Hamming It Up For The Holidays!

Our Thanksgiving Ham

 This is my favorite time of year for raising pork because we raise American Guinea Hogs for a subsistence, homesteading lifestyle rather than for profit – meaning we do not have a lot of expensive equipment or a cold room, therefore like with most homesteading enterprises, there are seasons for everything we do for specific reasons. For instance, my previous blog post focused on butchering shoats (young culls) during the summer months so that we do not have to feed out or castrate less-than-stellar stock. I get rid of ALL my unwanted boars by the age of 3-4 months. Occasionally I will register and/or sell one, but I have learned the hard way that only the very best stock should be registered (or sold unregistered) for breeding, and that it comes back to bite me (and other breeders) in the butt when we sell poorly-bred stock for any reason, even as a stop-loss economic scenario. Eat them, feed them to your dogs, share the meat with your neighbors, but do NOT sell an animal capable of breeding that you would not breed yourself. Oftentimes people with the best of intentions but little homesteading/butchering experience want to buy feeders to eat, but then they find themselves in over their heads with pregnant gilts or too many uncastrated boars which they then have to unload themselves for their own stop-loss economic situation. This is one of the reasons people expect heritage pork to be cheap – because around here, you can buy someone else’s $500 mistake at an auction for $25. I’ve even seen full-grown (300#+ AGHs!) for free on Facebook groups and Craigslist. Guess how I learned the hard way about this?!

Now, let us talk a minute about “Charcuterie.” It is the current fad amongst dedicated foodies who want the very best heritage meats and those who work in the food industry, but it is nothing more (and yet everything great!) about preserving meat safely, long-term, without refrigeration. It also includes some things that do need cool or cold storage, like fresh sausage, terrines, pates. And if you are not a chef, this word can be a little scary because it can become quite complicated – though like everything else worth doing (bread-building, cheesemaking, etc.), you start with a simple foundation and continue building on that. Fresh bulk sausage is one of the easiest and at the end of this post, I will share my simplest, most versatile spice mix for breakfast sausage to be made in 5# batches. But this post is for the holidays, so let us talk about… HAM. This is the American-style ham most of us are familiar with that has been lightly smoked and fully-cooked, but needs to be glazed and fully-reheated for serving. You will find that your own looks and tastes nothing like those nasty, wet, particle-board-textured abominations that are passed off as “hams” at the grocery.

Because I have already butchered my shoats in the 50-75# range over the summer, next up for the fall and winter are those few larger gilts, barrows and cull sows I saved for fast growth, large size and age. I have started butchering them by size for the fall, starting with the smallest, so that by the time truly cold weather sets in, I can turn the very best of the best into slow-cured hams (like Proscuitto/Country Ham), which are often cured for at least a year, sometimes longer. But for this post, and just in time for Christmas and New Years, let us start out by butchering a cull hog (young gilt or barrow) in the 120-150# range and we will end up with a couple of incredible-flavored, boneless, 7# fresh hams to be cured and smoked for the holidays. You will need about 2-3 weeks from start to finish for a hog this size, so get started now.

Sorry to keep repeating this, but for me, SCALD AND SCRAPE is the ONLY option when dealing with a hog you have taken this much time, love and pride in raising. I personally believe that skinning is a last resort and something to be done only when you are far afield from civilization, or maybe you are just planning on grinding the entire carcass because you have too many pigs or you had to unexpectedly turn a breeder into pork due to injury or accidental death. Professionally, hogs have ALWAYS been scalded and scraped, then hung and rested for a couple of days before proceeding with butchery. You end up with a carcass that is free of stray hairs, where the fat cap is smooth and beautiful and if you still remove the skin and some fat for cracklings/lard from primals/subprimals, you can do it at a much more leisurely pace and with at least a little artistic finesse rather than it looking a beaver helped you peel hard-boiled eggs! Seriously. Watch some youtube videos with the old-timers in Kentucky/Virginia or the Amish who still have family/community hog butchering parties – sometimes the hogs are too large to dip in 160-degree water, so they cover them with burlap or old towels before dribbling scalding water on them and scraping. This post is specifically about smaller breeds of hogs though, so there’s rarely any excuse. Even torching them with a flamethrower is preferable to skinning (for me), though it is tricky because you don’t always get the hair follicle out of the skin. Blowtorch the hooves until the cuticle pops off and brine/smoke those trotters, hocks and shanks as well so you have seasonings for your winter bean soups. Or for pickled pigs feet.

