[OFB Cafe] Photographers?

[Chris Olson]

From: Fred A. Miller 
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 7:50 PM
To: An Open Discussion Forum on Just About Everything,Especially for Techies. 
Subject: Re: [OFB Cafe] Photographers?

> Normally true, but with a Russian, removing the gonads ASAP and dressing 
> the hog makes the biggest difference.

Hmmm...... Interesting.  I've been butchering animals pretty much all my life and in my experience it don't matter what sort of mammal it is - beef, pork, deer, elk, what have you - if the testes are still hangin' in the sack the animal has testosterone in its system and the meat is tough.  That's why we turn bulls into steers, boars into barrows, and so on, if we're growing 'em for meat.  I guess I've never seen where removing the testes after the fact is going to accomplish the desired result.

> Cut the bore up, and remove as much fast as possible, which normally isn't very much.

You mean boar, not bore, right?

Remove what?  Fat, you mean?  I'll agree that wild pigs are woefully lean, and rarely do they make good cuts.  And that's what I said - they're like leather.

Every pig I've ever butchered, even 150 lb shoats, I cut up the same way - I save the hams and roasts, bone out the loin, cut chops, make three or four cuts thru the ribcage for pork ribs, and the rest make pork sausage out of it, and maybe some bacon if I'm in the mood and got a new sharp blade in the bandsaw.

But my wife and I are sort of pork connoisseurs.  We eat 2-3 meals per week, on average, containing some type of pork cut.  In my experience butchering pigs, you save ALL the fat.  You can trim the fat later, after cooking, but pork is woefully dry for cooking if it's too lean.  And we've never really found anything that can replace the fat for cooking that doesn't wreck the flavor of a nice cut.

> I then marinate the meat for 2 days before b-que over briquets and hickory.

I guess the only pork cuts I or my wife have ever marinated is the roasts, hams, and tenderloins, and we do that just before we cook it with an injector syringe.  Pork is high in saline to begin with so you never want to soak it in any marinade containing salt.  We wash the cuts with clean water then seal them in plastic with our vacuum packager and freeze them immediately if they're not going to be eaten right away.

I'd be interested in learning what your recipe is for your marinade as I may try grilling a pork roast or loin at some point to see how it works.  When we roast pigs on the spit we quarter them and use apple wood chips.
--
Chris