I received this amazing guinea hog from Gra Moore. He raises these pigs in Florence, and feeds them heirloom corn, hey, acorns, and other vegetables off his farm. This pig was full size and weighed 80 pounds dressed.
At the first glance it looks normal. Then you look at the jowls, which were huge for this size of a pig. When I made the first cut and removed the head I realized what the guinea hog was all about.
Fat, glorious thick fat. I was stuned that a pig this small could have so much fat.
When I made the second cut and removed the shoulders I was even more blown away.
The meat was deep red and the loins were marbled with more fat. The loins are the size of a domestic lamb. The fat that encased the loins is 2 inches thick and super firm. Gra knows how to raise a pig that makes a chef smile.
This is the shoulder split in half with my boning knife next to it. My knife is currently 8 inches long
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The collars were removed from the shoulder and the fat back was trimmed away. The red color bloomed even more as it sat. This is going to be the smallest coppa I’ve ever done.
The loins were split into 6 potions which will be cooked sous vide and finished on the wood grill. The bellies will be cured and smoked. The fat back will become lardo. The hams will be come the smallest and quickest cured hams ever ( my guess 7 months). I will keep you posted with the finished results from this project. Stay tuned!
November 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
wow! you were not kidding!
November 13th, 2009 at 6:15 am
[...] blog is still in the beginning stages, but a recent post on breaking down an American Guinea Hog is quite [...]
December 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
If only all bloggers spent enough time to come up with content such as this. But then again that would be asking too much.
January 10th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Hey, I just received a link to this blog from the American Guinea Hog Association listserve. Me and my wife raise Guinea hogs and are planning on offering Guinea meat at our farmer’s market stand this summer. It is great to see Guineas in good hands here–we’ve really been wondering if Guineas might have the potential to fill in as an “American Mangalitsa” hog. We’ve seen how chefs are raving over Mangalitsas with their dark red meat and micromarbling of fat. From our experience eating our hogs (which are pasture-raised with some grain and hay supplementation), they share these traits with Mangalitsa meat. But then we are not professional chefs either and thus cannot really stand to make the comparison. I’d love to hear how your projects turn out and whether you think a comparison to Mangalitsa is worthy for the Guineas (or might the Guineas actually surpass Mangalitsas?). If so we might start pursuing more specific sales to chefs in our area instead of taking farmer’s market prices.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I am very interested in the taste between the hogs. I am a chef in Wilmington NC. I have worked with the Magalista pork and love it. I have cured it, made sausage with it and even used the lard for my pastries.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
the taste is better. It comes to me fresh not frozen like most mangalitsas would. If I could get fresh mangalitsas I might speak differently
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:41 pm
I would like to order a whole guinea hog slaughtered before purchasing to raise. Do you have a contact so I can sample the meat.
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:42 pm
I will travel to Charleston if you would like also.
May 13th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Авторитетный ответ, забавно……
This pig was full size and weighed 80 pounds dressed. At the first glance it looks normal. Then you look at the jowls, which were huge for this […….