Slaughtered a hog today. It might have been around 200 pounds live weight. Yorkshire breed. Pretty good amount of fat and a really nice set of loins. I decided this time to try my hand at making bacon!! So I have maybe 20 pounds of bacon being cured right now. I'm also making about 4 pounds of canadian bacon. I'll know in a week's time how it turns out.

We also ground up a bunch and will make that into italian and breakfast sausages tomorrow.

ok, it's final, I'm moving in with Dave...

This I must taste...Texas-Canadian bacon.

Try doing an apple wood smoke on some bacon. Mmmmmm-good.

I was thinking of hickory, Greene. I don't have any apple wood and don't want to buy any, but I have plenty of hickory and love the flavour.

Are the children helping again? Do you cook with lard AND tallow?

I set you up, Dave. Now I can say...Hickory?? aw, nuts!

Just for the record, the first time I ate smoked ham, the real deal, I went about my business after lunch working as usual. But I kept going outside to see if something was burning. I was smelling smoke. Nope, no smoke out there.

Two hours later I figured out the 'smoke' smell had permeated my fingers, even after several hand washings with lemon soap I could still smell the lovely smoke.

I don't think I've ever HAD actual, for-real, smoked, no-water-added, ham !

I can't wait to taste it, greene.

texaskitty111, they sure did help, as always, and Trish was fairly well involved this time, too. It was harder than doing a cow, in my opinion, because we did it all in one day. With the cow we're done by lunchtime because at that point the meat ages. With pigs you do it all at once without stopping. My back is killing me but I feel really good knowing what we accomplished.

As always, the oldest ones were at the peak of their game and did great. A well oiled machine working perfectly together to get a difficult job done. Everyone doing their part.

Maybe having to do hogs all in one day is why neighbors got together to do that. Just think if you and Trish had to do it all by yourselves............well, I live close by.

I had pork roast for dinner and it was quite good, I can just imagine how much better yours will be. Bobby Flay says that hickory wood leaves a bitter after taste and that apple wood is better. However, I will not turn up my nose at either, I love bacon!

texaskitty111 said:Maybe having to do hogs all in one day is why neighbors got together to do that.

I think you're right about this.

mcash70 said:Bobby Flay say that hickory wood leaves a bitter after taste and that apple wood is better.

How interesting. Ok, I'll buy a bag of apple wood chips in town. I definitely don't want a bitter aftertaste to my bacon. Thanks!

In my neck of the woods (Pacific NW), the usual smoking chips are either alder or apple (both plentiful) with hickory available at the store. A friend who hails from the south prefers cherry for his BBQ pork. I think to some degree it's a regional choice.

I have an apple tree that is dying and will have to be cut down. Too bad I'm so far away. I have not noticed a bitter after taste with hickory though, although I haven't smoked a ham or bacon, but I've done turkeys and chickens with hickory. Are you making any saucages? like Brats, blood sausage, or liver sausage? Do you have any mesquite down there? That's good for smoking too. I remember when I was a kid going to my neighbors to help butcher a big hog. I can still see that darn thing lying there while they craped the hair off.

I've done a lot of smoking with hickory, including fish, and they were all excellent. But I've never smoked pork before and I have a lot riding on this so I'm not taking chances (this time!) I bought a couple bags of apple wood chips at my local hardware store so I'm all set for now. I also have some apple trees but they are small enough that I don't want to take any wood off them yet. We do have mesquite around here but none in my general vicinity.

I'm not making any cased sausages this time. All the sausage will be the loose kind (patties and crumbles). With the next hog we're doing next week, I might save some intestines for sausage use.

I have skimmed through this thread again, but didnt find an answer to this:
How big of a freezer do you need to freeze one whole cow? I have just bought a new fridge with a 7.32 cf freezer, so would like to know if that would at least hold 1/4 cow.

And Dave, did you get that other pig slaughtered. How was the bacon you smoked from the last one?????

texaskitty111 said:How big of a freezer do you need to freeze one whole cow? I have just bought a new fridge with a 7.32 cf freezer, so would like to know if that would at least hold 1/4 cow.

We have a pretty good sized freezer. I'm not sure exactly how many cf it has but it's about 6 feet long, 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide (rough estimate here) and we have no trouble fitting an entire cow plus all our other stuff in there.

mcash70 said:And Dave, did you get that other pig slaughtered. How was the bacon you smoked from the last one?????

We haven't slaughtered the other one but his days are definitely numbered. I'm starting to look at him with ham and bacon in my mind. It'll happen within the next couple weeks.

The bacon was (and still is) amazing. I shared it with a neighbor who told me it's the best bacon he's ever had in his life. The success was so great that I'm planning on making the bacon again next pig, PLUS I'm going to make the entire loins into canadian bacon and I will also cure into ham all the rump roasts. My confidence level on curing pork has risen from this experience and I'm looking forward to the next one.

If it wasnt such a big hassle from the gov. you could go into business and sell some. (Dave thinking: someone would have to take it from my cold, dead hands )