Other than Poultry

[booker81]

Deer (LOTS), rabbits (a few, DH won't eat them so I quit shooting them), squirrel (same with rabbits), geese (LOTS), ducks (LOTS), fish (LOTS - 30 on Friday - panfish), grouse (a few), turkey (a few per year), and have been around cattle, pig, and sheep processing.

Blaineiac - how'd it turn out? I've about got DH turned to letting me raise some pigs (been working on him for a year now, he' a city guy turned country, but not quite all the way there yet). I'd love to do a pig pit roast at our cabin - the "soil" is pretty much all sand and I think it would turn out awesome.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Rabbits, and any snakes that get near them.

 

[what did I do]

Cows although we have been having them done at the local meat market - I've never bought beef.
pigs we do them ourselves its the only way to get good pork.

Blaine, how was the pig? We should have joined your party yesterday

 

[hydroswiftrob]

For those of you that do your pigs, I need a questioned answered that I can't seem to find with my google-fu skills.

Question 1: Do you HAVE to cure bacon and ham either through smoking or salting, or can you simply freeze it. If so, why?

Question 2: If you butcher your own pig, how do you cure your hams and bacon?

 

[booker81]

Hydro - don't take me for gospel, but I think if you don't smoke bacon, you end up with just pork belly - still good for cooking with (or I buy it to mix with venison for sausage if I don't want the smoky taste, just some extra fat with a little bit of pork).

Not smoking hams makes for a pork roast, still good, but it's pretty much a pork roast, not cured.

Funny story - my mom decided she wanted a "real ham" for Christmas, aka not the smashed, watered up and down, tasteless flavored stuff that is sold (anyone who has had a true smoked/cured actual ham will know what I mean). Well, mom wasn't clear when she was at the butcher shop, and they gave her a whole, uncured, uncooked "ham" - which she cooked liked a ham, but it never gave that ham smell. Opened the oven to pull it out and finally realized we had a nice big pork roast. It was yummy, but sure wasn't a ham

I've not yet smoked bacon or ham, but I've smoked chickens in my smoker before. I want to get a fridge or contraption made up to be able to do aging in though

 

[donrae]

Deer, turkeys, grouse, dove, pigs, rabbits.

When we did our pigs last time we didn't smoke or cure anything. As stated, the hams were just pork roast and the bacon pork belly.

 

[Lute]

My boyfriend smoked Pork Belly last summer. It was cheaper to buy than Bacon had been and he really wanted Bacon. It was very simple. He just smoked it for about 8 hours in the smoker, sliced it with the meat slicer and froze what he didn't eat. I think we have finally run out.

 

[kfacres]

Yes. Pigs, lambs, deer, goats, rabbits, plus the several types of poultry.

plus goats, beef, and all kinds of wild game.

Actually, we do not buy meat- and we do not take anything in to the butcher- except fat steers... but most of our beef is home processed.

 

[hydroswiftrob]

Hydro - don't take me for gospel, but I think if you don't smoke bacon, you end up with just pork belly - still good for cooking with (or I buy it to mix with venison for sausage if I don't want the smoky taste, just some extra fat with a little bit of pork).

Not smoking hams makes for a pork roast, still good, but it's pretty much a pork roast, not cured.

Funny story - my mom decided she wanted a "real ham" for Christmas, aka not the smashed, watered up and down, tasteless flavored stuff that is sold (anyone who has had a true smoked/cured actual ham will know what I mean). Well, mom wasn't clear when she was at the butcher shop, and they gave her a whole, uncured, uncooked "ham" - which she cooked liked a ham, but it never gave that ham smell. Opened the oven to pull it out and finally realized we had a nice big pork roast. It was yummy, but sure wasn't a ham

I've not yet smoked bacon or ham, but I've smoked chickens in my smoker before. I want to get a fridge or contraption made up to be able to do aging in though

Thanks!!! I would rather have roast anyway, but I have to have my bacon.

That is a funny story about your mom.

Do any of you have a picture or video of you curing bacon either salting or smoking? I was told it couldn't be done in a conventional smoker; it had to be done with less heat.

I would also love to hear how people butcher their cows at home.

 

[kfacres]

I would also love to hear how people butcher their cows at home.

A very long process...

To kill- Shoot with a slug, and cut the jugular to bleed out.

Will take a watertank in the front end loader of a tractor bucket (or the bucket it'self) to handle the guts.

Will take another tractor with a front end loader to lift off the ground, or a forklift.

Other than that-- just like any other species-- with a whole lot more meat.

We debone everything that comes from a beef when we butcher at home, and usually do not get to picky with what we are taking off, and leaving for the dogs.

Two years ago butchered a holstein cow that slipped on the icey concrete and broke a leg, last winter butchered 2 or 3 (forgot how many died, the whole dang group fell through) heifers that fell through the ice. The heifers only weighed 5 and 600 pounds each. Two summers ago, we butchered a yearling heifer that got hurt out on pasture when she was in heat and the bull was riding her, and the next week a 400 pound calf that cut a tendon on some tin during a storm.

When you butcher a beef at home, you have to have a lot of time, and a lot of freezer space. It took us nearly 2 weeks of hacking at the cow to get her into the freezer in the evenings after work. Would cut a tub full of meat off, and take it home to either cut into steaks or grind the next day.

For those who's goal is to be butchered- they go to town. It's the ones who are a last min decision to butcher that get done at home.