THE BEST PROCESS

[williamlayton]

I am not going tod do it, but the subject came up at coffee.
What is the process for preparing a Hog for smoking or curing & what is the best process for smoking.
Tis Hog killing time.
Blessings

[clodbuster]

I'm not sure what level  youre thinking of starting from but we usually just smoke the hams and bacon.  After the carcass is cut up we salt the cuts for curing/smoking by rubbing in and injecting, and then let the salt and curing
chemicals do their work in a cool place for a week or more adding salt as needed.  Then apply our flavor mix the
same way and begin the smoking/drying process.  This involves hanging the meat in cool smoke for 2 or 3 days. This meat is preserved by the chemicals and smoke but not cooked in any way.  The smoking process involves very light amount of smoke and temps building up to around 100 degrees in the smokehouse.  The ham is paraboiled before baking or frying.  Bacon just gets sliced and fried.

[billy_56081]

WL I'd love to come join you. It has been a few years since I killed any hogs. THe last few times to Texas the money was a little tight so I took the kids and let them shoot while I just enjoyed the hospitality.

[williamlayton]

Clodbuster
That was about the way I recalled.
Butchered the hog to individual cuts and then the curing process.
The smoking was not the way I remember it---but it was not smoking to cooked.
Seems, best I remember, that there was no parboiling----
Lordy that was so long ago and I was young----I WAS YOUNG? What a thought!
Blessings

[clodbuster]

WL  the parboiling is part of the cooking process just before you eat it not part of the preserving.
Getting ready (or better said) fixin' to set a 4 gallon batch of apple cider to workin tomorrow.

[williamlayton]

Dang boy---cider and ribs.
Tip one for me.
Blessings

[subdjoe]

First, get yourself an old cookbook...

Here is a page of links.

How to Cure Pork

Also, check out Feeding America, the Historic American Cookbook Project, browse by date and pick books from the 1820s to 1880s.  Most will have ways of curing, salting, and smoking pork.

[subdjoe]

WL  the parboiling is part of the cooking process just before you eat it not part of the preserving.
Getting ready (or better said) fixin' to set a 4 gallon batch of apple cider to workin tomorrow.

When you get hard freezes, do you set it out at night and then strain out the ice in the morning?