half a pig

[TobyB]

this weekend I'm doing my first half pig. I'm going to make sausage, salami, bacon and a parma style ham. Anyone got any other bright ideas (although I think that lot should keep me fairly busy)?

[aris]

Yeah, take pictures as you go and post them here.

[Simon]

I did exactly that last weekend with a couple of friends. We got half an free range Tamworth (44kg) from the Ginger Pig: we made bacon from the loin and belly, a Wiltshire cure ham from the leg, sausages from the shoulder, a blood cake (Fergus Henderson recipe) from 1l of blood and a brawn from the head (plus crispy pigs ears), oh and some pork scratchings. The day was fantastic fun. I have yet to try the blood cake, but the brawn is delicious (although looks a bit wierd).

We got the pig in 3 bits (shoulder, long cut leg and belly/loin (plus the head and blood). It was easy to do the rest of the butchering. The only thing was I was I had cleared out my (large) (Smeg) fridge and it really did need all of it: it is a lot of meat (the brine tub took up a lot of space , and will do for the next 28 days! I will try to post a couple of photos.

Ps I used my new mincer from Franco (the pro one): it was superb: worked like a dream. We minced 10kg of meat in about 7 minutes (it didn't even seem to notice..) The Reber 5 also was fantastic. Great pieces of kit... although quite expensive sausages so far.

Good luck at the weekend! If you are interested in seeing our "timeplan" for the day let me know (it is a word file and I dont know how to attach it to this) (it was the first time I have processed a pig so I was very methodical about the preparation..it definately payed off on the day)

[TobyB]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to organise some photos but being a complete tecno cretin can't promise anything. I'll have to see if I can get my wife to help me with the photo posting.... she does the technical stuff in our household.

Simon, I'd be very interested in seeing your timeline if you are able to post it (cut and paste maybe?)

[Simon]

This is our timeplan: it seemed to work quite well! (there were 3 of us)

Pig Day Saturday

Brawn Nose to tail Eating p43,
Sorrel Chicory and Crispy Pigs ear Salad p44 (Nose to tail Eating)
Sausages: chorizo, irish, Cumberland, plain (?pepper ?herb), creole
Suffolk and Wiltshire Cure Ham river cottage p160
Blood cake and fried egg

Collect list:

Brawn

1 pigs head, rinsed
4 trotters
2 onions, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
2 leeks, cleaned
2 sticks celery
2 garlic heads
zest 2 lemons
red wine vinegar
fresh herbs
2 bay
peppercorn muslin
sea salt

Crispy pigs ear

Oil for deep fry
Sorrel leaves
Chicory 2 heads
Parsley fine chop
Capers

Vinaigrette

Lemon
White wine vinegar
Olive oil
Dijon mustard
2 clove garlic crsh
Terrine moulds

Basic Brine

2kg coarse salt
50g saltpetre
6 litres water

Wiltshire Cure

1.5kg coarse salt
50g saltpetre
3 litres bitter beer
1kg molasses
30 juniper berries
30g black pepper, crushed

Suffolk Cure

2 litres beer
2 lts malt vinegar
1.5kg salt
25g peppercorns
25g cloves
25g saltpetre
1kg soft brown sugar

Bacons

Traditional cure
Bags

Blood Cake

1 large onion, fine chp
6cloves garlic, fine cp
dollop goose fat
marjoram fine chp
� tsp crush mace
� tsp crush allspice
1 litre blood
150g polenta
250g back fat 5mm cube
Bain marie,2 bread tins or cake

Sausage spices

Nutmeg, Mace, White pepper,Black pepper,,RedPepper
Coarse salt, Sage leaves, Chives,Thyme, Marjoram, Coriander
White wine, Chilli, Red wine, Gran sugar,Mixed spice
Cayenne,Garlic,Allspice

Plus: Kitchen paper, Butchers string, Bags, Clingfilm, Antibacterial spray, Scrubber, Brine buckets, x2 and plastic tubs for sausage meat. date labels, boning knives,coffee

Friday: bring the brines to a boil, 10mins with skimming and chill

Saturday

08.00 Sausage casings in to soak
Prep work surfaces

09.30 Collect cuts

10.30 Meet at house for coffee and run through

Start Brawn:

Head and trotters into pot, cover with water, add all other ingredients except salt. Bring up to poach/simmer and skim (3 hours)
Extract ears after 1 hour, rinse and dry for the salad

Weigh hams and place into basic brine (2 hours) submerged with weight (non metal)

10.45 Prep sausage meat and dry cure meat:

Bone and cube shoulder meat (1/2-1inch), cut across the grain
Remove all sinews, skin and gristle, place in fridge to chill
Estimate fat content (completely lean 8%, 90vl (16.8%), 85vl (23.5%)
Cube back fat (used for blood cake and sausages if needed).
Cut belly into 3 for dry cure and weigh each
Cut loin into 3 for dry cure and weigh each

11.30 Extract pigs ears, rinse and dry for the salad

11.30 Dry cures: gloves to be worn

Traditional dry cure: 30g per kg of meat
Weigh and measure thickness of each piece
Calculate cure/ cure length required: 1day per � inch plus 2 more days. (7-10 days)
Add 75% of the cure to the meat and 25% to the back fat if rind off
Rub cure in well, to all pockets and cavities
Fold into 2, wrap in plastic bag, date label and fridge. Turn every 2 days.
Once finished, rinse off, dry and package.


