Hog Processing Project

[processhead]

Dave in AZ Yes, lots of common ground between bacon and ham processes.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

Denny O I take mine up to 140 /145 as well. It fries up great. It takes awhile to smoke though, since you don’t want higher temps that will render the fat.

[Dave in AZ]

Denny O yep, fries great. You can’t really tell difference after frying between 135f product and 145f. I did 135f once, but had to keep smoker at 135 to 145, and so it took just as long almost.

[processhead]

Deepwoodsbutcher said in Hog Processing Project:

processhead 18 hours is an investment to be sure. Looks like it paid off. I have been doing smaller boneless hams at home instead of whole hams since I lack the patience. I may have to try a whole ham one of these days, I just love how they turn out.

I went back and forth several times trying to decide between doing the whole ham and doing smaller boneless portions.

Overall, think the total time investment probably works out to be less when doing the whole ham. On the negative side, the level of effort for a big ham is significant though just from the weight and bulk.

Just one more reason why the next hog that we butcher will be a 220 lb pig instead of a 300 lb one.

[Dave in AZ]

Denny O Denny, a follow up for you. I ended up doing my bacon to 131f, 133f, 139f, and 141f tonight. 4 pieces. 10 hours, and that one thick piece stayed at 131 for the last 4 hours!! Smoker temp was 175 whole last 4 hours.
So 140 2 hrs, 150 1 hr, 164 3 hrs, 175 4 hrs.
It was at 130 at 6 hr point, which is my target max time out of fridge to reach 130f. But just couldn’t get it much higher, despite 4 more hours at 175! So, it turns out I DO have some 130s bacon! Plenty long, 130f needs 117 minutes and I had twice that. Crazy, but have to get to sleep at 0230, work tomorrow…

[Denny O]

Dave in AZ It seems that I get mine to about 135 and the bacon heads into a stall then as it will not move in temp. I’m usually pulling all 5 bellies then. I don’t ever eat them that way as we always fry or grill them later.

[calldoctoday]

processhead Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

[Denny O]

processhead And now back to the story.

[cdavis]

processhead your ham turned out fantastic. Congrats

[processhead]

cdavis Thanks Charlie.