Potbelly Pig for meat *GRAPHIC PICS*

[Ferguson K]

Potbelly is a little greasier, but, it still tastes like pork.

 

[Baymule]

Wow, this was a problem pig! You were right to shoot and butcher her. Post some pics of pork on a plate!

 

[Pastor Dave]

I am not trying to sound like a smart-alec, but what about a barbecue pit? We lived in TN when I was a kid for a couple years and went to a couple pork barbecues where the hog was placed in a pit dug to smoke it in. It had a small trench dug for a little venting I think. The coals were good and hot and then wet corn shucks or something were put down so the meat didn't burn. It kept it a little moist and gave plenty of smoke. Some other layer was placed on top of the meat to keep all the heat in, but I do not remember what it was. Surely there is still someone around that does these or remembers how to do it. It may be a Southern thing, but I am thinking Western or South West.

 

[misfitmorgan]

The smoker will come in time, like most things. Just one more thing to look forward to

I'm sure we had one at the old farm DH built but we couldnt move it to the new farm.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Potbelly is a little greasier, but, it still tastes like pork.

Thank you for the info

I am not trying to sound like a smart-alec, but what about a barbecue pit? We lived in TN when I was a kid for a couple years and went to a couple pork barbecues where the hog was placed in a pit dug to smoke it in. It had a small trench dug for a little venting I think. The coals were good and hot and then wet corn shucks or something were put down so the meat didn't burn. It kept it a little moist and gave plenty of smoke. Some other layer was placed on top of the meat to keep all the heat in, but I do not remember what it was. Surely there is still someone around that does these or remembers how to do it. It may be a Southern thing, but I am thinking Western or South West.

A pit would be a good idea if we want to cook her all at once but we dont we think atm she is mostly going to be sausage and we started rendering lard to make flake lard last night. DH skinned her and cut all the lard off the skin to render. We will be trimming more lard off the carcass but i asked him to wait so i can get pics but when we got home it was already dark so i will get some today of the carcass and processing and how the cuts would look before we chop it into sausage. If she was a younger pig we might plan on making typical cuts but she is over a year old we know so we will have to see how the meat seems.

The other problem with a pit is.....she is already hanging and i live in northern michigan so the ground is still frozen so no digging. We are wanting to quickly get her processed and in the freezer cause the next 4 days are forecasted at 51,57, 64, & 69 today is 45 which might be pushing it a bit but we had a good freeze last night and she is in a cold building so she should stay fresh until we get off work and can get to it.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Those sound like our temp range and forecast

I have made sausage and can make pretty good summer sausage too. With the spices used, you should not have to worry about the original flavor of the pork too much. Even so, I am sure processing the pork into cuts will taste pretty good too. Let us know how it all works out.

 

[Bunnylady]

I am not trying to sound like a smart-alec, but what about a barbecue pit? It may be a Southern thing, but I am thinking Western or South West.

You could go a lot further south and west - like Polynesia; except there they use banana leaves. Or northeast, where a similar cooking technique may be used for seafood (frequently employing seaweed). But absolutely, one doesn't have to be limited to the size of whatever cooking devices they have.

Sounds like this was the only real solution for this problem pig - after the bitterness of the last few weeks, I hope she tastes sweet!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Sounds like this was the only real solution for this problem pig - after the bitterness of the last few weeks, I hope she tastes sweet!

Thank you, we are hoping so too!! I am still so angry about my poor sheep missing her ear and she is only a year and a half old and pure suffolk.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Alright i will post pics up tonight but she is all processed and in the fridge chilling so we can do the second grind for sausage. How much did we get from her?

Fat/Lard before rendering - two 3 gallon buckets
Rendered Lard - unsure so far one 3 gallon pail left, two quart jars rendered and a 3 gallon pot rendered. We did 3 types of fat/lard for 3 batchs.
Type 1- cooking lard
Type 2 - baking lard
Type 3 - pristine flake lard - for lard biscuits mostly

Meat - roughly 50lbs
Tender loins and hanging loins were good we kept them whole. All other meat was ground.

I really have to say that no a potbelly pig is not like a regular meat pig. At least this one was not but she was not raised intended for butcher and was over weight by a fair amount.

Differences we noticed:
A typical feeder pig has the thick layer of fat under the skin and likely kidney fat then its mostly muscle with some fat around the muscles in places. A pot belly is put together differently, this pig had fat/muscle/fat/muscle etc...it was rather strange. Picture bacon but all over except the back legs and loins...and oddly the belly was just layers of muscle for the most part.
The muscle also seemed to be softer then typical feeder muscle. The ground pork appears perfectly edible though and the loins are very tender.

This pig weighted well over 100lbs live...so you can see what you could expect to get from a typical potbelly pig not raised for meat.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks for the breakdown.