Having taken two of our pigs to the abattoir and being told that they wouldn't butcher them, our pigs were about 20 kilos live weight, this size is usually left whole for spit roast. So I had a baptism of fire trying to learn how to butcher a pig whilst actually doing the butchering. It is said that one of the best ways to learn is hands-on, our brains remember more of a process if we carry the process out rather than reading about it or watching a video. I would have been lost without the Internet, I used You Tube videos to learn how to do the butchering. I have a couple of books with quiet a lot of detail but watching a video of it is much more useful.
I was very nervous when i went to collect the carcasses, I was worried that I would take one look at them and be sick. I am very squeamish generally and just did not know how I would react. As the door of the cold store opened and I saw my two pigs hanging there, I felt a wave of emotions; sadness, pride, fear...they didn't look like my pigs anymore, they had been transformed into meat, no different then in a butchers shop. The guy handed me a bag of offal, I didn't look at it, just placed it in the car. I realised that the carcasses were still whole and I had asked for them to be cut in half, so I asked the butcher to do this, I didn't watch as he cut each in two ( a bit silly considering I was going to be cutting them up further in less than an hour!). I placed the halved carcasses in the back of the car on clean towels and off I set. I was very glad that I hadn't been asked if I wanted the blood, although I had watched a video on making black pudding, I don't think I could have done it. It was very strange driving past the pig pens with the two carcasses in the back of the car.
Once I arrive home I went back to the butchering video, the only way I would be able to do the butchering was by watching and then pausing the video at each stage. The first thing I had to do was cut off the heads which had been left attached to one side of the bodies. Of the whole butchering process this was almost the worst bit, and it had to be done first. I turned the carcass so the face was away from me and I cut through at the neck, I was surprised at how easy it was to cut through, worst bit over. After that it was a matter of cutting the back legs off to make hams, these I hung up whilst I continued to work on the carcass.
Next I cut off the front legs at the shoulder. I was learning from two different videos, one English, the other American, as I had two pigs to work on I decided to do one in the American style and the other in the English style. The American way seemed less complicated, but this could be because the video was more detailed or because this style suited the size of my pigs better. Once the back and front legs had been removed I was left with the torso, this was divided into chops, ribs and roasts.
The next stage was to salt the hams, I did two dry salted and one in brine (the other was going to a friend in return for the loan of the butchering equipment). Dry salting involved rubbing salt all over the ham and into every crevise. I then lined a large plastic box with a 2 cms layer of salt, put the ham on top of this and then poured salt into the box to completely cover the ham, ensuring there was at least 2 cms of salt between the ham and the box sides and top. On top of this I placed a heavy oven dish which I then placed a weight into and then the lid of the box. You cannot use metal when doing this as the salt would corrode it. The boxed hams were placed in a cold room. I was using the Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall meat book for the instructions, which state that hams must be left in the salt for 3 days per kilo. The method for ham in brine involves desolving salt in hot water, letting it cool and then placing the ham in the brine solution. The ham has to be weighted to ensure it is completely submerged in the brine, again I used a new plastic box with lid and placed a casserole dish on top of the ham, then sealed it with the box lid. Next I dry salted belly pork with a mixture of salt, peppercorns and herbs, and placed these in a box, these would make bacon/lardons. I didn't hold out much hope of getting any decent bacon as the bellies looked too fatty with not a lot of meat. I had read on the Internet that this is an unfortunate trait with pot-bellied pigs, their bellies are too fatty! By this time it was about 9pm in the evening, I had been dividing up the two pig carcasss since 11am with a brief break to go and feed my animals, so I called it a day.
The next morning I tackled the shoulders, by far the most difficult process. I decided to use the shoulder meat for sausages, however removing the bones from the meat was not easy primarily because the shoulder bone is attached to the leg bone at right angles to each other, but I perceivered and eventually obtained about 3 kilos of good quality pork for the sausages and chorizo. I put this meat through the mincer on a course setting, I then split it in half, added dried breadcrumbs and seasoning to one half, then halved this again, to one half I added nothing more, to the other I added a selection of chopped herbs, both were put through the mincer again.