If you have a cold room, you can leave the whole hog hanging for a couple days to allow rigor to relax before butchering. I do not have a place cold enough except maybe during a severe winter storm, so I split mine then pack them in a marine chest full of ice. (They will actually keep safely for longer than a few days as long as you keep the old water drained off and keep them packed in fresh ice, though likely someone will dispute me on this.) Of late, I’ve been splitting the whole hogs before removing the head so that it’s easier to harvest the tongue, remove the brain, etc., but you may want to save the skull. Whichever. So you will end up with something like this:

120# Gilt

I always remove the kidney, leaf lard, tenderloin, and whole loin before doing any other processing. To remove the back leg, simply cut along the seam where the belly meets the leg. (Try to keep the belly cut square with this breed, or you won't have any belly left!) If you have not already removed the rump/sirloin, saw thru the vertebrate to finish this cut. Remove the trotter (foot) from the hock/shank end by finding the bend in the joint. (It is not important that this cut be perfect – you are going to remove all the bones and trim the overhang anyway. AGHs of this size have very little in the way of hocks/shanks to begin with) This is what you should end up with. (I know, not very appetizing, but just wait!)

Here is a basic diagram of all the piggy parts should you need to know, but don’t get all bothered about perfection. That takes practice and all your mistakes end up in the sausage bin or stock pot.

Now, if you ended up with a beautiful scald and scrape job (no hair follicles), you can either leave the skin on, or choose to carefully remove it. I had to remove the skin on this one. Leave as much of the fat as you can but you may have to trim if the hog is obese. There will be a point right in the center where you will cut thru into the meat if you don’t do this carefully, which I did on one of the hams. It would have looked horrible had I skinned to begin with. By feeling and looking for the seams between muscles, remove the aitch bone with a small sharp knife, then continue until you’ve removed the larger leg bone.  I removed the shank, but left the bone in and brined/smoked them with the hams to season soups with.

 

And finally, trim off any overhang and square off the boneless slab:

They will look like this when rolled. (See where I nicked thru the fat when skinning on that one.)

Weigh each cut and know that you will need to inject and brine them for at least half a day per pound. It is okay to brine a little longer if that suits your time frame. They will also need a day to dry on a rack in the fridge before smoking.  These weighed about 6.5# each and I let them go almost 2 weeks, so it’s a forgiving process. It is however, VERY important to inject the brine thoroughly all thru the muscles or you will end up with a combination of pink ham and gray pork roast where the brine didn’t penetrate.

Let’s talk just a moment about curing salt. There is way too much MISINFORMATION out there about nitrites and nitrates. I’ve heard lots of people say they cannot eat nitrites and yet have no idea what the chemical process is that converts harmless nitrites into nitrates (of which there is no real evidence are harmful in small quantities either). For the record, almost all of the cured products you buy from an average grocery store (bacon/hams/most deli meats) use NITRITE. Bacon may not be sold in the US containing NITRATES. Nitrates form thru long fermentation (like with salami, summer sausage and other specialty meats) from nitrites. Sometimes they are added to these longer-cured products for safety, but simple charcuterie rarely uses them. If you want to skip it for this brine, you can, but you will not be making ham, you’ll just be making a pork roast. It will not have the beautiful pink color of a ham, nor will it taste the same. Please skip the Tender-Quick and Sugar Cure available from Morton’s and just order yourself a canister of #1 Curing Salt (Sodium Nitrite, sometimes just called pink salt, but not to be confused with pink Himalayan sea salt). It takes only a tiny amount and a pound will last you awhile and you’ll have the versatility of using it for all of your basic curing. Also, PLEASE weigh out your ingredients, especially for curing and baking. You will be shocked to see the difference between weight and volume.

From here on out, I’ll be adapting the recipe (available from their websites) from Ruhlman/Polcyn’s book “Charcuterie” for:

American-Style Brown-Sugar-Glazed Holiday Ham

The Brine (enough for 15# meat)
*1 gallon/4 liters water
*1 ½ cups/350 grams kosher or sea salt
*2 packed cups/360 grams light or dark brown sugar
*1 ½ oz/42 grams/8 teaspoons #1 Curing Salt

Here’s the fast and easy way to do this: Get a gallon pitcher and add the dry ingredients. Heat about 2 cups of water in the microwave to boiling and pour over them. Whisk until dissolved, then add ice and continue stirring until the solution is cool. Fill the pitcher to the gallon mark with cold water.

