Doing my first pig this week

I raised pigs for the first time this year, big success overall will definitely do it again. I got three castrated kunekune potbelly crosses back in early spring and I'm planning to grow them thru next spring or fall, but one has a new trick escaping the pen and causing trouble and I'm over it. So he goes to freezer camp this week probably (there was a nearby fire recently and I need to wait for pig to detox), and the other two pigs I'll grow to the "finish line".

Mr Bacon is nice and big and fat and jiggly so well worth doing at his current size. I'll not have a perfect setup or anything like that, it's too short notice and I am isolated in the forest and don't have a vehicle, so it is what it is.

Anyway all that to say, I am wanting to make a proper ham from this pig in time for Thanksgiving would be nice. What's everyone's favorite recipes and process for a ham? I don't have curing salt unfortunately and idk if I'll be able to get it any time soon, but I can try.

Maybe also just reaching out for human contact. I don't interact with many people these days, and most of them are not homestead people and get quiet and awkward when I mention sending a critter to freezer camp. Like, do people think all farm animals are pets? Lol idk, people seem to be completely disconnected from where food comes from. They hear about a pig escaping the pen, not causing too much trouble but definitely causing trouble, and they bond with it sight unseen lol "Houdini doesn't wanna be ham, give him a pardon he has personality " Soo because he's making my life more difficult I should keep him around forever? .....

So anyway, ham recipes LMAO. Bacon and sausage would also be tasty, I am a big fan of all kinds of preserved meats

Sorry for any typos, written on a cell phone with a broken screen

Mr Bacon is a troublemaker.
It's time to go to freezer camp.
The same people who want to save him, think milk and eggs come from cardboard boxes and meat comes vacuum-packed.

Be prepared, slaughtering a hog is hard work.
I take mine to the butcher. I had a mobile butcher come out one year.
It's fascinating to watch a professional do his job.
He used a 22 rifle and shot Fennel in the forehead, she dropped instantly, and then he rushed into the pen and quickly cut her throat.
He explained that the shot did not kill her right away, it allowed her heart to keep pumping, she bled out quickly.
Have no concerns about his buddies being traumatized they will want to come lick the blood up.
However, if you mess up your kill shot, Mr Bacon will start screaming and his buddies will try to "save" him... pigs can hurt you badly... Be prepared!
Are you planning on hot water dipping and de-hairing?
Some folks just cut off the skin but then you get loose hair on your meat.
Do you have a block and tackle to hoist him?
Do you have a book showing the different cuts of meat on a pig? It's not a deer or elk.
A big job I hope you are not trying this alone...
Good Luck, and be sure to let us know how it goes.

Here is a link to my mobile butcher visit
https://permies.com/t/73294/Mobile-Slaughter

I can't help you with ham processing, but when it comes to sausage, I  have a method that works well for us.
I get plain unseasoned ground pork in 1# sleeves back from the butcher.
I add my own spices to create Italian sausage and breakfast sausage, I have unflavored pork to add to ground beef when making meatballs or other recipes.
Mixing your own spices to flavor pork is 1000x better than just buying store-bought products.

Awesome resource for wet-curing a ham, or really any type of meat    Wet cure resource

I've done several pigs at home, it's about the biggest critter that can be done at home without some serious lifting equipment. My basic method......show up at the farm, shoot pig in the head and stick in the neck (there's a skill to this), bring it home and hang in the front yard to gut, then move to the garage to chill overnight. Skin the next day and cut in half lengthwise, bring each half inside one at a time and butcher into packable cuts on the kitchen countertop. We live in town, so hanging a dead pig from the tree in the front yard is always a spectacle. Usually a bunch of kids show up and it turns into an impromptu homeschool biology lesson, complete with passing around various organs and such.

Yeah it's just me. I'm "something" of a hermit I guess. I moved here about six years ago with a boyfriend, he immediately turned to a husband, then a stranger. Divorce not final yet but soon. We've been separated for years now, long enough we're more friendly than not at this point but we aren't friends(everything is "settled" but not fully legally detangled). No kids, no family. I know my neighbors out at the road and they're real kind folks. An online friend had an online friend about 10 miles away, so I have gotten to know him a bit over the past year or so but he's a busy guy with a job a wife and four kids under 10 so they aren't able to stop by more than once every few months usually. Not ideal, but a lot better than some of the other situations I've been in lol. Lonely is better than with the wrong people around yikes. But no help for anything. I can get supplies delivered so not actually "no help" but no help with the farm tasks.

And I've tried getting clever about it too lol trying to sell extra critters not for money but for work done on the farm. No takers, so I remain the only one who works at my projects list. Oh well. It's peaceful and I get by just fine. Very proud of everything I've built here, more so than anything else I've ever done.

I don't have a way to hook and hang the pig, and I don't have a .22. hoping to get that by the time I do the other two, but for this one I'm going to have a task ahead of me for sure. The largest critter I've done before this was a real fat dwarf goat, and that was just a rough job chopping her into chunks for the dogs(she was old old and I didn't want the meat for myself). I've got a 9mm pistol I was thinking to use for the job. Hanging I was thinking about maybe chains in a tree. And doing primal cuts before aging potentially. Then I could use a couple of smaller coolers instead of trying to find one big enough for the whole pig. Weather is too much back and forth to hope for chilly days.

