Homemade Sausage Making

Started the morning with a list of things that really needed to be taken care of but as luck would have it I got distracted when there were two sounders of pigs in a field. As luck would have it there was a guy running hogs with dogs across the river and he was able to bring his dogs over in just a few minutes and the game was on. The event was hilarious and consisted more of blind luck than skill.

Two pigs shot but their removal from the thick woods adjoining the field would have ruined any hopes of having an enjoyable day. However, this pig made a poor choice and ran into a large wheat field where it was chased on foot by both man and dog and ultimately bayed. The dogs had a field day and it was great seeing the dogs do their stuff. Once bayed it was promptly dispatched with a knife to the heart with the precision one would expect to only see in a kill plant. Not by me I might add because I'm not that brave.

Doesn't look like I'll get my work done today but it is Friday and one must have priorities..

Nice!

Butterbean wrote:Once bayed it was promptly dispatched with a knife

Must have been a young guy that was still bulletproof!

This fella and his buddy are both tough as nails. They both used to do mixed martial arts but they are getting older now and I think this is how they get their dose of adrenaline. Neither carry a gun so I don't know if this is bravery or stupidity but they both are tough as lightered knots.

I was real pleased with the meat. Had some really nice back fat on it even though it wasn't very old. I didn't do the best job on skinning it because I'm so used to cleaning deer and with deer I try and keep the tallow off the meat and I kept catching myself removing too much fat.



Inside view.



Since it was stuck and not shot there was a treasure trove of casings inside.



I also got some wonderful caul fat which I was running short on. This stuff is beautiful and has so many uses.



I plucked the fifth quarter so I ended up with the heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys and liver then I started collecting the casings. I think I may have mastered cleaning the casings because I used a different method that was easy and wasn't messy at all. If you look at the picture on the left you can see where I was holding the casing and letting the weight of the contents just pull the intestine off the fibrous thing that is connected to the casing. This fibrous membrane just gently tears off the casing and at times it even forms a constriction pushing the contents out so you hands don't get dirty. I'll invert these and flush them and give them a bath in some lemon water then salt. The waste from this pig doesn't even fill up a 5 gallon bucket and most of this is its head which I didn't want to deal with.

Great looking carcass! Should make some fantastic sausage! And indeed you gave yourself a lot of unplanned work, especially with the additional task of cleaning the intestines which is usually messy and time consuming. Even though in your mind it was not difficult or messy, it is something that most people don't do.