Smidge34
Well-Known Member
I would love to breed pigs, they can be quite pricey here. And you can do a bunch of food plates with a pig.
We kill hogs every winter here. I usually just keep the tenderloins and ribs, then sausage the rest. When I was a child, we salt cured and smoked both hams, as well as the middlings (bacon). The folks would also remove the face/cheek meat in one whole cut that was cured and smoked (jowl). Now I just skin the hog, but in the day we would scald and scrape the hair from the skin. The skin was cut in small one inch pieces, put in a large cast iron kettle and heated until the fat (lard) was rendered. What you are left with -- besides the lard -- is the infamous cracklins. The night of the slaughter, fresh pork liver was enjoyed by all. Except for me, as hate liver and all organs. Good times and a huge part of our local culture.