- Jan 9, 2017
- 6
- 14
So hi- I've been lurking about on the edges reading posts since I went down to Cabela's and bought an MES 40 in November. I'd previously had a lil chief smoker for years and always smoked peppers (and sometimes cheese) in that, but the most recent project required something- larger.
My son has been raising hogs, and did VERY well selling piglets etc last year. So, based on that, he had a bunch ready to go this year- and, well.. I don't know if it was the election, the economy, or if too many of his customers decided to start 'growing their own- but..
He ended up with an excess of piggys..
I hadn't raised or butchered hogs myself since I lived in WV in the 80s (I'm 65), but there was a group of 8 in one pen that just looked too fine to suffer whatever untimely fate might befall them. So- I committed myself to buying pellets for them and to butchering 2 per month. I started in November and they were a little over 100# apiece (roughly). We did the 1st 2 a week before Thanksgiving, one on the 17th and 1 on the 18th. I ran brine vs rub, +/- tenderquik, and discovered that with such small sides and hams etc, I was going to need a smoker REAL quick. So that's when I bought the MES. Glad they had them in stock.
December's batch turned out to be 1 on 12/3- and the other actually didn't get done til 1/4/17.They are progressively bigger (and it's progressively COLDER out there..) dunno when the next one will be as I have a cow due to drop a calf about 1/25 and will then be milking. They'll get done eventually.
But I gotta say- THANK YOU for the HUGE amount of information on this site!
I may get around to posting a bit about methods etc- but mostly I'm in a learning curve right now. We also have done salmon, lake trout, rubbed smoked pulled pork from one of the loins of hog#3, and a batch of ribs 2 days ago (they vanished remarkably quickly..
Everyone in the family is getting in on it. When my husband made his most recnt batch of deer jerky, I stole a bit and smoked it- found out I will need to do that again when it is the only thing in the smoker and I can pay close attention to it.
Thank you again!
lw (aka speed bump)
My son has been raising hogs, and did VERY well selling piglets etc last year. So, based on that, he had a bunch ready to go this year- and, well.. I don't know if it was the election, the economy, or if too many of his customers decided to start 'growing their own- but..
He ended up with an excess of piggys..
I hadn't raised or butchered hogs myself since I lived in WV in the 80s (I'm 65), but there was a group of 8 in one pen that just looked too fine to suffer whatever untimely fate might befall them. So- I committed myself to buying pellets for them and to butchering 2 per month. I started in November and they were a little over 100# apiece (roughly). We did the 1st 2 a week before Thanksgiving, one on the 17th and 1 on the 18th. I ran brine vs rub, +/- tenderquik, and discovered that with such small sides and hams etc, I was going to need a smoker REAL quick. So that's when I bought the MES. Glad they had them in stock.
December's batch turned out to be 1 on 12/3- and the other actually didn't get done til 1/4/17.They are progressively bigger (and it's progressively COLDER out there..) dunno when the next one will be as I have a cow due to drop a calf about 1/25 and will then be milking. They'll get done eventually.
But I gotta say- THANK YOU for the HUGE amount of information on this site!
I may get around to posting a bit about methods etc- but mostly I'm in a learning curve right now. We also have done salmon, lake trout, rubbed smoked pulled pork from one of the loins of hog#3, and a batch of ribs 2 days ago (they vanished remarkably quickly..
Everyone in the family is getting in on it. When my husband made his most recnt batch of deer jerky, I stole a bit and smoked it- found out I will need to do that again when it is the only thing in the smoker and I can pay close attention to it.
Thank you again!
lw (aka speed bump)
