How to Butcher a Farm Pig

How to Butcher a Farm Pig 

Please see my related blogs on “How to Cut Up a Slaughtered Pig” and “Growing Livestock at the Fish Farm” by clicking this and this.

Two weeks ago, we decided to dispose one of our three sows. We have the original backyard sow and two younger sows that are ready to mate (both are the sow’s offspring). 

Originally, we planned to keep all the sows and raise piglets for sale. But due to the upcoming maternity leave of one of my keepers, we chose to keep only two sows to reduce workload. We decided to slaughter one of the younger sows, weighing about 65 kilos.

We called in two of my pond workers to do the butchering. The plan is to sell the meat to neighbors and also leave some for us in the bangus farm for use during the holidays.

A day before, my farm overseer and her sister got meat orders from friends and neighbors. They came up with a list - by type of meat and number of kilos for each customer.

A backyard pig owner can sell it live or butcher it for sale of cut meats.

A villager buys an entire live pig (a) to slaughter it for pork cuts to cook for a special event – such as wedding, etc. (b) to roast the entire pig  (“lechon baboy”) (c) resell it to another customer or (d) keep the pig as future sow or boar.  

For household orders, the housewife specifies any of the following pork meat types:

1. “Laman” (Meat) – a generic term that refers to a part consisting of meat with some skin, and fat. This type of meat usually comes from the front part of the pig i.e, pork shoulders (“kasim” in Tagalog) (Boston butt or picnic ham), or from the rear part of the pig, i.e., hips (“pata” or “pigue” in Tagalog) (ham roast or top round).

2. “Ribs” - meat that can be found in the loin/rib part of the pig’s upper midsection. This part can come from the (a) baby back ribs near the spine or (b) the spareribs (side ribs) farther away from the spine toward the belly.

3. "Pork chop" – the back part of the pig with the spine, meat and skin, cut into pieces

4. "Llempo" (pork belly) – from the belly or lower part of the pig’s midsection.

5. "Buto-buto" (bones with some meat morsels attached) – refers to the shoulder blade bone, upper foreleg bone, rump bone, upper backleg bone. Also refers to rib bones sliced off the loin (leaving the meat, fat, and skin). 

This is popular among housewives for cooking “nilagang baboy” (boiled pork soup dish with vegetables) or “sinigang na baboy” (local dish with sour soup with pork and vegetables) since price of “buto-buto” is much cheaper compared to regular pork meat.
 
6. "Paa" (foot) – any of the four legs or hocks, front or rear.
 
7. "Ulo" (Pig head) – entire portion of the head is usually ordered or sold.
 
8. "Igado" (Internal organs) – internal organs such as lungs, heart, liver, spleen, kidney, etc.
 
9. "Lomo" (in our village refers to the pork tenderloin located in the loin portion of the pig’s midsection; in some regions, this may refer to the entire loin section).

Note: This is usually taken by the owner due to its extra tenderness and premium quality; for other backyard raisers, this part is mixed and sold with “igado”.

10. "Kaleskes" (Intestines) – thoroughly cleaned and boiled small intestines; usually mixed with “igado” above.

11. "Bagesen" (intestines) – large intestines, cleaned up and boiled.

12. "Dugo" – blood – used to make “dinuguan” or pork blood stew. No price, but given away or used by the owner himself to make “dinuguan”.

The local butcher, therefore, keeps the above meat parts in mind when he cuts up the whole pig.


Butchering Procedures

Below are the procedures on how to butcher a farm pig:

1. Bring along butchering tools – cutting knife, long knife, meat cleaver or heavy knife, sharpening stone, chopping board, large cooking vat.

2. Set up the large cooking vat near the butchering area. Get firewood and place under the vat. Put water in cooking vat until almost full. Set the wood on fire and let the water heat up inside the vat until it boils.