12.30 Move hams into the special cures (3-4 days per kg)

Lunch!


13.30 Sausages

Prep the mixes/ spices
Rinse and flush casings
Mince the meat for the sausages
Make up 2 batches of sausage meat: one lean (say 10%) and one standard (25%-33% fat)
Sprinkle the seasonings EVENLY over the surface (do not mix yet)
Immediately add the rusk in the same way
Lightly but thoroughly hand mix
Add and iced water needed and mix to a moist/ slightly sticky mix.
Fry off small batches to check seasoning
Stuff sausages! Approx 1metre per 500g sausage. Do not overfill.
Finish with a piece of white bread (will force out any remaining meat)
Allow to stand on wire rack in fridge (or hung) for 20 min to dry

Also: Check Brawn
When cheek starts to come away from bone (approx 2.5 hours) remove everything from pot, discard vegetables, reduce liquor by � and season well (served cold)
Peel tongue, pick out meat.
Line terrine with clingfilm, fill with meats, cover with liquor. Fridge to set.

17.00 Blood Cake

Sweat onions and garlic in fat, add everything except the fat
Stir on gentle heat until starts to thicken (porridge): don�t let it cook and set. Taste and season then remove from heat and add fat
Stir to spread fat and decant to a clingfilm lined bread tin
Cover with tin foil, place on a flat folded teatowl in deep roasting tin
Surround with water and bake in gentle-medium oven for 1 � hrs
Check skewer comes out clean, remove and allow to set and cool.
Once firm slice into 12mm slices and fry. Serve topped with a fried egg.

Crispy Pigs ear

Cool ears, slice thinly, deep fry, drain and keep warm uncovered in oven
Chop chicory, fine chop parsley, pick sorrel leaves, mix with capers and vinaigrette
Serve with pigs ears.

Vinaigrette

Add mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and vinegar to the crushed garlic
Slowly add oil as mix to emulsion. Season.

18.30 Finish up!




It sounds like a lot but we managed to have a lot of fun doing it, including a long lunch break (of several pork chops Brazilian style and a nice bottle of wine)..

Simon








Sausage Recipes:

10% rusk (100g per 1kg)
10% iced water (100g per 1 kg)
3% spice (30g per 1kg)
77% meat and fat (25% fat to 75% lean)
Salt 2-4tsp per 1kg (to taste)

These are for 500g of meat before the addition of other ingredients:

1. Lincolnshire style sausage: a traditional peppery English sausage.

1 tsp of white pepperCORNS, finely milled
1/2 teaspoon each of black and green peppercorns, half coarse mill, the rest cracked
1/4 teaspoon each of ground dried ginger and cayenne

2. Cumberland style sausages.

1 tsp of whole white peppercorns - mill or grind this VERY fine
1/2 teaspoon of whole black pepper corns - cracked or very coarse milled
Pinch each of ground mace, powdered ginger, cayenne
20 fresh sage leaves, finely ground
1/2 tsp chopped fresh marjoram

3. Pork and Fresh Herb Sausages

1 teaspoon of whole white peppercorns - mill or grind this VERY fine
1/2 teaspoon of whole black pepper corns - cracked or very coarse milled
1/4 teaspoon of dry English mustard powder
20 to 30 ground sage leaves,
Approximately the same of parsley, chives, lemon zest, marjoram, thyme, basil

4. Oxford Bangers

Substitute 1/2 of the minced pork with minced veal
Spices:
1 teaspoon fine milled white peppercorns
1 teaspoon coarse milled black peppercorns
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mace, ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
zest of 1/4 lemon

Others:

5. HFW Herb Sausage for 500g
10 Sage leaves, 10 chives,
3 sprigs thyme,
Bunch marjoram,
� tsp black pepper,
2tsp salt,
25g rusk (ie only 5%)

6. Chorizo
For 676g (450 lean, 225 fat)
1sm red pepper, 1 sm chilli, 70 ml red wine, 1tbs salt, � tsp gran sugar, pinch saltpeter, � tsp mixed spice, � tsp cayenne, clove garlic crushed

7. Irish Sausage
For 2.5lb(1100g)
1 � tsp basil, 2.5cups rusk, 1 1/5tsp rosemary, 2 eggs light beaten, 1 � tsp marjoram, 4 clove garlic crushed, 1 � tsp black pepper, � tbs salt, 1� tsp thyme, 1 cup whitwine

