aggieterpkatie
Swiss Army Wife
I love finding like-minded people to talk with!! You know, people who don't look at you cock-eyed when you tell them you're raising your own meat in your backyard. 
Free's piggie thread...new pics p 19
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freemotion
Food Guru
Got the liverwurst in the canner....30 half pint jars (26 in the canner and four in a waterbath to cook for immediate consumption....don't you hate it when you have too few to bother with firing up the second canner? 
) The only ingredients in this liverwurst that we did not produce...black pepper and some allspice. Everything else was produced here on the farmlet....even the sea salt. Aaaaahhhh, a sigh of satisfaction.
) The only ingredients in this liverwurst that we did not produce...black pepper and some allspice. Everything else was produced here on the farmlet....even the sea salt. Aaaaahhhh, a sigh of satisfaction.- Thread starter
- #343
freemotion
Food Guru
Butchering story coming soon....just warming up before I go squeeze the goat (got home very late today!) DH got the camera to talk to the computer today, so pictures coming soon, too!AnnaRaven said:
raiquee
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I am way excitied.
1st- liverwurst. Share recipe.
2nd- are you going to start a new thread, or just continue on this one?
1st- liverwurst. Share recipe.
2nd- are you going to start a new thread, or just continue on this one?
- Thread starter
- #345
freemotion
Food Guru
The liverwurst recipe was basically the same as my catfood recipe. OK, not really, but very similar.
It was also very similar to pate' recipes I've seen, one on www.canningusa.com.
I used a 3:2 ratio of pork meat (not too lean) to liver, ground twice, once with the coarse blade, once with the fine. It came out a bit....meatloafy? If you want it very fine-grained, probable using a food processor or a stick blender to finish it would work, as Bourbon Red suggested, but I just had too much of it and was a bit overwhelmed.
I also ran onions through the grinder, salt (2 Tbsp sea salt) and pepper, allspice, marjoram, sage, and garlic powder (about a tsp each). And a cup of water per 5 lbs.
I cold-packed it into half pint jars and pressure canned it at 11 lbs for 75 minutes.
I should start telling about the home butchering before the memory fades!
The four halves hung overnight in the garage, where it got down into the 20's. Dad and I set up a makeshift table in the cellar (cold cellar!) made with a piece of plywood siding set across two sawhorses. We had buckets and pots and bowls nearby, a collection of knives, and my Pepere's bone saw, which had to be an antique. I spread out pictures of the cutting process that I'd printed off the computer all across the top of the chest freezer, along with a couple of different diagrams of the basic cuts.
We suited up with our garbage bag butchering aprons, and I used rubber gloves.
Dad went up a couple of steps on the stepladder and hugged one pig half, lifting it a bit, while I used a board to push the twine off the hook, releasing the side. We went downstairs where Dad slapped that side onto our table like a pro.
We studied the printouts, studied the side of pork, studied the pages some more, moved the side around for a better look, pointed, discussed, speculated, argued.
Finally, we started with the leaf lard and the bacon. The two most important bits! He cut the hind end off, cut off the hocks, we found and removed the tiny little tenderloins. We dropped any bits of miscellaneous fat into the lard bucket.
We decided what would be salt pork and cut that up. We decided to divide the shoulder into two big roasts, and the same with the ham. I used my massage therapist palpation skills to find joints such as the hip joint so Dad would know where to aim his saw. We made some funny-looking chops. All was wrapped and/or bagged, marked, and put into the freezer.
As the lard bucket filled, I ran upstairs to the waiting grinder and ground it up right away, filling the Dutch oven and getting it into my oven for a long, slow rendering.
I put the pork for salting in a glass crock, layering it generously with sea salt. I forgot to stock up on salt in advance, so it is a mixture of Redmond, Celtic, and homemade. I need to get some more. The crock has been on the semi-frozen porch for now, so it has not produced the juicy brine yet. When I get more salt, it will go into the downstairs fridge for a couple of weeks and then get packaged and frozen.
There were some miscellaneous bones that I put right into a stock pot for a long, slow simmering. We trimmed some mystery boneless meat off something or other (it gets hard to keep track when Dad gets going with that bone saw and his butcher knives and cuts are flying in every direction!) and fried them up for supper.