A large cooking vat with water starting to boil

3. Take out a large table or an old bamboo bench where  butchering and cutting of meat will be done. Sharpen the knives.

4. Take out the pig to be butchered from its pig sty.

5. Kill the pig using a long knife by making a stab on its neck toward the heart.

 A freshly killed pig on a bench (method of kill is shown here for instruction purposes only, actual killing was done earlier)

6. Let the blood come out and gather in a pan. 

Pig blood in a pan (our apologies to readers who may be averse to or squeamish of sight of blood)

7. When the pig is dead, put the body on the butchering table (in our case, it was an old bamboo bench) for dehairing of the skin.

8. Pour hot water on one side of the pig, and using knife, shave off the hair from the skin. Do the dehairing by portions from head to tail, back to foot, until the white dehaired skin appears.

Pouring hot water on unshaved portion and dehairing using knife

9. After finishing one side of the body, dehair the other side.

Dehairing the other side

10. When dehairing is done on all external body parts, thoroughly rinse with hot water.

11. After dehairing and thorough rinse, put the body in a supine position (that is, its back on the surface, head and legs facing up).

Dehaired pig in supine position for slicing of tummy

12, Using a cutting knife, slit the tummy lengthwise from the neck down to the rump, to expose the innards or entrails of the pig (“laman loob”) consisting mainly of the intestines and internal organs. 

Pig innards exposed

13. When the guts are exposed, cut off the internal organs and place in plastic basin. These consist of the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, etc. Note: most of these parts (except liver) are boiled in the large cooking vat before being cut into smaller pieces to meet the customer order for “igado”.

Internal organs cut off in a plastic basin

Liver cut off, sold fresh not boiled

Lungs and other internal organs being boiled in a large cooking vat

14. Cut off the intestines – small ones first, then the large intestines and place in a basin. Note: these intestines will be thoroughly cleaned separately later. 

Small and large intestines cut off

15. Scoop off the blood from inside the carcass and put in the blood pan. Note: blood is not thrown away in the village but can be used to make “dinuguan” (pig blood stew), a local dish. The blood is also not sold but normally given away, unless kept by the owner himself to make the stew.

16. After taking out the entrails, with the pig still on supine position, complete the cutting of the remaining body (still with the head) lengthwise up to the neck from the midsection. 

Slicing lengthwise being continued from tummy up to neck

Result is the sliced pig with two identical halves of the body opened up like a butterfly. 

Note: Notice that each half will have three sections: shoulder/foreleg, midsection, and ham/back leg.

17. Cut off the entire ham/back leg section from the pig’s midsection crosswise.

Where to cut? By measuring three fingers from the aitch bone (rump bone connected to the hip or pelvis) toward the pig’s midsection. 

Pig's rear section (upper part of photo)

Pig's rear section cut off (see the ham portions and back legs)

18. Weigh the entire piece in #17 above (in kilos). Note: owner is interested in getting weight of each major portion of the pig to establish gross body weight.

19. Cut off the pig’s head and set aside.The entire pig head is sold separately.

Note: For processing of the head, it's deboned from the chin, to jaw to rest of head. The meat parts are taken out (cheeks, ears, snout, skin). 

They are chopped into pieces to make "sisig" (in Tagalog) "dinakdakan" in (Pangasinense and Ilokano), a popular local delicacy (seasoned with calamansi, onions, chilis, salt, ground pepper, mayonnaise or coconut cream, etc). 

The skull is split to extract the brain and the bones are chopped and boiled for stock used for cooking soup or stew with vegetables.

Pig's head cut off

20. Weigh the pig’s head (in kilos).

21. Weigh the remaining part of the pig (minus the head and rear section) (in kilos).

Weighing the shoulder/front leg and midsection

22. Cut the shoulder/front leg and midsection in #21 lengthwise into two identical pieces.

Shoulder/front leg and midsection being sliced crosswise into two

One side of the shoulder/front leg and midsection

23. Cut off the shoulder/front leg in #22 to separate it from the midsection. Do the same for the other half.



Midsection

24. For the midsection, slice lengthwise to divide it into two: loin section with ribs (upper part near the spine) and the belly section (the fatty part below). 

