Butchering pigs

The main purposes of suspension swine are 4:

Full outflow of blood (meat of which has not been carefully drained the blood
does not taste so good and it prones to spoil quickly);
scrubbing easily the pig;
singeing rind (skin) on all sides;
Conduct a boning easily (it's much easier to work all around spinning pig than
leaning over a table to work greasy. It would not be hygienic, huh?).
The carving pig at your house is a task that requires attention and some basic
knowledge of anatomy.
If you do not have this knowledge or if you have enough patience, it is better to
seek the services of a person with experience and learn from what you see.
Did you think that it was difficult has it been? On the contrary, is just beginning.
After the pig was suspended and toilets we must drink several glasses of plum
brandy with pepper (romanian drink called tuica) to guard us against Ignats
frost.

It is a respite house in which men are preparing for a meticulous work which
will last between 1-2 hours, depending on their skills and qualities as amateur
butchers.
If chopping the meat is done with responsibility, it will show like in images:
Boning operation will begin with the cutting head and its location in the snow or
in a basin of water.

If we're not quite satisfied with how we singed, we can repeat the operation.
Cutting head and feet
After we wash the head, we will remove ears, chin and neck, then we separate
the mandible from jaw (whiskers).
Pig head was partitioned into two (mandible and whiskers then each piece will
be cut in half again.
The upper part of the head it split easier if we use a knife and a hammer (or a
hatchet).
After extraction, the brain will be put in a plate.
We can cook immediately putting it in a pan on the stove. Add a little oil and a
pinch of salt.
That's usually the job of the housewife.
After we finished chopping pig head, we will return to the suspension support
and we will proceed with the separation of each leg from the knee down.

These parts of the legs (called in popular language "sneakers") will be cleaned
thoroughly with warm water and a brush.
When well use them (later), they will be the main ingredient when it comes
time to cook jelly (Jellied) pig ( called piftie or racitura into romanian).
Evisceration
After we removed the head and legs, we cut pork belly from top to bottom, from
the legs back to the thorax (manual knife to the bone sternum, where start "his
chest").
We will then perform gutting carefully pulling intestines (guts) into a large
bowl.
At this operation we does not have to use the knife only where it is absolutely
necessary. Otherwise, we risk pungent intestines.
The intestines are removed starting with the final part of the digestive system
(in the order: rectum, large intestine, thin intestine, stomach and esophagus).

Gutting pigs (2)

The liver will be separated from the intestines, gallbladder should be removed
(in green), then it will be placed in a basin and washed well.
Green liquid can be stored in a bottle because pharmaceutical properties in
various disease states (eg.: in case of frostbite).

After removing the intestines, we will remove also the bladder.

Do not throw it.
Later we going on to clean and turn in skin.
We will then remove other organs: spleen, pancreas, kidneys.
To go on with other organs, we cut and remove the diaphragm (a muscular
membrane that separates the abdominal cavity from the chest).
After that, we will take the place of the thorax heart, lungs and trachea (as
shown below guidance).
Diaphragm will be separated, placed in a bag and taken on in the same day to
vet for analysis.
The veterinarian will submit the pork analysis to detect possible infection with
trichinosis.
This is an elementary precaution because by using various chemical reagents,
the doctor will determine whether yes or not it was slaughtered pigs infected
with trichinosis.
We will receive the result within one hour.
Overall, domestic pigs infected with trichinosis are not unless they have had
contact with rats and mice (which is why the place that grows a pig must be
isolated and closed well to avoid such situations).

HOW do we get bacon and ham PIG?

After emptying the carcase, we wash it with warm running water, we wipe with
a clean cloth and proceed to remove bacon and ham.
For this purpose we draw parallel lines with a knife along the carcase on the
outside, and we cut large or small pieces of bacon, as we prefer.
It goes without saying that when we do this operation we must have as many
pots and bowls to store the bodies organs, bacon and so on.
After removing bacon, we will start shaping housing (carcase) from the bottom
up.
We will start first with dorsal muscles (muscles Gypsy), then we detach the
front legs, ribs, back bone and legs trailing behind.
The ribs will be left with bacon. They will be made thereafter salted and
smoked.

During the cutting we put in a bowl the earliest pieces of meat and we will send
them to the kitchen to prepare a stews (Dole Pig).
After we finished this important stage, it's time to deal with other (equally
important): Cleaning and preparation of pork intestines.

CLEANING AND PREPARATION OF INTESTINES

Pig intestines obtained from the evisceration occupy a considerable volume.

This should not frighten us because we're not making cleaning and washing.
It is usually the job of dealing with the women branch of the house :)

First off will be separate lard (fat between intestines).

This fat to be melted and turned into soap (home made soap) or it will be
used for cookies.
.