We did the second side much more quickly, filling those buckets right up. Then I had to scrape myself off and get to the office.
A few things I learned: Keep rags or paper towels next to every doorknob. Boy-oh-boy, doorknobs are hard to open when they are covered in pig fat.
Your hands get very cold, working in a cold cellar on almost-freezing meat. A bucket of hot water for warming them is handy.
Keep an eye on the guy with the meat saw. He may get on a roll and toss cuts all over the place, then no one knows what they are. We have several packages marked, "Mystery Pork Roast, January 2011" in our freezer now.
The phrase, "We butchered it!" will take on new meaning.
Butchering is fun and satisfying. It took me a couple of days to figure out why. I felt wealthy, rich, secure. A friend told me she feels that way when she gets her hay in for the winter. She wants to hug it.
I hugged every roast as I walked it over to the freezer and lovingly set it in its place.
DH came and took some pictures, I haven't had time to sort through them and post them, but soon! Tomorrow is the two week anniversary, and I still have lard to render. I have the rest of the miscellaneous fat in the Dutch oven right now, and still need to get to the leaf lard. I found a bit of stray bacon in the pot,
and the bucket of bacon and the jowls were already dropped off for brining, smoking, and slicing, an hour away. So I cut those pieces up and will add them to the salt pork crock.
OK, not really, but very similar.It was also very similar to pate' recipes I've seen, one on www.canningusa.com.
I used a 3:2 ratio of pork meat (not too lean) to liver, ground twice, once with the coarse blade, once with the fine. It came out a bit....meatloafy? If you want it very fine-grained, probable using a food processor or a stick blender to finish it would work, as Bourbon Red suggested, but I just had too much of it and was a bit overwhelmed.
I also ran onions through the grinder, salt (2 Tbsp sea salt) and pepper, allspice, marjoram, sage, and garlic powder (about a tsp each). And a cup of water per 5 lbs.
I cold-packed it into half pint jars and pressure canned it at 11 lbs for 75 minutes.
I should start telling about the home butchering before the memory fades!
The four halves hung overnight in the garage, where it got down into the 20's. Dad and I set up a makeshift table in the cellar (cold cellar!) made with a piece of plywood siding set across two sawhorses. We had buckets and pots and bowls nearby, a collection of knives, and my Pepere's bone saw, which had to be an antique. I spread out pictures of the cutting process that I'd printed off the computer all across the top of the chest freezer, along with a couple of different diagrams of the basic cuts.
We suited up with our garbage bag butchering aprons, and I used rubber gloves.
Dad went up a couple of steps on the stepladder and hugged one pig half, lifting it a bit, while I used a board to push the twine off the hook, releasing the side. We went downstairs where Dad slapped that side onto our table like a pro.
We studied the printouts, studied the side of pork, studied the pages some more, moved the side around for a better look, pointed, discussed, speculated, argued.
Finally, we started with the leaf lard and the bacon. The two most important bits!
He cut the hind end off, cut off the hocks, we found and removed the tiny little tenderloins. We dropped any bits of miscellaneous fat into the lard bucket.We decided what would be salt pork and cut that up. We decided to divide the shoulder into two big roasts, and the same with the ham. I used my massage therapist palpation skills to find joints such as the hip joint so Dad would know where to aim his saw. We made some funny-looking chops. All was wrapped and/or bagged, marked, and put into the freezer.
As the lard bucket filled, I ran upstairs to the waiting grinder and ground it up right away, filling the Dutch oven and getting it into my oven for a long, slow rendering.
I put the pork for salting in a glass crock, layering it generously with sea salt. I forgot to stock up on salt in advance, so it is a mixture of Redmond, Celtic, and homemade. I need to get some more. The crock has been on the semi-frozen porch for now, so it has not produced the juicy brine yet. When I get more salt, it will go into the downstairs fridge for a couple of weeks and then get packaged and frozen.
There were some miscellaneous bones that I put right into a stock pot for a long, slow simmering. We trimmed some mystery boneless meat off something or other (it gets hard to keep track when Dad gets going with that bone saw and his butcher knives and cuts are flying in every direction!) and fried them up for supper.