Cutting the pig's midsection into the loin portion (on the chopping block) and belly portion (being held by hand)

In cutting, follow the curve of the spine so that the belly section is wider than the loin section.

Do the same for the other identical half of the midsection.

25. As for the loin section, slice further lengthwise to separate the ribs from the loin part near the spine.

 

Cutting the belly portion into pieces; loin portion waiting to be sliced

26. Slice the loin part crosswise into pork chop pieces or baby back rib pieces (photo below). Note: Baby back is not commonly known in our village, instead they call it pork chop.

Loin being sliced cross wise for baby back rib pieces (recognized as pork chop locally)

Pork chop pieces

27. As to the ribs part of the loin, cut crosswise into pieces to get spare ribs.Note: Sometimes if there are “buto-buto” orders, part of the rib bone layer may be sliced off. This rib bone layer is cut into small pieces and sold as “buto-buto” to the customer.

Ribs being sliced crosswise for spare ribs orders

Part of rib bones being taken out and chopped into pieces for "buto-buto" orders

A piece of rib bone with leg bone set aside for "buto-buto" orders

Other half of shoulder/foreleg and midsection still intact and uncut

28. Retrieve the belly section and cut crosswise into two to get the orders for “liempo”. 

Cut strips of "liempo" (belly)

Note: The belly as a whole can usually be divided crosswise into following halves: (a) bacon belly – the flatter portion and (b) fresh belly – the lumpier, uneven portion.

 
Shoulder/Foreleg

29. Remove rib bones, part of the spine, and feather bones.
 

Shoulder/foreleg section still uncut

30. Cut off the foreleg (“paa”) between the upper foreleg bone and lower foreleg bone (just like at the elbow, but at point slightly higher than elbow). The detached lower leg bone with its meat plus pig’s foot is sold as the “paa” (leg).

28. At the shoulder, remove the meat part from the shoulder blade by cutting off the meat (“kasim”) lengthwise.

29. Cut the remaining meat part from the upper bone toward the shoulder blade.

30, From the remaining meat portion, remove the shoulder blade and the upper foreleg bone (humerus).

Note: All the meat parts of #28, 29, 30 are called “kasim” in Tagalog (Boston Butt or picnic in English). But in the village these are all sold as “laman” (meat).

The bones taken out from the Shoulder/Foreleg section are sold as “buto-buto”.

Shoulder portion being sliced (see bones at the lower left of photo, to be sold as "buto-buto")

Ham/Back leg Section

31. Cut off the back leg (“paa”) between the upper back leg bone and lower back leg bone (just like at the elbow, but at a point higher than elbow). The detached lower back leg bone with its meat plus pig’s foot is sold as the “paa” (leg).

Cutting off the back leg

 32. At the ham portion, remove the rump bone (technical term - aitch bone) and detach it from the socket of the upper back leg bone.

Bones taken out (left)

Aitch bone and back upper leg bone taken out

Note: These bones with some meat morsels attached are sold as “buto-buto”.

33. Following the upper back leg bone, remove the meat part at the top of the bone.

34. Cut the remaining meat part at the left side of the upper leg bone.

35, Cut the remaining meat part at the right side of the upper leg bone.

Note: These meat parts in # 33, 34, and 35 are known by meat buyers as ham roast. But in the village they are just considered “laman” (meat). Others may call it “pata” or “pigue” which means the meat coming from the ham section of the pig.

Cleaning of Intestines

36. Clean both the small and large intestines by pouring hot water and pressing and stretching them to eject any remnants inside the digestive tract.

Cleaning the intestines

 
37. Pour hot water inside the intestines repeatedly until clean. Note: One person holds up the intestines while the other pours the hot water.

Pouring hot water into insides of intestines

38. Turn the intestines inside out, then rinse clean the exterior using hot water. Then, clean the turned out skin of the intestines using detergent bar soap and water. (This will remove the smell.) Rinse thoroughly.