(Shank/Hock portion lying on top of the ham slabs)

 Using a bulb baster or syringe, inject the meat thoroughly with this solution, then submerge the meat completely in the solution. You can weight it down or just turn it twice a day.  The day before smoking, rinse, dry and tie the meat and let it dry on a rack in the fridge or cool place.  Here is a nifty little tutorial that shows you how to tie meat: http://www.junedarville.com/how-to-tie-meat.html  If you have trouble getting it started, use a few plastic strap ties to hold the meat in place while you tie (remember they can be joined together to make them long enough). Cut them loose after tying. And here they are, ready to go on the smoker: 

Now here’s where I deviate from the recipe a little. The recipe suggests that they be hot smoked (200 degrees) for 2 hours, then glazed and smoked to an internal temp of 155 degrees. As we have primarily only oak and hickory to use for smoking, that leaves a really strong smoke flavor that may be a little more than most people are used to. It also blackens the glaze, which I don’t find terribly attractive. So with this size hams, I smoked them at 200 degrees for about 4 hours, then glazed them and transferred them to the oven (uncovered) and brought them to the internal temp of 155. Let the hams cool completely. At this point, if you want to vacuum seal them or freeze them or just wrap them and keep them cool for a couple of days, you’re done with the hard part. If you want to serve the ham whole and hot, reheat it in a 275 degree oven until it’s warm in the center (no safety concerns here, it’s fully cooked). I prefer to run the whole ham thru the deli slicer and serve it with the glaze as a sauce on the side. This ham has so much flavor, a big, thick slice is really overkill – thin slices will likely be more appreciated by grandpa’s dentures and young children than thick steaks. And you’ve got all that deli meat ready for sandwiches if there’s any left!

Glaze/Sauce Recipe:
*3 cups brown sugar
*1 (12oz) jar brown mustard (or whatever mustard you like)
*A jar of your favorite jam or chutney – I used wild plum (also a good way to use up whatever jams/jellies are leftover in the fridge)

By the way, here was my first attempt at hams last year. These were bone-in, skin on and there was a good layer of fat cap. They were still rolled and tied and used the same method. Remove the skin and some of the fat before the final glaze and reheat.

And as promised, my favorite recipe for a simple but flavorful spice mix for breakfast sausage – mild enough no one has complained about it, flavorful enough to pack a punch. I have found this to be excellent on both pork and red meats. Mix up a jar of it in the spice grinder and it would make a nice holiday or house-warming gift for someone who orders those expensive packets of seasoning mix for their venison sausage. I have weighed one batch of this and found it to weigh about 45 grams, which comes out to a scant 2 teaspoons (9 grams) per pound of meat.

For 5# of sausage:

1 teaspoon black or white peppercorns, whole
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
2-3 dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon each dried whole thyme, marjoram, pepper flakes
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt

Now. Go make some bacon!!!

The Shoats of Summer

AGH Porchetta with (left) Coconut/Pineapple Au Jus and (right) Corn Relish

The first year we raised hogs, we started off with a couple of Hampshire feeders. They were strictly for experiment, to see if it was really something we could commit to long-term. They reached a nice weight of about 150 pounds around April, so I decided to slaughter and butcher them. I have always done my own processing and grew up in “The Wild Hog Capital of the World,” the Texas Panhandle.  By the time I got done skinning and cutting that Hamp into primals, I knew I had made a mistake! The one I processed a month later was even worse – triple-digit heat and blow-flies crawling all over the carcass. Lesson learned. There is a reason large homestead hogs have traditionally always been processed (and cured!) during cooler weather!

We purchased our first American Guinea Hogs about 5 years ago. Last year, I found myself up to my ears in pigs – around 25 at the beginning of spring, along with a saturated market for the few who wanted them,  plus we live in an area where feeders/weaners (shoats) of larger breeds can be had for as little as $25 (sometimes less at auction). I just could not bring myself to sell such incredible-tasting meat for so little, not even as a “stop-loss” scenario. So I got creative.

