www.sausagemaking.org

Pictures of some hogs we butchered a while back.
Graphic images warning.
http://nanosleep.dyndns.org/hogs

Good Job!

it's a tough call... scalding? or no crackling!?

mitchamus wrote:Good Job!

it's a tough call... scalding? or no crackling!?

Wild hogs here hardly have any fat on them, and the results from the effort of removing all of that coarse hair aren't worth the effort either. I have some friends in south Texas that will capture piglets and raise them on grain to fatten them up, and then make carnitas with the skin on. Those are good.

We've had hit-and-miss luck on fattening wild pigs. The ones that are older are always nervous and don't seem to fatten well.

One time we found a nest (3 foot high pile of grass with a hollow place inside) with 4 piglets in it. These must not have been more than a few days old. They still had a little of the umbilical attached. These fattened very well. They were totally tame almost like pets. We kept them inside the house for the first week. Only took them an hour to learn not to nip and bite (lightly bop them on the head when they bit). Only took them a day to learn to drink milk from a saucer. Took two or three days to learn to squeal for food whenever my wife walked by the cage. That's about the time the wife said "they need to go outside!".

Same here. Also seems that the flesh to fat ratio is much different as well. I skin the wild ones too rather than scalding and sraping them.

Nice job. What did you shoot him in the head with a Barrett?

Jogeephus wrote:What did you shoot him in the head with a Barrett?

Haha, just a 22lr. The 22 is powerful enough at close range, and it's not too messy. Most of the bloody mess is from cutting their throat.

We killed four this weekend and one of them was a beautiful 185 lb duroc type pig. She couldn't have been long feral and she dressed out nicely. I was tempted to scald her but we just skinned her and made chops and ground the rest for sausage. She was taken with a 45 grain 223. Dragging her out of the swamp was quite a chore.