Re: Picked up a P/T job
I have really enjoyed reading this post and hate that it has come to an end so to speak.
I feel fortunate and sad at the same time as I remember the days of killing and processing our own hogs that my grandfather/family would raise. Salt cured hams, bacon, head cheese all the good stuff!! We still kill hogs (killed 3 two weeks ago) but we don't get as involved as in years past. We just blocked them out and froze for a later grind.
Last winter we had 8 that we killed that ranged anywhere from 180# to 260#, more than we needed so we offered a couple to some friends (Mexican) for their help. I wish I would have video'd this ol' boy workin the knife!!! I have never in my life seen someone handle and work a knife as this guy did. I have some knives that are used in a kill plant that an ex girl friend's father gave to me that resemble the block knives in Posers' link. Well this fella was in love with this blade and said in Mexico a knife like that was very expensive. He was one happy guy when I asked him to take it home with him!
To start off with he wouldn't let us kill them the way we normally do it with a 22 cal.
He picked out a stiff bladed skinning knife with a 8" blade or so and sharpened it, walked into the trailer with all the pigs and just stood there waiting for things to settle down a bit then would ease up beside a pig and in one quick, swift move stick the pig right behind the front leg in and up....
Out of all of them I think it was only one that made a sound and it was the one he missed his target on! Seven of the eight pigs he stuck was right in the heart, as dead center as you could get.
We drug the first one out of the trailer, washed it off and onto the stainless steel table it went! We had a fire built with a large copper pot filled with water, once boiling I would take a coffee can and dip the hot water and pour it over the pig and he would start scraping the hair off. I couldn't quite understand him but if I got a spot to hot he would definitely let me know because the blade would tear the skin almost like you had cut it. After finishing the scalding and scraping we dumped the water out and in went the 2.5 gallon of lard, beer, squeezed oranges, onions, jalapenos and whatever else! This is when I became really amazed, watching him work up this entire pig with a single knife and never once touch a saw of any sort....separated the ribs, every joint the whole nine yards with just a knife. He'd cut a chunk off and toss it into the pot all the way down to the skin, when he started on the skin we would stretch it out and in a fluid motion he would shave the fat off the underside. You could hold it up and literally see the hair follicles it was so thin, he would then slice it into squares or strips and toss it into the pot!! They said the skin with the remaining fat was were the flavoring came from for the authentic carnitas that was simmering in the pot!! They saved every part of the pig except the intestines and the head but another phone call to a friend and they were spoken for (I'm not a chitterling guy)...
We ended up scalding/scraping 3 of them and just skinned the remaining pigs then processed them. As for the carnitas, to be honest they were kinda bland but were not bad at all just not what I am used to I guess, it was for sure a learning experience that I wished I had video'd or taken pictures of.
Sorry for the long read, just the earlier post about the "lost art" made me think of this and the need to share!
