[curlytail]

Hello to you all!
I am on my second and last batch of piggys and I have a very naughty one, so she is off on the 1 way trip of a lifetime, you all know where that is. now the thing is Dorothy is a BIG  so hams and bacon and sausages is what she shall be transformed into. The problem I have, is that out of my last batch of piggys, bro in-law, who is a butcher??    Cured two hams for me. When the day came to cook one of the hams it was not nice, it tasted off and maybe rancid (it’s been a long time since I lived with mummy so it was hard to tell)
I soaked it for 24hours and boiled for however long the lovely Delia told me to then I did the clove thing and marmalade and roasted it.
It has since emerged that according to my bro in-law the butcher??  I have been feeding them on the wrong gear and the fat was to high in polyunsaturated fat and sent the dam joint rancid no the fact he might of left it to long. The feed was a mix of barley, maze, Soya, beans and sugar beet pulp could this be right and should I cut out the maze and Soya? I have looked about and can’t find anything apart from http://woolypigs.com/_austrianmeattheory.html also how long should she be on this new diet before she goes on her trip. Pig nuts and pellets is out of the question don’t know why it just is! Please help me as I don’t want to waste a piggys life for nothing
Sorry for my bad grammar I am a plumber in real life 
Love
Eddie

[gavo]

That sounds a bit strange to me . We have kept pigs for many a year and have cured joints on every pig we have slaughtered ,never had a rancid joint yet.Ours are cured for 4-6 weeks[dry cure] how long were they in cure? How were they cured? Over the years we have experimented with different feeds as far as we see it only affects the flavour/texture not its keeping/curing ability;as for the amount or quality of the fat i have never heard that one either.

[HappyHippy]

I've never heard of joints going rancid because they have too much fat (regardless of what kind of fat it is ) BUT I've never fed a 'straights' diet (think that's what it's called), I've only ever fed pig nuts - perhaps other with experience of straights would be able to comment on the feeding question for you.
It's HIGHLY unlikely to have been the diet if all the rest of your pork was fine - much more likely to be something amiss in the processing/curing :-\Tricky when it's family though
Our (butcher cured) joints and gammon steaks were incredibly salty, but having soaked them/boiled or poached them they came out lovely.
You say pig nuts are out of the question............it's obviously personal choice, but these are specifically designed for raising pigs, with the correct balance of proteins, minerals etc that they need, flavour enrichment is added through a wide range of fruit and veg etc  
I'd suggest having a go at curing yourself this time -it's really not that hard (loads of info on here, just have a search through)
The only other reason I can thnk of for your joints being rancid is that possibly boar taint (but only if they were boys ) or stress at time of slaughter - but again, this would have affected ALL the meat, not just the cured joints.
HTH
Karen
PS. Why no more piggies ?

[Gazjackson]

Sorry for interupting but Im confused
I read on here that boar taint is not true!!!!
Only a myth
is it only when they are sexually mature??

[HappyHippy]

I've never had boar taint either, but I believe it does exist - and not just a made up story  Somebody please prove me wrong 
Some pigs can become sexually mature really early (pot bellied and Kune Kune from 4 months - in SOME cases) mostly boar fatteners are castrated to avoid it.
HTH
Karen

[oaklandspigs]

Boar taint absolutely does exist, and is seen in the commercial industry, and has had much investment in working towards its elimination.  Mr. Pig (who posts on here) has also seen it in rare breeds kept outdoors.

We have not personally seen it in many years of pig farming, but you should view it as a small risk to be considered.

Extract from our book covering this

Boar Taint is an unpleasant smell that can be released during cooking pork from boars.  Research has shown that 1 in 2 women but only 1 in 7 men can detect this. The occurrence of boar taint is higher in hybrids used commercially than in purebreds, and research shows that housing conditions and diet both affect taint. However even in commercial herds the rate is low - about 1 in 12.

For those of us breeding the traditional breeds, boar taint is highly unlikely to be a problem -

1. we usually fatten outdoors where pigs get a varied diet from soil and vegetation,
2. they are from non-hybrid pigs, and
3. we take them off before sexual maturity.

Boar Taint is mainly caused by androstenone, a steroid produced by the males that are sexually active, and by skatole, a by-product of bacterial activity in the gut. As male pigs reach sexual maturity the amount of androstenone increases, and sexual steroids produced by the male also inhibit breakdown of Skatole.  Both can then be deposited in the fat of the pig, and it is possible for this to cause boar taint.

