on Sunday that by the time I'd realised it had already gone into the food recycling bag arg.... so maybe I wasn't meant to this time and I chickened out of cooking the half a brain that was still inside it's head.
Monday morning was spent vacuum packing up all the goodies.
Was it worth it, YES definitely
And having done it once would I do it again, YES I've already ordered another half a pig for May and this time I'm going to to have the whole half a pig and saw it up myself.
Did we make any mistakes, YES but nothing major the whole point was to have a go and see if I could do it.
I'm still waiting to try the bacon and hams and as I don't intend to keep them long term this time I just want to try some... I shall eat them 'green' as they say and vac pack and freeze, that's if there's any left... lol...
I finally got around to the pork scratchings.
So what was the Bacon and Ham like?...
All these were 'experiments' as I've never done this before....
The Wiltshire cure... no water added, just bottled bitter, black treacle, herbs and spices. I did the whole back leg initially to boil for some home cured ham but it was so nice we kept some small pieces and sliced them for bacon. This is a picture of the ham that we boiled the smaller piece... Please note... no bright pink colour, because I didn't use any nitrates (salt petre)
The wet cure, this was done on the collar (piece from the shoulder) done in cold water, salt and light brown sugar.
The final one was the dry cure...
So what was our favourite?
We have to say that's it's been a week since I did all this and the flavour of everything just gets better with time, but our ultimate winner was the 'Dry Cure'...
On Thur I rinsed off the dry cure under a cold water tap and actually soaked it in fresh cold water in a bowl in the fridge for 4hrs as well because I didn't want it to be overly salty. It was then dried on a clean tea towel and left in the fridge uncovered for a day. I hand sliced it, put back in the fridge for a further day before I vacuum packed it.
Any homemade bacon cures that involve sugar should be cooked on a low heat to stop the sugar from burning, The dry cure was put in a 'dry' frying pan with no fat and cooked on a low heat, (trust me, there is enough natural fat to oil your pan
)
Not overly salty but enough sweetness to make your mouth water... lol... no white 'ooze' or water in the pan and a firm but delicious bite of bacon...
All of the bacons and hams were very good but the dry cure was the winner...
for taking the time to view this thread... it's appreciated...
I've added this to the first post for anyone looking for info as to what can be done to keep it all in one place... thank you...
To anyone thinking of doing this... 'Have A Go'
It's surprising what you can get away with with so little knowledge
Well what can you make from Half a Pig in a weekend:
2 large pork liver, port and Shiitake mushroom pate's
4lb sausages
Large dish of assorted bbq ribs
10 large tennis ball size faggots
Large terrine of brawn
4 litres of pork stock (which will be bagged into portions for extra gravy for the faggots, well you can't have to much gravy...lol..)
Two large hams wiltshire cure
2 hocks and bones plus pork skin wiltshire cured, the hocks and bones for soup, the skin for scratchings
Loin or back bacon dry cured
Collar bacon wet cure
Loads of Pork scratchings from the skin
One whole tenderloin
Small roasting shoulder joint
Small piece of belly pork
3 large loin chops
It wasn't a large pig it was half a free range berkshire that I collected from a local smallholder, Total weight 22kg. 20kg of meat and 2kg of offal. The couple I bought it from had also given me their liver and heart as they wouldn't have time at the moment to deal with it.
I dont have a butchers saw so I asked their butcher to take off the head and trotters and cut the rest into large pieces that I could debone and deal with it myself.
We collected it last Friday evening and brought it home and put it on the work top to see if we could fit it back together again... lol... Basic pig anatomy
The head and trotters came in another bag and so did the offal
We put it all in the fridge and went to bed.
Up early Sat morning to start and I have to admit to a bit of 'pig fright' at first but I decided just to get stuck in.
Now we had been told that while you're butchering your pig everything must be kept as cold as possible, so following instructions, the kitchen window fully open, (it's a tilt and turn over the sink) and the back door wide open, my other half was in the kitchen with his coat, wooly hat and gloves on taking down notes, taking photo's and looking things up for me and I was in a knee length quilted coat with the sleeves rolled up the elbows.
I managed to debone the large shoulder joint and keep the whole collar (well we hoped it was the collar after much deliberation and watching of youtube videos, dam those experts for making it look so simple... lol... )for making into bacon, a nice small lean roasting joint and 2kg of shoulder to be made into sausages.
Hurrah... one deboned shoulder looking like something from Alien....
Chuffed I managed to get the hock from the back leg
The whole bone out of the back leg
It took me an hour and a half to debone all the joints and another hour and a half at least to decide what I was going to do with it all but the fridge ended up full of labelled bags as to what was what.
Our first ever homemade sausage
Ta da... Sausages
Homemade pate
and apart from making brines and cures that was all we got done on Saturday.
Sunday was much easier as I had a plan for the day.
Wash and shave Pigs head and trotters ready for the brawn pot
Assorted ribs marinating in homemade BBQ sauce
Homemade faggots
This is what my fridge looked like by Sunday night with all the goodies...
One terrine of brawn
Dry cure already working
By Sunday night all that was left were a couple of small recycling food bags of bones and unidentifiable bits and pieces.
I had intended to crispy fry the pigs ear but I was so busy on Sunday that by the time I'd realised it had already gone into the food recycling bag arg.... so maybe I wasn't meant to this time and I chickened out of cooking the half a brain that was still inside it's head.
Monday morning was spent vacuum packing up all the goodies.
Was it worth it, YES definitely
And having done it once would I do it again, YES I've already ordered another half a pig for May and this time I'm going to to have the whole half a pig and saw it up myself.
Did we make any mistakes, YES but nothing major the whole point was to have a go and see if I could do it.
I'm still waiting to try the bacon and hams and as I don't intend to keep them long term this time I just want to try some... I shall eat them 'green' as they say and vac pack and freeze, that's if there's any left... lol...
I finally got around to the pork scratchings.
So what was the Bacon and Ham like?...
All these were 'experiments' as I've never done this before....
The Wiltshire cure... no water added, just bottled bitter, black treacle, herbs and spices. I did the whole back leg initially to boil for some home cured ham but it was so nice we kept some small pieces and sliced them for bacon. This is a picture of the ham that we boiled the smaller piece... Please note... no bright pink colour, because I didn't use any nitrates (salt petre)
The wet cure, this was done on the collar (piece from the shoulder) done in cold water, salt and light brown sugar.
The final one was the dry cure...
So what was our favourite?
We have to say that's it's been a week since I did all this and the flavour of everything just gets better with time, but our ultimate winner was the 'Dry Cure'...
On Thur I rinsed off the dry cure under a cold water tap and actually soaked it in fresh cold water in a bowl in the fridge for 4hrs as well because I didn't want it to be overly salty. It was then dried on a clean tea towel and left in the fridge uncovered for a day. I hand sliced it, put back in the fridge for a further day before I vacuum packed it.
Any homemade bacon cures that involve sugar should be cooked on a low heat to stop the sugar from burning, The dry cure was put in a 'dry' frying pan with no fat and cooked on a low heat, (trust me, there is enough natural fat to oil your pan
)Not overly salty but enough sweetness to make your mouth water... lol... no white 'ooze' or water in the pan and a firm but delicious bite of bacon...
All of the bacons and hams were very good but the dry cure was the winner...
for taking the time to view this thread... it's appreciated...I've added this to the first post for anyone looking for info as to what can be done to keep it all in one place... thank you...
To anyone thinking of doing this... 'Have A Go'
It's surprising what you can get away with with so little knowledge
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