After separating fat, we squeeze the intestines content and we Rinse several
times with warm water inside.
The next step is portioning by cutting the intestines. Each piece must be about
1-1.5 meters.
Each piece will be turned back inside and wash again.
The pieces of intestine so obtained will be scraped in the back of his with a long
knife blade to remove such fat layer (intestinal hairiness).
Finally we get some pieces transparent and clean that we let in a pot with water,
salt and onion.
The intestines are designed to produce homemade sausages (from thin
intestines) and caltabosi (from thick intestines) a sort of black pudding.
They will remain so until they are to be used.
If after theyll remain unused intestines, we can keep them long, if we rub
thoroughly with non-iodized salt and put them in the freezer in a paper bag.
All this accomplished, we start going to the preparation of pork to what we have
to rejoice at Christmas dinner.

Processing and preparation of pork

How to proceed further? How to makea pork sausages and black pudding
(caltabosi)?

In general, we should think in advance about what kind of products we plan to

make from pork and processed meats in this regard.
We want to have for Christmas dinner sausages, smoked muscle, drum (toba),
black pudding (caltabos), bacon and so on.
So let's say "hello" and begin the pleasant task of turning the pig into
gastronomics products for holidays.

Caltabos (black pudding)

To get the sausage is necessary to use a large boiler for about 40-50 liters and
put it to boil in the following:
pieces rind pigs skin (as you like);
the 4 pieces obtained by slicing the pig head;
heart, tongue, kidneys, lungs, spleen, ears (each organ will be cut in half);
smaller pieces of lard that we can not use smoked;
pork meat (not to get some sausage too fatty).
We put water in the boiler enough to cover all these (approximately 20 liters).
Put over generously peppercorns and bay leaves.

After an hour and a half of boiling, cover the pot aside and add pig liver.

Dont add it from the beginning because it will lose all

good and its taste will be bitter.
At that time we put in a cloth gauze 2-3 kg of rice chosen
carefully (I recommend either high grain and round).
Gauze tie the mouth as well not come out and then we introduce the rice in
boiling pig soup.
By boiling the rice, its volume will increase fivefold.
You have not yet tried such a delicacy?
I assure you that never rice does not taste better than boiled in broth wonderful.
After the organs and rice will be well cooked, well remove from pot and we'll
put them in a bowl to cool.

In order not to scald us, we use a ladle with holes (like sieve).

After half an hour we start to separate meat from bones, then we will give
everything through meat grinders.
Warning:
If you intend to make drum (toba), we will put aside a few pieces of heart, ears,
kidneys, liver but also some meat on young shoulders.
We have to cut them in thin slices.

PIG sausage (2)

The main ingredients are rice caltabosii:
pork and offal (cooked and data through the machine);
cooked rice in soup;
salt (to taste);
some chopped onions, cream hardened to clean the machine data;
various spices: pepper, allspice and what will be craving heart (after individual
preferences)

After homogenized believe we have enough, we will leave "to rest".

Caltabos filled with the help of a the machine.

Each piece of intestine will be placed on all over pipe filled sausage machine.
A person must spin the crank device and another person will supervise the
filling of each caltabos.
It's a delicate operation. If you suddenly crank, you will end up with a broken
caltabos.

Caltabosii will be tied with string at ends and there pierce with a toothpick to
remove indoor air.
We sit 5-6 in linen gauze black pudding and we will boil for 5-10 minutes in the
cauldron of soup we stayed at boiling pig organs.

After we cooked caltabosii, we will leave to cool on a clean wooden plank.

After they have cooled sufficiently, we will quickly transport in store.

OTHER PREPARATIONS OF PORK

Blood sausage

This food product has the same composition as Caltabosi, but we will add as
ingredient blood pig.
Pork blood will be collected into a pot during cutting and up to use, will be
mixed with 2-3 tablespoons of salt.
Blood mixing with salt serves to preserve freshness and prevent clotting.
Sangerete is a preparation occurs more often in gastronomy in southern
Romania.
DRUM (stomach skin)

We use to do drum, pig stomach and bladder.

They were thoroughly cleaned and left in water with vinegar, salt and onion
until use.
The ingredients are:
tongue;
half of the liver;
half-of the heart;
the 2 kidneys;
 lean pork (or meatless, depending on how we like);
pig ears (required).

All this was boiled for 2 hours (except liver, it will not be boiled longer than 30
min.)
After boiling will be sliced thin and placed in the stomach and / or bladder
(blisters) with soup (up to the total filling).
For this activity we will use a special funnel (bore wider).
After filling the drum will be sewn to the ends (use some stronger thread) and
left to boil in to the kettle for 10-15 minutes.
After it off to a boil, we toothpick poking here and there and sit in a basin.
Above we put a piece of plank clean and above a weight.
We will leave on two days in the cold pantry. After it flatten nice and drain of
the soup long enough, we going to smoke it (if we want smoked toba). We can
eat also without soking it.

Homemade sausages

When talking about the sausages we refer implicitly recognized some meat
across the globe.
Even if we did not invent them, we are perfectionists in that respect.
For sausages we will choose the best pieces of meat pork and a few pieces of
bacon (if you want sausage fatter).
The meat will be cut into small pieces (trimming) then it will be minced.