The meat of sexually mature boars is more at risk (and fully adult boars do not generally enter the food chain except a Belgium Pate and Italian Slamai - yes we export boar meat from UK to these markets!), but as most male pigs owned by smallholders are taken off to pork or bacon before the pig reaches full sexual maturity, it is highly unlikely to be a problem.

No research on small holding pigs has been done to our knowledge, but at Oaklands Pigs we generally fatten male pigs (entire boars will grow about 20% faster than gilts) and in many years of selling weaners we know of no-one directly who has come across this problem.  Indeed we have on several occasions used 10-12 month old boars to get first time gilts pregnant and then taken the boar off for meat without any issues.

So personally given a choice we would take boars for fattening, for the faster growth and many families want boars, as they would be too tempted to keep a gilt for maybe breeding later on, but know boars will have to go !

[gavo]

Boar taint does exist but only a small percentage of the population can readily detect it, for the rest of us it has to be so strong and potent that the boar would need to be ancient.Yes boars kept too long or in the wrong conditions can taint but every joint would be ruined .I think the problem lies with the curing process ie air got in as curing was being done or the meat did not get a good enough covering of cure and therefore it did not penetrate fully. On the subject of boars we predominately kill males generally at around 11 months boar taint has never been a problem;these are entire boars none are ever castrated.We keep tams and Osbs but they are  nice slow growing and maturing breeds ;and it must be remembered that each breed matures at different rates and crosses can be quicker than either of the parent stock.But with this as with any enterprise alot is trial and error and personal taste;but that's what makes it fun no 2 pigs turn out the same; as they say variety is the spice of life.

[curlytail]

It is defiantly not boar taint as the rest of the pork is yummy yummy in our tummy!
The reason for it being my last batch, is that the farmer wants his orchard back I think there a bit to noisy before breakfast! I can sort of see what is meant in the link at the start of this tread but has this happened to anyone else feeding them on maze and soya ect? helppppp 

[Hilarysmum]

I think, it may be that the cure did not contain enough salt or the cure was not kept cold enough.   Try doing a brine cure with 380 gramames salt to each litre of water (plus sugar etc loads of recipes on here) .  For a big joint leave it in brine for up to 3 weeks.  You can always soak it for a day or so after brining to remove excess saltiness. 

If you do your own make sure the brine and meat are really, really cold before adding meat to brine.  Ideally keep the curing meat in the fridge.  It must be kept at 4 deg. C. 

Good luck.  I have cured hams from pigs fed on straights with no problem.

[robert waddell]

straights or grain only puts on fat it has to be mixed with protein. also with straights only, depends on the breed
boar taint is more common than is publicised once you know what the smell is when frying

[Hilarysmum]

Would boar taint cause the meat to be rancid?  I wondered if perhaps the meat had not been kept cold enough?  Curlytail was the fresh meat ok?

[OhLaLa]

It has since emerged that according to my bro in-law the butcher??  I have been feeding them on the wrong gear and the fat was to high in polyunsaturated fat and sent the dam joint rancid not the fact he might of left it to long.

Never heard of that before - and my first pig was BIG. He had a lot of fat. Why are pig pellets out of the question? They are made for the job, nutritionally balanced and pigs do well on it.

 

[doganjo]

Boar Taint is an unpleasant smell that can be released during cooking pork from boars.  Research has shown that 1 in 2 women but only 1 in 7 men can detect this. The occurrence of boar taint is higher in hybrids used commercially than in purebreds, and research shows that housing conditions and diet both affect taint. However even in commercial herds the rate is low - about 1 in 12.

I don't like pork except cold and sliced, or and I hate cooking it for that reason - I can detect that smell - it's like cat pee.

[Eve]

Oh, Curlytail, it wasn't your pigs - this may require some diplomacy  
Our pigs are fat and we never had a problem with that (we've even used fat of over a year old and it was fine). They're boars, too, and so far we haven't had boar taint in any of them. I can smell boar taint in bacon that's being fried as soon as I walk into the kitchen, hubby can't detect anything. Meat with boar taint smells like urine - I thought I was going mad imagining things until I found out about 'pissy pork' (this was with expensive shop bought bacon before we had our own pigs).

Cure hams yourself, it's easy, and Hilarysmum's cure works a treat.  

[gavo]

Curlytail  bite the bullet and find yourself another butcher NOT all butchers are any good at curing meat. Say nothing just go off find someone and do the deed when BIL finds out just say you didn't want to trouble him.