A few weeks ago my brother Brian at Flannel Farms and I had the prospect to visitThe Modern Yeoman’shomestead in Knoxville for a backyard pig butchering day . We were join by a few other YouTubers , includingThe Kraemer LifeandGrowing Little Country homestead .
Our butchering teacher was Billy fromPerma Pastures , along with his boy William .
Today , at long last , I present a photograph - essay , showing the process of pig slaughter from start to finish .
First , William ( left ) , Billy ( center ) , and Sean ( right ) , project the slaughter of Sean ’s two delicious squealer .
Here are the delicious pigs . They are nothing that anyone in his ripe judgement would care to cuddle , vegan commenters on YouTube notwithstanding .
Here , Billy debase a single round into a .410 shotgun .
Pow !
Billy apportion that the proper way to take down a grunter with a gun is to shoot him at the “ X ” intersection point of the eyes and ears . From the odd ear to the correct eye makes one streak of the X , and from the correct ear down to the unexpended eye is the other bar .
Once the pig is down , the pharynx is rapidly cut from beneath the capitulum and through the artery .
Here , Sang and Sean pump the bloodline from the pigs .
Until Billy has an easier method acting , which regard mildly stomping on the Sus scrofa ’s corpse .
Now the bleeding has contain and the pigs are taken to a tarped piece of ground for the next step .
Here , the heads are all removed .
Billy counts his fingers to make certain he was n’t too energetic with his knifework .
Now the sternum of the pigs are sawn through while they are still on the undercoat .
Once opening the chest cavity is fill in , Sean cuts into the back animal foot to spread out up a place to snitch the pigs for hanging – a pocket between the ankle area and the back tendon .
The pig is hook up , then hoisted by the tractor for the next stage .
safety machine first ! Do n’t count on just the bucket to defend up 100 of pounds of pig . Nate and Sean use a log as a backup to the tractor fluid mechanics .
Now it ’s meter to remove the guts .
Billy cuts around the anus , being measured not to deflate the intestines . Once it ’s disengage from the flesh , he tie it off with a zilch tie to keep manure from pollute the sum .
Now the nonrational cavity is carefully opened and the guts revealed .
Now a trashcan is placed beneath the pig to catch the viscera .
At this distributor point , you may preserve your favorite organs if you care . Sean was n’t big on harmonium gist , but did save at least one of the liver .
Once the copper is gutted , it ’s time to skin .
Billy present how to cut through the cutis in cartoon strip with a hooked razor tongue , then peel the pelt off the avoirdupois beneath .
Once the skinning is perfect , it ’s clip to go steady the pig in two . Billy does this with a shrill butchering saw , dividing the carcass right through the spine .
This can be done with a Sawsall , but the sometime fashioned method acting can be done off - grid , and is also rather less messy .
Once divided , the two one-half of the pig are launder .
… and taken down … … and transported to the main slaughter area .
Here the two half are pose out on a pair of clean plastic fold table .
Billy and the crew cut up the pork into man . Ribs , hams , lumbus , etc .
Once they are cut up , Billy test everyone on the component part and where they belonged in the animal .
The less quality pork is made into terra firma pork . Here Brian is grind it down .
Two grinder were on the mesa . One ground it the first metre and discharge the pork into a tray . That was then fed into the second grinder which had a feed tube on the conclusion , allowing the pork to be neatly bagged .
The fat was trimmed and place apart for rendering into lard . We were the benefactive role of quite a few pounds of nice , white fat , which Rachel later action into almost three gallon of beautiful lard .
While Brian was running the grinder , Isaac , Katie and I ran a void waterproofing post for the prime cut of pork , sacking and label them all . I rationalise travelling bag and packed them , Katie ran the vacancy sealer , and Issac was our labeller .
Here , Brian is standing in for me .
at long last , just a few short hours after the two pigs were complete , there is a beautiful deep freezer full of home - raised porc . This autumn we go for to do a standardized butcher day on our own homestead with the two piglets we ’re presently raising .
I much prefer the way these pigs were raised and feed to the repugnance of factory pig farming . Home butchering may be a chore , but like any chore , it can be turn into a fun twenty-four hours when shared with the right society .
Thank you , Brian , for invite me along , and Sean for hosting , and Billy and William for their hog - butchering expertise .
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