We did the second side much more quickly, filling those buckets right up. Then I had to scrape myself off and get to the office.
A few things I learned: Keep rags or paper towels next to every doorknob. Boy-oh-boy, doorknobs are hard to open when they are covered in pig fat.
Your hands get very cold, working in a cold cellar on almost-freezing meat. A bucket of hot water for warming them is handy.
Keep an eye on the guy with the meat saw. He may get on a roll and toss cuts all over the place, then no one knows what they are. We have several packages marked, "Mystery Pork Roast, January 2011" in our freezer now.
The phrase, "We butchered it!" will take on new meaning.
Butchering is fun and satisfying. It took me a couple of days to figure out why. I felt wealthy, rich, secure. A friend told me she feels that way when she gets her hay in for the winter. She wants to hug it.
I hugged every roast as I walked it over to the freezer and lovingly set it in its place.
DH came and took some pictures, I haven't had time to sort through them and post them, but soon! Tomorrow is the two week anniversary, and I still have lard to render. I have the rest of the miscellaneous fat in the Dutch oven right now, and still need to get to the leaf lard. I found a bit of stray bacon in the pot,
and the bucket of bacon and the jowls were already dropped off for brining, smoking, and slicing, an hour away. So I cut those pieces up and will add them to the salt pork crock.
AnnaRaven
Lovin' The Homestead
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Wow. Thanks for the great description of the liverwurst process! I may have to attempt that with my half-pig that we get next month. I am planning on doing up a guanciale with the pig jowl.
This is great reading - and thank you for not prettying it up as if everything went perfectly. It makes it easier to believe that I could possibly do some of it, if I know that others who attempted it weren't perfect first time out.
I feel the same way about our eggs, btw - rich and secure. Like, the embodiment of abundance. I still dance through the house with my eggs every day, after thanking the girls. I can only imagine how you feel about a pig you raised and butchered yourself. How rewarding!
This is great reading - and thank you for not prettying it up as if everything went perfectly. It makes it easier to believe that I could possibly do some of it, if I know that others who attempted it weren't perfect first time out.
I feel the same way about our eggs, btw - rich and secure. Like, the embodiment of abundance. I still dance through the house with my eggs every day, after thanking the girls. I can only imagine how you feel about a pig you raised and butchered yourself. How rewarding!
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Wow! I'm very impressed!! I can only imagine the satisfaction of all that meat that you raised, fed, and butchered, all wrapped up and ready to be prepared to eat. Too cool!!!How'd you make out with this latest storm? We've still got freezing rain coming down. I've got all the animals still in the barn. The silly kids kept coming out and getting soaked while I was doing chores down there.
We're home from school but will need to go out for dog food later. Glad it's only 1.7 miles to TSC, but I'd rather not go out at all. Stay safe!- Thread starter
- #348
freemotion
Food Guru
My plan is to stay home and make catfood, now that I know what was "wrong" with my stove! So that is going, baking the chicken in batches and making broth. Gotta batch of lard going, too. I just got back from getting my hair cut, it was just a mile down the road we live on, which is a state road so pretty well cared for. Still slick, though! The rain kept freezing on my windshield, so neither of us will be going anywhere else today. I'm glad it is my normal day off.
You stay safe, too....cook up something for the dogs and stay home!
You stay safe, too....cook up something for the dogs and stay home!
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
It may come to that. I've got ground beef thawing! Lots of veggies I can add. I wonder if I still have any rice around here to bulk it up a bit....
LittleDarlings
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OH MY GOSH!! This was the best thread I have read! Thank you all for your wealth of knowledge and even the questions asked! I now have 2 piggies in my backyard. They are going to be around a little longer as they are breeders I'm so excited about this whole process. I am a do-it-myselfer LOL Well one of my sons is right there with me, and once we have it figured out he does most of the "labor". I am determined to be able to produce and process all the food that comes across our table. Fortunately I LOVE learning!!
Thank you again!!!
I'm so excited about this whole process. I am a do-it-myselfer LOL Well one of my sons is right there with me, and once we have it figured out he does most of the "labor". I am determined to be able to produce and process all the food that comes across our table. Fortunately I LOVE learning!!Thank you again!!!
