This past year I took the plunge and raised my first hogs. Two berk/duroc crosses were bought in March and at the end of December (that’s the soonest my help would have time to do them) we butchered them. The smallest had a hanging weight of 395. We did not weigh the larger of the two, but he was easily over 400 hanging.
I have hunted for years and never liked the idea of someone else processing my deer, so I have done a lot of deer. Usually, I do a lot of jerky, an italian sausage, and summer sausage. That’s what we will eat, so I don’t mess with anything else…other than the tenderloins…those are always eaten panfried in butter as a sort of toast to the year and hoping for a great season next year.
I was fairly confident I could process a hog but to be on the safe side I asked an old friend who had been a hog farmer on a large operation for years to give me a hand and lend his expertise. In exchange for his and his son’s assistance, I offered them the second hog. Everything went smooth and I have been working of the sausage, bacon and hams every since.
I recently discovered Waltons Inc. and man am I glad I did…wish I would have years ago. I look forward to learning more in the future.

The basics are the same. All animals of four legs have he same cuts in the same location basically, but with a hog I wanted to be more careful. With a deer, if I mess up a cut…oh well, it goes into sausage grindings typically anyway. With my hogs, I wanted the hams cut a certain way, the chops cut a certain way, and, of course, you do not want to mess up any bacon! I was much more careful about where I put the knife, let’s say. The skinning (we didn’t mess with scalding) was slightly different. It took a lot more knife work to separate the skin from the fat, as I wanted all of the fat I could on the meat so that I could choose how much fat was left on the cuts and because I both rendered lard and used it for deer sausage. The easiest way I found was to cut around the feet and then use a gut hook to run slits down the legs and down the body. Once I had that done, I went back up to the top and held the knife as tight to the skin as I could and just let the knife ride down the skin as I pulled. With a razor-sharp knife, this is pretty simple.
Overall, I was pretty impressed with how easy it was. The biggest obstacle was the size. I had built a meat pole with two stations and a hand winch for each station. Hand winches were fine for a 150 lb deer…they were not enough for a 400 lb hog. I will be upgrading to electric winches for the next time, even though I don’t have plans to ever get to 400 lbs again. I have a sub-compact Kubota tractor that I had planned on using to move the carcass from the kill area to the meat pole and it was very nearly outclasses by the 400 lb hogs. The bucket could lift them but rolling 400 lbs of dead weight into a bucket is not easy. So, instead I ended up tying them by the rear legs to the bucket and lifting them like that, which resulted in the heads not clearing the ground. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just not how I had imagined it going. The first hog I gutted laying on the ground…this is NOT the way to do it. Gutting a deer, you have a pretty clear path inside the chest even when laying on its side. With a hog, there is a LOT of fat that covers your view while working in there. When you get them up and then gut, you still have the fat to contend with but most of the things you don’t want to cut into fall down into the chest cavity and give you a better view. If I had it to do over again (which I will next winter), I would take the head off before gutting and then the guts will simply fall out of the neck when you cut it loose.
Anyone that has processed a deer can do a hog as long as they take into account the scale difference.

After butchering our hogs, I had 6 boneless hams to contend with. Having never cured a ham before, I was a little worried I would not be able to make a ham that is as delicious as what we had always bought in the store. After searching around for recipes and tips online, I stumbled across Walton’s Inc. and decided to go with the California ham spice along with sweeter than sweet. Two hams went into the freezer but I still wasn’t happy. They had a good flavor but neither of them made me want to eat the entire ham when I pulled them out of the smoker. On the last one, I decided I had to do something different. I added slightly more California ham spice than was called for (half a teaspoon more or so), injected it, and let it brine for five days. When I pulled it out, I decided with this one I would try some brown sugar on it while it smoked. I rubbed brown sugar inside of it before I rolled it up and stuffed it inside a ham net and then slathered the wet ham with brown sugar. I then let it sit overnight in the fridge before tossing it on the smoker. This time I went very light on the smoke. When I pulled that ham out and slicedthe first piece off…I could…not…stop! Absolutely delicious. Even my wife, who is not as big of a fan of ham as I am, took a bite, her eyes got big, and said, “Ohhh, that’s a good ham.” So, I now have 3 more hams defrosting and they will get the same treatment. Thanks for the great product, Walton’s!

I have had a C*****s grinder for the last 10 years or so. I believe it is a 575 watt model, though I can’t remember for sure. I am thinking that it is a #8. It is well past time to upgrade but I am a little confused about the motor size. My grinder, assuming it is 575 watts, should be 3/4 horsepower. Assuming all of this, what would be the benefits of going up to a #12 that still has the same size motor? I would assume that both hp and grinder size have a bearing on how well the grinder works. So, in my mind, going up in size but keeping the same size motor isn’t going to speed things up much if any.
For some context, I process 2-3 deer and 1-2 hogs per year. So what are your suggestions?

