Burning vs scalding vs skinning

My FIL and I did 4 pigs this winter from Nov-Feb. We skinned 2 and scalded 2. Skinning was easier however we cooked it face down. When we scalded we cooked it face up. Scalding was much easier IMO if you have the equipment.

We used a 55 gal barrel about half full of water. Put it on 4 cement blocks with the holes facing outward to help with airflow. Then we built a fire underneath with some small logs to warm the water. You could easily do this with a propane burner as well if you have one. Once the water got up to around 140 we dipped the pig in halfway for a few minutes and scraped the hair off. Flipped it around to the other two hoofs and dipped the other half and scraped. Took about 45 min to 1 hr if I remember correctly

Good luck with your smoke. Whole hog is delicious

We recently scalded one. Fired up a turkey fryer, placed a metal wash tub full of water on top and allowed it to get hot. The hog was placed on top of a large plastic pallet which was resting on top of stacked concrete blocks.
Water was scooped out of the tub in coffee cans and poured on a small section of the hog, allowed to rest a minute or so and then the area was scraped. Two persons were doing the scraping, one with an actual hog-hair scraper, the other with a hacksaw blade. Both worked well.
It seemed to take about as long to do the ears as it did the entire rest of the hog. The method worked well but one had to be careful to not allow any of the skin to bubble up from the hot water, which would indicate that "cooking" had already began.

Never burned one, your burner method should work, it's gonna stink though.:shocked:

Scalding is the go to method, though I'd probably skin any future pigs, but this method of scalding is the easiest I've found. I was getting ready to kill a pig and was getting a fire started under the scalding barrel (55 gal drum) when my Father showed up and asked why I was building a fire. Duh, to scald the pig.
Hey dum azz, (he affectionately said), don't you have a hot water heater for the house?
Turn the thermostat up to whatever temp you want, wait a few minutes and you have all the scalding water you could ever want, just attach a garden hose to the heater and into the barrel and presto neato, scalded pig!.

Genius! God rest his soul.

If your going to scald do yourself a favor and get a hog scraper, that bell shaped thingee with a handle in the middle that any farm supply should have cheap.

^^^^^ I can't wait until the next hog scraping; my buddies are going to think I'm so smart!!!
"Hey! What are you morons doing with that fry cooker element? Just go get me a garden hose, and watch this!"
It's gonna be great!

gcs said:

If your going to scald do yourself a favor and get a hog scraper, that bell shaped thingee with a handle in the middle that any farm supply should have cheap.

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I'd also recommend the hog scraper. Works very well

We got the water in the barrel up to around 140 for dipping and scalding. Seemed to work well.

When I was a youngster, I remember using corn cobs to scrape the scalded hog with to remove the hair, LOL.

When scalding a pig by myself, I place a kitchen towel or cheese cloth over a section, pour scald water over the cloth, remove the cloth and scrape...then go to the next section. I use the front end loader of my tractor to move large pigs around.

Skinning is my favorite, it's fairly quick but you miss out on the crisp skin...

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2013/06/prepping-and-cooking-pig-on-cinderblock.html



Sometimes when people buy a pig from me, I'll let them clean it here.Just lay a bed of hay down, place the pig on the hay and burn the hair off. You get the same results by using the weed burner or torch...and it's quicker. imo

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2009/12/cooking-whole-hog-underground.html







Burning the hair off leaves stubble in the skin but you can burn off a layer or so of skin with the torch and use the garden hose to clean it up pretty well.

I usually burn pigs for underground cooks and skin pigs for block and smoker pigs.


Good luck with your cook!

Coldholler said:

That helps a lot! Maybe we'll just skin it. I never have, so it might come down to whether my helper is good at that.

Thinking with my big smoker with skin-side-down and butterflied, any remaining hair will get pretty burned during a long cook, and that I'd lose more pullable flesh if I skinned it first.

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They're not quite as easy as skinning a deer but close. If you have trouble removing the skin, use a box cutter and cut the hide into strips, pull off with vise grips or pliers.
Good luck with it!

I skin them aswell

Coldholler said:

That helps a lot! Maybe we'll just skin it. I never have, so it might come down to whether my helper is good at that.

Thinking with my big smoker with skin-side-down and butterflied, any remaining hair will get pretty burned during a long cook, and that I'd lose more pullable flesh if I skinned it first.

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On a skinned pig, I season and inject the whole hog. You don't really lose any "pullable" flesh. The pig gets a nice bark just like a huge pork butt. The bark is danged tasty.

I helped a guy with a pig roast when I was assigned to Tinker AFB, OK. We met at his place early Friday afternoon. Piggy had been delivered earlier in the week and he had it penned up. That night, we dug a pit, and got a bonfire going in it, along with drinking a lot of refreshments.

At 5 am, our alarms went off and we struggled to get moving. First thing first, a big bowl of pet chow with a gallon bottle of wine mixed in it was delivered to the pig. Next was coffee. After we were completely almost awake, we head out to kill the pig. By the time we got to the pen, the food / wine was gone and the pig was having a hard time standing. He pulled out his pistol and fired. I thought he missed and shot me in the head, until we saw the pig fall over. After putting the gun away, he broke out his BIG knife and gutted the pig, handing me all the internals to put in a bucket. We never used the guts, I think he just liked watching me squirm as he handed me a beating heart, etc.

We took the carcass over to a baby pool, gave it a good scrub with a nylon brush, filled the inside with aromatics (pineapples, apples, onions, etc), carefully wrapped it with soaked burlap, put it into the bonfire pit with a tarp over it, and buried it. Late that afternoon, we went to dig it up, he grabbed it by a rear leg, and it easily pulled free. He proceeded to pull large pans of meat, that were sent to me for bone and cartilage removal and chopping, before it was sent out for the guests to eat.

Fun times.

Oh, the reason for my long post. Why are you trying to skin it?

I saw this article the other day, this thread reminded me of it.

http://meatpacking.info/2017/03/22/traditional-pig-slaughter-serbia/

The last one I did we burned for the first time will a bit of a mess and time consuming it came out fine. We do the same cook it skin down so it holds all the juices and basting liquid during the cook.

I would prefer to scald in a big tub if I had the resources to do it. However, most of the time I just pay a butcher to do it. We have a local guy who will slaughter and prep pig for $50. That cost was well worth the hassle of burning it.