I have an old non working freezer that I use to keep rodents out of my feed grain and I was planning to use that as a surface to work on potentially. Probably will put down a tarp and a bowl of milk to get the pig still and then try for the shot. Hopefully I don't miss, he isn't a mean pig or anything like that and deserves a quick end. Hoping to collect at least some of the blood to try and dry it and use in the garden maybe.

Definitely looking forward to delicious pork 🤤 sausage, jerkey, roasts, etc etc etc oh man.... And Mr Bacon isn't the only meat going up soon. I've got about a dozen young muskovies ready to go, ten old hens ready for soup season, two young goats, two old guineas, and maybe two rabbits. Going to be eating good this winter for sure

Being alone but happy is much better than being around folks who make you unhappy.
Yes, your pistol will work but it might go all the way through.
Perhaps, a .22 could be borrowed? Maybe... the farmer you borrow it from might be bribed to be there while it is being used just to be sure, that you do not get hurt by panicked piggies.
I strongly suggest standing outside the pen when shooting, also if possible isolate the other piggies to avoid a shit show if you only wound him.
Use a solid food treat to bring him up to the fence, your bowl of milk is sure to be knocked over.
A tarp will help but you really want a large pan or bowl to catch the blood.
After your shot, Hopefully, Mr. Bacon will be lying down, you should be very quick in getting the artery cut in his throat, the blood will pump out quickly(quite a bit of it)

Using a vehicle to pull him up might be easier than hoisting him up by hand.

Living alone and learning to do things by yourself is a huge confidence builder, I believe it helps one become a better person.

Nothing better than home-raised pork, my wife could not eat pork from the store anymore, but she has no problem with happy hormone free home-raised piggies

If you don't have a way to hang it, you can do it on the ground, A similar thing is often done with deer. It's not ideal and requires skinning, but it works. Basically, You lay Mr. Piggy on his side, and skin one half of the pig. You cut off the primals from that side, and then flip him onto the skin that you already skinned off, so that he stays clean. Skin the other side, and remove the primals. There are videos of this on youtube, being done on deer.

As far as the gun....a .22 works best, but a 9 will get the job done too. I use a .22 to do the pig. Intersting thing I've found.......I've saved the skulls from several pigs, and on several, the .22 bullet didn't actually penetrate the skull. It dented/cracked the skull, but didn't enter the brain cavity. It just knocked the pig silly, and the bleeding out is what actually brings death.

Interesting about the bullet not entering the brain. I had been picturing where to place the shot to be sure it hits the brain and etc, but I guess it might not matter as much as I had been thinking, as long as I stick him quick.

Unfortunately I don't have a vehicle of any kind. I have a mini donkey and a large mastiff who *could* be convinced to help with things, but I haven't trained them for that so it wouldn't be a simple thing to just do. But I'm strong, stubborn, and experienced with convincing heavy objects to do strange things. I built my log cabin by hand, and many other projects. Currently don't even have a chainsaw, just a hand saw and a circular saw. My chainsaw broke maybe a year and a half ago and I haven't been able to replace it yet lol. My setup and lifestyle is very rustic. Not quite off grid primitive only, but I definitely skip over a lot of modern stuff. No indoor plumbing, electric thru extension cords currently (running out of an old mobile home on my property that I lived in until I built my cabin), etc. It's been a saga and a half getting to this point.

What would you suggest for a treat? I've been doing all kinds of goodies lately to help keep him in the pen and behaving, so food treats need to be *very* high value, or they're just another tasty treat on an overflowing buffet table of goodies so to speak.

A light load in the 9mm might work.   I keep a few boxes of 100 grain Hornady Critical Defense Lites around.  


I just re-read my post.  I need to stress that I have never used the load on a pig.

Well, all done now. I had been delaying till I had a better setup for the process. But yesterday the problem pig got out, and showed his brother the trick. His brother was trying to eat two of my rabbits when I discovered they were out (rabbits are fine) after a few unsuccessful and annoying hours trying to get them back in the pen I decided I didn't need the drama, and shot them both. Very glad I did, because they are already the LIMIT of what I can handle on my own with only a sharp set of knives. Got the two pigs taken apart today.

Second pig went down with one shot, first pig I thought I missed the first shot he reacted so very little. I'd got him thru the ear and he barely reacted. Pigs are TOUGH critters. They wouldn't stay still or let me get close so honestly I'm pretty proud of my aim.

To say I am tired, is an understatement.




The last pig is still in the pen. Hopefully he behaves for another week or so and lets me rest, and try to come up with a better setup before I process him too.

And I try to take it easy on the weekends. Sheeeeeeesh! Lol oh well I'll take it easy next week, and it's worth it having all that sweet dead piggy goodness sitting in saltwater now. Bags of lard in the freezer to deal with later, skins and organs in a pile to be given out to the other critters later.

After yesterday I didn't even have the energy to gut them after dragging them down to my cabin from where I'd had to shoot them. So I only kept hearts for myself from the organs.