[conman]

hi guys 
I just got my 3 tamworths a few weeks ago 2 gilts and a fattener
i was hoping to have ham from the fattener on the xmas table but at 5 months it'll hardly be ready for that 
what i was wondering is what time it takes to do the whole slaughtering/butchering process?
i have only ever had cattle done and there's usually 28 days hanging time before a butcher goes near it I am guessing this wouldn't apply with pigs and the only timely bit is curing but what all gets cured and how long does it take?

[Fowgill Farm]

Hi conman
Traditional breed pigs take longer to fatten than commercial pigs. Your tamworths will probably be ready to go to the butchers at about 24 weeks old, you might get them big enough sooner with careful diet management and exercise to build muscle rather than lay down fat. if you force feed them too much they'll just put down fat. Our bacon pigs are normally 8 - 9 months old (GOS).
Our bacon etc is dry cured and this takes 4 wks so you will need to build this into your calculations. Tamworths are excellent dual purpose pigs and make great pork & bacon and i'm sure it wll be worth the wait. HTH
mandy

[Eve]

Hi Conman,

Forget about Christmas - just aim for Valentine's Day or Easter 

Our pigs go for slaughter at 6 months old - they tend to be larger and fatter as we're not fussed about having lean meat and we need the fat for the drying process of the air dried hams.
After slaughter, they'll need to hang for at least a week, and it takes the butcher a few days to do the whole job (2 pigs, in our case). So don't count on eating your own pork until at least 1.5 weeks after slaughter.
Then there's the curing process, the length of which depends on what kind of ham you want and which recipe you choose.
Bacon takes a week to cure, a few days uncovered in the fridge and then smoked, so again it'll take more than a week before you can eat it. Cooked ham takes longer, and air dried ham takes many, many months.

But... if you haven't got your pigs booked in yet for Christmas, chances are the abattoir won't be able to fit them in anymore.


Eve 

[conman]

well i have more or less gave up on the xmas dinner idea any way as the only way i could have them ready for it would be to fill them full of fattener pellets witch will kindo defeat the purpose of having them

with regards curing is it somit that can be done at home or is it best to leave it to a specialist? i do remember my father getting hams once and putting them in a tea chest full of salt and leaving them there for a period of time i was very young at the time and the only other thing i remember is that they were far to salty at the finish and couldnt be eaten.

also does bacon have to be cured? not many of the others in the house appreciate smoked bacon, and if it does have to be cured will it all have to be done or could a lb or 2 be taken for use while were waiting on the rest?

[bibs]

Hi 
yes you can cure at home in a big tub - but beware of it going mouldy inside. We did some for xmas and it was green inside - bloody awful !! I would see if someone local to you has proper knowledge of it. And yes, all bacon has to be cured and then your smoked bacon has to be cured and smoked. Again , our first smoked bacon tasted like we'd just smoked 100 fags - we felt ill after eating it. So get some expert advice . It's all a bit of a learning curve but fantastic when you get it right.
 With your slaughter dates in mind , don't get caught out with ear tags or slapmarks. Make sure they are ordered well in advance or you could be set back. ( something else that happened to me ).
Bibs
oh yes , and we send ours at 6 months. Bigger than commercial pigs and a bit more fat.

[Eve]

We've been curing and smoking since before we had our own pigs and it always went really well. You get much more joy out of your pigs if you make bacon and ham.

Curing bacon (and smoking if desired) is easy, there are quite a few posts elsewhere on this forum about what to do if it's too salty. It's meant to keep for a long time therefore should be so salty, but that's easily remedied when the time comes to eat it. Curing itself only takes a week or so (it's quicker when the pork has been frozen).
Bacon doesn't have to be smoked, you can have it just cured and it'll still be in another league from what you get in the shops. Overly-smokey bacon is easily rectified.
You can make as small or large a slab of bacon as you like.
Air dried ham (Parma ham style), too, is really good, and a great money saver compared to shop-bought air dried ham! Takes many months to make, but so worth it!

It all seems rather tricky when you first read up on it, but it's dead easy, really. We've never had anything going off - let alone green! - and we never use preservatives other than ordinary salt! A very good book is Charcuterie by Ruhlman / Polcyn, though we leave out the preservatives they talk about (it's an American book, so they're worried about lawsuits, I suppose). You just need to read up on it first as much as you can, I spent many hours trawling the internet. Then just go for it.

Like Bib's pigs, ours are bigger and a lot fatter at 6 months than commercial ones - the fatter the belly, the better the bacon! We're going for older & (even) larger pigs next year, specifically for more bacon and ham.


Eve

[bibs]

Hi Eve - I think it went green cos there was a bone in it - it was ham - and it went green around the bone so I reckon the cure didn't get all the way in. What do you think ?? x

[Eve]

Hiya Bibs,

We had a similar issue with a bone-in ham: there was a dark yellowy-orange colour immediately around it, slightly crumbly stuff. It smelled ok, so we tried a little bit of the pink flesh just to see if we'd get sick or not (we're not as weird as it sounds!  ). No upset tummies at all, so we just cut away the strangely coloured bits and ate the rest 
No idea what caused it, but yes, it must have to do with the bone. 

Quite an experience, that first ham was: buying kilo's of salt (funny looks from check-out lady), weeks of a pig's whole leg visible in a see-through plastic box near our front door (funny looks from postlady when she peeped behind our recycling boxes), then a winter up in the loft followed by a whole summer hanging in a pillow case from a clothing rail in the garden (funny looks from visitors as fat was dripping out of the pillow case).
Let's just say we're considered a bit strange by unsuspecting visitors 

Plus bone-in is just a pain, isn't it, slicing becomes so much more difficult!  Boneless for me, from then on!


Eve 

[Hilarysmum]

For very large hams or those with the bones in you can inject the cure into the leg to help prevent it going mouldy in middle.

Conman you could buy some very cheap supermarket pork to practice on.  It wont be anything like as good as your own pork but could save you the loss of a good joint from your own pigs.

[Eve]

We started with shop bought meat - still the best quality, organic belly, but ours is better still as it's fatter.
Every time I see cheap meat I think of the way it was raised, so I don't touch it. Animal welfare was the reason I started keeping my own pigs, but I had no idea it would taste so much better, too!

And then I fell in love with them... 

[Hilarysmum]

Hence the rest of your life, they are wonderful though arnt they!!!!

[Eve]

Fab!! Earlier this summer I was sitting in their pen and there was that bit of a piggy smell, all natural of course, but... it was no longer a "yuck" reaction I had, it had become a familiar smell and in a strange way comforting! Love isn't just blind, it's nose-less, too! 

 

[OhLaLa]

We take our hams in to a specialist place to get them air-dried. It takes 3 months. I get them to take the bone out. The same ham retails in their shop for about 90e. I have two to collect this week...

Wanna see a photo of them once I've picked them up?

 

[Eve]

Yes! I'll see if I can get some of ours uploaded, too.

[Hilarysmum]

...

Wanna see a photo of them once I've picked them up?

 

Oh yes