Going the whole hog...

[spinal]

Right, so I'm a little tired of paying £13 a kg to get Italian sausages. I've tried every variation there is from sainsbury, tesco, waitrose et.al. and the only ones that I like are those imported from Italy. There are a few places that bring them over, including nifeislife (went there today... they charge just shy of £7 for 500g) and they were out.

Hence, I've decided I'm going to make my own sausages again. I did this a while ago, and it turned out quite well, bar that finding the ingredients was tough. For a proper italian sausage (at least, like those my uncles make) I need roughly 50% fat to 50% lean meat, salt, black pepper, red and white wines and some casing. No rusk, fillers or other stuff. They use pork shoulder and belly, the catch being, it's the belly fat and not the meat they use.

So, while I can find pork shoulder quite easily at costco, a "meatless belly" is challenging to find as most butchers around me sell the belly cuts with the most meat, and those really fatty cuts I presume get minced into something else.

I had a chat with my local butcher, who said he would be happy to supply pork belly fat at some exorbitant price... which got me thinking, why not just buy a whole or a half hog? I can make some spare ribs in the oven, use the shoulder and belly for my sausage and salami, and maybe (finally) try to make that ham I've wanted to make for years (I even have a ham press sitting somewhere). To that purpose I've got a temperature/humidity logger sitting in a portion of the garage... I'm hoping that I can convert that into a curing room. If not, I'll figure something else out (probably pad a portion of the garage with insulation and/or humidifiers/heaters).

That said, I have no clue where to start when buying a hog. Has anyone done this? From where? Should I get it from my local farm, or from an online seller? (I know that it needs to be a place who will sell it to me as is, at most cut into smaller chunks - but not processed into bacon, sausages, etc) What "breed" should I look for? There's more pork breeds than I can count! All I know, is I want something as with as much belly fat as possible...

Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

m

(obviously I'll post pics - and with my uncles' permission, recipes )

Forgot to say, I was told to try to get "casertana" breed pork, but based on what I can find online... these aren't grown in the UK: eng.agraria.org/swine/casertana.htm )

[cannyfradock]

Spinal

I admire your back to basics method of making your own sausages/charcuterie. I was surprised to read that your butcher would supply exactly what you want, but an augmented price may be applicable. As an ex-butcher I have stuck with the same butcher for many years...."Turners" in Newport market. They have supplied me with exactly what I've needed over the years for making standard pork sausages, Merguez sausages etc and even gone out of their way to supply a Pigs head for my "Porchetta di Testa" dish. They've also supplied any hog casings and curing salts etc ...at normal.....or even favourable prices for me as even though they produce their own sausages and charcuterie(true old fashioned butchers) will always help in any way to assist their own customers in producing their own produce.

I will be an avid follower of this thread as I'd love to attempt dried cured sausage like salami or pepperoni. At the moment I get my salami fix from Usk farmers market from a local Artisan (http://www.trealyfarm.com/ . They're quite expensive but it beats any large commercial stuff hands down....I'd love to be able to make my own.

I used to do lots of stuff when employed as a young butcher for a traditional butchers back in the 80's, but it's not the same as making stuff on a smaller domestic scale. Everything I've done at home has been from asking advice on the www.sausagemaking.org/ ..forum.

Sounds like you want to buy a full "belly" of pork from a "porker" for your project. The ribs removed from a porker belly will be amazing for BBQing leaving the full "speck" belly pork for 101 uses.

I have much contact with charcutier's and butchers in the UK mostly through twitter. Not sure of your general location but could probably find suppliers and prices in your region.

Terry

[spinal]

Thanks! I may have to pick your brains at some point given you history as a butcher. My local butcher is usually quite friendly, and has gotten some odd requests from/for me in the past. I've had a whole suckling pig, goat testicles and a few other things they don't normally have on display.