Note: Intestines after being cleaned are boiled in hot water. The small intestines (“kaleskes” in Pangasinense) are chopped and included in “igado”. The large intestines (“bagesen” in Pangasinense) are sold separately and go to the making of “dinuguan” (pig blood stew).

Internal Organs

39. Boil the organs in the cooking vat, except for the liver (which are sold fresh). Chop off into pieces and set aside. Take the meat orders for “igado” from this pile. 

Liver sold fresh not boiled

Lungs and other organs being boiled

Notes: 

As mentioned in #38, the boiled small intestines ("kaleskes") are included in this pork meat ("igado") category. 

Also the “lomo” although not an internal organ - but is the pork tenderloin found in the loin section - is surprisingly included by the locals in “igado”. But the more knowledgeable hog raisers keep the "lomo" for their own use.

"Lomo" (pork tenderloin) sold slightly boiled (not fresh) to keep in good condition before being cooked or stored in freezer

40. For each order, pick up the item from the newly-cut meat pieces (i.e., laman, igado, ulo, paa, pork chop, ribs, liempo, buto-buto, bagesen). Weigh the item ordered, and put in a plastic bag. 

Weighing the meat item ordered (1 kilo)

If ordered weight is not yet met, cut a piece from remaining meat parts.

Cutting a small piece from a meat part to complete the ordered weight

41. Fill out a carton label (with customer name, meat type, number of kilos ordered) and insert in each bag. 

Ordered meat item in a plastic bag with label ("liempo",1 kilo, for customer Lisa), ready for delivery

 The orders are thus filled out and ready for delivery.

For a complete list of Fish Pond Buddy blog posts on fish farm-related topics, please click the Index page.

Raising Native Chickens at the Milkfish (Bangus) Farm

Raising Native Chickens at the Milkfish (Bangus) Farm

Native chickens were the latest additions to our livestock of pigs and goats in our bangus farm in Binmaley, Pangasinan, in northern Philippines.

See my previous blog on our farm animals, pls. click this.
 
Last July 2018, we received a gift hen to be butchered for lunch. The hen didn’t reach the cooking pot at all. A few days passed, still no chicken “tinola” (a popular soup-based chicken dish with papaya and chili pepper leaves spiced with ginger, onions and fish sauce). Apparently, Lyn, my farm head, changed her mind and decided to keep the lucky hen alive.
 

Original hen (middle left)

Three days later, Noli, my farm assistant, and his wife brought a cock to join the hen. 

Original rooster

Lyn’s sister also brought to the farm another hen, after a few days. 

Another gift hen

From this original cock and two hens, a slew of chicks followed, later growing into hens themselves. And after a while, laying their own eggs which hatched into more chicks.

That was five months ago.

Now my overseer has a flock of nine hens and three cocks and quite a number of young chicks. Still way below the average flock size of a typical backyard poultry grower. But it was a pretty good start.

Advantages of Native Chickens

Why native chickens and why did we decide to keep them?

1. Raising native (free-range) chickens is relatively easy to do as a backyard project. Capital needed to start the flock is low (in Lyn’s case, it was free). No need to spend for chicken houses or brooders, unlike those for broilers or layers. Only a small wooden cage and a crude bamboo shed were built to keep the young chicks safe at night.

Wooden chick cage

A crude roofed shed with four posts

Wooden chick cage under the roofed shed

Minimal labor is needed to care for them. The native chickens roam around scrounging for food on their own. The keeper just gives the chickens corn three times a day (see below), tucks in the young chicks at night with their mother hen at the wooden cage (see photo above), and refills water containers (below). 

Cock, hen, and chicks feeding on corn on the ground

Other chickens feeding on corn

Keeper with corn feeds on her palm ready to broadcast them near the chicken house

For “equipment” only cheap woven nests (“ubong” in Pangasinense, “itlugan” in Tagalog) are needed for the hens to lay and warm their eggs (see photo below). Also a few bowls for water (see below).

