OH NO!! Don't take the bacon away!

[AmericanBTGoG]

[Betty Buckshot]

http://lovelivegrow.com/2011/01/how-much-meat-from-a-pig/

This guy says cut weight is about 48% of live weight, so 144 lbs meat from a 300 lb pig.

"The Cuts

The next question everyone wants to know is exactly what they’ll end up with in their freezer. Again, this is inexact, since breed, individual pig, and processing choices will affect the end result.
Here are some examples I found of what you might get from a whole pig:

• 18 lbs pork chops, 4 lbs spare ribs, 12 lbs sausage, 24 lbs ham, 20 lbs bacon, 12 lbs shoulder butt roasts, 14 lbs shoulder picnic, 16 lbs bone/trimmings, 30 lbs fat = 150 lbs
• 7 lbs pork chops, 8 lbs sausage, 24 lbs ham, 20 lbs bacon, 17 lbs pork roast, 16 lbs picnic and shoulder butts, 7 lbs misc cuts, 5 lbs salt pork, 31 lbs fat = 135 lbs
• 23 lbs pork chops, 6 lbs spare ribs, 18 lbs ground sausage, 30 lbs ham, 16 lbs bacon, 20 lbs shoulder roast, 8 lbs butt roast, 10 lbs stew bones, 16 lbs fat = 147 lbs
• 23 lbs pork chops, 6 lbs spare ribs, 9 lbs sausage, 28 lbs ham, 23 lbs bacon, 9 lbs boston butt, 12 lbs picnic roast, 23 lbs fat = 133 lbs"

[El]

Thanks, Betty! Looks like I'll need more pigs.

[redman2006]

New to the forum and raising a couple of hogs myself. I have done this off and on for a while now. One go round was with a wild pig I caught when it came through my yard with all of its litter mates. I caught the stupid one.

Anyway, the most recent estimates are putting this at a much higher cost to the pork industry than originally thought. Those pigs will be worth much more come slaughter time in the Fall.

Anyone process their own? I am curious about trying to do my own country hams this time around.

[W.Lynn]

Looking back through this thread makes me wonder - even though you can't use all the fat from a too-fat pig (some just isn't firm and clean, the closer it is to the fat streaks in the bacon, the better,) how much work does it take to process some of that for use in cooking? Besides calories, some stuff just won't cook right without some fats, and if you can't get the oils you're used to, that leaves lard.

People used to cure some of the best of the firm fat instead of cooking it down to rendered lard. It would be cut long, fine strips, and inserted into dry, too-lean meats with a "larding needle" to improve it, much like injecting a marinade. The cured fat could even be seasoned various ways, to carry a lot of flavor deep into a roast or something. Probably worked great to keep turkey breast from drying out too much.

Rendered and strained, pure, creamy, white lard makes really nice pie crusts, and breads. It doesn't get as strange at high temperatures as some oils do, and was often used for frying (though at breakfast, the brown, crumble-laden bacon drippings were almost always used for cooking the eggs in my home.)

The less-perfect fat could still be rendered, providing more cracklings, and oily fat for soap making.

Kids used to be given the tails, impaled on a stick, to roast (with supervision,) at the fire, keeping them busy while butchering was going on, they learned the beginnings of cookery, and they got a snack out of it.

[redman2006]

Should have read first. sorry

[W.Lynn]

Redman, don't fuss, reviving some threads is worth it. And Tex is right, it's hitting calves bad enough that people are hearing more about it. Piglets aren't PC to talk about though, since muslems don't eat pork. Now that it's recognizably affecting calf numbers, I even heard a short bit about it on a news program last week.

Pork just happens to be high consumption in many households here, so we have been noticing the prices, even if nobody talks about it except us.

[Tex]

W.Lynn, we haven't rendered any lard (pig fat) yet, but will when we butcher hogs next. The Hostile Native has been redering down tallow (beef fat) though, and lots of it. All of the fat is not necessarily fit for cooking with, but it can be used. The jury is till out, atleast from our own experiences, but several sources say that kidney fat is not preferred for cooking, yet it is an excellent base for soaps. And as you stated, some of the other fat is not preferred for cooking because of blood and other impurities. It can still be used for different purposes, but for cooking, a person wants the whitest and cleanest to render down.

As with most projects along these lines, it is the prep that takes the most time. I just asked the Native about how long it took her to render the beef fat and get it into jars and she didn't know exactly. She said it is a direct comparison to canning vegetables. All of the steps are very similar. The fat has to be cleaned, cut, sorted, prepped. Those few things are where most of the time goes. Rendering it all down and then getting it into jars is the easy part.

There are quite a few studies out that claim cook with real fat is better for you than using vegetable oil. Take that for what it's worth, as I have no way of knowing the truth. I do know that since we have started cooking with tallow, our food tastes ALOT better. Before she got started into rendering she just started googling for the needed information and then went to it.

Getting ahold of some beef or pork fat should be little trouble. Most butchers will gladly sell it at a cheap price. We have bought it before when we wanted to grind up some deer meat. When working with it, you will want it almost frozen. Warm fat is a pain to work with.



Tex

[W.Lynn]

The cleanest, firmest fat makes the lard you want for cooking, but the rest goes to soap, axle grease, etc. If I understand things correctly, some of the best beef tallow had waxy properties and was used to make candles (not quite as good as beeswax candles, but still made light) and to shine shoes.

[Goingbush]

Damn Ragheads

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/gramercy-coffee-in-brisbanes-wintergarden-centre-banned-from-cooking-bacon-after-tenant-complaint/story-fnihsrf2-1227094864091

[MillenniumMan]

We have a name for someone like Mr. Yeung in this country:

Little bitch.

[dangerdan]

feral pigs make bacon too..
Time to go hunting maybe ..


DD

[unseenone]

OK, FINE!! So he should just bring these in, and display it in the front window, no need to build it there..

[AD]

Maple bacon I hope???? Now thats an edible lube

[W.Lynn]

Any good soap will do. For impact though, she needs a follow-up photo with a shrink-to-fit dress that is printed to look like crisp cooked bacon. Or maybe a fabric with small ripples in it.