That said, today I think I may have caught him in a bad mood... I asked for sausage casings and was told in no uncertain terms that they didn't sell them, only used them. His loss I guess, I've ordered some online (both pork casings and beef middles). Any idea how long these last if sealed? They're under salt. I was hoping to get my pork in 2 weeks time, but just found a site (adoptAbaconSandwich ) where you buy a pig when it's small, and they rear it for you (sending you updates as time progresses) before they slaughter it and ship it over. I've sent them an email asking for some information on the breeds they rear, and which is the "fattiest". Any ideas/suggestions here?

If you do have any contacts around West London (Uxbridge, Slough, Oxford, etc) I would be most grateful! Especially if they do a half hog, which will get me started faster until I get the garage cleared out and ready to handle curing a whole hog

M.

[matthewcove]

I raise my own pigs here in poland and make sausages of a number of different types. The casing if left in salt in your fridge will last months. I have kept them for 6 months at least with no problem. Not sure where you live but when I was living in London I used to get all my casings and sausage making stuff from a dealer next to smithfields market, you can get everything there.

Matthew

[spinal]

Looks like I may be settling on a kune-kune - for several reasons:
- while recently it's seen a revival as a "pet" pig, it's traditionally a lard pig (perfect for salami)
- it's much smaller than most commercial breeds in the UK, so I'm looking at getting 25-30kg roughly of meat. As a "first go" this doesn't seem too bad
- I can technically fit it whole in the chest freezer should something happen...
- being smaller, it's half the price of a Mangalitza x Tamworth (the leading contender in breed)

Watch this space!

M>

[spinal]

Mini-update. I've been offered a kune-kune for £190 delivered, or two of them for £270 delivered... I'm quite tempted to take two (£80 for a whole hog is quite cheap imo)... but it would be a LOT of meat.

Is anyone interested in a small hog, near West London?

[tonyb]

Spinal, a few thoughts. I've always thought of shoulder as the routine cut for (English) sausages because its about 80% meat 20% fat whereas belly pork is more like 50%,(can't remember where I got this from but probably too many variables to argue about anyway), so if you are wanting a fattier sausage why not just use belly pork? I've always mixed some belly into my sausages and have made (dried) chorizo just from belly which was fine.

I'm lucky that my butcher will give me some bits of back fat though its clear that today's modern quick bred pigs don't have the amount of back fat on them that they used to. Which leads to the next point that buying a whole/half pig will still not yield a lot of back fat unless it is reared more slowly/longer which puts you in to rare breed territory.

The Kunekunes seem to have a good reputation for meat, though I've never seen any, but I think you may find a similar problem with lack of back fat if they are slaughtered at what seems to be the normal age of 8-10 months. they do seem to be quite variable in size anything from 35-50kg dead weight (x80% roughly for usable meat). You probably want to ask the seller a bit more about age/weight.

If I wasn't 300 miles I'd be tempted to share.

[cannyfradock]

Spinal

I see I'm too late in answering your initial questions...oops.

I did come across this butcher in your area which seems to tick all the boxes.. www.thomasford.biz/index.htm . One of the this forums members "ruralidle"...recommends this company.. www.quietwatersfarm.net/ Although they are based in North Devon they do mail order quality meat. Ruralidle also mentions......please don't take my pigs which are due at the end of Feb.

Hope that helps..

Terry

[muddy4x4]

Don't forget to check about movement orders on Pigs. I used to help at woodlands farm on the Kent / London borders, and we needed these to move any stock to and from the farm, to other farms and the abattoir. Legacy from the last round of foot and mouth !

[kstronach]

hi spinal.

