The Other White Meat

Well, now the freezer is full. For Christmas, Jerry's mom got us a half of a steer (which Jerry's brother raised). That filled the freezer pretty full. Then in December Jerry bought a whole hog and we picked up the meat from that on Saturday. Well, except for the bacon and a couple of the steaks which weren't ready yet. We decided that since we bought the whole thing, we wanted everything but the oink! The only thing we didn't keep were the intestines, feet and head. I didn't want chitlins and pig feet, and we didn't know anyone who ate them. Jerry's friend who keeps us in wonderful produce (and the grower of ALL THOSE SWEET POTATOES!) wanted the heart and liver, so those were for him. Jerry and I are curing the hams ourselves. We are flying by the seat of our pants on this, as we've never done it before. We cut one of the hams in half because they are 20 pounds each, and instead of curing one of the halves, I put a spice rub on it and it is smoking on the grill right now for dinner tonight. I would have put a picture of that on here along with the ones below but, um, my spice rub kind of caught fire and while I'm sure the roast inside will be delicious, it doesn't look too pretty! I told Jerry it just had a protective shell on it while it finished cooking! Maybe I'll be brave and post a picture of the charred protected roast for you when it's done. Maybe.

Here is the half of the ham that we are curing. That's sugar cure on it right now. We'll rinse that off this evening, inject it with liquid cure, and then rub more curing salt on it before wrapping it up and letting it do it's thing.


Same goes for this one, only this is the whole one - the 20-pounder. It doesn't look that large here, but it is!




Here is the fat rendering in my pot for lard. And cracklins. Yum!