After the first few escapes, we added a hot wire to the top as well. It's incredible how much damage four pigs can do to a lawn in a very short space of time.
Determined pigs also learned to dig out stakes and if they push hard enough in the right spot, they can tear the nails right through the corrugated iron. And there went 15 tiny Hazelnut trees that had survived all our usual neglect for the past year.
During the last escape, Sour Cream nipped at me as I was trying to coax them back in. You couldn't call it a bite, it didn't hurt, it didn't do any damage, he barely made contact with me. But he scared me. A lot.
It was time for them to become dinner anyway. They were already a month or two older than I'd planned on letting them get to and this was the push I needed.
The Homekill man was booked. I planned to butcher them myself because sending them away for processing is expensive. Last time I checked, it was $5/kg plus extra for bacon, ham and sausages. I was fully aware of my limitations. We would get two done now and the other two maybe a month later. Four pigs in a day would have just about killed me.
Hubby, Dad and I discussed the processing. I had said months earlier that I'd like a smoke house or the ability to smoke some cuts from these pigs. Plenty of research was underway. Did we want cold smoking or hot smoking? Were we planning to smoke for flavour or to preserve the meat? Hubby came home just before Christmas with a smoking gun bought with his FlyBuys points. Dad started reading hunting magazines that contained instructions on how to build your own smoker and the best options for different types. A workmate of Hubby's had a fridge that no longer worked, so that came home with the intention of turning it into a smoker.
As there is always plenty to do on our little farm, nothing had really progressed towards the smoker when the first two pigs were slaughtered.
I have had a number of issues over the past few years with my back and shoulder. I have learned not to overdo things as that will leave me almost crippled for the next few days. I am usually pretty good at recognising when I've done enough for now and taking a break. That break might only be 20 minutes, but it leaves me fine to carry on.
With this in mind and with warnings from friends about overdoing it, I set out to butcher these pigs. I think I took too many unnecessary breaks out of fear and the end result was that it dragged out my day to the point of complete exhaustion at 11pm when I finally finished and the clumsiness that always comes as a result. Only one nastyish cut though.
It was also dragged out by problems with the reciprocating saw I'd planned to use to cut down the spine. The blade was in correctly, but kept popping out and flying across the shed when in use. The handsaw I replaced it with had some damage to the handle that meant by the time I was halfway through the first pig, the fleshy part of my hand, between thumb and first finger, was bruised and swollen. I gave up and boned each section as it was hanging. This became awkward and painful and more time consuming.
Dad looked at the reciprocating saw later, the locating pin had worked itself partway out, so it wasn't doing its job of holding the blade in place. It was a tool issue and not an operator issue.
I still had ham and bacon cures from when I'd previously had pigs and I dug out the salami kit I'd bought back then but never used.
My book on preserving had quite a variety of curing methods but most also required hanging each cut in a temperature controlled curing chamber for several weeks to several months. This was something I did not have, nor did we have the time or resources to build one.
I was quite curious to see how the bacon especially would turn out. My last lot of bacon was made with kunekune pork and was rather unpleasant on the whole. I wasn't sure if it was the process or because the pigs had been a few years old and were rather gamy as a result of their diet.
Two legs, which I had boned, went into the brine for ham. It was a week before Christmas and I hoped that this gave us long enough for the cure to work its way through. The calculations on the recipe suggested it should be enough, but I'm never entirely confident until I've cut the finished product.
I boned the shoulders and put them into a brine for bacon. My 15l bucket wouldn't hold all of it, so a couple of pieces went into the freezer for another time.
I decided to try making the salami. The recipe called for beef as well as pork, so I hauled beef stewing cuts out of the freezer and used some of the pork I'd put aside for sausages.
The salami casings were a lot bigger than I'd thought. They were at least 50cm long and about 4cm in diameter when stuffed. Each weighed approximately a kg.
The recipe called for them to be smoked for at least an hour. The smoking gun came out. I followed the directions for covering the salamis in a large bowl with cling film, with the end of the smoking gun tucked in and sealed around. I used the hickory chips that came with the gun. We very quickly spotted the fine holes and places where it wasn't sealed very well, so they were fixed up.
Within 20 minutes, the smoke had all dissipated in the bowl. So we filled it with smoke again. And again after another 20 minutes.
The recipe then called for the salamis to be poached in water. That water was to be kept below 85 degrees Celsius for one and a quarter hours, to allow the internal temperature to reach 70 deg C.
My biggest stainless steel bowl was not wide enough for the entire salami to fit under the water. I heated them (on a double boiler type system) for several hours longer than the recipe said. I wasn't able to check the internal temperature as that would have put a big hole in the casing. I hoped for the best.
The salamis had broken and bent in the middle. All the fat now coated the outside of each salami inside the casing. They looked okay inside, but I should probably have minced them with a finer blade and stuffed the casings more firmly. They tended to crumble a little when cut.
Just to be safe, I fried slices to eat them. Delicious. A month or so later, I decided to try some without frying. Still delicious, if even more crumbly. It's almost spreadable on crackers. It's been a month now and I haven't gotten sick from them so we're quite happy with the way they turned out.