I get my meat direct from the local auction, although i do know the auctioneer who sorts it all out, gets it butchered etc and delivers it, but he can get anything you want from half a lamb for £40 right up to a full cow for £1000 as i said this all comes butchers and bagged up. however i dont see what would be stopping you from buying from a livestock auction and arranging to have the animal slaughtered at your nearest slaughter house and then cutting up the way you wanted? i'm not sure on the regulations, but i could probably find out of for you by asking a few farmer friends! just an idea!

its quite a rural area where i live lots of farms that also sell meat direct. mostly lamb and beef around here no pig farms and they are willing to kill and butcher it etc! if you google if you have any pig farms nearby they maybe worth a phone call too?

have a look on this livestock auction website and find your nearest may be worth a trip on auction day try and find out some more info?

www.laa.co.uk/find-auction-mart.php

good luck!

[kstronach]

on second thoughts you may be better just finding your nearest abattoirs and phoning round buying direct from them. it saves messing around with livestock! they should be able to get one for you for you to collect, and as long as you're not selling the meat on i don't think regulations would apply as to butchering as long as it had been slaughtered correctly! although it may be a fair task butchering it! maybe terry could give you some advice as an ex butcher?!

or

there are lots of websites like these selling whole pigs but this might be an expensive option!

www.numberonepig.co.uk/

www.sheepdroveshop.com/acatalog/Organic_Pork_Whole_Half.html


this is a 'good abattoir guide' which lists abattoirs that are willing to deal with private customers is sorted by county.

www.oaklandspigs.co.uk/links/abattoirs/

keith

[spinal]

Thanks for all the replies!

Right, let's see if I can address them all... in no particular order:

- Thomas Ford; I've used them in the past to get casings actually. A great butcher. The catch is, being in central london, carrying anything that I can't conceal in a rucksack on the tube is difficult. Driving into london is suicidal in my opinion - and I don't like the idea of carrying a 50kg carcass on the tube...

- Kunekunes - ordering from adoptabaconsandwich; I'm told they are slow grown, and can be overfed if I want a "lardier" pig... I do need to ask more about age though!

- Movement orders - don't these apply only to live animals?

- livestock auctions and abattoirs - that's going a bit too far from my "waitrose pack" comfort zone What I'm looking for is a farm/shop/place that I can get a whole carcass, ideally with the rear legs tunnel boned (no idea how to do this myself!), but otherwise uncut.

- numberonepig - turns out, they're the same people as adoptabaconsandwich!

M.

[spinal]

Here's the response on the age/weight question (they're fast!):

---
Weightwise I’m not sure until they’ve been to the abattoir and weighed. On the native breeds we guarantee 50kgs and usually they are 60kgs+ I estimated you’d need 2 Kune to get the same sort of weight and you may get more, but until killed and weighed I can’t be precise. They are one year old (our natives are up to weight at 6 months).

If they’d like a really lardy one we have a fully grown Kune which is about twice the size of the twelve month old ones.
--

[spinal]

Right - quick update...

Here's "Rasher"



Forgot to say - Rasher's the spotted one The choice was between the spotted one and the ginger one, and on valentines day I decided to let her decide

M.

[spinal]

So last weekend, I was doing a winter skills course on Ben Nevis in preparation for Mnt. Blanc, and receive an email on Saturday night. Apparently, "rasher" (my pig) was going to be delivered Sunday at 9am.

I call my (vegetarian) mother, who was very unimpressed, but someone manages to get to my house to receive the pig (which didn't fit in the fridge, and she didn't have keys to the garage where the chest freezer is). She ended up quartering the pig for me, and putting it in the fridge, how amazing is that?!

I've spent most of this week deboning, mincing, bring and cooking pork... The ribs were all cooked, pulled/deboned and frozen (jamaican BBQ sauce - perfect for sarnies!). The hard back fat (keep in mind its a lard pig) was partially used for salami and sausages, but mostly frozen for future salami.

The rear legs are brining to become hams. The head I got as much off, then baked the ears and gave them to the dog.

The only parts I really haven't used are the bones and skin - and as I don't like cotecchino (an Italian xmas sausage made of pork skin) I'm probably just throwing the skin away. The bones, I can't be bothered to mince, so will ditch those as well...

Pictures coming soon - just as soon as I transfer everything to the curing room!

M.