I then washed the casings which I had bought at the local supermarket by flushing them through with water. I changed the nossle on the mincer to the sausage stuffing one, loaded the clean casing onto this and then loaded the machine with the peppered sausage meat.
It took twenty minutes to make a length of sausage which once twisted into individual sausages became twelve large, fat traditional English style sausages. The process was far easier than i had thought it would be, whether this was because my machine is a good one I do not know, I don't have anything to compare it with. Next I made the herb sausages and both sets were hung up to dry out whilst I made the chorizo. This involved adding various quantities of wine and spices, I made two varieties, a traditional french saussison with red wine and garlic, and a Spanish chorizo with paprika. The meat mixture goes through the sausage stuffer in the same way as sausages but the casing used is much wider, so it was slightly more of a challenge, but still not as difficult as I expected. The next time I do sausages I will only put the meat through the mincer once and then stuff the casings, by the time I had processed it twice and then it went through the mincer again when stuffing it was very smooth and pate like, I would prefer a courser texture. I also found that because I used shoulder pork, the sausages were very lean, next time I will add back more fat. Despite the smooth texture and leanness the sausages are absolutely delicious and I am looking forward to making more in a few weeks.
I can't tell you what the salami is like yet as it is still hanging up drying, we have to leave it for 6-12 weeks. The hams were removed from the salt after a few days, rinsed and dried off and then hung up in muslin bags in my utility room,we have to wait until May before we can start to eat them, I hope we can wait that long!
Next I made pork scratchings by roasting some belly pork at a high temperature, every twenty minutes the fat is poured off and this fat becomes lard. The smell isn't very nice but the resulting crackling is delicious. I was suppose to make brawn out of the pigs heads, I couldn't bring myself to chop them into quarters so Steve had to do it, I then put one in brine, cooked it in water with herbs for over three hours, but when I looked at it in the pot I just couldn't bring myself to complete the process, so it went in the bin. I gave the other one to my friend and she did make brawn from it and it is delicious if you can get past the thought of what it is made from. I shall not be attempting to do anything with the pigs heads in future.
At the moment we have various chops, roasts and sausages in the freezer, bones for stock some of which I made into pea and ham soup, we have a 'green' or brined ham in the fridge, which will be boiled, glazed and roasted and of course the hams and chorizo. It was a very busy couple of days, a very steep learning curve but every time I open the freezer or see the hams hanging I feel very pleased and a little bit proud, for the most part because I coped with taking the pigs to the abattoir and then eating them, something I was never entirely sure I would be able to do.
Have you any hints and tips on processing pork? Maybe you are thinking about getting a couple of pigs for meat, if you have any questions post them in the comments box below.
Next I cut off the front legs at the shoulder. I was learning from two different videos, one English, the other American, as I had two pigs to work on I decided to do one in the American style and the other in the English style. The American way seemed less complicated, but this could be because the video was more detailed or because this style suited the size of my pigs better. Once the back and front legs had been removed I was left with the torso, this was divided into chops, ribs and roasts. 
The next stage was to salt the hams, I did two dry salted and one in brine (the other was going to a friend in return for the loan of the butchering equipment). Dry salting involved rubbing salt all over the ham and into every crevise. I then lined a large plastic box with a 2 cms layer of salt, put the ham on top of this and then poured salt into the box to completely cover the ham, ensuring there was at least 2 cms of salt between the ham and the box sides and top. On top of this I placed a heavy oven dish which I then placed a weight into and then the lid of the box. You cannot use metal when doing this as the salt would corrode it. The boxed hams were placed in a cold room. I was using the Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall meat book for the instructions, which state that hams must be left in the salt for 3 days per kilo. The method for ham in brine involves desolving salt in hot water, letting it cool and then placing the ham in the brine solution. The ham has to be weighted to ensure it is completely submerged in the brine, again I used a new plastic box with lid and placed a casserole dish on top of the ham, then sealed it with the box lid. Next I dry salted belly pork with a mixture of salt, peppercorns and herbs, and placed these in a box, these would make bacon/lardons. I didn't hold out much hope of getting any decent bacon as the bellies looked too fatty with not a lot of meat. I had read on the Internet that this is an unfortunate trait with pot-bellied pigs, their bellies are too fatty! By this time it was about 9pm in the evening, I had been dividing up the two pig carcasss since 11am with a brief break to go and feed my animals, so I called it a day.
