10-14-2015, 12:24 PM
(10-13-2015, 03:40 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: If I had my druthers, though, I'd probably raise a few pigs of my own. From sow to skillet.
My parents never raised a hog, but I have helped slaughter and process one. They grow their own beef, but they always paid someone to butcher and process the steer. But they would buy a hog to split with my uncle, and we would butcher it ourselves. My aunt would even render out the lard to use in cooking.
My parents were raised eating mostly pork because they did not have any electricity or refrigeration when they were young. They waited until the weather was cold to kill the hog and then cured it in salt and sugar. They ate a lot of pork through the winter while the meat would keep. Then during the summer they ate mostly vegetables that they grew.
We would cure the ham just by packing it in salt, sugar, and spices and leaving it out in the garage. My parents bought some sort mix that had everything they liked in it.
One time they killed a young cow that had broken its leg. The slaughter house they used had a rule against taking "down cattle". So we killed, gutted, and skinned it ourselves. Then one of my cousins ground it all into hamburger for us. This was in the summer so the cow had been out grazing in the mountains for months. Its meat would have been tough from all that walking and climbing. My parents let me have a couple of big roasts to make corned beef. It was a total disaster. I am pretty sure I followed the proper directions for the brine, but the meat turned out way too salty to eat. I even soaked chunks of it in water to try and get out the salt, but nothing worked.
