The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: SallyintNorth on June 18, 2013, 08:22:33 am
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Finally sent my two boys away. I'd been wanting them a bit bigger to get more bacon, then life had intervened and I kept them longer than I should.
First off, the good news. I have my large freezer stuffed full of loin joints (for curing, and for slicing for chops), rolled leg, shoulder and belly joints :yum: and sausagemeat. We ate chops last night and the flavour was very very good. :yum: Surprisingly so, as they haven't had much in the way of vegetables to eat, it's been almost all sow rolls.
I absolutely did not overfeed them, they had 4lbs sow rolls a day each from 4 months right through, with a bit of soaked sugar beet on top occasionally over winter. Very limited veg as I don't have a good supply and it was a very poor year for apples! And no whey as our neighbour wasn't making cheese due a bad hip (now replaced.)
They were way too fat - 23mm and 29mm. :( Not their fault, they weren't fat at 6 months.
I asked the butcher to trim out excess fat and then roll the joints with the crackling back on. I should have clarified how much fat I wanted left on - my view of "enough for flavour" and his differ somewhat! Never mind, I hope there's enough fat through the meat to keep things moist while cooking.
I'm very pleased with how much meat I got back, how much is suitable for bacon (albeit it'll need a fair bit of fat trimmed off), and how good the meat looks - just the right amount of fat through it, in my view.
And delighted with the flavour of the chops we had last night.
So although the backfat was disappointing, I think it was perhaps worth keeping them on to a bigger size to get as much loin as we did. Now, to re-research Karen's method of curing small portions of bacon at a time... ;)
Oh, and the boys were very easy to manage too - good-mannered, not inclined to escape, always friendly but never pushy. I know a lot of that is the early handling (thank you Karen!) but some I think must be the breed too. So on my current experience, I'd give Large Black a thumbs up as family / smallholder pigs. Not the most productive, and not the hardiest either (they needed indoor accommodation in the worst of the winter weather), but easily managed, nice sociable well-mannered pigs, good tasty meat, and won't get too fat if you don't overfeed them and don't keep them too long. And somehow, the all-black, easygoing piggies don't quite get under your skin the way some of the 'prettier' and more 'characterful' :-J breeds do, so although I've liked them and enjoyed spending time with them, I was less emotionally attached and found it less difficult to send them off than some I've had. Definitely a plus for a smallholder! ;)
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that's really interesting reading, thank you! I'm still at the research stage so I'll def add them to my list :)
how old were they in the end when you sent them?
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I'm ashamed to say, nearly a year old. I think 8-10 months would probably have been a good compromise between not having got too much fat on and having enough bacon for us bacon-lovers.
Edited to say they'd have been perfectly fine, probably lean (they looked nice and lean) porkers at 6-7 months. We just wanted as much bacon as we could get.
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Hi Sally,
We had a similar experience. 2 LBs, friendly and placid enough, easy to handle but didnt have any real character. Ours were also too fat but the bacon, ham and sausages still tasted great!
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I let my All Black pig get too fat and although the meat was very good there was just too much for the two of us. I found the Kune-Kune suited us much better and they were just as tasty.
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Glad to hear you enjoyed them mrs (even if you did hang onto them just a wee bit longer than you should have ;))
Small sections of loin are easiest cured using a ziplock bag :thumbsup: Just rub your dry cure onto them, stick 'em in a bag and stick 'em in the fridge. Turn the bag every day for a week (or 10 days if they're really thick) then I soak them overnight in clean water before slicing :yum:
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Thanks for review - Id like to try large Black next time if I can find a Breeder in N Wales. Enjoy! We are just getting to the end of our 2 saddlebacks and I can contemplate more now (did get a bit porked out!)!!!!
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Glad to hear you enjoyed them mrs (even if you did hang onto them just a wee bit longer than you should have ;))
I know, I know - sometimes life just gets in the way, huh. Need a shruggy shoulder emotiwotsit!
Small sections of loin are easiest cured using a ziplock bag :thumbsup: Just rub your dry cure onto them, stick 'em in a bag and stick 'em in the fridge. Turn the bag every day for a week (or 10 days if they're really thick) then I soak them overnight in clean water before slicing :yum:
That's exactly what I'm doing, following your suggestion a while back. I'll report on how well - or otherwise - it comes out on Monday! :yum: :fc:
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SallyintNorth, that's not fat ::)
We had similar thought's to you. Enjoyed the bacon so much opted for Large Blacks and kept for 10 months.
Didn't think we over fed.....larger of the two was 118kg dead weight & 45mm back fat ;D
Looking at the positive's, we had a lot of bacon, massive tenderloins and legs etc and as it's only for us who cares. I don't think protein feed and traditional breeds mix that well ???
We now have 2*Berkshires that we are keeping only for a while to give us some smaller joints and chops etc. Diet of much less protein feed and more carrots!
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I know someone who get large black x large white he says there amazing best of both flavour off large back without to much fat :-)
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I know someone who get large black x large white he says there amazing best of both flavour off large back without to much fat :-)
The second lot of weaners we raised (all those many moons ago) were Large Black x GOS - they were fantastic ! Grew really well, very little fat and wonderful flavour (they were also fairly easy apart from the midnight breakout in the pouring rain and gales while I was 7 months pregnant - finding black pigs in the dark isn't easy ::))
Our next litters are Large Black and OSB crossed with a GOS boar - looking forward to their arrival :thumbsup:
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Okay, well we've eaten some grilled loin, some sausagemeat as meatballs and as burgers, and last night a slow-roast rolled shoulder.
O M G. :yum: :yum: I stuffed some apple pieces inside the rolled shoulder, other than that it was just roasted, hot for a while (very hot for 20 mins to crisp the crackling) then very slow for a loooong time. Superb.
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Glad to hear their meat was so good :thumbsup:
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Glad to hear their meat was so good :thumbsup:
Hopefully you'll get to try some! After clipping, or haymaking, or... ;) :D
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:excited: ;D