How blessed are we.......

To have a refrigerator FULL of meat?
Everything wrapped in paper is heading to the meat shop to be cured
and smoked, possibly today. The zip lock bags( a dozen of them,
weighing approx 10lbs each) are the meat Cortney and I will be
making into loose sausage. I think we'll start tomorrow and work on
getting two batches a day ground, mixed and wrapped. This will leave
us time to do laundry, clean house, cook, chores, etc....

This is our second batch of fat for rendering, we cut the fat into smaller

pieces, they seem to melt quicker that way. If you click on the photo

you'll see the 1 tsp. of baking soda on top of the fat, this helps to give

a nice white lard.

We start it off on a trivet, until it gets melted some, then we place it on

a cooler spot on the wood cook stove, so it doesn't scorch. You'll want to

stir this often, to prevent the meat and bits( that settle to the bottom)

from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

I didn't get pictures of how we strain it, but what we use is a colander

lined with a loose weave muslin, or a cheese makers cloth,( NOT store

bought cheesecloth, it's to loose and will let settlement through) The

cheese makers cloth is held in place with cloth pins, to prevent

slipping down when you are pouring the hot lard. After it is strained,

the remaining fat and cooked bits(cracklings) are left to cool and

thoroughly drain. Once cool enough to handle, gather the cloth and

squeeze any excess lard out, then lay the cracklings out on wax paper

to finish cooling, then we place in containers and freeze.

This is the hot lard in a sterilized gallon jar. We also use wide mouth

quart jars. This is left on the counter to cool, before refrigerating.

Disclaimer: Don't add a hot glass jar to a cold frig or freezer it will

break!

This is after just 3-4 hours on the counter and is now cool enough to

refrigerate. See how nice and white this lard is?Let me tell you, you've

not eaten pie crust, pastries or homemade donuts as good as when

using this lard.

Click on photo for a closer look*wink*

Okay next blog will be step by step sausage making with recipes!

On a side not, let me share that our hens are now picking back up in

their egg production, we've gone from 2-3 eggs a day to up to 10 a day,

YEAH! , and the egg customers are glad for it too!

Yesterday was so.. exciting for Cortney and I, we've been checking

Addy, for any movement of her calf. Some days you think you feel

movement or was it just gas, LOL! Any way yesterday we both

without a doubt felt it moving, in fact it kicked Cortney's hand when she

gently pressed. Now we are so..... excited for Addy to calve mid to end

of April. Our last calf born here was still born from our old Jersey cow,

Bessie, so in the back of your mind you worry, or at least we do.

This Spring is going to be so fun, with a new calf and this year we'll

be ordering chicks and the possibility of Cortney raising bum

lambs until weaned too. That is one reason I look forward to Spring,

how about you? Maybe it's to early to dare ask this but, won't you please

share what you look forward to with the coming of Spring?

"WARNING" graphic pictures of butchering and processing hogs

Okay we left out the kill pictures, you all know how that goes. This is
the Barrow(neutered male pig), Mike's getting the legs skinned out
and preparing to have me help, PULL the hide off.

I was helping hold the entrails, to prevent leaking, so didn't get photos

of how to carefully cut the male organ loose, without puncturing the

urinary tract. I did get better pictures of the gilt(below)

Pulling the hide off verses skinning it with a knife, leaves the fat on the

meat better and since we process the fat into lard and use in our

sausage, we like to keep as much fat as possible.

Pelvic bone split, preparation for gutting.
VERY carefully cut around the anus and sex organ, so you don't

rupture and release manure or urine. Tie a string around the end of

entrails and hold away from body( just in case)

Now carefully begin to slice through the gut wall, you do NOT want to

slice or rupture the guts( for obvious reasons), so Mike( who was a

a butcher for several years) carefully holds his left hand between the

guts and wall, being careful not to cut himself.

The further he gets down the carcass the more the guts begin to loosen
As you see they fall out easily
This is the anus( tied off) and Mike is gently pulling and cutting where

the insides are being held in the body cavity.

Always holding the anus away from the carcass. Once the guts are out

the the only thing left is to remove the head. Okay now on to

processing. This is done after a week hanging in 40-45F temps, this

is called aging the meat.

I got some of the pictures out of order, so please bear with me. The

pan in the foreground is sausage meat and the pan in the background is

fat, washed and ready to be cut into smaller pieces to be rendered.

Here is a small portion of the fat from one half. It needs to be washed,

no matter how careful you are( we wash the carcass after we skin

and gut) there always seems to be stray hairs or some dirt.

Some of the washed and cut fat just beginning the rendering process.

HINT:for the whitest lard, add 1/2 tsp baking soda at the beginning

of the rendering. I do our batches with approx. 15lbs. of fat, 1/2c.

water and the 1/2 tsp baking soda. Heat slowly( I place the pan on

a trivet on the back of the wood stove, cover, stir to prevent

scorching.) As the fat cooks down, you begin to see bits of cooked

meats and fat, these are called "Cracklings" and will become a golden

floating to the top. You strain them off with a slotted spoon and save

in a container in the freezer. We use these bits in biscuits, cornbread

and as toppings for casseroles. Some like to eat them fresh, but they

are too rich( greasy) for me. I'll post pictures of the lard being

strained and pour into jars. We have found that we typically use 2

gallons of lard a year in our cooking and baking. It keeps well in the

refrigerator, we've not had any spoilage, ever! The bowl on the left is fat trimmed from the chops and steaks, saved

for rendering and use in the sausage. The bowl on the right has a large

shank ham( waiting to be trimmed up a bit) and the butt portion, in

which we cut into roasts( our preference) Here is the shank ham all washed and trimmed, ready to be taken in to

be smoked. This ham weighs approx. 14lbs
Mike just had to get a photo of me in my grimmy apron, stirring the fat

to prevent scorching to the bottom. It was a LONG day on Sat. but we

got everything cut, washed, packaged, labeled and what needed to be

frozen in the freezer and what needs to go to the meat shop for curing

and the meat for sausage( we make ourselves) in the refrigerator

downstairs.

I admit it we slept in this morning, until 5:45am, then fed the animals

as usual at 6am., then stoked the fire and headed back to bed! Yep,

we were being bums, tired bums and slept in until 7:30am*wink*

Up again, we had coffee while I made blueberry muffins for breakfast.

Praying your weekend was blessed and you are refreshed, we are!