Does anyone know of a web site or book that gives a detailed method for cutting up pigs? I've been butchering deer and the occasional cow for some time now but hogs are laid out differently. I end up with shoulders, hams, loins, and ribs. I don't see the top and bottom round, the sirloin tips, rump roasts that I cut out of the others, any help would be appreciated.

I've been a butcher for 24 years.All of the animals are the same except for size.

To pull your sirlion tip start at the knee come straight down untill you hit the femor bone,ride the femor untill you hit the hip joint and come up.If you bone out the rest of the femor bone you should not have a problem finding your top/inside round bottom round and eye of round.Your true rump is the bottom round that is inside the pelvis bone.On hogs your round or hams are generally sold whole.Either for fresh or smoked ham.

The loins are straight foreward.You have the sirlion end (closest to the pelvis)your lion chops (looks like T-bones its also the lenght of the tenderloin),your rib section.You can bone out your whole lion for boneless pork,but it makes better sense to only bone out the rib section.Those ribs are your baby back ribs.Just cut the lion section into chops.

Shoulders are called pork butts or boston butts.Its where the 7-bone or shoulder blade is.These are made into roast or country style ribs.

The arms are generally used in picnic hams or sold for hot dogs, sausage and lunchmeat.Necks are boned out for the same.The neck bones are smocked and sold fresh.

If you need anything else broke down P.M. me.

Thanks for the information. I'm a little unshure about the loins/chops, I'll try to round up some pictures, hopefully they will set my addled mind straight. Baboon, I may PM you if I don't figure this out. I'm back in the hog hunting business, after a 3 year rest they have started showing up in my hay fields again. We thought we had eliminated them, oh well no rest for the weary.

Ask the cook ! You may want to make crown roast of pork [great holiday meal] and leave extra length of rib.Shoulders are best for sausage .Shanks are nice braised with lentils. Head cheese also excellent though it takes a bit of work.

I found this website VERY instructive ... here goes the link http://www.geocities.com/ihunts/index.html

And better yet (also answering your question) http://www.geocities.com/ihunts/fielddress.html

I have just checked out that link and seems not to be working properly ...

In fact I think it is such a good explanation that I feel like posting it here also ... thus beware all pics and words are property of that fine hunter that calls herself (yes, its a she !!) Huntnlady !!

So from here onwards, starts the !!



Pull the animal to a relatively clean spot on the ground and turn it onto its back.

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Butchering:Start the first cut over the sternum, (center, bottom of the rib cage.) *NOTE you will almost never need to cut the animal's throat, since this will only bleed it if the heart is still pumping. Believe me, the bullet will have bled out the animal plenty and this will all come out of the body cavity with the guts.

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After the first one inch cut, poke the knife under the skin so you can slice with the blade facing up. This parts the hair rather than cutting it, and insures that you will not puncture the intestine because you are not cutting downward

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Open the skin, right down the midline to the anus, (diverting along one side of the penus opening.)

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Starting again at the sternum, with the knife blade still facing up, cut the muscle (bacon) layer over the abdomen, exposing the entrails.

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Turn the animal to its side and start pulling out the intestines. Take great care not to break open the stomach or intestines. When you’ve got the stomach and intestines pulled out as much as you can, you will find it hanging up just below the liver. Take your knife and cut it away from the backbone at that point

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The bladder is full, but still intact. Run your hand along the intestine on top of the bladder to where it becomes the rectum inside of the pelvic canal. Pull it away from the connecting tissue. If it is empty you can cut it here and pull it out, or you can cut a circle around the anus from the outside. Pull the remaining intestinal tract free- happiness is a large gut pile. Unless you plan to eat them, cut out the kidneys from against the backbone, and cut off the mountain oysters and penis, leaving this meal for the coyotes. Mountain oysters are good to eat, and if you want to give them a try, cut them off and carry them or stuff them up into the chest with the heart to keep them from getting dirty.

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The big game is ready for dragging. Heart and liver are still attached. If they are left inside while dragging, they will stay clean. Do not leave these delicacies in the field. Even if you do not like liver, someone who does enjoy it will relish this. (More than one of my liver-loving friends have told me that the wild boar liver I bring them is unequivocably the best liver they've ever eaten.)

Now attach the dragging straps. You should have made a pair to carry with you from my article on dragging straps. With a pig you attach one belt to the upper snout and the other to both front feet.

Dragging the animal rubs the hair off the hide in patches. It won't rub through to the meat. If your game is one you want to mount, (and you should ALWAYS mount your first buck, no matter what size,) you will have to cape out the head and backpack the head and meat out


Butchering:


You will need a good knife, a sharpening stone, a bone saw, and game bags for the meat when you butcher your animal.

It is easiest to have help with this stage, and to hang the animal by its rear legs on a gambrel in order to skin it. If you have no help or your animal is an elk you may not have the luxury of hanging it and have to do it on the ground.

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Notice in this picture where the hair is rubbed off over the side and shoulder from dragging.
Remove the heart and liver now and put them in separate ziplock bags into the cooler.
Saw off the pig’s tail at the base; this is your trophy.

