Porkfest 2025 - Butchering with Doug

[Dannmann801]

So I was talking to Doug @Hedgelj at a TOO event, and he told me that he and some friends butcher hogs at the end of January.
Told him I'd like to learn that, asked if I could come and watch, and we made it happen. It's normally about a week-long event, takes place at his friend's farm, and their circle of friends get together and share the work and share the rewards. These guys are food geeks, and they turn the swine into the most amazing items - goetta, prosciutto, coppa, lardo, various sausage, chops, many other items, and of course, bacon. I'm hoping Doug will chime in with some pictures and discussion about what you can do with a pig. I was supposed to stay Monday thru Thursday, but unfortunately had to leave due to a vehicle difficulty that I had to get resolved before going to Florida to hog hunt tomorrow morning. Anyway, I'll share some pictures and takeaways now -

They went to haul a hog with this truck/trailer - ever see this combo before?

Yep, a cybertruck doing actual farm work.....
And here's the hog that would be used for the day's work

Now, prior to dispatching the hog and carrying on with the work, our host gathered us all for a little ceremony. He asked that we take the time for remembrance, to honor the animal that was going to give it's life for our sustenance. He poured a round of bourbon, and read aloud the poem below, then with the appropiate solemnity we toasted and thanked the animal. Another thing that was cool was our host's son, a jr-hi age boy, was there, and his dad explained what was going on, and he stood as a man among us (no liquor, of course, but participating nonetheless).

 

[Dannmann801]

Next, our host joined the hog in the trailer, and with a single shot of his .22 pistol quickly and humanely put the hog down. The next step was to truss her up on a gambrel and bleed her out. The blood is saved to make blood sausage – you catch it in a bowl then stir it and continue stirring it so that it doesn’t coagulate. (That’s a task a few of us shared in for a while.)

Next we’d dunk her in a 160 degree scald bath to loosen the hair, then move operations inside the barn (which was only slightly warmer).

Then the hair is scraped off, then a torch used to get the one's that wouldn't scrape out

Next, the head is removed (for processing) and the hog is split into halves

 

[Dannmann801]

Now I'll tell you, this was some real circle-of-life shit going on - while we're upstairs in the barn, there were two mama pigs down under the barn that had given birth to litters the day/night before - a litter of 9 and one of 11

Then this big ol' teenager decided to be a milk-stealin' asshole - we had to separate him out of the pen

Then, we got to witness the miracle of birth -

She ended up with a litter of 5

 

[Dannmann801]

Hopefully Doug will chime in and explain what was done with the head -

 

[Dannmann801]

Here are the halves on the block

and here's the chart of how to divvy it up into the "primal" cuts

 

[Dannmann801]

BACON!

 

[JARHEAD]

Hopefully Doug will chime in and explain what was done with the head -
View attachment 204693View attachment 204694

Hopefully Doug will chime in and explain what was done with the head -
View attachment 204693View attachment 204694

Head cheese?

 

[Dannmann801]

A duck and two lambs were also harvested.
I learned so much, and what a great bunch of guys!
It sucked I had to leave early.

I may try to recruit some friends and family and try this myself.

Rack of lamb...

Yeah, leaving sucked - but now I get to go to FL and hunt hogs with the boyz!

 

[Outdoorsfellar]

Very nice, good times I bet. That kid didn't didn't even get a sip ? ...lol

 

[JARHEAD]

Good to see traditions being carried on. I have alot of childhood memories of butchering hogs with friends and family. We continue to do it to this day.

 

[finelyshedded]

This is friggin awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing Dan and Doug.

 

[Dannmann801]

Good to see traditions being carried on. I have alot of childhood memories of butchering hogs with friends and family. We continue to do it to this day.

I'm a convert for sure, will be doing this in the future.

 

[Dustinb80]

Very cool Dan

 

[Hedgelj]

Head cheese?

Head cheese is one of the many things that could be done. I'm not an expert but I've stayed in a Holiday inn express more than once.