After we obtained a considerable amount of ground meat, we put in a container

for chewing (a large roasting pan, a boiler, depending on what we have at hand).
Add salt and pepper to taste and chew well over this mixture until smooth.

Add salt and pepper to taste and chew well over this mixture until smooth.

An ingredient that we must not lose sight of it is garlic.

Some without garlic sausages would not have any flavor, huh?
Finally (after about 20 minutes we mixed everything) we leave a few hours to
mature composition.
Homemade sausage filling, we use machine filled in the same manner as in the
preparation Caltabosi.
Depending on the length of the intestines pig used, we get 1-2 meter long
sausages.
We can twist from 10 to 10 inches and we get sausages from home, as shown on
the left.
As the finishing filled sausages from home, we will put them nicely in a bowl,
in spiral, as in the image below.

In a day or two and then we can smoke hung in the closet or attic.

MUSCLE Smoked Ham

As you already know, smoked pork is a delicacy that should not miss on your
table.
To get smoked muscles need to collect the pigs dorsal muscles (large dorsal)
and boil them with many spices.

Then after, we take them out and put in a cold place for five days in a dish in
which we added water, salt and pepper.
How much salt should we?
Brine is considered good, if the egg floats on the surface when you put it in
saltwater.
Five days later the pork muscles will be removed from brine, leave to drain, tied
with rope and put smoked.
After we smoked them, we cover onwith paprika and put them in the pantry.

OTHER PREPARATIONS OF PORK

Sorts of Bacon, backhead, goiter
Bacon collected from the back of the pig will be cut into rectangular or square
depending on how you want
Nape and chin were obtained by separating the pig head and some parts are
important.
In their composition alternating layers of fat and meat, so are some special
products.

Pork ribs (with bacon on it) will be made with salty bacon.
We put a few pieces in the stew, but it would be preferable to a smoked cook
and then only with sauerkraut or beans.
Kaiser consists of bacon belly.
This bacon is thinner than the back and has besides a thick layer of fat and
tender meat.

Do not you have any concerns regarding the amount of salt in the brine.
No matter how much you put bacon will take only as much as is needful them
(this is one of its qualities).
After 3 days we visited the tub and turn them (the underside we put above).
It is necessary to do this because all these products to mature and sareze
uniform.
After after this period you out, drain them and tie them with string and hang
them on hooks.

Leave them to dry about a day in a place where they will not be exposed
directly to sunlight.
We put in scents and smoked.
After smoking we cover them with paprika and red pepper.
It will keep such a very long period (months).
THE BONES
If you remain larger pieces of bone, do not throw them.

To be smoked and then hung in the storage closet.

When you have fancy baked beans with pork, you will see what is good.
Those are the main products that we get in Christmas.
CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTS OF MEAT
Conservation of products obtained from pig slaughter house can be achieved by
thermal and physicochemical methods:
freezing
pasteurization (cooking)
melting (Bacon frying)
smoking
salting
MELTING fat
We cut pieces of bacon into small pieces on the back of the pig and we will
progressively put in a pot or cauldron simmered.
As bacon melts, we will add other pieces.
Mix composition as the melting occurs.
In this way we get:
lard (the country is customary to be used instead of oil)
cracklings (fried pieces of bacon).
Greaves are delicious and can be stored even 12 months in jars, covered with
cream.
They will be appreciated especially when cooked over year with eggs and fried
polenta.
If you add cheese plate and a spoon of salt, you will see that life can be
beautiful.

salting
We Pickled:
bacon
ham
muscles
bones.
They will be kept in a solution of water and salt (brine classical) a barrel trough,
trough, wooden tub for 5-12 days (here differ from one geographical area to
another, from the tastes of person to another).
Place the bowl over a large wooden lid and a weight to press into brine
components.
Warning:
Salting itself is not a process of conservation unless it is followed by smoking.
How to make brine?
1 (one) liter of water put the following quantities:
150 grams of salt
 3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon pepper
5-10 pieces peppercorns
1 teaspoon thyme (or a sprig less)
1 garlic
Check the quality of brine a chicken egg. If floats, it means that the brine is
perfect.
3 in 3 days, we are going to keep the vessel in which all of this and will return
one by one pieces (those below them will go up above and vice versa).
After the end of the salting process, get all these goodies, wash them with cold
water and hang them on hooks.
We will hang in a shelter, most in the shade, and let them be boiled about 10-12
hours, then going to be smoked.

Smoking

Smoking will be performed as follows:

Hanging in the smokehouse product to be preserved (drum, homemade
sausages, ham, bacon, bones, etc).
We can not smoked varieties together because each category react faster or
slower to heat and smoke.
For production we use slim (thin sticks) beech wood and beech dust.

The smoke must be cold (hence the distance between the fire and smoked foods
should be less than 1 m).
However, the fire must be constantly supervised, not to become worsen and the
fat shoul not melt.