Mak'n Bacon - Actually Sausage

Okay, this blog was not supposed to be all about hunting and the aftermath, but since I am the one posting, and that's what's mostly been going on, well, here we are. We tried two different recipes for making sausage out of the trimings. One's a typical country style recipe, and the other was more Italian. While the Italian is okay, and we'll use on pizzas and other such, the country style is more to our like'n. We had some this morning for breakfast with eggs and it was great. The recipes called for only a certain percentage of fat to lean ratio. I said it should have more fat to look like store bought. Turns out, it is very lean and while not exactly like store bought sausage, it is quite good. It's more like a hamburger patty. Has that coarser texture, which actually is quite good. Not like eating the typical piece of greasy sausage. Our trimmings made 13 lbs of sausage total, about 5 lbs of bacon, and we had about 5 lbs of pieces that we bagged up for using in beans. Uhmmmm Doggies! We'll all have to plan ahead and have some next time everyone is up to the ranch.

Bringing Home the Bacon

Well I finally got one. This picture was taken shortly after the kill. It was an interesting experience. I used cartidges that I had just reloaded that afternoon. We are estimating it weighed about 200 lbs. It took about 2 hours to skin, gut, and clean the hog. Luckily the temperature was 40 degrees, so we were able to let it hang overnight. I butchered it the next morning, another 4 hours to cut up, clean, package and ice it down. It rendered about 100 lbs of meat. Two large hams, two shoulder roasts (one we cut out a Boston roast), two large pork loins (we cut some into loin chops), two spare ribs, two back ribs, bacon, canadian bacon, and about 10 lbs of trimmings to make into sausage. We've never made sausage, so that will be another new experience. We smoked the spare ribs at the property and brought them home. They were great. No gamey taste at all. Just good, smoked ribs taste.

Another Sooner !?

Elizabeth just found out she has been accepted to OU. I guess we'll have another Sooner from the Lone Star state.

Hogs a Plenty

Well this post is really just to test getting a photo in the blog, but it shows how many hogs are regularly on the property. This past Friday, I got out early enough to sit in the blind for two hours just after dark....nothing. Saturday I pulled camera pictures to find out they had come in at 3 am. Saturday night I again went out just after dark for an hour, but again, nothing. I thought I was wasting my time since they were coming in after midnight. I set my alarm and got out there again from 2am til 4 am. Again, nothing. On Sunday I pulled camera pictures again just to find out they came in the evening before just after I went in the cabin. Trickly little devils. So, Sunday evening I went back out just after dark and only had to wait 30 mins for them to come it. After hours, days and nights in the blind, my heart was beating so hard I missed my shot. Dang!
Oh, well, there will be more chances to come.

Hello from Hidden Springs Ranch. We've just set this up, so we're just learning. We'll have more later.

Happy New Year to Everyone.!