Help, please. I'm a little freaked out by my hog hair!

[kayb]

I've had many a piece of country bacon with the skin, with a hair or two here and there sticking out. My suggestion: Go ahead and cook it, and whatever's sticking out after the sear, flame off quickly with a torch. (Most of it WILL stick out at that point, because the skin will have shrunk.) If a few don't flame off, let 'em go.

 

[donk79]

37 minutes ago, Anna N said:

What foolishness is that?

That's beauty!  My concern about loin is the likelihood that the loin would be overcooked by the time the skin was rendered.  This probably says more about my lack of experience and skill than it does anything else.  I would happily pull my plate up to what you posted!

[SLB]

I am so glad for this question.  I bought a pork belly for the first time a couple of years ago in order to make salt pork.  You could not see any hairs on the outside of the skin layer, but I did something which entailed an inadvertent shear into the skin, and saw basically what Kim Shook posted.  I nearly screamed!  I could not believe I was supposed to be eating this, I've never encountered a hair-like anything on a piece of cracklin. 

 

I was too embarrassed to post here, and also too embarrassed to call the butcher; I assumed I was off in my expectations and I HATE seeming squeamish (even when I am, in fact, squeamish).

 

I haven't eaten any of that rind, just sayin'.  I peel it off before the fry. 

[AAQuesada]

Reminds me of having to take a disposable bic razor to a pigs snout when I was doing my Stage (practica) in Spain.  The restaurant had a dish that was an homage to the iberian pig that used the snout, ears and trotter in different preparations!

 

Good luck!

[FeChef]

2 hours ago, Eatmywords said:

thanks, one more thing I can't unsee.

Imagine taking that pork loin to a local salon for a brazilian.

Edited December 22, 2020 by FeChef (log)

[MetsFan5]

Nair? 
 

seriously though that scared me too! 

[BugCollector]

I raised a few hogs for meat.

They all had a lot more hair to start with.

They had to be dunked into a drum of hot water to loosen the hair enough 

to be scraped off. A long slow tedious process.

How many kitchens have dedicated hog hair scrapers? I have 2.

If I missed some (and I always did) I would burn them off.

If you do that, be sure to burn it outside.  The smell is unpleasant.

Meat will taste great though! 

 

[dcarch]

Try this:

 

 

dcarch

[Kim Shook]

14 minutes ago, dcarch said:

Try this:

 

 

dcarch

That was amazing.  

[jimb0]

had to chuckle when i saw this. i grew up on a farm and while we only raised cattle i was often called upon to help a various uncle or friend with the hogs growing up. after killing the hog and before butchering it into hams to cure, we'd dump in a giant tank of scalding hot water and vigorously scrape all of the hair off. i'll never forget the smell.

 

to me, it sounds like someone was a wee bit lazy - but then perhaps this is a new trend of heritage pork? :V 

 

 

[Kim Shook]

17 hours ago, jimb0 said:

had to chuckle when i saw this. i grew up on a farm and while we only raised cattle i was often called upon to help a various uncle or friend with the hogs growing up. after killing the hog and before butchering it into hams to cure, we'd dump in a giant tank of scalding hot water and vigorously scrape all of the hair off. i'll never forget the smell.

 

to me, it sounds like someone was a wee bit lazy - but then perhaps this is a new trend of heritage pork? :V 

 

 

A couple of people have mentioned the scraping and that it looked like it hadn't been done properly.  This hair was mostly under the skin.  Some of it had a little tip poking out that I could barely get ahold of with tweezers.  Most of it, I had to dig for.  Would proper scalding/scraping have removed that layer of skin and therefore all that hair?  

[jimb0]

in all honesty, it's been a long time since i've had to do that, so i couldn't really tell you with authority. i can say that none of our hogs had hair like that left on them when we were done, though it's possible they were just less hairy.