[Bionic]

The butcher did 6.55 kilos of bacon for me and I had them packed in slices of 6. There are 31 packs.
Pigs were 27 weeks when they went.
I expected small rashers with a fair bit of fat and I am very pleased with the results, although haven't tried the taste test yet 

[Mammyshaz]

Well done bionic  they look perfect to me 

[lill]

Hi Sally,
Your bacon will taste delicious      , what breed were they? they have had stress either before slaughter or in the slaughterhouse.

[Bionic]

Lill, they are OSB's. 
What makes you say about the stress?  They certainly wern't stressed before they went and appeared to be very laid back when we got to the abattoir. From what I saw they treated the pigs very well. They shoo'd them out of the trailer and the pigs just trotted through the door.
Sally

[lill]

Sally,
I have sent you a pm

[littlelugs]

Hey Sally,
Out of interest which abbatoir do you use? the cutting and packaging loooks great 
 

[Bionic]

The abattoir is at Tregaron. They butcher on the premise but if anything more is done i.e. sausages or bacon then their butchers shop in Tregaron does it. Thats where I picked this up from this morning.
Sally

[littlelugs]

ah we used maesteg when we took our last lot but we didnt ask them to pack it so a lot of the cuts didnt look as appeitising as yours do although they tasted lovely    same with the chops they were very rough cuts so was a little dissapointed.

[Bionic]

My chops were cut and vac packed at the abattoir.  I haven't opened any yet but they look good in the packets 
Sally

[Simon O]

Yes they do look good, not too much fat; I am wondering if Lillian is saying they were stressed because of the red spots in the muscle of those in front right ?small areas of intramuscular haemorrhage. I am looking with interest as we are a month or so behind you with our first lot of pigs.

[SallyintNorth]

Sally, very well done    Your bacon looks absolutely spot on.  My butcher would buy that for sale in his shop (well, ok, not the speckled parts, but that'll just be a one-off trauma to a small part of one pig, hopefully.)

It will taste absolutely fabulous.

Well done again - now share how you reared these OSBs to such a perfect finish on your first attempt!

[Bionic]

Simon, Sally, yes it was the red blood spots but luckily there is only a little bit of that.  Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow 
Sally

[Pasture Farm]

For information ONLY
The presence of red blotches particularly in the loin is an indicator of stress in the animal usually occurring at slaughter. It can also show as a surface sheen like petrol on water
 
 
Nice looking bacon Bionic......i was told by someone once upon a time that OSB were particularly prone to laying down a large amount of fat.....this looks great to my untrained eye

[Blinkers]

Ohhh, well done Sally - wish I was coming for breakfast  .    Enjoy, and rest assured they had a GREAT life with you  .

[P6te]

Hi Sally,

The bacon certainly looks excellent, we would be very happy with that!! 

Regarding:

What makes you say about the stress?  They certainly wern't stressed before they went and appeared to be very laid back when we got to the abattoir. From what I saw they treated the pigs very well. They shoo'd them out of the trailer and the pigs just trotted through the door.

Can I ask, at the abattoir, were they slaughtered pretty much straight away or did they spend the night there first?  At the abattoir we use, we take them on a Sunday afternoon and settle them into an area with bedding, food and water where they spend the night prior to the deed being done at about 6am Monday morning.  We do have the option of taking them EARLY on the Monday but it seem less stressful to them and us to have them settled down the night before.

Pete