I asked about a boneless ham video and thought I might share some pictures of what mine come out looking like. Basically, I have taken the boned meat, cured it flat and then kind of rolled it then put it in a ham net. There can be a hole in the center but, as long as I get the vast majority of the fat trimmed off, it will somewhat bond back together making a complete ham. I have looked into other options but they don’t seem to work well for the home processor. This is the best picture I have right now. I have one coming out of the brine 5 days from now and if you would like I can take more detailed pictures of what it looks like after the brine, in the netting and after smoking.

Decided to add some pictures and details on my final ham. As mentioned before, I used the sweeter than sweet cure. After curing, I slather it down with a heavy coating of brown sugar and stuff it into the netting. Basically, when it goes into my makeshift netting stuffer I sort of roll it up so that the side with the least fat is touching. Once in the net, I shake the ham down so that it is nice and tight. After this it goes in the smoker. I am not really particular on the smoking schedule. I start low and work my way up until I hit 145. In the last couple of pictures you can see that the ham does not seal completely back together, but it will hold together well enough to make me happy.

![PXL_20210305_223714739.jpg]
(/assets/uploads/files/1614986903518-pxl_20210305_223714739.jpg)

I have had a C*****s grinder for the last 10 years or so. I believe it is a 575 watt model, though I can’t remember for sure. I am thinking that it is a #8. It is well past time to upgrade but I am a little confused about the motor size. My grinder, assuming it is 575 watts, should be 3/4 horsepower. Assuming all of this, what would be the benefits of going up to a #12 that still has the same size motor? I would assume that both hp and grinder size have a bearing on how well the grinder works. So, in my mind, going up in size but keeping the same size motor isn’t going to speed things up much if any.
For some context, I process 2-3 deer and 1-2 hogs per year. So what are your suggestions?

Thank you. It tastes pretty good too. I gave some to a neighbor to get his opinion on it. He has been smoking his own country ham for a number of years and prefers country ham. He came over a few days later and said, “Well, your ham is good, but I hate to tell you this but it tastes like you bought it at a store.” To him, that was a bad thing. To me, that was a good thing.

Decided to add some pictures and details on my final ham. As mentioned before, I used the sweeter than sweet cure. After curing, I slather it down with a heavy coating of brown sugar and stuff it into the netting. Basically, when it goes into my makeshift netting stuffer I sort of roll it up so that the side with the least fat is touching. Once in the net, I shake the ham down so that it is nice and tight. After this it goes in the smoker. I am not really particular on the smoking schedule. I start low and work my way up until I hit 145. In the last couple of pictures you can see that the ham does not seal completely back together, but it will hold together well enough to make me happy.

![PXL_20210305_223714739.jpg]
(/assets/uploads/files/1614986903518-pxl_20210305_223714739.jpg)

I asked about a boneless ham video and thought I might share some pictures of what mine come out looking like. Basically, I have taken the boned meat, cured it flat and then kind of rolled it then put it in a ham net. There can be a hole in the center but, as long as I get the vast majority of the fat trimmed off, it will somewhat bond back together making a complete ham. I have looked into other options but they don’t seem to work well for the home processor. This is the best picture I have right now. I have one coming out of the brine 5 days from now and if you would like I can take more detailed pictures of what it looks like after the brine, in the netting and after smoking.

After butchering our hogs, I had 6 boneless hams to contend with. Having never cured a ham before, I was a little worried I would not be able to make a ham that is as delicious as what we had always bought in the store. After searching around for recipes and tips online, I stumbled across Walton’s Inc. and decided to go with the California ham spice along with sweeter than sweet. Two hams went into the freezer but I still wasn’t happy. They had a good flavor but neither of them made me want to eat the entire ham when I pulled them out of the smoker. On the last one, I decided I had to do something different. I added slightly more California ham spice than was called for (half a teaspoon more or so), injected it, and let it brine for five days. When I pulled it out, I decided with this one I would try some brown sugar on it while it smoked. I rubbed brown sugar inside of it before I rolled it up and stuffed it inside a ham net and then slathered the wet ham with brown sugar. I then let it sit overnight in the fridge before tossing it on the smoker. This time I went very light on the smoke. When I pulled that ham out and slicedthe first piece off…I could…not…stop! Absolutely delicious. Even my wife, who is not as big of a fan of ham as I am, took a bite, her eyes got big, and said, “Ohhh, that’s a good ham.” So, I now have 3 more hams defrosting and they will get the same treatment. Thanks for the great product, Walton’s!

Placed my order this morning. I went with the dry rub, sweeter than sweet, bacon taste booster and some California ham spice, along with Suregel, sodium erythorbate, and finally cold phosphate. Thank you all for the help.

Explain to me what you mean with the sterilization?

One more question, I see the tutorial in making whole bone-in ham, is there anything different in making boneless hams?

So you add the taste booster after the injection/brining?
I am fairly patient so the dry rub probably won’t both me much. Thank you for the help.

What are your experiences with the Dry bacon rub? Does the flavor penetrate as deeply as with injection/brining?