Feeder Pigs

Thanks Carol. I love those dishes! We have had them for About 12 years. I'm pretty sure we got them at Wal-Mart.

so lucky said:

You know, I had never heard of frying bacon in water, till something on America's Test Kitchen last week. I think I'm gonna try it this morning.

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I never saw that on ATK. We have been doing it for years. It cooks the bacon through & once it's cooked through, its easier to regulate the crispness without burning it.

I do the same thing with onions. I put a couple tablespoons of water in the pan, with the onions, cover & simmer over the lowest flame. When the water has cooked down, the onions are translucent. Then I continue to cook over medium heat until the onions are the right amount of carmelization for the dish I'm using them in.

This morning I cooked bacon. After I drained the grease, the pan was covered with bacon residue. I added the onions & water, swirled them around the pan, to deglaze & simmered in low heat until the water was gone.

Here is what it looks like:

The issue that I have with boiling the bacon first is that you loose the use of the rendered fat wich is, as everyone knows, it makes everything taste better fried in it. We do boil the pork breakfast sausage links first, then brown them .

The issue that I have with boiling the bacon first is that you loose the use of the rendered fat wich is, as everyone knows, it makes everything taste better fried in it. We do boil the pork breakfast sausage links first, then brown them .

bobm said:

The issue that I have with boiling the bacon first is that you loose the use of the rendered fat wich is, as everyone knows, it makes everything taste better fried in it. We do boil the pork breakfast sausage links first, then brown them .

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I don't actually boil the bacon. I put a small amount of water in the pan, cover & simmer over the lowest flame, which essentially steams the bacon. Once all the water has cooked off, I fry the bacon, which does leave rendered fat in the pan.

This morning I made a 1 pound package of organic, nitrate/nitrite free bacon, from Trader Joe's (we eat a couple pieces each & freeze several portions for future breakfasts). When I finished frying the bacon & removed it from the pan, I poured about 1/2 cup of rendered fat into our bacon grease can, that we keep in our refrigerator, for cooking.

We picked up our pig today! Live weight was 204 pounds, hanging weight was 159 pounds. We had the bacon and hams smoked. They cut the hams in half, but they are still big!

We thawed out a package of bacon and had breakfast for supper. My husband said it is the best bacon he ever had. I asked him if he still thought his wife was crazy for wanting to raise pigs!

bobm said:

The issue that I have with boiling the bacon first is that you loose the use of the rendered fat wich is, as everyone knows, it makes everything taste better fried in it. We do boil the pork breakfast sausage links first, then brown them .

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I fry my eggs in rendered bacon fat. Just store it in a plastic food storage container in the fridge and it will last forever and make your eggs, your pancakes and your okra taste fantastic.

That bacon looks meaty! I'm coming over for breakfast!

Mary

WooHoo! Congrats, Baymule! It looks great! Yes, that bacon does look meaty - just like ours. And oh so tasty.

We ran out of Wright's Liquid Smoke. I don't remember where we got it, but can't find it around here. All the other smoke products have other additives.

I have ordered Wright's Liquid Smoke from Amazon & we are waiting for it to arrive so we can make more of our bacon. YUM! I'm so looking forward to it!

If you are going to raise your own hogs, why not build a cheap smoker? You have some of the best wood down there to smoke with. Plus smoking is real easy as long as you have time to feed the fire once in a while. You can smoke hogs, chickens, fish, etc.....

Bay I know it is about knowing how your food was fed and raised, but have you figured out cost yet?

Nyboy said:

Bay I know it is about knowing how your food was fed and raised, but have you figured out cost yet?

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Since I have been there , done that for most of my live... and I know that Baymule will give you a much more honest answer since she ran a business as well as had tons of experiece in growing her own. However, most people will only offer up just the cost of the feed and say how inexpensive their animal was to raise and that they know what their animal was fed and raised. they ignore the purchase price or the cost of production costs of the animal. Proportional costs for their land, power,fuel, water, housing, property taxes, HO Insurance, amortised costs of equipment, specialised housing, pen, pasture feed and maintenance, their own labor, processing costs by others / processing equipent, etc. Never mind the EPA rules and regulations and their costs, OSHA rules and regulations and their costs, Workman's Comp rules and regulation costs. In my case over the years ' individual case and just to compare price only but ignoring how good the taste was, know what was fed and how it was raised ... it penciled out that sometimes it was just above the grocery store's price or much more often depending on the year's production costs 2 - 4 X the grocery store price. I hope that this helps in understanding small scale backyard farming ...