Big Mac

I have no pictures of the turkey or family portraits or plates of food from this Thanksgiving.  Instead, I have pictures of Big Mac.

Big Mac is a hog raised by my mother's cousin's family, the Barkers.  After Thanksiving dinner (including the delicious ham of one of Mac's former barn-mates) a group of us went out to visit the pigs.  We found Mac, a solid large Hereford.

And when he turned around, we saw Big Mac's most, um, distinguishing characteristic(s).

None of us could keep our eyes off them, I mean him.

Big Mac's well endowed package also caught the attention of Ohio State Fair officials last year.  Upon entering the competition ring, he was immediately marched to the first place position and bestowed with a Grand Champion honor.

I wonder which end of the hog displayed the blue ribbon?

PS.  Alex believes this post would be more appropriately titled 'Big Mac had a Big Sack.'  What do you think?

POM Party Tonight

I am a mad woman cooking and cleaning for tonight's POM Party.  The people at POM Wonderful sent me two cases of fresh pomegranates and some juice with which to host a dinner.  I am featuring this non-local seasonal ingredient with a host of Ohio seasonal ingredients.  As two diners are cow's milk sensitive, this is a cow dairy free menu. The menu is:

sciurus rillette with Osage Lane Creamery danish hansen goat cheese and pomegranate compote on homemade toast points

marinated local tatsoi salad with pomegranate arils

pomegranate glazed Red’s pork shoulder over polenta round with braised cabbage

rustic ohio apple pomegranate pie

harvest sunset (tequilla, nectarine pomegranate juice, homemade grenadine)

pomegranate mulled wine

homemade pomegranate cordial

If you want to follow along, I will be tweeting as dinner is served tonight.  Follow Hounds in the Kitchen on facebook for updates there.  I will post a recap within a week and share some recipes.  Are there any dishes in particular that you want me to write about?

Basement Charcuterie

If you home cure meat, this might be a familiar site:

Five pounds of saucisson sec and a fifteen pound serrano-style salted air-dryed ham hanging in our basement.   Both are made from the meat of Red, the hog we slaughtered in April.  The saucisson sec will hang for three to four weeks and be taken on our long back country canoe trip in July.  The ham will dry until the fall at the earliest.

Curing meat hanging from drop ceiling stringers is just one of the pitfalls of home charcuterie.

If you take up charcuterie like Alex has, you might also find yourself with hundreds of feet of dried hog intestine, i.e. casing, in the fridge, pictured above.  You'll probably have a stash of pink salt, that nitrite containing bacon flavoring good stuff.  Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book will be nearby for recipes and advice on all types of curing.  You will have a meat grinder and possibly several other sharp and dangerous tools.

Of course you will also have the rewards:  spicy delicious chorizo, home cured guanciale (jowl bacon pictured above), salt cod, fresh breakfast sausage and the experience to preserve whatever comes your way.

Reflections on the Pig Slaughter

Last week I shared our method for slaughtering a pig by hand.  Previously we shared why we wanted to slaughter. Today's final post is reflective of the whole experience.

Work to Be Done

Rachel: Once Red was dead, we all worked quickly to process her body.  There was no spoken communication, but there was a shared feeling that part of honoring her life was to finish the work.  There was a sense that to raise and kill an animal, we ought to use every part.  I feel the same way about seeds I plant at home; we try to use every fruit and edible part of our garden plants to justify our use of water, land, and sunlight in their growing.

Ease

Alex: It was a whole lot easier than I had imagined. There was almost no struggling by the animal and I think it was as pleasant an ending as could be hoped for. I found the pig anatomy fascinating. I've never been in an anatomy lab, but I understand pigs are very similar to humans in that department. The organ layout was very interesting, and I was not grossed out at all by what I was seeing.

Graphic Pictures

Rachel: During the kill and slaughter I was not emotional.  I downloaded the pictures that same day and did not come back to insert pictures into the post until Saturday night.  Looking through the images, my heart wrenched and my stomach turned several times.  The images, out of the context of physically doing the hard honest work, were more emotional.  I guess that's why we say "a picture's worth a thousand words."

Responsibility

Alex: I like taking responsibility in my life and doing things myself. For this reason, I am happy I slaughtered a large animal and got to experience the processing of it from start to finish. I feel more connected to my food after this experience and have a greater appreciation for what incredibly hard work meat-packing must be. After watching Food, Inc., I am even happier to be attempting to wean myself away from factory meat production.

