The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Bionic on September 21, 2012, 06:28:14 pm
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Got my 2 back today. Dead weight 104 kilos for the 2 of them. I don't know the split between them but was aware that one was quite a bit smaller than the other.
Although the abattoir said a butcher wouldn't want the meat because there was too much fat I don't think it looks too bad to me. The 3rd pic shows about the worst of the fat. Of course I haven't had the bacon back yet so need to wait and see. Its sausages for tea tomorrow :excited:
The last pic shows how clearly the slapmark came out so I was very pleased.
Sally
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I Know when we sent one of my sons GOS we seemed to be eating pork forever.
Enjoy. ;D
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looks good
cooked properly think of all that fat as lovely flavour :-)
making me hungry now...
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Congratulations, Sally :thumbsup: And those chops look just right to me - not too fatty at all. :thumbsup:
When I first started with our own pigs, BH would keep inviting people around for pork, giving joints away - acting like he was terrified I'd make him eat pork 365 days of the year. Whenever I cooked a joint he would seem to be actually scared of the amount of meat, and when serving guests would heap it on their plates and try to get them to take some away in a doggy bag. >:( (Not that I begrudged them the meat, but it made me feel like I was poisoning him!!)
This week we ate the last joint in the freezer, a rolled 2/3 shoulder I butchered myself on arl's course in February. (Clearing the freezer in preparation for the next pig and the first of the geeps.) We had relatives staying, so that was great - 3 extra mouths chomping on the crumbly tasty pork. As they left, BH said, looking worried, "There is some of that pork left, isn't there?" Yay! :thumbsup: He's converted! ;D
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Looks good. Now you can taste your hard work :thumbsup:
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That looks fab - I don't think the fat looks over the top at all, it'll taste amazing :thumbsup:
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I don't think the fat's bad - I've seen much, much more fat (remember - I have Kunekunes ::) :roflanim:)
They look nice and tasty Sally, that's the main thing :thumbsup: The thing you've got to remember with abattoirs and butchers is they're normally dealing with modern/commercial breeds of pig - fast growing and lean in comparrison to the traditional/rare breeds which most smallholders keep.
Did the butcher freeze everything for you ? When you do your next 'batch' it might be worth asking them to blast freeze the pork which isn't getting used/sold - so much easier (and less strain on your freezer) to put it in ready frozen ;) :thumbsup:
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It looks perfect :thumbsup: Enjoy.
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Karen,
he didn't freeze anything for me. It was all (apart from the sausages and my leg for air dried ham) in vacume packs. I have 2 empty freezers so its all gone in there so as not to disrupt anything already frozen in the other one.
Its a good tip about asking him to blast freeze though, thanks
Sally
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Sally it looks great, well done. :thumbsup:
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:yum: :thumbsup:
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i didn't think too fat either looks great :thumbsup:
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Looks good to me too. Enjoy !
I am curious. How much do they charge these days for -
1. Abbatoir service
2. butchering a pig
3. making bacon
4. making sausages.
Make sure that you do not give too much of that precious meat away - it looks a lot now but I am sure that you will work your way thru it.
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Mak, the abattoir costs and arm and a leg :(
I have nothing to go by as I haven't done this before but this is the breakdown
Slaughter and cutting £85. He charged £45 for one and £40 for the other as she was a bit smaller.
Vac packing £20
16.34 kilos of sausages £31.04
total £136.04
Sally
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Wow Sally - I don't think I could afford to keep my pigs if I had to pay such costs. The economics of pig keeping are pretty bad arn't they. I know that there must be an economy of scale to reduce such costs but no wonder most UK meat is mass produced.
Did you say you did a butchery course? Good idea!