We cut the cheeks out and have done different things with them:
Cured and made into bacon
cured and dried into guanciale
used as a fat addition to sausage (I use this when I make the wild turkey sausage from the Meateater recipe).

Then we take the rest of the head and simmer it in a stock pot along with the other bones we collect while butchering. We will do this until the meat literally falls off the bone. Then we strain out the parts and pick through to pull out the meat while discarding the other parts. The liquid we continue to boil down to make a very concentrated broth/stock. Between the skin and all the connective tissues in the head and other bones tossed in it contains a lot of collagen and gelatin.

The meat is then seasoned and can be made into headcheese, scrapple or goetta. We generally do goetta which is similar to scrapple except scrapple uses cornmeal as the grain and goetta uses steel cut oats. We haven't tried headcheese yet.

 

[JARHEAD]

Head cheese is a delicious option if you choose to do so. That is what we have always done. It has a bad reputation but is a good option.

 

[Hedgelj]

This was the first year we had tried something with the blood. We made an irish style black pudding. However, instead of steaming it we sous vide it for a few hours and then cooled it over night and then sliced it and fried up a few pieces. Definitely on the going to do again list.

Black Pudding (Irish)

Black Pudding (Irish) recipe

recipeland.com

You could (and we have) just skinned the hog rather than scalding and scraping. However you lose the ability to make pork rinds (delicious) and we also put additional skin pieces in the stock pot with the head to increase the amount of collagen in the liquid.

As you butcher the hog, your end results will dictate how you butcher it. There are different ways to butcher if you are wanting more charcuterie styled end results vs traditional American fresh cuts.

From the shoulder we get the boston butt and picnic roast BUT we almost always cut out the coppa muscle to cure and dry age because of how delicious it is. This is what competition BBQ people refer to as the money muscle. Its generally cut in half in american butchering techniques but not in European.

This year we also cut out and are currently curing the hocks and trotters and will smoke them to add additional flavor.

You can cure the loin aka backstrap its called Lonza if you do. Or cut it into pork chops bone in or bone out, we went bone in.

Then you have the ribs and the meatier you make your ribs the less bacon you get and vice versa.

Next up is the tenderloin or filetto if you cure and dry age it.

Moving towards the back you have the hams, which can make proscuitto, fiocco, culatello, speck, sugar cured ham, salt cured ham, or as we did this time cut into additional trim for sausage.

When it comes to sausage we have done many types:
Salt and pepper breakfast
AC Leggs #10
Andouille
Chorizo
Polish
Bratwursts
slovakian sausage
and a few types of dry cured sausages

We have also made liverwurst with the liver.

 

[Hedgelj]

I was not there when they cut up the one lamb but the other we cut up today for primarily grind/sausage. We made two things along with a few lbs of just ground lamb.
Merguez

Homemade Merguez Sausage Recipe

Merguez, a North African lamb sausage, is a powerhouse of spicy and earthy flavor, making it one of the tastiest sausages around. Our recipe tells you how to make it at home.

www.seriouseats.com

Ground gyro meat - heavily seasoned and mixed to have a lot of protein extraction then stuffed into bulk sausage bags and currently being sous vide'd for a few hours. Then cooled and tomorrow we will put the bags off and slice the firm and cooked meat tubes into thin slices that can be browned and used as gyro meat.

 

[JARHEAD]

One of my favorites for grind is chorizo. Like you said the options for pork is neverending. That's what makes it fun.

 

[Clay Showalter]

Great stuff thanks for sharing

 

[Hedgelj]

Oh we render the leaf lard separately from the back fat lard. We didn't this time but have in the past used some of the back fat to make Lardo which is salted and seasoned fat that we age for at least a year under vacuum and wrapped in aluminum foil to prevent light from getting to it.

You can ask Dan about how decadent it is when thinly sliced and you just enjoy it. Or on an elk burger.....he also go to try many of our cured products from different coppas, to lonza and a dry cured sausage. We also enjoyed sausage gravy and biscuits, ham and bean soup, elk burgers, its just good food, great company and we are all working together to make delicious food to feed our families and friends. Its almost as much fun as a TOO gathering.