To remove the first ham, turn the pig on its back again. Cut the skin up the inside of the thigh (knife blade up again,) to the hock joint. Saw the foot off here. Peel, pull, and cut the skin back to expose the ham, then bone it out against the pelvis; leaving as little meat as possible on the bone, and freeing it at the hip socket. Set the ham out to dry in a shady spot, on or in a clean game bag. You DO NOT want to put these pieces on top of the ice in the cooler. Water should never touch the meat at all. It should be allowed to dry off and form a “skinâ€. Muslim game bags are used to keep the flies away and let the air dry it.

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Now you are going to skin the pig halfway, up to the neck, and remove the shoulder. But first, resharpen your knife. Wild Boar and Elk skins are both tough ones on any blade. Saw off the foot at the joint. Set the shoulder out to dry on or in a clean game bag

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Next, saw the ribs off along the edge of the loin, up to the neck, (see diagram.) You will have to waste some of the flank, cutting it away because it will be dirty from dragging. Set the rack of ribs out to dry on or in a clean game bag.

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You are halfway done. Repeat the process on the other side

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Now you are left with the back and the loin on the skin, still attached to the head and at the end. Saw off the neck. There’s not much neck to a pig, but on a deer you will want to bone out the neck meat for grinding

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The tenderloin is the two strips of muscle on the inside of the body cavity right below the small of the back. This muscle never gets worked and it is always tender, hence the name. Remove the tenderloin and put it in the baggie with the heart. Later you will want to thinly slice the heart and tenderloin, panfry it in butter, salt, and pepper, and a touch of garlic salt, until it is just lightly cooked- a meal for a king!

Last thing is to saw off the pelvis and peel the rest of the skin away from the back and loin. This has your bone-in chops. If you take it to your butcher he will use his electric saw to saw it down the center of the backbone and slice out the chops. If you don’t want to pay the butcher to do this, bone out the backstrap on each side, refrigerate the straps to firm them up, and then slice across the grain into ½ inch wide boneless chops. Take the hams and shoulders to your butcher to be cured and smoked, or bone all the meat off of them and grind it all, adding cure and seasonings to make sausage. Whenever you make packages for the freezer, wrap them first in cellophane wrap and then in freezer paper to prevent freezer burn. Label and date all packages.

Lots of work? Yeah. Is it worth it? You bet. Learn how to do it competently and get used to doing a lot of it if you are a successful hunter.

Copyright Huntlady, http://www.geocities.com/ihunts/fielddress.html

Nice post

It takes a minimum of three people to clean a hog... one person to skin/clean and two to sharpen knives.

I don't think I agree with the 3-people rule. But, if the hog has a coating of dried mud, maybe 4-5 or more. We have begun taking them back to camp for a bath prior to the field dressing, and it makes for a cleaner job. We also take the penis and testicles off first--and cut a wide swath of belly skin around the penis. This eliminates a lot of the "boar stink" and makes for better meat.

Agree with the washing part whenever possible. At the last serious hog hunting camp I was part of, we had a no-field-dressing rule to help keep out coyotes. With deer that means getting back to the cleaning shed ASAP but for some reason hogs are much more tolerant to delayed gutting.

If the body has a chance to cool before handling you get the secondary benefit of all the fleas and ticks pulling off.

If you can wash the body with soapy water before processing it is just a much more pleasant task. We used stiff bristle brushes and dish soap, rinse with a hose. Never had any discernable difference in meat flavor, either.

Afrikander, Thanks for the pictures and explination.

You ´re welcome !!!

In fact, all credits should be given to "huntnlady" !!!

Let me add this. I have killed several hogs over the years, including 2 boars that weighed over 300 lbs, the biggest about 325. [The scale bottom out past the 300 lb mark]. Several of the boars have smelled, well pretty rank before skinning. The meat on ALL of them has been very good. Wild pig meat is my wifes and my favorite. Better than elk, moose, bear [black bear is very good] etc. If you shoot a pig in the 100 degree summer time, just gut and skin it right away, and get in on ice. The meat is very good. Better than the pork you buy in the store.

Hunted with a guy in Florida some years back.After we'd kill a hpg,he'd hang them from a hook under the jaw,ring the neck and legs,then cut strips lenghtwise,about 3" apart.Then just peel it back like a banana.Used a razor knife for all this.Took no time at all.Anyone else seen/done it this way?Heading to Florida in a few weeks,and a buddy has me lined up on a good property.Dave

Thanks for the links and comments and pics. I shot a boar last night (first for me) and getting it gutted was no problem. Boar tipped the scales (before gutting) at 167 lbs, so I figure he shouldn't be too tough/strong.

Actually is is just like gutting a deer (at least the way I do it). Took about 3 minutes, tops.

I now know what you are all talking about when you say they 'stink'. Man, that is an understatement! My buddy didn't believe that smell would be gone after skinning.

I'm posting an ethical / practical question on butchering.

Just finished skinning it. Deer are much easier to skin, in my opinion.

I took the meat off the carcass the same as I would do a deer also. I'm sure there is a better way, but this worked well (and was quick too). I'll let the meat age a bit in an ice chest before I do anything else to it.

I think I could get to like this, but I definitely wouldn't want to shoot a truck load of 'em in one night unless I had lots of processing help.

OINK!

quote:

Originally posted by Big-Ed:
I'll let the meat age a bit in an ice chest before I do anything else to it.
OINK!

We need the input of some "old-timers" around here... those that used to kill hogs for smoking and curing... as in a real smoke-house. But I've been told by these types that ample air circulation is important when hanging pork. Anyone know why that is?