8. Cumberland
6oz mince back fat, 500g mince shoulder
� sl smk bacn, minced
28g rusk
Pinch of: Nutmeg, Mace, Pepper, Salt
2 tbs water

9. Smithfield Mix
3.5oz salt
� oz pepper
� nutmeg, � mace. 1/2 coriander
Use � oz per 1lb
Use above water/ rusk quantities

10. Creole
For 2.5lb (1100g)
1tsp black pepper
1/2 cup grated onion
1/2 tsp allspice
4 clove garlic crushed
1 tsp sugar
� tbs crushed chilli
� tsp salt
1 � tsp cayenne
� cup chopped parsley



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[TobyB]

Fantastic. Thanks very much for this and for the recipes. I'll print it out and keep it with me on the big day. Don't think I'm going to make brawn as my wife won't eat it so it's too much work for no thanks!

All the others look great.

I'll report back afterwards. I'm doing it with a couple of mates (the wives are going shopping!) so hopefully it will be a fun and fairly boozy day.

[TobyB]

First feedback; pictures to follow once I have got my wife's help.

Great day had by all. I picked up my pig at 8.00am and the butcher cut it to my spec for me. I retained two decent sized bits of loin (from the front end) for roasting (we ate one of them on Sat night and it was fantatstic). With the rest of the pig we made:

1 palma style ham (currently curing in a cage in the fridge, the cage made from 2 cake drying racks and cable ties as per Len Polli's instructions). The ham is huge as the butcher cut it really long for me and bone in it weighed 20lbs! I tunnel boned it myself which was easier than I thought it was going to be. I've used Len's recipe with sugar and juniper berries as well as the salt and cure #2.

8lb's salami based on Len's fennel salami recipe with a few added bits and pieces. I incubated these in the airing cupboard with a large tray of boiling water for humidity. They are now hanging in my garden shed (stone and with open eaves so temp should be OK and airflow is good)

2kg of Italian style sausage
2kg of Maple syrup and mustard sausage and
2kg of breakfast sausage.

We had a tasting of the sausages on Sunday lunchtime and they are all great although the breakfast sausage is a bit peppery as I used a javanese white pepper which seems to be more strongly flavoured than usual.

I cured the rear half of the loin and half of the belly for bacon. Currently bagged and waiting.

I didn't do much with the head except cut off the cheeks. The head fat is even firmer than backfat so it went into the salami.

All the bones have been roasted and the dogs enjoyed their first one yesterday! Only downside of the weekend was that the dogs stole the leftover loin (about 4" of meat still on it) from Sat night's roast (which I only discovered when I went to make myself the pork sarnie I'd been looking forward to all day on Sunday). They are in disgrace!

[Jonty]

Toby,

Sounds like a fantastic day. Congratulations.

[TobyB]

Thanks. It works out really cheap too. The half pig only cost �68 which when you consider the fact that it was outdoor reared from a known local source and properly hung is so much better value than from a supermarket or a butcher. Cost was 99p/lb dead weight. Apart from the head nearly all of that weight was edible meat.

If anyone want's the address of the farm shop who sold it to me (they also do lamb and beef (their own animals) they buy in the pigs) let me know and I'll post it. Really nice husabnd and wife team (he used to be a butcher) based near Daventry in northamtonshire just off Jct 11 of the M40

[aris]

Yes, i'm interested - please PM me the details.

[TobyB]

Latest update. Ate the first of the salami at the weekend. They aren't all ready yet but the ones nearest the edge of the shed had dried quicker. They are Deeeelicious. Have been sharing with friends in the village and in the pub and everyone is amazed at how good they taste.

Sadly I think I need to start making the next batch already. (for those who are interested I used ordinary hog casings as I prefer a saussicon sec style salami not a "proper" one) . I thought being so thin they'd be ready in about 3 weeks but this doesn't seem to be the case as they've been hanging for 4 weeks already and, as stated, most of them are still a bit moist at the bottom

The Parma ham came out of it's bag last weekend (16th April) I had cured it following Len Pollis instructions. It looked cured but a tiny bit wet still so I put it into a wine box completely covered in salt for three days. It looked much better on being removed.

The ham is now hanging in the roof wrapped in muslin. I'll check it monthly for signs of rot/rodent interest and hope to have something to report in about four months time.

Thanks all for your help so far. I'm so chuffed with the salami as i didn't think it would work at all so the fact that it is actually far superior to anything I've ever purchased is a double whammy! I'm chuffed to bits.

T

[aris]

Pictures?

[TobyB]

Sorry, I can't do pictures

The systems stazi at work (where I post from) have disabled the ability to post pictures onto a site. I'm working on my wife to see if she can do it for me but she isn't very keen

[aris]

Hmm - exactly how do they restrict this? Go to http://imageshack.us/ - and try and upload a picture there.

[TobyB]

It won't let me in apparently this site is prohibited!

I'm not surprised our systems bans are incredible. I'm not sure how I get away with posting on here as most forums are banned too