I bought a new "hunters" butchers kit in a nice case for about £85. we did a home kill ( 2 pigs) and I paid my neighbour a bucket of blood ( he returned me 6 small black puddings) and the "master of the hunt" a bottle of whiskey. I plan to use the butchers kit on our next 2 pigs in December. it is not that difficult to butcher a pig - oh we made our own sausages using a 30 year old Kenwood mincer that Chris had ( skins and spice cost a few quid as did the bacon salts).
cheers Martin
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Mak, the abattoir costs and arm and a leg :(
I have nothing to go by as I haven't done this before but this is the breakdown
Slaughter and cutting £85. He charged £45 for one and £40 for the other as she was a bit smaller.
Vac packing £20
16.34 kilos of sausages £31.04
total £136.04
Sally
Its been a few years since I had weaners now, but the killing and cutting seem pretty expensive. Once you start getting sausages etc made, it does become expensive, I remember that much (I used to share pigs with my then boss - he had sausages/bacon made, I don't like sausages much and I made my own bacon, we did used to run a smokery after all... ;D ).
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Wow - it all looks lovely. I'm new to all of this, my boys won't be ready to go until after Xmas. Was it easy to take them?
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Deborah Jane,
It was much easier to take them than I had exected. That was partly due to the relief of them going so that I didn't have to wade through the mud each day to feed them. See my other post "the deed is done"
I will have to rethink their pen for next year if we are going to get as much rain as we did this year.
Sally
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what lovely pork!
slaughter and butchery costs are quite high in most places now - I suppose it depends on where you live. The days of getting your animal slaughtered and butchered for less than £40 are long gone.
I don't have the expertise, space or 'clean' conditions to slaughter and home butcher - the rules of home slaughter in the UK make it prohibitive too. The guy who lived here used to slaughter his own bullocks on site - there are still blocks and tackle in the steading.... I'm not sure how he disposed of all the waste!
I pay the price as I don't have an option, and eat the meat with the knowledge that it hasn't been ill treated, poorly fed and travelled hundreds of miles to meet it's maker. You can make your own bacon fairly easily and sausages too - anything by Maynard Davis will give you lots of ideas.
Here's some bacon I made with the last but one pigs we sent away.
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The pork just over the border in Poland is VERY cheap and not a bad taste (all comercial indoor I suspect) It does make the economics of keeping a few animals questionable, even if the taste and the knowledge of provenance is much better with local /home produced .
Luckily local, and Polish, Lamb is expensive and the food/slaughter costs not too bad so my two girls do us proud.
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Hi Max, where did you get the hunters kit from, I dont seem to be able to find one?
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Hi Max, where did you get the hunters kit from, I dont seem to be able to find one?
You may be better sending MAK a private message, this thread was from 2012 and I know he's not on the forum as often as he used to be.
HTH.
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I think the fat thing is fine if its the appropriate amount of fat for the breed. A lard pig will lay down fat as it grows which was once it's virtue. You either accept the fat and its flavour to add moisture and succulence to the meat or you trim it off and use it for its intended purpose or dispose of it.
I dont know what breed you finished but if you feel that the fat layer on your finished pigs is excessive even for a lard pig then perhaps you have wasted a little in over feeding with concentrates. But with Sow nuts at £6.38 a bag then that what...? £25?
Butchery is a skill and as long as you are happy with the job that they did for you then the price is acceptable and the premises and equipment that they use comes at a cost. If you wanted to go out and buy the exact equivalent of what you have in the freezer in terms of tractability, carbon foot print, welfare and quality, you couldn't buy it for the price that it has cost you. In fact you probably just couldn't buy it regardless of what you were prepared to pay.
The meat will be beautiful and I hope that you can share it with your friends and convince them to invest in buying some of your high welfare, quality pork next year. Add a little on your price to charge a for your time and your share of the pork will be free. :yum:
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Just got mine back from the butcher. Yes my kill cut and butcher costs were even more, but did have a lot of sausages. Also plenty of fat- that is what gives it flavour! The costs are high but good abbatoirs/ butchers have a lot of legislation and costs too not least of having a vet in attendance and an abbatoir that will only handle 20 pigs a day.