The next morning I tackled the shoulders, by far the most difficult process. I decided to use the shoulder meat for sausages, however removing the bones from the meat was not easy primarily because the shoulder bone is attached to the leg bone at right angles to each other, but I perceivered and eventually obtained about 3 kilos of good quality pork for the sausages and chorizo. I put this meat through the mincer on a course setting, I then split it in half, added dried breadcrumbs and seasoning to one half, then halved this again, to one half I added nothing more, to the other I added a selection of chopped herbs, both were put through the mincer again. 
I then washed the casings which I had bought at the local supermarket by flushing them through with water. I changed the nossle on the mincer to the sausage stuffing one, loaded the clean casing onto this and then loaded the machine with the peppered sausage meat. 
It took twenty minutes to make a length of sausage which once twisted into individual sausages became twelve large, fat traditional English style sausages. The process was far easier than i had thought it would be, whether this was because my machine is a good one I do not know, I don't have anything to compare it with. Next I made the herb sausages and both sets were hung up to dry out whilst I made the chorizo. This involved adding various quantities of wine and spices, I made two varieties, a traditional french saussison with red wine and garlic, and a Spanish chorizo with paprika. The meat mixture goes through the sausage stuffer in the same way as sausages but the casing used is much wider, so it was slightly more of a challenge, but still not as difficult as I expected. The next time I do sausages I will only put the meat through the mincer once and then stuff the casings, by the time I had processed it twice and then it went through the mincer again when stuffing it was very smooth and pate like, I would prefer a courser texture. I also found that because I used shoulder pork, the sausages were very lean, next time I will add back more fat. Despite the smooth texture and leanness the sausages are absolutely delicious and I am looking forward to making more in a few weeks. 
I can't tell you what the salami is like yet as it is still hanging up drying, we have to leave it for 6-12 weeks. The hams were removed from the salt after a few days, rinsed and dried off and then hung up in muslin bags in my utility room,we have to wait until May before we can start to eat them, I hope we can wait that long!
Next I made pork scratchings by roasting some belly pork at a high temperature, every twenty minutes the fat is poured off and this fat becomes lard. The smell isn't very nice but the resulting crackling is delicious. I was suppose to make brawn out of the pigs heads, I couldn't bring myself to chop them into quarters so Steve had to do it, I then put one in brine, cooked it in water with herbs for over three hours, but when I looked at it in the pot I just couldn't bring myself to complete the process, so it went in the bin. I gave the other one to my friend and she did make brawn from it and it is delicious if you can get past the thought of what it is made from. I shall not be attempting to do anything with the pigs heads in future.
At the moment we have various chops, roasts and sausages in the freezer, bones for stock some of which I made into pea and ham soup, we have a 'green' or brined ham in the fridge, which will be boiled, glazed and roasted and of course the hams and chorizo. It was a very busy couple of days, a very steep learning curve but every time I open the freezer or see the hams hanging I feel very pleased and a little bit proud, for the most part because I coped with taking the pigs to the abattoir and then eating them, something I was never entirely sure I would be able to do.
Have you any hints and tips on processing pork? Maybe you are thinking about getting a couple of pigs for meat, if you have any questions post them in the comments box below.
Hi, I enjoyed reading your post. I am thinking about raising a couple of weaners in the future and your butchery experience was a real eye opener! Thank you and well done!! I am La Petite Farme @billncharlotte on fb. New smallholders in France, loving it, very busy but trying to do things petite á petit 😁
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