Lard Recap

It all started with the lard from our newly butchered hog....We cut it into chunks and placed it in a cast iron dutch oven over a very low heat.......

After hours of simmering and stirring, the bits of golden fat rise to the top as the pot fills with the oil it has released....

Once the yummy golden nuggets are sizzling and crisp, it's time to scoop them off the top of the pot to let them drain....

Lightly salted, the cracklins can be sprinkled into a fresh slice of bread folded over and eaten as they are.  They are a decadent snack...but winter is coming!  Tonight they are going into cornbread.

This cast iron pool of lovliness reflects several months of hard work and God's blessings. 

It began on March 12 and the rendered lard (about 3 qts) you see above will be turned into soap made with love by me.  No wonder I love fall so much!  It is the season of reaping the blessings that God has given us; followed by the season of giving!

Hog Processing and Curing Meat

After fighting to keep piggy in her pen for one last time, coupled with the fact that she is not pregnant as we had hoped....Wednesday morning we made the decision that the time was right to butcher her.  We started the project at 6 am, and soon realized that she was much bigger than the boar we had butchered a few weeks back.  LH fired the shot and got the bleeding going, then together he, Curtis, and I got her onto the wagon to move to the big sweet gum tree where the winch was hanging.  She weight taped at 240 pounds but I think she was bigger than that.  The 2 boys alone could not drag her.

It is always hard work getting a large animal from the barn to the freezer, especially when you still have to get all of your other chores done.  We have been working on the meat since Wednesday, and as of today we should have it all well underway.  We're not doing as much cutting on her as we did the boar.  There are no chops or steaks.  The cuttings were made as follows:

• 13#10 oz for sausage making (deer season opens today)
• 11# Loin
• 19# Roasts
• 40# Hams
• 28# Bacon
• 13# 2oz Ribs
• 1# 8 oz Canadian bacon
• 4# Hocks
• 2# Salt Pork
• 5# Fat to be rendered for lard

Of course we also got about 10# of dog bones, plus the heart, liver, kidneys, and spleen for dog food...3 days worth of food for our 5 dogs.

We started the bacon first.  I used a mixture of Tender Quick and Brown Sugar as a dry cure.  We will rotate the slabs twice a day and in about a week they should be ready for the smoker....

Next is the salt pork.  This is done with a brine and then it will be smoked once the cure has finished.  Salt pork is excellent for flavoring green beans.

The Canadian Bacon is made from the tiny tenderloin strips inside the back of the hog.  This is my first attempt at Canadian style bacon.  We'll see how it works out, especially since it is one of our favorite pizza toppings.

And then there's the lard.  All the fat trimmings were saved so that we could render the lard.  I plan to render the lard to use in a batch of my goat milk soap.  Lard that we render ourselves, from a pig that we raised ourselves, mixed with milk that we hand milked from our goat herd and turned into a luxurious soap.  This will be part of our Christmas baskets.

Speaking of Christmas, the hams and hocks are still waiting to be cured.  That's my project for the afternoon.  I'd better get busy!

The Holidays are Coming!

Every year in October a nearby town hosts a festival called the Yamboree. By the end of October the sweet potatoes are sold at roadside stands all over East Texas. During the year we don't eat a lot of them, but over the holidays we go through a lot! This weekend I was busy canning and put up 11 quarts of the beauties.

Of course because we don't waste anything here, I also canned the 2 quarts of simple syrup that I had left from the potatoes. I can use this later on with other fruits.I had enough mushrooms left to make 1 pint, so I put it in the canner with a load of potatoes. Big mistake due to the different processing times, much of the liquid left the jar of mushrooms. It sealed fine, we'll just need to use this jar first.

Speaking of mushrooms....I stumbled upon these beauties at the store this week...what a haul for less than 10 bucks!The mushrooms on the left are washed and sliced baby bellas. They went straight into the dryer and looked like this at the end of the day:These dried mushrooms are fantastic to have on hand and keep for years if properly stored.

Next I got to work on the buttons. They had to be rinsed thoroughly, then soaked in cold water for 10 minutes to get them ready to can.

They are canned with a little citric acid in the water and are pressure canned for 45 minutes for pints.All of these sweet potatoes and mushrooms will be great to have on hand with the upcoming holidays. It's beginning to feel like fall!! By the way, 5 pints of button mushrooms, a pound of dried baby bellas and 11 quarts of sweet potatoes....for about $20 total!