[tizaala]

I don't have a large bath for removing the bristles from a pig carcase, Last time I killed I used a gas blowlamp to singe the hair off, Not a good idea as the smell of burned hair lingers for days and the pigskin is still very stubbly so it spoils the crackling.
 Someone on another forum has suggested a hot air paint stripper for the job , but this will also burn the hair.  What I was thinking for next time was a wallpaper steamer with the smaller head to localise the steam while I scrape. has anyone else used one for this purpose?  if so was it successful?

[Sylvia]

The wallpaper stripper sounds a good idea. My ma would have kettles on the go and pour boiling water over a small section at a time, then scrape with the back of a knife.

[VSS]

I would think that steam would be too hot and would fix the bristles.

You don't need a bath, just lots of buckets of hot water - approx 65 deg.c. Keep the pig off the floor so the underside doesn't get cold while you do the first side. A thick layer of straw would do, or lay the pig on a pallet.

[robert waddell]

this is one of the problems of doing a home kill       you do not have the facilities to job properly
it is a scollding tank that the pig is put into and then scraped some of the stuborn hairs are singed  in france the pig goes through gas burning jets to fully dehair them
the alternative is skin it

[VSS]

this is one of the problems of doing a home kill       you do not have the facilities to job properly

I don't agree that you cannot do the job properly at home - we have killed pigs at home for the last 17 years! True,  sometimes if you leave a pig to get too big before killing it can be hard to get the bristles off, but I don't mind the odd hair here and there.



Above is a pic (rather large, sorry) of us scraping a pig - you can see it lying on the straw, pouring hot water over the next area to scrape, and the scraper is lying next to the pig on the left hand side of the picture. You can see that the bit already done is pretty clear of bristles.

[plt102]

Hi there,

We send our pigs to a local abbatoir to be delivered back as halves to butcher ourselves and recently they have been coming back quite bristly and not good to sell. The hairs also fall off and you have to be really careful when making sausages for example that you don't get any in the finished product. Once the carcass is cold, is it still possible/hygenic to use a scraper and hot water? We have been trying to use a razor as we don't want to heat the carcass up  too much and risk spoiling the meat. Your advice very welcome.

[OhLaLa]

VSS, I can't see the scraper on the pic, could you put a pic of it up for me? Thanks.

 

[Rich/Jan]

We always use the abattoir - less fuss - inspected by a vet and not expensive, but our abattoir is only about 20 kilometres away - distance may be a problem for some.  We always ask for the blood back for boudin, and this is possible in France..