Woven nest ("ubong")

Plastic water bowl for the wood cage being refilled

Water bowl being refilled

Cock and hen drinking water

2. Locals sell them at a higher price in the public market. Discerning buyers look for them. Their meat taste much better, and are ideally suited to the cooking of “tinola”, with its flavorful broth and unique taste.

3. Our fish farm is ideal to raising free range chickens. It’s way off the main road, bounded by other ponds, with no nearby houses. It has long and wide earth dikes (“talugtog” in Pangasinense) planted to large trees. The farm dikes have wide foraging areas for our native chickens. 

Providing shade, rain cover, and breeze are the mango, guava, kamias, acacia, gmelina, and other trees where the chickens fly up to roost at night. The branches serve as safe perch away from predators - dogs, cats, rats, snakes, or the common water monitor lizards (“bayawak” in Tagalog, “banyas” in Ilokano).

4. It’s been our practice to adopt only natural materials and safe farm methods in our bangus farm. This applies to our plants, trees, fish, prawns, and livestock. For example, we avoid synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, GMOs (our corn is locally grown), antibiotics, growth hormones.

Other examples: absolutely no use of formalin (a known carcinogen) in preserving our harvested fish - we use ice instead. No sodium cyanide during pond preparation to kill predators - use organic tea seed instead. Maximize use of chicken or goat manure as fertilizers for the pond. Apply compost with goat manure to our plants.

That’s why native chickens are more than welcome in our farm. They are a hardy bunch, self-supporting, and organically grown so to speak. Natural and healthy with less cholesterol than commercial chicken.

Types of Philippine Native Chickens

From quick research, I learned that we have the following common types of native chickens in the Philippines: Banaba (from Batangas, Calabarzon area), Basilan (from Basilan area), Boholano (from Bohol province), Bolinao (from Pangasinan, Ilocos region), Camarines (from Bicol region), Darag (from Panay, Visayas region), Joloanon (from Jolo), Paraoakan (from Palawan and Mimaropa region as well as Maguindanao and Lanao), and Zampen (from Zamboanga Peninsula).

What type do we have in the farm? They’re probably mongrels. We honestly don’t know. I asked Noli, my assistant, but he has no idea. I can only describe their appearance.

(a) The cock (see photo below) has similarity to a typical “black breasted red” rooster. It has red hackles (erectile hair in the neck area), red comb (fleshy growth atop the head) which is normally erect but our cock’s comb flops down over his eyes, red wattles (oblong flesh hanging below the chin), black body feathers, and greenish black tail, with red cape,  red saddle feathers with a narrow band of white (in front of tail), and red and black wings. 

Original rooster

(b) One of the two original hens has brown body feathers, wings and breast, and black tail.

Original hen (middle left)

(c) The other hen (see below) is light buff colored (mix of orange, yellow, gold) breast with whitish tail and body.

 

Another original hen

Recently I heard about the Paraoakan native chicken from my wife. I learned they’re one of the biggest types. It would be nice to have a pair (they’re sold in Metro Manila) to upgrade the native chickens we now have at the farm.

Stages of Development of Our Own Native Chicken

Following are what we observed in our chickens as they developed:

1. A mature hen lay the eggs (around one a day) in a nest (a woven natural fiber nest called “ubong” in Pangasinense or an improvised carton box).

Woven nests ("ubong") sitting high up the roofed bamboo shed for use by the hens

15 eggs laid by hen

2. The hen incubates the eggs for three weeks, after which the eggs hatch.  

A hen warming her eggs

Newly hatched chicks

3. Newly hatched chicks are bodily warmed by their mother hen during a brooding stage for about 3 more weeks (we have no artificial brooders). During the first 2 weeks, the mother hen stays continuously with the young chicks at the nest. 

Then for another week, the mother hen allows her chicks to go down to the ground but keeps a close guard (see photo below). 

