And then you have serrano, which is salted (dry salt) and stored for about a month and a half at low temperatures (remember, pigs used to get butchered at the end of November), then hung out to dry for between six and nine months (by the end of the drying period and under traditional methods, daytime temperatures will be in the 30sC/90sF). Prosciutto, Parma ham and jambon de Bayonne are similar to serrano but suffer from wet climates: they can’t be dried as thoroughly in those areas as in Spain’s ham-drying areas, either the traditional ones in Teruel or the newer ones in Salamanca. They tend to be saltier than the Spanish version.
My daughter is splitting a pig with some friends of hers. She’s promised to invite us over to taste the meat when she gets it.
The pig’s name is Babe, and she offered to introduce us (she goes out to check on the pig’s progress occasionally) but I am not sure I want to be on a first-name basis. Call me sentimental.
If it works out well, we are considering going halvesies on a cow with her. I’ve got the freezer space, I will be interested in how this all works out for you.
Regards,
Shodan
This was an episode of Dirty Jobs With Mike Rowe once. It was the only episode I am aware of that started with a warning that it might be disturbing to some viewers. The reason I assume was because the actually slaughtered a cow on camera and then butchered it.
Please, please tell us it was followed by a barbecue.
Regards,
Shodan
If your going to name a pig, name it something like ham, bacon, sausage or choppy or something.
I used to know country families where they would do a deer, wild turkeys, and many fish also.
Not that I recall. I’m pretty sure they just packaged it up and gave it to the customer.
People seem to have answered this assuming you’re going to do it yourself. While some people do, others will have the slaughterhouse take care of it – they may do their own curing and sausage making, or they may send the meat out to another facility. It’ll be another option on your cut sheet, when you’re talking to them about how you want your share cut.
You’ll probably have to pick up the fresh frozen cuts and the cured ones at different times.
Generally the meat is somewhat aged when you get it, at least if you’re not using travelling slaughter facilities. The animal will be killed, gutted, split, and hung for some time at controlled cold but not frozen temperatures – hence the term “hanging weight”. After it’s aged a few days (time depends on species, don’t let anybody age your lamb as if it were beef, it’ll taste awful) it then gets cut and as desired further processed.
That won’t be the sort of long aging some people are talking about doing for steaks, though. But you probably don’t want that for all of your cuts, even if you want steaks and hams put through the longer aging process.
Porky was a cruel name to give a baby pig. No wonder he developed a speech impediment.
One at a time? 
There is a Mexican restaurant with two locations down in Tucson – the older since 1922 – that has carne seca. Strips of beef are dried on the roof* then shredded and blended with tomatoes, onion, green chilis and other stuff and served up, either as a platter or in an enchilada. I stop there at every opportunity.
*I don’t know how they keep the ravens away.
Why buy a cow when you can just go to the supermarket?
I’ve gotten out of this thread that the price may be similar, but the quality will likely be better. And I like the idea of having the cuts that I want on hand rather than purchasing piecemeal at the grocery. And perhaps more importantly, going in with the neighbors on the purchase builds good will and stronger relationships, things that I have come to appreciate as I’ve gotten older.
This, and not participating in Big Agro. My pig, Tilda Swinedon, lives on a farm where she has freedom to move about, is treated humanely, and has been raised organically.
For me it’s this ^. Free range, organically raised pork and beef is, as a rule, more tender and flavorful than meat from those raised in cramped feedlots. It also supports local farmers and helps keep them in business. That in itself makes it worthwhile to me.
When I was a teen and we lived on the hobby farm, my dad would get a piglet from a farmer who attended the same church and we’d feed it over the year and then butcher it, usually in the middle of winter. Then he’d take it to a country butcher who would cut it up for us.
I was the one who cared for the pigs in the barn. I never much liked the animals themselves.
Then towards the end, the price of pigs skyrocketed and the farmer wasn’t willing to part with piglets anymore.
We also raised chickens, but my dad would butcher and clean them himself.
I think we got a side of beef one year but I don’t remember much other than the multiple white Styrofoam coolers arriving…
We split our quarter with the neighboring couple on Friday. It was a mixed quarter, and it came frozen, wrapped in plastic and paper, and marked. Each couple got 26 lbs of ground beef and about 50 lbs of various other cuts. They were going to feed the liver to their dog. I said hold on, I’ll take that. We paid around $650 total. I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’m happy we didn’t purchase any more than what we did because we had just enough space in the freezer.
That’s not economically rational, though. They should go out of business so that they can do something more economically productive. I would counter that they’re giving you a product that you like for a mutually agreeable price, and that they’re in business because they know how to be profitable at it, not because some random customer tries to help them stay in business.
Um, OK. “Random customers” and agreeable prices for a product is kinda how capitalism works. Part of the agreement in this case is that the farmer will not use antibiotics or pesticides on/around his livestock and will feed them only grass and hay. In turn, I will help offset the additional cost of raising the animal organically. Perfectly economically rational.
The amount of time, attention, skill, and work that’s needed to make a go of farming (or needed even to not make a go of farming, all too often) means that most farmers could probably make more money if they’d gone into some other line of business in the first place, if that’s what you mean by “more economically productive”.
Of course, if too many farmers do that, you’re going to get awfully hungry.
If the current general progression increases, eventually nearly all food production will be in the hands of a handful of very large corporations. It’ll be interesting, for some values of the word “interesting”, to see what happens to food prices at that point. It’s already obvious what will happen to flavor.