Pig slaughter round 2 and more firsts- also, it's really not very sanitary

So we killed 2 pigs on Saturday. The killing was fine. Husband shot them. They dropped dead immediately. I dragged them out of the fenced area and he cut them so they'd bleed. Used the tractor to transport and hang them. Kind of worrisome how little the other pigs cared. They didn't even seem to notice 2 of them had been shot in the head. Anyway, on to the part where things get iffy.

We'd never skinned anything before. Husband did the killing and helped me get them up and then went inside to stay with the baby while I skinned and gutted. It was super unsanitary ya'll. Maybe at least part of this is me not knowing what I'm doing. So even though the skinning went pretty well the carcass got hair on it and some dirt from the process. It was better on the second pig, as I'd learned more. But yeah. Plus the skinning knife did get some dirt and such on it from the pig. We washed the carcasses before packaging them but.. that's normal right? I mean I'm not sure how it can be avoided without scraping first. Am I dumb?

Then we were dumb again. We didn't cut the feet off before sticking them in the tub full of cold water. So all the stuff in their feet got in the water cuz again, we're dumb.

Can we still eat them or should this be dog food?

It is always best practice to keep things as clean as possible. Did any poop get on the carcass?

It sounds like the feet were not cleaned, prior to your cold water bath..?
If there are areas with lots of dirt, i would say you could cut that area out, and feed it to the dogs.

So to be clear did you skin the pig and than dunk the skinned carcass in cold water, with the feet being covered in dirt? spreading the feet dirt/poop onto the rest of the carcass?

Kind of gross in my opinion if the above is true. The thing which grosses me out is the fact that the poop/dirt would have been diluted into the water and than spread onto the rest of the carcass.

I am sure it is still edible. I imagine freezing the meat for a good length of time like 1 month before eating would help. along with cooking it until it is well done, before eating it.


When i have skinned goats, i have had hair on the carcass and even small pieces of grass, which i didn't mind at all.

Yea the pigs are quite tolerant of their buddys dying. When we were killing our pigs we would shoot them in the head and than i would jump in an stab it in the neck to bleed it about 4-5 seconds after it had been shot. The pigs who were not shot continued eating along with eating the blood of their fellow squealer.

jordan barton wrote:It is always best practice to keep things as clean as possible. Did any poop get on the carcass?

It sounds like the feet were not cleaned, prior to your cold water bath..?

No poop got on it. I'm fairly good at gutting. The organs were intact. It was harder to gut something hanging than I thought it would be, but it still went fine.

And yes, they were just put in the bath. I'd washed them and put them on the island to be pieced out and husband thought we'd best get the meat cold and just threw them in the bath with their feet still on. So they had been washed before being put in, but it's not like I turbo cleaned the feet because I knew we were going to cut them off when piecing out for packaging.

I don't want to waste them but I don't want to kill my children either so, really would like to know if it's safe or not. We did decide we won't be killing any more ourselves. We'd already scheduled the biggest to be taken to the butcher and only planned on killing the smaller ones ourselves. Won't be doing any more. Just way too much with a baby and us not knowing what the heck we're doing.

Scalding and scraping would solve several problems.  The hot water for the scald would do a pretty good job of cleaning the feet.  It would also ensure zero hair on the carcass.  Plus you'd keep the skin, and thereby the back fat, with the carcass.  All of which leads to more delicious pork.  It's more work, and set up, vs skinning, but the results will be worth it.

What you did certainly wasn't ideal.  I probably would wait for the next round before experimenting with any charcuterie besides maybe a ham or other whole muscle cure.  I probably wouldn't use it for any ground sausages.  But you can probably eat it like normal cooked pork though.

People eat organs that have carried poop through them, like haggis or chitterlings or natural casing sausage.
I think we have all eaten a lot worse than what you have described.
If the meat has been frozen, I would just be sure to cook it to temp, and not worry about it.

yea it does not sound as bad as i pictured it based on your description.

Those feet will make lovely stock... i would just scrub them well under the sink with a vegetable scrubber.

as has been said just freeze the meat which will help prevent the bacteria from spreading and make sure you cook it thru ought.