Young chicks feeding on the ground, with their mother hen close by

At this time, the Lyn  tucks the chicks in before evening with the mother hen at the wooden cage, or a small wire cage, or the regular nest ("ubong"). This is to protect them from predators, usually rats and monitor lizards, while the chicks are still undeveloped and have not fully grown their wings.
 

Chick cage with mother hen and chicks inside

4. After brooding, the grown chicks undergo a hardening phase for another 3 weeks. They are let out by their mother hen to experience the natural surroundings, including hazards from predators and how to avoid them, and how to look for food. In other words, they learn to survive the natural, rugged, free-range conditions in the farm.

Two older chicks already on their own, with a third chick (right) near the water edge

5. After a total of 6 weeks from being hatched, the toughened chicks are let go by their mother hen and begin to range freely for another month.

6. They mature at 2.5 months and ready for butchering (we have not done so for hens, but yes for a cock or two). For hens, it takes three months until they mature and are ready to mate. When not ready, the hen shrieks loudly.

7. After its third month, the hen mates everyday. The hen’s eggs are therefore fertilized by the cock before they are formed inside the hen. Otherwise they become unfertilized (“bugok” in Pangasinense and Tagalog) and are taken out and cooked as boiled egg similar to the unfertilized duck egg (“penoy”). My overseer decides which are fertilized and unfertilized by shaking them after about 10 days. The unfertilized egg produces a sloshing sound of liquid when shaken.

 

Two eggs, one fertilized, another unfertilized

8. The fertilized eggs grow inside the hen for about a week. The hen starts looking for a laying site (nest). Note: My overseer makes sure that one is provided for the hen. If necessary, we buy additional “ubongs” usually at San Carlos City.

9. When ready to lay, the hen’s face turns red, as if “blooming”, her feathers shiny and attractive.

10. When the eggs have grown and ready to be laid, the fluffy feathers covering the hen’s posterior turn downwards, instead of up – that is you’ll be able to see the hen’s cloaca (anal opening).

11. Hen normally lays one egg a day. At around 6 a.m, the hen goes to her “ubong” (nest). The egg comes out after about 2 hours “labor” from 6 a.m.

Note: When we notice our hen laying around lunch or 1 pm, the following day, the hen won’t lay an egg. The hen is “balasang” (grouchy maiden chicken) and she’s letting a day pass because she wasn’t mated that day.

12, After hen has laid her egg, she comes down from her perch (nest) and cackles loudly (cak-ca-cak-ca-cak).

14. The hen then roams around looking for food, including ground corn which the keeper broadcast around the nesting area.

15. Daily routine is repeated until an average of 15 eggs come out. 

Nest ("ubong") showing 15 eggs laid by hen

16. Before a hen stops laying and is ready to incubate her eggs (“limlim” in Pangasinense), look for this sign – she will leave a few feathers in the nest two days before the egg laying is completed.

17. The hen then checks out her eggs with her claws, as if counting them.

18, Sometimes, some hens (not all), before incubating their eggs, crack one of the eggs to eat the egg white and yolk, as if tasting them.

19. After all eggs have been laid, the hen will start incubation (“limlim’) by sitting on her eggs at the nest (“ubong”) and through her body keep the temperature at around 100 degrees Farenheit. This is done for 21 days.

Note: The keeper, Lyn, makes sure that all the eggs in the nest before incubation are all fertile. She takes out the unfertilized ones and boils them for eating.

20. Usually a hen comes down from her nest to feed. The keeper should spread corn on the ground near the nest and call out to the chickens (including the incubating hen) (making the sound “krok-krok-krok”). 

A hen (left ) which has just laid eggs came down from the nest to feed on corn

To ensure effective incubation, always have ground corn available for the hen and avoid letting the hen forage around, as it takes more time.

21. Sometimes, the hen continuously sits on her eggs at the nest without coming down (about 3 days before hatching). When you observe this, put the ground corn near the nest itself where the hen can feed. She may even relieve herself on the nest but never mind. Clean up everything after the chicks are hatched.

For a complete list of Fish Pond Buddy blog posts on fish farm-related topics, please click the Index page.