Dad worried that they hadn't smoked properly, so he turned up one day with a charcoal grill and smoker as an early birthday present.
The ham was delicious on Christmas day. The rest was sliced up and frozen ready to be pulled out for lunches. There were a few patches in the middle that hadn't cured.
The bacon was very nice. Bacon is quite hard to slice so our slices were probably 8mm thick. They're more like bacon steaks than bacon rashers so you only need one with your breakfast.
We decided it was time to try out the new smoker and smoke two of the pieces of bacon. They need to sit out at room temperature for 12 hours to form a pellicle. So that was overnight. The next morning, I put the smoker together. That was simple enough.
Everything I'd read said to be careful of what fuel you use as this may taint the meat. Dad had gotten some charcoal briquettes with the smoker, made of coconut shell and therefore safe for smoking, but getting them started was not the simple task it should have been. Methylated spirits poured over wasn't enough, no amount of carefully chosen cardboard or kindling worked. Dad spent a patient half hour with a blow torch to get the charcoals started in the end.
To begin with, we put the damp wood chips in an aluminium foil dish on top of the coals. They kind of blackened but didn't really smoke, so after a while, we just dumped them directly onto the coals.
We left it for most of the day. The bacon didn't seem cooked as such, but its texture had changed. And this lot tasted amazing.
Ham (wet brine method)
3/4 C salt (non iodised)
1 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Molasses
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 tsp Prague powder #1
Mix in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. If not, mix equal parts of brown sugar and salt and add until the egg floats.
Place ham in brine and ensure that it is fully submerged. Place in fridge for 1 day per kg (or 7 days per 4cm thickness).
Check the cure has gone right through the meat.
Rinse ham and let soak in clean water. Check for saltiness by cutting off a thin slice, fry and taste test. Ensure you check pieces from the bottom of your vessel - the ham at the top might have rinsed well, but the rest might not.
Cook at 150 deg C until internal temperature of 68 deg C has been reached.
NOTES: This mixture is sufficient to cure about 10 kg of ham.
Be careful to add the water slowly. If you add too much water, you might need to add more cure. I use a 15l food grade bucket with lid to do this - the volume of water required is less than you might think and much of it spills out when you add the ham and weight it down.
I use a small bowl to hold the ham under the surface of the liquid.
I've found the time period listed in the recipe (1 day per kg) isn't quite enough. I always seem to end up with small patches of plain pork in the centre of my hams. I found another recipe that gave time based on the thickness of the ham and that is what I now go by.
Meat cured with Prague powder #1 must be heated before it is eaten. For small goods that are not going to be heated, use Prague powder #2 and a different process.
I didn't have Molasses, so I added an equivalent volume of dark brown sugar.
If you have a different quantity to cure, a calculator can be found here.
Bacon (wet brine method)
1 part Bacon cure
1 part Salt (non iodised)
1/2 part Brown sugar
Mix and dissolve in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. Let cool.
Place meat for curing in brine. Ensure that it is fully submerged. Keep in the fridge for 7 days per 4cm of meat thickness.
Check the cure has gone right through the meat, rinse in clean cold water and check for saltiness as above.
NOTE:
I buy my bacon cure from Oskarbutcher. This link gives its ingredients.
I smoke bacon after curing. When I am sure it has rinsed sufficiently (and be sure to check the pieces at the bottom), I let it sit out overnight and then smoke it the next day.
Smoked bacon is easier to slice.
This same recipe can be used for a dry cure.
Rub the mix into the pork, making sure the whole surface is covered and make sure to work it into any holes. Place the meat into a zip lock bag and leave in the fridge for 2-3 days. After this time, rub the meat with the curing mix again and leave for a further 2-3 days.
Check that the cure has penetrated all the way through the meat, rinse and check as for wet cure.
Salami
1.7 kg Beef or venison
0.8 kg Pork
0.5 kg Pork fat (back fat is the best)
300ml water
40g Oat or wheat fibre (optional)
180g salami mix
Mince the meat through a coarse plate. Mix in water, fibre and seasoning. Mince again through fine plate.
Stuff into casings.
Hang in smoker and dry for 20 mins, then smoke for 1 hour.
Heat in water (not to be over 85 deg C) for about 1 1/4 hour or until internal temperature is 70 deg C.
Cool in cold water for 2 hours.
Keep in fridge overnight.
NOTES:
I added Cayenne pepper and whole black peppercorns to this recipe.
I bought the Salami mix from Oskarbutcher, it contains a number of salts, minerals and sodium nitrite.
Overall, we were quite happy with the end products. So I've been doing it all again with the second two pigs.
This batch of ham spent twice as long in the cure and we still ended up with a small spot that didn't cure. At least this is a small spot compared with last time.
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| That pale spot is where the cure didn't reach. |
It was still very good bacon.
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| Lighting charcoals |
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| With soaked wood chips |
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| First layer of bacon in |
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| Second layer of bacon in |
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| Smoking away quite merrily |
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