The proximity of Torm's farm to South Marion Meats reduces the stress on the animals when they are brought in to be processed. There is a staging area where the Mangalitsa had a chance to relax and get one last wallow in the mud. He was then moved into the chute where a .22 caliber round ended it quick and clean. Here is Torm with his Mangalitsa.
This is us lining the wall in the slaughter house watching the hair removal process after being bled, washed, then steeped in a hot water bath @ 150F for 7 minutes, then put into the hair removal machine that rolls the pig around and the hair falls off. Then it's the blow torch treatment, and a final touch up for the feet, ears, and any other bits of hair that need to be removed. Heath Putnam from Wooly Pigs, basically the father of the american mangalitsa movement, let me know what Torm was doing a couple of months ago and we have been looking forward this ever since. Check out Heath's blog and there is a picture of us with the pig, of course Heath is ragging on us for going to this place with our clogs on, really could have used some rain boots. Notice Torm on the end, the only one with boots and a butcher apron, I think he's done this a couple times before. Next time we will be prepared.
The pig started out at 300lbs and ended up at 223lbs after being processed. We moved on to the cold storage area where we got a peak at South marion Meats inventory. There were rows of split cattle, racks of offal, basic production pigs, and lots of curing pork belly and hams waiting to be smoked. When you put 4 chefs in a meat locker this is usually what happens. And yes, Aaron's crappy mustache is back.
We took a lot of video as well that we are in the process of editing. For those of you interested in where your food really comes form this will be posted in the next day or so. Other than the kill shot you will see the entire process from start to finish.
A tip on slaughter - if you can, get them to stun the pig with electricity. There's less chance they'll hit the pig in the shoulder with the bullet, causing damage to the neck.
ReplyDeleteAt our plant in Central Washington, if they shoot the pig, they cut the head off and you lose the jowls, which is a very expensive loss.
Another tip - you can have the guy who does the slaughter do any cutting required for the inspector to see what he wants to inspect (e.g. glands). If your slaughterhouse guy cares, he'll do a better job cutting away the tissue to expose stuff. If he gives the inspector a free hand to cut into the pig to expose the jowls, the inspector will normally hack away and ruin stuff.