[Button End Beasts]

Earlier this year I posted a thread about putting our large blacks on a diet before slaughter. For the last 6 weeks we had the LBs, we cut the food down to 4 lbs per day and sent them to the abattoir at 7.5 months. Still we were expecting them to be a bit on the fat side. We got back some lovely looking streaky, collar steaks, and gammons. However, we aren't very happy at all with the back bacon. I'm not sure if it has been cut oddly or if that's how you'd expect it to look given the fat. Some rashers are more fat than meat, it's as if the meaty bit has fallen off. I will post a picture of it if I can. Surely there should be hefty bit of muscle to go with the hefty fat? Or has the butcher had a funny day.


If possible, I like to see any pics folk might have of their back bacon from LBs!


Thanks in advance for thoughts/pics.

[Fowgill Farm]

hi
Only have experience of GOS bacon but one of our older gilts was sent for bacon after failing to get in pig, the lady who cures my bacon said there was over and inch and half of fat on the bacon and if she had left it on i would probably have had the same reaction as you, she trimmed it back to about 3 quarters inch and it then looked ok, maybe your butcher should have trimmed it back for you, it means you lose the rind but then saves cutting it off.
HTh
mandy

[domsmith]

Over fat pigs can be very difficult to butcher and work with as the fat can be very stiff. as a butcher you can only work with what you are given.

we sometime get pigs so fat the loins are difficult to bone as you cant flex the meat away from the bone cause the fats in the  way.

that couldbe what happened.


pictures would help!

[Button End Beasts]

Thing is, I didn't think the rest of the bacon looked too fatty and the pigs were not that massive, we could even feel their backbone.


I will post some pics tomorrow using my ancient laptop, can't seem to do it from the iPad.

[HappyHippy]

At 7 and a half months they're not really likely to be big enough to get a decent sized eye in the bacon either, we sent one of our gilts off at 18 months / 110Kg deadweight (was supposed to be for breeding but we couldn't get her in-pig) and the rashers were a much bigger size (still a bit fatty though  )
HTH
Karen

[Button End Beasts]

So the LBs might have been too young? What is the ideal age then? I think on a different, earlier post, I was told that our previous bacon pigs,  9 months Saddlebacks, were too old.

Our pork comes out lovely but just cant seem to get the back bacon right! Mind you i am talking separate breeds here. How are the OSBs for bacon?

[robert waddell]

some confusion here        all traditional breeds can get more fat than is desirable    if you are wanting lean pigs you will have to go to modern breeds              once a pig gets a good fat covering nothing short of starvation will reduce the fat     the only way to get them lean is to have a litter of pigs feeding on them        but then fat pigs don't get in pig
 
the pictures you have posted are not that bad  the rind is still on    so no trimming has taken place
 
i have seen worse being sold to the public    not by me   but another traditional breed
 
age is irrelevant for slaughtering pigs    unless it is entire boars that you have
 
weight is the best guidance  and again the breed you have is relevant   as to the weight at a particular age
 
the best bacon you are likely to get is from a sow that has been fattened up after a litter of pigs 

[Fowgill Farm]

Don't know if its any help to you but i measure round the chest of my baconers (GOS) and send them at 45 inches (this is usually at around 32 - 36wks of age) and as Robert says the best bacon tneds to come from older pigs; we had was from an 18mth old gilt who we couldn't get in pig, the fat did need to be trimmed but bacon was delish
HTH
mandy

[Button End Beasts]

Hmmm, so the best bacon is from an older pig but then seems very hard, with a traditional breed to stop them getting fat. I mean 18 months ish is a long time for me to be very strict with their diet


I'm probably not going to try selling it in the future, the outcome is too unpredictable, but for my self and some fat loving customers, do one pig occasionally. For now we'd like to stick to rare breeds. The OSBs we've had produce lovely pork but never tried for bacon. Actually our first foray in pig keeping a few years back was part share in a lop and the bacon from that was good. Didn't have much to,do with the raising myself, maybe that's what worked!


Ah well, we will enjoy our mountain of back bacon!

[oaklandspigs]

We don't sell bacon for several reasons, one being that "supermarket" customers want what they have seen in the supermarket - perfect size and shape bacon. 
 
We don't sell perfect size and shape bacon, but we do grow perfect tasting bacon - size may be varyable, shapes will differ, not really worried if slices are small as I've used a small pig, or huge from a cull sow - it may have fat trimmed off, but wherever it comes from,  boy does it taste good
 
Am a great supporter of funny shaped home grown vegetables with knobbly bits, bent cucumbers, non circular tomatoes, apples with blemishes, beans that are very curly, and my bacon compliments the rest.  It's all about taste!

[SallyintNorth]

I had one middle as bacon off my OSB gilt, who went off at 7-8 months.  Just under 60kg deadweight, 19mm back fat.  At that age, there wasn't really as much muscle (meat) as you'd ideally like, hence we had it all as middle, not back and streaky or back and belly.  It was the best bacon we'd ever eaten in our lives.

Similarly a 5-month old Saddleback x OSB boar, 56kg deadweight, 17mm back fat, had small muscles but we made bacon and it was delicious.

I'm about to send off a 12-month old Saddleback x OSB gilt for bacon, she's not excessively fat I don't think and I am hoping for decent-sized bacon.  The butcher is expecting to have to do middle and a lot of trimming... we'll see!  Will report back.

I am completely at one with oaklands on the knobbly vegetable etc front.

[Berkshire Boy]

I think oaklands hit the nail on the head, it is peoples expectations that need changing. You cant have rare breed bacon looking like supermarket stuff, doesn't matter about shape its all in the taste.

[Button End Beasts]

Well that's true that the taste of the bacon is really something else and all our handful of customers (family, friends, work colleagues) who are what I call real meat lovers, absolutely love it. I think I might try middle bacon. I did ask the butcher if he could make the collars into bacon and he made them into steaks, which are gorgeous but a bit to big for a bacon sarnie in the morning.


Thanks all, learnt a lot fom this thread.

[P6te]

We don't sell bacon for several reasons, one being that "supermarket" customers want what they have seen in the supermarket - perfect size and shape bacon. 
 
We don't sell perfect size and shape bacon, but we do grow perfect tasting bacon - size may be varyable, shapes will differ, not really worried if slices are small as I've used a small pig, or huge from a cull sow - it may have fat trimmed off, but wherever it comes from,  boy does it taste good

I think oaklands hit the nail on the head, it is peoples expectations that need changing. You cant have rare breed bacon looking like supermarket stuff, doesn't matter about shape its all in the taste.

Excellent points well made and I entirely agree.  I hadn't thought of it like this before but thinking this through, the 'downside' needs turning round to be a selling point whilst managing expectations at the same time.

Pete

[redborneschoolfarm]

Hi we produce bacon from Large Blacks and it looks remarkably like yours. We have found that as others have said the older the pig the more defined the eye but traditional breeds make traditional bacon. We often have people turn their nose up at it but once they try it they are shocked at how great it tastes and how well it cooks up. I agree with everyone else its a matter of changing opinions as there is nothing wrong with the pigs or the quality of the product.