50# Boar Shoat

As it turns out, hot weather is the perfect time to thin the culls. And by culls, I mean shoats (the industry term for younger boars and gilts) that I was not planning on breeding, growing out or selling. I bought an off-set wood smoker that will hold a whole pig weighing up to about 65 pounds, along with some basic scalding equipment, which, in my opinion, is far, far easier and faster than skinning. I had never used a wood smoker before and was shocked at how easy they are to use. Mine came from Lowes (about $150 if you watch and wait for them to go on clearance in the fall). This particular one was made by “Oklahoma Joe’s”. The interior measures 18”x32” and the smoke box is 15” square. It is important that the smoke-box be made from fairly-thick steel to hold up to repeated use. And, if you are not cutting your own wood, you will need shorter pieces than what is normally sold for wood-stoves and fireplaces. I have since used off-set smokers made from cinder blocks, and there are plenty of cheap ideas on the internet for different types of hot and cold smokers. Of course, these smaller pigs can also be cooked on the grill or in the oven – I just do not like heating my house up during the summer.

As for scalding equipment, I highly recommend a high-output propane burner as opposed to a turkey fryer, because once you see how easy it is to scald and scrape a pig, you may want one with the capability and stability of heating larger amounts of water for larger hogs. I use one I ordered through Amazon by “Gas One” for $100. It is 200,000 BTUs and the frame is strong enough to hold a 55-gallon drum at least 2/3 full of water. At this time I do not have a front-end loader on my tractor so I can just dip the pigs in the barrel, so I heat water to boiling, dip it into either a 40 or 80 gallon trough, then add cool water to bring the temperature down to where I want it. For hogs in the 45-65 pound range, that is about 150 degrees. For those of you who think it is easier to skin,  I can scald and scrape a pig that size in about 15 minutes!

10-gallon "Tamale Steamer" for small hogs

One of the best perks about culling some of your pigs when they are small is that IF you were planning on castrating the boars, you can be rid of them before they are old enough to breed or develop boar taint (which is a separate and elaborate issue I do not want to get into here). I recommend culling the boar shoats by 4 months and no later than 6 months. It is also something I can do by myself, and as I get older and have more aches and pains, it gives me a sense of accomplishment that I can dispatch, scald, scrape and gut a pig, and have it on ice or on the smoker in a couple of hours. Nor do I have to butcher or cure the same day – if you don’t put them directly on the smoker or the oven before rigor sets in, it is best to let them rest for 48 hours before proceeding with butchering.

Coconut Milk, Pineapple, Cilantro, Mint, etc. added for the last hour

Another perk of butchering young pigs is that if you do not have a lot of processing experience, they are perfect for learning. I would compare this to any other method of food production, be it baking, gardening, curing or cheesemaking, even cooking a 3-course meal: if you do not DO it on a regular basis, the job is harder and it takes longer because we tend to forget the little things.  This is also the main reason I keep a dedicated butchering area and a butchering bag packed and ready to use, so that I don’t have to spend an hour gathering up knives, old towels, poultry shears, etc., and wondering where I last used the blow torch and the sharpening steel. I make a point of butchering SOMETHING at least once a week, even if it is just a couple old hens for soup/stock.  In any case, the last thing you want to deal with after you have put a year into growing out a larger hog is inexperience and last-minute scrambling around only to discover you forgot to keep your propane tanks filled or you can’t find your hacksaw!

I have now put many a whole shoat on the smoker, ranging from 25#-65#. They are cooked “low and slow” which is in the 200-225 degree range. It takes about 8-10 hours to smoke a whole hog (average 50#) to a safe internal temperature of 160. With AGH, I do not inject and I use little in the way of additional flavors because it just isn’t necessary with such outstandingly-flavored pork. At most, I rub a small handful of “Tony Chachere’s” seasoning into the cavity. With the skin still attached, you will not need to baste, as the skin holds the juices in. If you are smoking an uncastrated  boar in the 6-month range, I highly recommend putting them on the grate with the cavity-side down for the first half of cooking, then turning them skin-side-down for the last half. IF there is any taint, this is the only method I have found that helps – the taint is in the fat and dripping some of the fat and juices out will get rid of most of the aroma. The smoke flavor masks the rest.

(A pair of heavy PVC gloves makes handling whole hogs or large parts on the smoker a breeze!)