It'll be fine.
Cooking will kill any bacteria.
Chill and cut up then freeze asap to limit the amount of time bacteria have to colonize.
Any particularly dirty pieces can be trimmed off.
Thats way easier to do when rigor has set in and you can just shave off the offending grime with a sharp knife.
I never wash my sheep or pig carcasses, I was taught that by doing so any bacteria was getting spread all over your meat.
Cleanly skinning and gutting requires some technique especially when the animal is already dirty.
I wish you were on this side of the planet so I could come help next time!

Being shown what you're doing and then repetition, repetition, repetition is the key.

Hi Elle;
It all sounds relatively normal to me.  
Did you do the gutting and finish peeling the skin while hanging from the tractor?

The only thing I do not understand is the cold water bath?  Why not rinse them from a hose?  Hot water hose is extra nice.

Deep freeze the meat for a month , cook fully and you will be fine.

I'm including some graphic photo's from my mobile butcher slaughtering a pig.

Shot in the head, a quick cut to the throat to quickly bleed her out.  Winched her out of the pen and hoisted her up onto his work stand.
There he started the skinning, removing the feet & head .  Then back up in the air to gut and finish peeling the hide.
Hot water rinse, bagged and into his truck.

You have to verify your age for YouTube to let you watch that, but it shows Brandon Sheard (Farmstead Meatsmith) going through the scalding and scraping process and gutting.  

So be kind because again, never done this before. My skinning was imperfect to say the least. Though on the second pig I did have a good skin hang like you did Thomas. The first pig it was more like strips of skin being cut off at a time. Far less sanitary with the first. My husband came out to find me gutting the second pig so that's when these pics were taken. Just to give you an idea.

We simply cut off the shoulder and ham and packaged each pig half into 3 bags. The plan being we were going to smoke them, as it's a pretty good size for our family. The shoulders were about 5lbs and the hams about 7. The pigs we shot being under a year old and only about 70-80lbs.


You can kind of see the first pig hanging, I'd skinned, gutted and cut it in half before putting a trash bag around it while I worked on the second one.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Elle;
It all sounds relatively normal to me.  
Did you do the gutting and finish peeling the skin while hanging from the tractor?

The only thing I do not understand is the cold water bath?  Why not rinse them from a hose?  Hot water hose is extra nice.

We don't have a spigot at all close to the lean-to where I skinned. Plus I do a lot of stuff inside. So I rinsed them inside in the bath before taking them to the kitchen and putting them on the counter as seen in one of the pics. So they were already inside.

Andrew Mayflower wrote:Scalding and scraping would solve several problems.  The hot water for the scald would do a pretty good job of cleaning the feet.  It would also ensure zero hair on the carcass.  Plus you'd keep the skin, and thereby the back fat, with the carcass.  All of which leads to more delicious pork.  It's more work, and set up, vs skinning, but the results will be worth it.

What you did certainly wasn't ideal.  I probably would wait for the next round before experimenting with any charcuterie besides maybe a ham or other whole muscle cure.  I probably wouldn't use it for any ground sausages.  But you can probably eat it like normal cooked pork though.

We scalded and scraped our first. I thought skinning would be faster and easier. I'm an idiot! lol

elle sagenev wrote:

Andrew Mayflower wrote:Scalding and scraping would solve several problems.  The hot water for the scald would do a pretty good job of cleaning the feet.  It would also ensure zero hair on the carcass.  Plus you'd keep the skin, and thereby the back fat, with the carcass.  All of which leads to more delicious pork.  It's more work, and set up, vs skinning, but the results will be worth it.

What you did certainly wasn't ideal.  I probably would wait for the next round before experimenting with any charcuterie besides maybe a ham or other whole muscle cure.  I probably wouldn't use it for any ground sausages.  But you can probably eat it like normal cooked pork though.

We scalded and scraped our first. I thought skinning would be faster and easier. I'm an idiot! lol

Eh, live and learn!

I just wish I could raise my own pigs.  You've got me well beat there.  It's the one livestock not allowed in the neighborhood.

If you want scalding and scraping to go easier next time, watch that video I posted.  The key, as with plucking chickens, is in the scald.  Get that right and it's sooooo much easier.  If you have a pressure washer that might make it even easier.  Though be careful with that as you can easily do more damage than you want.  

