Half a Hog Fall 2014

[Chris Hennes]

This fall I had the opportunity to buy half a hog from a local cheese producer who raised three hogs as a sort of side project. The hogs were pastured and their diet supplemented with whey leftover from the cheesemaking process.

 

(Image courtesy of Wagon Creek Creamery)

 

The hogs were slaughtered a few weeks ago: I asked the butcher to "leave mine in the largest pieces you are willing to deal with." On the order sheet this got translated to "cut in half" so I wound up with two quarters split between ribs 12 and 13. I'm basing the following work on Ruhlman and Polcyn's Salumi using the Italian hog breakdown.

 

I started by thawing the front half of the hog:

 

 

I split the spine at rib 7:

 

 

The rear section was then partitioned into a few ribs (I'll just eat these fresh), a chunk of the loin, and a chunk of belly that I cut in half width-wise to give one chunk for Pancetta Tessa and another for American-style bacon:

 

(Salt and black pepper)

 

(Rosemary, juniper, black pepper, garlic, bay, salt)

 

(Modernist Cuisine cure, unmodified)

 

Next I moved to the front of the hog and cut off the ribs to give better access:

 

Next the coppa came off and into a standard salt and black pepper cure:

 

Once the coppa was off I took a portion of the shoulder and boned for Spalla (salt and black pepper):

 

I harvested a couple more kilograms of belly for bacon. The remainder of the front (about 50% by weight) is chilling again before being ground for a number of other cured salami products. I did eat a chop for lunch: the pork is delicious.

[gfweb]

Fabtastic!

 

Is the meat more fatty than the supermarket stuff?

[Chris Hennes]

Yes, there is significantly more fat. Part of this is that the hogs were slaughtered a couple weeks later than normal, however, so I don't know how much of it was diet.

[David Ross]

Nice looking rib chops on that piggy.

[Martin Fisher]

Looks great Chris!

We fed hogs a lot of whey years ago when there was still an Italian cheesemaker in the area.

[Chelseabun]

I considered doing this when I was learning my primal cuts.  When you see butchers demonstrating a hog breakdown, they always seem to go too fast.  At home, I am assuming you can take your time and get the cuts exactly how you want them.  Your stainless steel table looks perfect for the job but might be a bit on the small side for Bovine LoL

[Thanks for the Crepes]

This is great, Chris. You get superior, tasty pork, and the hogs got a much better quality of life than their commercially raised brethren.

 

I love the photo of the pigs cooling off on a hot day!

[gfweb]

Please continue the hog blog with the salumi making.

[Chris Hennes]

Last night I cubed the rest of the shoulder and scrap for later use:

 

 

Today, after 24 hours of a wet cure via the salt-box method, I rinsed, dried, wine-rubbed, and re-peppered the coppa:

 

I also rinsed, dried, and wine-rubbed the Spalla:

 

These are getting dry-cured in my (still-in-process) curing chamber, constructed from a compressor-cooled mini fridge controlled via an Arduino using the DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor. The wooden box beneath it houses a humidifier that it turns out is not currently necessary. The chamber is at 15°C and 60%RH. Obviously eventually I'll clean this up and integrate the control circuitry into a more permanent board and enclosure, but I'm still playing around with it.

 

 

Here's the interior:

 

 

You can see the sensor and a small fan on the top rack, and just barely make out the large hole drilled in the bottom as an inlet for the humidifier.

[Chris Hennes]

While I was smoking the bacon I also smoked some ribs that I had rubbed with salt, black pepper, and chili powder. The next day for lunch I reheated them sous vide and hit them with my Searzall. 

 

[catdaddy]

And how is the hind quarter doing?

[Chris Hennes]

Still frozen, I don't have room for a ham right now in my curing chamber.

[catdaddy]

What is your strategy for the ham? Prosciutto, country, city or something else?

[Chris Hennes]

The problem is that it's skin off, so I'm not sure which options are actually available to me. Got any advice?

[Dave W]

You might be able to dry it with no skin just the same. Or if you don't want to try that, you could use the nice lean ham meat with cubes back fat for beautiful, high definition salumi.

[Martin Fisher]

The problem is that it's skin off, so I'm not sure which options are actually available to me. Got any advice?

 

 

Seam it out for Noix de Jambon.

 

[Chris Hennes]

I'd love to do a really long cure with it, like a country ham or a prosciutto, but I have never seen this done skin-off, so I'm a bit leery of it. I think that either Noix de Jambon or just more salami are by backup plan.

[Chris Hennes]

I've been meaning to post a shot of the bacon for months now. This was cured according to the Modernist Cuisine recipe, but the ribs were taken off. The amount of fat in the belly is amazing. The bacon is fantastic, of course.

 

[Alim Tasnim]

fantastic . I love hen