If you cook a whole or half pig in the oven, leave it skin-side-up during the entire cooking process. (You will need a very large roasting pan or a couple of those giant, disposable lasagna pans for this.) Roast it between 200-225 degrees, then for the last hour, turn the oven up to about 450. Something amazing will happen: the skin will rise and blow up like the bubbles in over-proofed bread and become hard and crackly. It is delicious!

Regardless of your cooking method, you can do so much with all that smoked pork! It is delicious just as it is, but you can make pulled pork by adding your favorite BBQ sauce, which can be served as is, or on buns. You can take some that is already pulled and “frizzle” it in a cast iron skillet for Carnitas or Tacos. You can stuff it in corn tortillas for enchiladas. You can freeze it in smaller containers for fast meals later.

There’s also no reason why you can’t cure the shoulders and hams of smaller pigs.  From a 50# pig, you’ll end up with back legs and whole shoulders weighing about 7-8#. You can debone them, partially debone them, or leave them whole.  I prefer taking out the aitch and femur (large bones) and injecting curing solution all through the muscles. I use Ruhlman/Polcyn’s recipe for “American-Style Brown-Sugar-Glazed Holiday Ham” (available from their book “Charcuterie” and on the web.) You allow half a day per pound in the brine. Please use the #1 curing salt recommended (sodium nitrite), not only for safety, but for color. Otherwise, you will just be making pork roast, not ham. They may also be prepared like bacon, especially if they are deboned, small and flat (don't tie them).

You can also make “Porchetta” from these small pigs, but unlike with larger hogs where there is a large section of belly between the ribs and back leg, you’ll want to completely remove the spine and ribs from a carcass that has been split in half. This is much easier than it sounds, just use a small boning or paring knife and scrape the meat away from the bones.  (Don't even try to leave meat on the ribs on a small hog, just save these bones for stock!) There will be a small section of loin left over that is attached to the shoulder blade that can be rolled into the porchetta. It separates easily from the blade, just follow the breaks in the muscle and trim off the skin from that chunk of loin before rolling it into the porchetta. If you have trouble tying a porchetta, use plastic strap-ties to hold it in place while you tie it. Remove them after the loin is tied.

Ribs and Spine Removed

Entire Mid-Section, Loin from Shoulder Rolled in Center

Here is a wonderful summertime recipe (with permission from Michael Pendley of Realtree) that I enjoy making. If you’d like to see the original, look up the recipe on his blog where it’s called “Hawaiian-Style Banana-Leaf-Wrapped Roasted Pork”.  In the photos, I have trimmed out the porchetta and trimmed the ham and shoulder, then covered the exposed meat (and the inside of the porchetta) with a rub of brown sugar, 5-spice powder, grated ginger, and a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. I placed them all in a roasting pan and gave them a light smoking on the grill (about 3 hours at 200 degrees), then poured the remaining ingredients over, covered the pan with foil and continued cooking to an internal temp of 160. (You can raise the heat or move to the oven once the pan is covered if you are in a hurry – otherwise, it’s an all-day affair.) Before serving/slicing, remove the skin/fat cap from the ham and shoulder.

Rubbed (and rolled) with Brown Sugar, Ginger, Soy Sauce and 5-Spice Powder

This is a very rich dish. Pair it with something that will absorb the juices, like plain Basmati Rice, Ramen or Orzo. For a summertime cookout, all the usual fixings will do: coleslaw, corn on the cob, a fresh tomato/cucumber salad, beets with some orange flavor, anything fresh and in-season. Fresh fruit or a trifle made with angel food cake, vanilla pudding and berries would be a great dessert.  A nice cocktail pairing might be lemonade with a splash of Midori (melon liqueur). A bold Chardonnay or even bolder Pinot Noir or a fruity Old Vine Zin would be nice pairings.

Mix in a large bowl and pour over lightly-smoked pork before covering with foil or wrapping in banana, lotus or canna leaves:

2 medium onions, sliced
3 plantains, peeled and sliced (use bananas or yams if plantains aren’t available)
1” grated ginger
¼ cup 5-spice  powder
½ cup brown sugar
1 16-oz can pineapple bits, with juice
1 12-oz can coconut milk
Splash soy sauce and sesame oil

Good garnishes: Orange Mint, Pineapple Sage, Thai Basil (any basil, really), Cilantro, Perilla/Shiso

Lightly Smoked, Additional Ingredients Added Before Covering