Vegetarian Pig Killer

Rachel: "Aren't you a vegetarian?"  I get asked this a lot, especially considering that my most popular posts have to do with meat.  I am a vegetarian.  I don't order meat entrees at restaurants and I don't cook meat for myself.  After more than ten years, I simply do not enjoy the texture of meat.  However, I have no beef with people who want to eat meat.

I actually do enjoy the taste of some meats (hello, bacon!).  When Alex makes a meat dish he's particularly proud of, I taste it.  In the interest of not being a bother, I eat soups and sauces that may contain meat stock in restaurants.  I suppose some would revoke my vegetarian card for eating this way, but I try to not concern myself with what other people think.

In the early days of my vegetarianism, I did not want to handle meat and some parts grossed me out.  Over the years of living with Alex the meat lover and raising a omnivorous child, my view has changed.  I now have no problem scaling fish, cooking chicken breasts, or skinning a just-dead pig, so long as they were raised and killed ethically.

Lessons Learned

Alex: 1. I would definitely bring more knives or a proper sharpening stone. Butcher knives or a skinning knife with an up-swept blade would be a plus as the one I had seemed to work incredibly well for most pig-chopping jobs. I had no idea that chopping through the skin and skinning the pig would dull the knives as quickly as it did. In addition, I would purchase a proper butcher's hacksaw for going through bone. The hardware store model worked fine, but the painted blade left a yellow color to some of the bone.

2. For killing the pig, I would use a pistol next time. The rifle worked fine in the end, but it was unwieldy and tricky to manage while trying to wrangle the pig. I would also take a slightly larger caliber as I was nervous the 22 might not do the job properly. Even though it worked, it is not a very potent caliber, and I would be nervous about getting a deflection off of a thick part of the skull. I think something along the lines of 22 Hornet or 5.7x28 would work exceedingly well.

3. The hoist. Thankfully Denise had a block and tackle. However, I think it was sized for the lambs she more often slaughters. As such it was somewhat strained under the weight of Red. For slaughtering an even larger animal (cow, bison, etc...), I think it would be hard to do it without a motorized winch.

4. The hide. Next time I would like to save skin for either cooking or leather purposes. This means reading up on tanning or finding an appropriate hair-removal method for the carcass.

Next Time

Rachel: Will we slaughter an animal again? Probably. Not only did slaughtering save us money over sending the animal to a processor, it was not difficult. Knowing how to gut and process an animal is a life skill I'm glad we now have. Alex plans on hunting deer this fall, we may eventually slaughter one of our backyard chickens, and Denise knows we will happily help her dispatch 2Silos animals.

How We Slaughtered a Pig

Meet Red.  She's the pig we slaughtered last Saturday with the able assistance of another meat lover, JR, and Red's owner, Denise of 2Silos farm.  Earlier I published why we wanted to slaughter a pig. What follows is a factual account of how we humanely harvested this meat animal.  It was hard manual labor that we attended to with reverence for the life we took.

I have included pictures to illustrate exactly what happened.  Some readers may find this subject and the photographs graphic.  If that's the case for you, you might want to wait to read a reflective and less intense post I will publish next week.  Intrepid readers, keep on.

We arrived at 2Silos farm early Saturday morning.  We met Denise's pigs and plethora of chickens, sheep, and geese housed in and around her gorgeous two siloed barn.

Red was allowed out of her pen and into the chicken yard.  She was wiley and escaped for a quick jaunt around the farmyard before we corralled her back into the pen.  The plan was to shoot her centrally between the ears and eyes to instantly stop brain function.  Alex, who won a marksmanship award while in Army Basic Training, manned the 22 long rifle.  He took his time to corner and aim because a miss would cause the animal to suffer unnecessarily.

The kill shot was perfect.  Red fell with not so much as a peep.  She convulsed involuntarily for about a minute as all large animals do.

We loaded her 250 pounds into a wheeled cart and pushed it up the hill into the barn.  After several attempts, we finally strung her up by her ankles over a roof beam.

Denise felt for the juglar and cut a slit in the throat to drain the blood.  The blood was drained into a sterile bucket so that it could be used in making blood sausage.

It took nearly a quarter hour to capture the blood.  When the stream finally slowed to a drop a minute, we moved on to gutting.

Denise ran a sharp knife carefully through the center line.  She was aiming for just through the skin but accidentally made a small cut into the small intestine.  Small intestine contents smell and are a source of bacteria so we worked quickly to clean up the mess and remove the guts.

We discarded the intestines.  Though they can be used for sausage casing, we had neither the skill nor time to process the intestines as carefully as is required for use.  Other organs (liver, kidneys, pancreas, heart) were reserved for offal recipes.