Not bad at all Elle;  
Have you skinned any animals before?
Pulling off the hide by hand with only a little help from a knife is a skill that you develop over time.  My first half a dozen deer looked a lot like your piggy's.
Now 45 years later it's easy peasy...    
Really , skinning and gutting your pigs is the better method.  You just need more practice!

elle sagenev wrote:So even though the skinning went pretty well the carcass got hair on it and some dirt from the process. It was better on the second pig, as I'd learned more. But yeah. Plus the skinning knife did get some dirt and such on it from the pig. We washed the carcasses before packaging them but.. that's normal right?

If they were my pigs I'd have done the same thing. Just hose it off. The feet in the water part, I'd also just hose everything off and promptly refrigerate and freeze. I think, since the guts stayed intact and nothing burst, everything is dandy. If anything is "contaminated" it's the surface. The interior of those pork chops, shoulders, ribs, jowls, shanks, hams, loins, bellies.....mmmm.... are all perfectly good.

It's amazing the plethora of microbes we are exposed to everyday, touch this, inhale that, rub eyes, pick nose, etc etc, it's no small wonder humans aren't perpetually ill. We're not because we have kick ass immune systems and beneficial microbes on and in us that help keep everything in balance.

thomas rubino wrote:Not bad at all Elle;  
Have you skinned any animals before?
Pulling off the hide by hand with only a little help from a knife is a skill that you develop over time.  My first half a dozen deer looked a lot like your piggy's.
Now 45 years later it's easy peasy...    
Really , skinning and gutting your pigs is the better method.  You just need more practice!

So i haven't skinned a pig before, however my impression is it is different than a deer/sheep/cow. Sheep deer and cows among other animals have what is called a hide. I believe pig skin is just that skin...

To me it would be different than skinning a Sheep where you can basically hold the hide and pull down on the hide as much as you want without tearing it. I imagine the skin of a pig would rip easily.

I gotta say i enjoyed scalding and scraping the pigs, it was my first time doing it and it turned out great with no hiccups. It took about 2 hours from shot to a hanging carcass. We made bell scrapers out of kitchen sink drains for scraping and it all went smoothly.

So I am just saying both methods work well and there is no better method in my opinion.

Yes, sheep, deer and cows have a hide that isn't really strongly connected to the fat and muscle.  Goats, and elk too.  With the exception of cows you can "fist" the hide off those animals.  Cows typically don't fist well, and require more knife work.

Pigs on the other hand, have skin, much more like human skin.  It is tightly connected to the fat and muscle beneath.  When skinning a pig, unless you don't care about leaving the fat on the carcass, you have to knife off the whole thing.  

That is probably why humans would traditionally skin ruminants, but would scald and scrape pigs.  Plus ruminant hides are great for making leather.  Pig skin can be tanned like that, but it's just not as desirable.  

If you're not going to be selling the meat, or trying to meet USDA slaughter requirements, there's not a great argument to skin a pig, unless you don't have the ability to hoist it up and dunk it in large barrel full of 150F water (which is probably why most people skin).  Scalding and scraping keeps the skin, and all the fat, with the meat.  It eliminates issues with hair getting on the meat.  Once chilled for a day in a cooler that skin/fat becomes much easier to separate from the carcass so you can the use that fat in your sausage making.  The left over skin can be made into cracklings, or whatever you like.  The skin on some roasting cuts makes for a lovely crispy extra flavor bomb.  

Impressive, Ellie, that you took that on with no help and no prior experience - kudos to you!

Many of us can’t imagine killing and butchering a pig, so you should be right proud of yourself for diving right in and getting it done!  You rock!

If you look closely at my photo's you can see the difference on the pigs back. The butcher cut 90% with his knife but pulled the last part off the backbone like a deer.  
Pig's may have skin like a human but much tougher.  That's why it makes such good strong, supple leather.  You can cut it, but you won't easily rip it.


As far as leaving the fat on. With home grown pork I prefer it.  
If I eat pork from any source but my yard, I trim all the fat off. It just tastes yucky.
When you raise your own piggy's , with organic semi vegetarian methods , no antibiotics , no growth hormones... Suddenly that pork fat becomes mouth watering delectable!!!

I know your thinking of stopping raising pigs Elle, but if you don't it will get much easier.

thomas rubino wrote:Not bad at all Elle;  
Have you skinned any animals before?
Pulling off the hide by hand with only a little help from a knife is a skill that you develop over time.  My first half a dozen deer looked a lot like your piggy's.
Now 45 years later it's easy peasy...    
Really , skinning and gutting your pigs is the better method.  You just need more practice!

