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From: "tvoivozhd" <tvoivozd AT infi.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Pig skinning
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 20:11:33 -0800
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----- Original Message -----
From: "keith bellinger" <bartermn AT epix.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: Pig skinning



>
> All but one of the 20 or 30 pigs we've raised have been skinned.
> Drawbacks? I suppose some folks would say
> it's wasting some fat or something but we get back bags of ground fat
> still. We give the skin to the butcher for part of his cost but could
> keep it if skinned, not if scalded. Skinning saves time and manpower. I
> think there're more drawbacks to scalding than skinning. What say
> everyone else?
>
> --
> For by your words you will be justified            Keith Bellinger
> And by your words you will be condemned          bartermn AT epix.net
>                        http://www.geocities.com/owwshop

tvoivozhd---If you are really set up for it----a big welded rectangular tank
sitting over a firebox recessed into the ground, with a tall chimney for
draft, plus an adjacent scraping table and travelling crane overhead to
easily and quickly move the hog from tank to table and back if necessary,
I'd go for scraping the hog.  With proper equipment the work goes quick and
easy---I think easier than skinning if you have a lot of hogs to do in, your
own or yours and a neighbor or two.  The now deteriorated equipment here at
one time handled a herd of several hundred hogs.  One of the owners was a
professional butcher for thirty years, so it was second nature for him.

But the investment is high for only occasional use.  So for one or two hogs
a year, skinning them is the obvious choice.  Rig up an A-frame with a
winch, or dangle the hog from a front end loader or backhoe.  Even a block
and tackle on a tree limb will do.
> ---