Home butchering

[TnAndy]

Fall came bit early this year. Our pigs got way big way quick, normally figure on about November, but they were over 400lb by mid August. First time I've raised Duroc's and seemed like they just jumped up there ! Finished both of them last week.

Nice grilling chops and a couple of loin end roasts:

32 pint jars of bacon = 128 servings.

Saturday morning put a small Dexter cow in the cooler, shown here separating the front quarter from the hind quarter of one side. Easier for me to hang quarters on beef due to the weight of handling.

 

[jmc]

Looks good. What's the process between butchering and canning bacon?

 

[Jstpssng]

Looks good. What's the process between butchering and canning bacon?

I was going to ask the same question. My pig is getting done next month, although I love bacon I'm trying to find a healthier, less expensive way to do it. (It will cost me 1.25$/lb just to have it smoked and sliced.)

 

[raptorterry]

Yummy bacon.....
If I could buy bacon seeds, I'd plant all of my acreage in bacon!!

 

[MossRoad]

Home butchering

I thought this was going to be an amateur house remodeling thread. :laughing:

I, too, am curious about the canned bacon.

 

[jmc]

Home butchering

I thought this was going to be an amateur house remodeling thread.

Ha! (AKA, remuddling)

 

[Bird]

I got more experience than I wanted with slaughtering hogs, calves, and chickens from the time I was 10 to 14 years old. Someone has to do it, but I'm glad it's not me anymore.:laughing: And like the others, never heard of canned bacon.

 

[TnAndy]

Looks good. What's the process between butchering and canning bacon?

Take the pork bellies (54lbs between the two pigs) and brine cure @40 degrees for 7 days. Remove, rinse in cold water, cut into slices, oven broil about 1/2 cooked. It can be put directly into jars w/o pre-cooking, but when removed from the jars to crisp up, it mostly falls apart and you end up with crumbles instead of strips....we've found broiling ahead of time works best....takes about 5 min per pan, broil on high.

Once ready from broiling, roll in parchment paper...I get 24 slices in a folded pc of 9" paper x width out of the box (12 first side, 12 above the fold) which is 4 servings for us. My slices are shorter than store bought....my electric slicers has only a 10" slide, so I have to cut my belly pcs to fit that. (Bacon looks darker here...image from a previous time when I'd pan fry it. Wife figured out broiling made it a lot nicer looking because the excess grease drains off in the broiling pan rather than turn dark from a cast iron skillet)

Once in the jars, pressure can process for 75min @15lbs. Remove from canner, store on shelf. Will keep for several years, unlike freezing, where we find the excess fat tends to turn rancid tasting after a year or so. 54lbs raw removes 16lbs of bacon grease ( I actually kept track this year), and also lose about 10lbs that has too little lean meat in it for the ratio of fat (keep that for "fatback" to season green beans/etc), so about 1/2 of the raw ends up in jars.

It is completely pre-cooked at this point....you can eat it right out of the jar, but we prefer to crisp it up either a few minutes of pan fry or microwave.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
Thank you, that's interesting. I'll try it this year. It's just bacon and parchment in the jars, if I read this correctly; no liquid of any type?
It was also helpful to hear about how much you get per pig. I send mine out to have them butchered and have been getting about 18 lbs from a 300 lb+- pig, so after processing that sounds about right.

 

[TnAndy]

No liquid added...just roll in paper, cram in jar. (wipe the jar rim, make sure you don't have any grease to prevent the lid from sealing)

It will collect a little more grease in the bottom of the jar after canning, but not much since broiling already removed most of it.

18lbs sounds about right....I probably try to save more of the belly than I should...given the amount I 'scrap'...but it isn't really scrap. Like I said, we either use it to season beans, or I toss it in with beef cuttings I use to make up summer sauage....so it doesn't go to waste....just not to bacon.