I had never skinned anything before. It was an experience! Maybe if we ever do this again I'll give the pigs a bath before we shoot them. lol

Thanks all! We had tried to get some experienced hunters to help teach us this first time around but couldn't find any. I also find that pretty much no one kills their own animals, other than poultry. Everything goes to the butcher. So it was just Youtube and trial by fire!

We use a blowtorch to heat the skin, a shovel and a knife to scrape it off, and a rough flat stone and cold water to polish the pig after that. The hooves we burn and then sort of break them off from the foot. That gives a very nice clean pig, which by the heat of the fire is pretty much desinfected I would think.

Then we clean out the intestines and organs and rinse the whole pig another time. Then we cut it into the basic pieces, head, front legs, middle part, hams... And rinse them again when we take them inside. After that we skin and debone the parts one by one. The skin we cut off with most of the fat on it. This skin with fat we cut into little pieces and put them in the frying pan to heat off the lard and get those krispy delicious snacks of cracking pigskin...

The meat we then further cut up in pieces of about a kg each and those then go into the freezer. Looking at the pictures above of those skinned whole pigs I indeed wonder how you can keep that clean. That's so heavy to handle and difficult to carry anywhere. It's really much easier in my personal experience to the final work in parts (front legs, middle, hams) as I described.

elle sagenev wrote:Thanks all! We had tried to get some experienced hunters to help teach us this first time around but couldn't find any. I also find that pretty much no one kills their own animals, other than poultry. Everything goes to the butcher. So it was just Youtube and trial by fire!

Sounds like you did quite well considering. Great job! And I would be fine eating the pork were it me. My wife and I have been discussing it and we are probably going to give pigs a try next year. I'm doing over 100 meat birds this year, so I'm going to get that sorted out first.

Caleb Mayfield wrote:

elle sagenev wrote:Thanks all! We had tried to get some experienced hunters to help teach us this first time around but couldn't find any. I also find that pretty much no one kills their own animals, other than poultry. Everything goes to the butcher. So it was just Youtube and trial by fire!

Sounds like you did quite well considering. Great job! And I would be fine eating the pork were it me. My wife and I have been discussing it and we are probably going to give pigs a try next year. I'm doing over 100 meat birds this year, so I'm going to get that sorted out first.

I've really loved pigs! Got myself in too far with how many babies we ended up with but pigs as an animal are a pleasure! Good luck!!!

Elle, sounds like you did good for your first time. I think if you spread out those hind legs, you'll find the skinning is easier. I really like hanging them from a gambrel after shooting and bleeding. I hang the pig up for a good washing with a scrub brush to remove the mud/dirt. Then I towel the carcass reasonably dry and using my sheep shearer, I remove the major amount of hair. Next I burn the remaining stubble with a handheld propane torch. When done, a light scrubbing and rinsing removes any lose char on the skin. Yeah, I don't do what other people do, that's for sure! But it leaves me with a nice clean, tight skin that I can leave on to prevent freezer burn. And when that skin gets trimmed off eventually, it makes nice treats for the dogs.  

I use to skin a pig, but decided I liked the skin left on. Prior to that I tried scalding and scraping, but I really don't have the proper equipment for it.

I wouldn't worry about a bit of dirt on the meat. Just trim it off with a sharp razor blade/boxcutter or a pair of scissors when you go to store the meat. As everyone has noted, deep freezing and cooking deals with any problems you're worried about.

I think you did great for a first go at it. A couple of my neighbours and I usually do 3-4 pigs a year and try to time it for late fall when the weather is cooler. Most people in my area will boil / scrape the pigs and then later still cut the skin off and dispose of it. I find the scraping to be messy and not necessary. By accident on my first pigs my scraper started to peel the skin after being dunked and I soon learned that if you diunk the pigs at 150degrees for 5 min the skin will pull off in big sheets fairly easily. The fat is incredibly clean and the skin as well. You just have to be quick with it and get the big areas first and then legs ankles/spine usually require a little knife work. I havent met many people that do this but when I do they just smile at me. The skin is now usable as well as with a big pig there is a lot of skin. The pigs in the picture were done this way. I do have a hose to rinse the pigs as well before dunking to keep it all as clean as possible.