Homemade Sausage Making

A coworker and I may end up buying a couple piglets soon to raise for slaughter. What's a preferable breed for charcuterie?

There are several, Berkshire is a preferred breed and one of the easiest to find.
We raise Berks (as well as Tamworth and Glouc Old Spots) at the family farm here in Jersey.

It is very hard to find ready to slaughter pigs in Maryland. And I don't have room to raise a couple.

It's pretty easy to spot the difference in berkshire compared to commercial breeds. Finish feeds can make quite a difference in fat quality. In other words, well raised hogs are better, you have to get to know the farmer and feeds they use. Two of Baconologists breeds (berk/old spot) are my first two choices.

hey Jja and Baconlogist, there is a guy nearby who is selling ready to butcher hogs, and these are his breeds.

 Hampshire

 Hampshire cross

 Yorkshire

 Yorkshire cross

 Spotted pigs (Hampshire, Yorkshire, Duroc cross)

What do you guys recommend, given these choices?

If I ask him what he feeds them and finishes them with, what am I hoping to hear?

I've butchered hogs, but never raised them. Need your advice!

Cabonaia, That's not an easy question to answer, it's going to depend on the particular genetics of that guy's animals.
In general, those are commercial breeds that have been bred for leanness, which is an issue for some of us who prefer fatty pork and it's extra flavor.
Without seeing the animals and the pork that they produce, I would lean toward the last option, the multiple cross, spotted pigs (Hampshire, Yorkshire, Duroc cross), because there's a chance of some throw-back genetics.

As far as the feed goes, we like to feed a diet that's rich in barley, with some corn and as much saturated fat as possible.

HTH

Baconologist wrote:In general, those are commercial breeds that have been bred for leanness, which is an issue for some of us who prefer fatty pork and it's extra flavor.

Hi Bob - Thank you for the education. If I am going to go to buy a whole hog and go to the trouble of butchering it, I don't want one of those breeds. I will keep my eye out for something better, either to raise myself or buy and butcher.

Jeff

I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, the son of a German immigrant farmer. He used to cross Yorkshire sows with either a Duroc or Hampshire boar. He always chose the best hog and the best steer out of his herds, and finished them on ground barley/wheat for our domestic use. I learned at the age of 7 how to butcher, cut meat, and cure ham, bacon, and how to make a variety of sausage. My late father, on his worldly adventures, would not touch a piece of meat that had been finished on corn. As only he could put it in his inimitable way, "I won't eat a piece of meat that looks like it has been p'd on"(yellow fat). He had an aversion to anything that was corn fed, to the point of when visiting his brother,(a dairy farmer in British Columbia who finished his animals on corn), he refused to eat the beef or pork with yellow fat!!!! I guess that I am quite fastidious about the same thing.

The corn that our hogs are fed is very low carotene over-mature heirloom white Jersey sweet corn that's less than 10% of the ration, so yellow fat is never an issue.
Overall, they're fed a very diverse diet.

Looks like I've got some buds to turn to when I go all in and get a couple hogs, which I've been threatening to do for some time. My wife, who describes herself as a Sausage Widow lately, says she wishes I would use better meat than the pork palace stuff I get at Costco and the local Vietnamese butcher. Setting up for it is another project that I've got to get to, so I'm not there yet. Maybe in the Spring.

I rather doubt that color has a taste. I do know that the butter we made from hay fed cows during the winter was very pale in color and the butter made after the cows were on spring grass for a month was as yellow as a dandilion blossom and had a much better taste. Corn was just a part of the diet for the pigs.

Cabonaia,
It sounds like you are definitely headed in the right direction!
Best of luck!

ssorllih wrote:I rather doubt that color has a taste. I do know that the butter we made from hay fed cows during the winter was very pale in color and the butter made after the cows were on spring grass for a month was as yellow as a dandilion blossom and had a much better taste. Corn was just a part of the diet for the pigs.

It has everything to do with taste and appearance!!!! I have had bacon in many restaurants in the US, and have found both the taste and appearance not all that pleasing to my palate. Perhaps it is only a personal thing, but to me, having been raised on barley/wheat finished pork, I am spoiled. That is how it is done up here in the Great White North. Ross, with your vast knowledge and travel status, have you ever had the privilege of eating barley/wheat finished hog? If not, please do not compare second rate pork with the most desirable pork in the world. I am sure that our Polish compatriots will concur with my opinion.

Well we bought the piglets, 3 of them. 60lb Blue Butts is what they're called, which I think is a Hampshire/Yorkshire mix. My buddy seems to think they'll be ready to butcher end of jan, early feb. he's got them on some kinda high protein feed for now but is going to switch them soon

Nick I'm envious! I've been trying to get ready for pigs for months now, but things keep coming up - an overflowing septic tank being the latest joy. We have a mountain lion problem, so I can't just pop up a pen, have to make it cat proof. This forum will surely know when I finally get those piglets.

Jeff