Alex cut around the anus so that the colon, uterus, bladder, and connective tissue could be removed.

Then skinning began from the legs down.  We took turns running sharp knives halfway between the skin and meat so as to retain as much fat as possible.  It took almost 45 minutes to completely skin the pig.

Another option is to place the carcass in boiling water, scrape off the hair, and retain the hide for leather making.  Denise did not have the facilities for this process and we did not have an interest in curing the skin, so we discarded it in the way described above.

When the pig was finally skinned, Alex sawed off the head.  JR kept the head for head cheese making, giving Alex a jowl for guanciale (a cured dried bacon, similar to pancetta).

Denise and Alex then sawed through the backbone to split the pig into two halves.

The halves were rinsed with fresh water.  From there, JR and Alex cut the pieces into appropriate primal cuts and packed them in ice filled coolers.

We carted the coolers home for further processing.  Alex butchered while I ran the Foodsaver, resulting in a freezer full of honestly raised honorably killed pork.  The belly, jowl, and ham were kept fresh for curing and smoking.  If y'all make a fuss in the comments we can write more about the exact cuts we made and how we plan to use the parts of the animal.

There you have it, the story of Red's end.  The experience was profound and fascinating.  Please return next week for our reflection on how it felt to slaughter a pig and the implications of doing so.

Due to overwhelming response, I'm linking this to April 23rd's Food Renegade Fight Back Friday.

We're Slaughtering a Pig. Why?

A few months ago, Denise Beno from 2Slios farm tweeted that she had an unclaimed Duroc/York pig this season.  She asked if anyone might want to buy a whole or half.  Alex and I and decided that purchasing a side of pig would be a good way to fill our freezer with well raised meat and give him more experience with home charcuterie. In making arrangements with Denise, Alex learned that traditional processors often discard cuts of meat he would prefer to have, including the jowel and offal.  Denise offered that Alex and the other buyer could slaughter the pig with her and process it however they wished.

We jumped at the chance.  Here's why we will wake early, drive to Mt. Vernon and slaughter a pig on Saturday.

Alex: I appreciate sustainably and humanely raised meat.  I have had great experiences with Denise and the meat she raises.  Her meat animals are of the highest quality, and I know her animal husbandry ethics are in line with my expectations.

Rachel: I don't eat meat, expect for the occasional taste of home cured bacon.  After over ten years as a vegetarian, the texture is something I no longer enjoy and I feel I can balance my diet better without meat.  Meat, in particular among foods, is often raised with disgustingly low humane and earth conscious standards.  I am very concerned with the provenance of meat we purchase.

Alex: Per pound this will be low cost meat for the quality I will be receiving.  It's true that because of government props, sustainable meat costs more in the market today.  I don't mind doing a little bit of work to reduce some of the cost.

Rachel: I actually keep a much closer eye on our budget than Alex does.  I often arrange for us to buy ingredients in bulk to save money.  The risk, of course, in freezing meat is that a power loss can wipe out your investment.  I guess we'll just have a huge barbecue if there's a blackout this summer.

Alex: I've been a meat eater all my life, but have bought almost all of the meat I have ever eaten already cut up and packaged.  I've only ever cleaned fish or squirrels I have caught/killed myself.  I have never dressed out a large mammal.  I would like to hunt deer for food this year and feel the experience of slaughtering a pig will be good for when I need to clean a large animal on my own.

Rachel: I too have not witnessed the slaughter or processing of a large animal up close.  I am comfortable handling and cooking meat even when I don't eat it myself.  I know that killing and butchering a pig will be hard work; I plan to do with reverence for the life we are taking.

Alex: I wanted this to be a learning experience that could be shared on Rachel's blog and with our daughter Lil. Lil will not accompany us for the slaughter because we want ourselves to be fully present and distractions when dealing with a large animal, saws, and knives can be dangerous.

Too many people are completely disconnected from their food.  The hamburger they are eating did not grow on a meat tree; it came from an animal that was born, raised and ultimately killed to provide food for another species.  Some people subconsciously push this knowledge out of their head while eating meat.  I'm certainly no vegetarian, but I believe that when I eat meat, I have a fundamental responsibility to know and understand where it comes from.

Rachel: Absolutely.  I will record the slaughter with video and photos to share here.  I'll provide fair warning to those who do not wish to read anymore about it. Though it used to be commonplace to have intimate knowledge of raising and killing meat animals, many people now are far removed from farms.  It is my hope that sharing the experience of the slaughter will inspire more people to question and consider their food sourcing.