[Jaymac76]

I am going to butcher my pigs myself this year looking for any tips or pitfalls to avoid.

[shygirl]

understand what the joints are, how they are cooked and dont mix them together. ie the legs are active so need long slow cooking, and the tenderloin is very tender so needs short cooking.
doing it yourself teaches you so much about the pig and how to rear it, you will look at them differently in the field afterwards. 
its very easy to cut the carcuss if you choose the correct place and have a decent knife and boning knife and saw.
 

[Jaymac76]

Been looking at utube for the butchering tips, I feel confident about all the right cuts but I think problems will arise when making the sausages one of those jobs you need to practise.

[shygirl]

just remember meats goes off quickly this time of year, so do them last and in small batches. it takes a while to butcher a pig for the first time.

[Jaymac76]

How do you keep the meat cool.

[shygirl]

cut it as quick as you can and freeze/fridge it. or if you are curing, have all your salts / brines / buckets bought and ready to use.

[Jaymac76]

Very nervous about not being able to keep the meat chilled as not to sure how quick I will be, I have a standard fridge not a lot of room in it.

[HappyHippy]

How many pigs?
Even one pig would more than fill a standard fridge I'd say 

We have a friend who is a butcher and for a couple of ours (which were only for our own consumption) we got him to come to the house and show us how to do it. The actual cutting took him about 2 hours, but the packing and labelling took three of us about 5 hours altogether - and that wasn't including doing sausages 

As Shygirl says it's a great way of getting experience and knowing what comes from where, but it's a LOT of work and in this heat you will need to work fast to get it cut and chilled (and if you plan on freezing large quantities in a domestic freezer - make sure it's not an old one or it could pack in on you!)

For sausages, cut the meat into cubes and put into the freezer 'til it's almost frozen, then mince it into a bowl set over ice - if you're using a little domestic mincer only do small batches at a time as the motor will heat up and this affects the texture of the meat (it becomes 'pasty') keep it all as cold as you can - add crushed ice instead of water to the mix and chill after stuffing into skins and before tying links. Give the skins a coating of oil to assist with linking them and don't overfill the skins or they'll burst when you're working them.

Having done it once in a pretty big kitchen, with lots of work and chill space and three people on the job, I have to say it's not a job I relish the thought of repeating  The butcher does all of ours now and I just get bags of minced meat to make different flavours of sausages for my own family - well worth it IMHO 

The QMS website used to have really good videos on cutting, not sure if they're still available ?
HTH

[Tamsaddle]

If you are keeping/using the head or offal, trotters, flare fat etc., I'd agree with HH a standard fridge would be insufficient space for one pig.   If that's all you've got, start with cutting the carcass into the large joints - legs, whole shoulders, belly and loin, that way all of the crucial meat can be kept cool in the fridge almost from the start, then work on the individual bits one at a time out of the fridge, starting with the loin, as that is too long to fit in a fridge whole.   We were lucky and had a spare pig length chest freezer which we kept at cool fridge temperatures on butchery days.  Could you borrow a spare fridge from anyone?


Also be very well prepared for packaging and labelling which takes far longer than you think, especially when the meat has started seeping blood after very little time in the fridge, and also what you will do with all the waste, as there is a huge volume of that too.   If you are short of space generally, the best thing is to get as many joints as possible into the freezer as fast as you can, with temporary packing and labelling if that helps speed things up.

[shygirl]

waste? do you not have dogs? the fat can be used as lard as it stores for ages. i can honestly say we wasted nothing. mind you we still pick up the occasional tooth in the garden.....

[Jaymac76]

I am looking for a larder fridge or freezer to store meat in just before butchering so I can keep the meat cool while I work on the individual cuts as I will be slow at first. I am going to write some labels the night before will see if that can save a little time, ears and trotters I will put in a food dehydrator for the dogs. I will be butchering two pigs let's hope I can do it in one day.

[shygirl]

if you cant, you can easily quarter the pig and put into the freezer to deal with later. obviously you arent supoose to keep freezing and refreezing etc but if you arent selling the meat it doesnt really matter too much. then you could cook aload of casseroles or something in a one-r with the shoulder/leg when you have time.
salting the meat is another way  of avoiding needing a fridge.
what weight are your pigs?
the jobs alot quicker with real tools. we broke alot of knives on our first attempt 

[Jaymac76]

They are tamworth pigs 15 weeks old not to sure about the weight just now my target is 80kg live.

[shygirl]

and there your problem is solved!
wait til autumn before butchering, it will be colder in weather so no major panic. home butchering in mid-summer is to be avoided if possible.

 

[Jaymac76]

I will still look out for a free or cheap fridge, I am going to buy some beef to practice my sausage making I will also try a little curing as I don't want to jump right in.