Last weekend we spent processing the pig. One of the pigs belonged to a friend, but lived with us so that ours and theirs had company. So we only had one pig to do. Thankfully as it took long enough!
This is the butcher at the abattoir. He is very helpful. Now we have done it a couple of times we know what instructions to leave to get what we want.
This is the one that went to our friend. Just cut in half as he is going to cut it all up himself
This is our pig all nicely cut up and shrink wrapped by the butcher. We had the belly and one side of the back left whole so we could make bacon. The other side of the back was cut in to chops. One back leg is whole with the bone in for dried ham, the other whole but boned to make wet cure ham. He boned the shoulders and made one in to roasts and left the other whole so we could mince for sausage and saucisson.
The leg for dry curing. It weighed 11.3 kg. This means it will be in the salt for 29 days (is 3 days per kg but I have shortened slightly so the end of curing is a weekend day again)
With salt
Lots of nicely cut up bits
Shrink wrapped head
Let me in! I want to help!
The head was cut in half to make it easier to boil up so the meat can be taken off for pork pie. We made stock for Japanese noodle soup with the water from doing this. I didn't quite cover it with water and boiled for 4 hours. I cut of the ears before boiling so the dog could have them (after boiling so they added to the stock flavour)
Spice mix for belly bacon
Spread on the belly. We did similar for pancetta which will be hung to dry after curing (bacon will go in the freezer)
Tasting the blood mix to see if it is salty enough. Eeeugh!
Pork chops for lunch (we ate nothing but pig products the whole weekend)
Skins for the black pudding - soaking to get the salt out
Making black pudding
Testing whether they are done - you prick with a pin and if blood comes out in a dot like this then they are not done. When they are done a little bit of clear fat comes out
Lots of cooked black pudding. They came out well. I am normally not very pleased with the black pudding I make as it doesn't have as much flavour as some I have had and is often a bit dry seeming. This had a spot too much pepper but v moist and tasty
Roast ham hock for dinner
We have a shrink wrapper and did the black pudding to stop them drying out
Yet more cooked ones
Filling the skins with a funnel. It is tricky and messy. I got blood in my eye. Not nice as it was the spicy Marcella (spanish blood sausage) mix
Huge liver for pate
Pork scratchings - they came out very well! Often hard to get them to puff up
Course pate mix
In the tin
Hearts and tongue (hearts dog will eat and tongue will go in pork pie)
Other gross bits like lungs
The skull after the head was boiled and everything removed to make pork pies
The course liver pate now cooked. The recipe for this came from the 'Le Charcutier Anglais' by Berry Marc-Fredrique. It came out really well and I would certainly do this again.
Stuffing the chorizo and saucisson
Pork pie tin with pastry in it
Not cooked yet
Mini pork pies
Cooked pork pie
Inside of the pork pie. The meat is from the head which I minced. Some of the skin I kept to give to the dog so that it was a bit more meaty. They I added about 25% of that weight of fresh minced pork and two minced pig tongues plus some minced sundries tomatoes.
Saucisson hanging up to dry. This was about 2kg of minced pork. I minced the meat on a medium setting and the fat bigger then mixed in the spice and stuffed. I marked one of them as a control with a piece of string. The control weighed 347g. The ideas is I can weigh them later and see how much moisture has been lost (it helps decide when they are done - in theory)
Chorizo hanging up to dry. This was also about 2kg of pork. The control weighed 355g.
Rinsing a sausage skin
Sausages for dinner
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