How to clean Pig after kill?
by admin on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 | 5 Comments
Ill be off to go pig hunting in a few weeks, looking for the best/easiest way to clean a pig if I should be so lucky as to get a kill. Links to websites with diagrams/pictures would be greatly appreciated. I have a knife w/ guthook to start, just very unsure about skinning and trying to keep bladder intact. Any tips/tricks would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
With a sponge and warm water and some soap
There are directions with pictures and all
just search google “cleaning wild pig”
—Hope this helps—
Plug up his rectum first then use your gut hook to unzip him clear to his chin. Start with his south end by tying the bladder off. Then tie the colon. Cut through the pelvic bone by using a heavy knife or hatchet you can hammer against with a club or something. Better yet, use a saw if you have one. Don’t go too deep, as you don’t want to be cutting through the gut. After the bone is cut, circumscribe the outside of his bunghole and tail, cutting the tail through the bone from the top, but not quite off. (It will make a good handle for when you pull that end through.) Pull it through the bone. Work on getting his innards out going toward his head. When you reach the diaphragm, use your heavy tools again to cut through his sternum. The diaphragm will be tough, and easier to handle if you cut around it. Considering you put your shot through his boiler room, there will be a lot of blood here, but it won’t hurt to get it on anything. Find his adam’s apple and cut it loose along with the trachea then pull it down through his neck. (Make sure you get all of his windpipe, as that will spoil first.) The heart and lungs can be pulled out towards his rear end and that should about have the field dressing. If you like heart, (sliced thin and fried, you no doubt will) cut it loose and put it in a sack . If you like liver or testicles, do the same, making sure to stay well away from his gall bladder. Leave a good chunk of meat attached there, as that can taint the whole hog. (Its green.) The kidneys ought to be pulled loose along with the corresponding tubes Save the kidneys if you like ‘em. The blood vessels and other vessels running along his spine ought to be pulled loose and cut as short as possible. The best meat on the whole hog will be a couple pieces about the size of your wrist running along the spine on the inside. Cut them out carefully too. That’s the tenderloin. On the other side of the backbone is the back strap, which is where you get loin roasts or pork chops, but he will need skinned first. If you can cut his head clean off, the carcass will drain much better, but if you want a cape for a mount, at least cut as much loose around under his neck skin as possible. At this point, you can take him where its more convenient and can hang him up by the tendons just above his back hooves. Use your gut hook here so you don’t cut the tendons when you cut the skin.
To skin him, unzip his back legs on the underside where the skin is thinnest clear to the cut you have made to expose the tendons. If you have a skinning knife or a roundish knife without much of a point on it, and not overly sharp, its handier. Just keep pulling the skin away, slicing at the line where the meat and skin join. It will take a while, but let the skin fall away till its off. If you removed the head, skin it, too. (Lot of meat on a head.) At the top of his head, above the hump, saw down to his eyes, removing the front of his head like a plate. Using a thin sharp knife, try to get the brain out in one piece without gouging the membrane (you can remove it later). Slice off the jowls (for bacon).Cut off the tongue as far back as possible. The rest of the head can be boiled to make head cheese if you wish. Next, remove the front legs by pulling out and cutting in the natural place. Back legs can be removed the same way, but it isn’t quite so naturally defined. Cut in front of the thigh bone to make easier. You now have manageable pieces. The back straps can be worked out by carefully cutting down along the backbone and up from beneath, using the ribs as a guide. After the back meat is off, the ribs can be disconnected from the backbone using your heavy knife/hatchet with a whack from your club to separate each rib at a time. You now have two racks of ribs. You can cut the bacon off using the ribs for a guide, or leave it for juicy ribs. All this is easier said than done, but not nearly as interesting. For more tender meat, cut across the grain. For butterfly steaks, cut the back straps in slices twice as thick as you want, then slice the slices ALMOST through. Turn upside down, spreading the “almost” slice out so that it lays flat. Now it looks like a butterfly. If you like smoked sausage, buy the casings rather than cleaning them or stuff it in an old sock. If you don’t want it smoked, make patties and forget the casings. Hope you have fun. A few pairs of cloth gloves will help your grip while skinning.
Field dress the hog like you would any other game animal.
Here’s something I found that’s helpful.. well I think it is:
There’s a few parts to it and cleaning a domesticated hog isn’t much different than a wild hog.
ya can find the rest of em here:
This link tells you how to do it.Read the instructions.