The above is meat from a 14 month old boar. The meat was great and even better after hanging for a week. This winter we slaughtered a four year old sow. She was tender and delicious – with proper hanging. I had been meaning to do a hanging experiment and did it with her.
Little Pig died in the blizzard on Valentines Day. I hung the quarters in our shed during the second half of February. The shed temperature was 36°F. We have done this testing before in a less vigorous way which lead me to the idea that hanging would be good, especially with an older pig.
Day zero – we ate a loin within hours of slaughter – tough, rigor mortis.
Day 3 hanging – loin – okay, tougher than a finisher.
Day 7 hanging – loin – good, fairly tender meat.
Day 10 hanging – loin – excellent, tender meat.
Day 14 hanging – shoulder – excellent, very tender, increased flavor.
Day 21 hanging – remaining quarter slimy on the outside, to the dogs.
The remaining quarter was probably still good on day 21 although very slimy on the surface. I chose not to risk it. Probably the humidity was too high in the shed from what I’ve read. We weren’t starving and the livestock guardian dogs have to eat too so they got the last 80 lbs or so. When dividing it up into packages of dog food to freeze on the porch I found that just under the surface the flesh looked and smelled fine.
The standard ‘word’ I’ve read and heard from most butchers is that pigs don’t need hanging. It is now recognized that sheep and cattle both benefit from hanging. There are some butchers who disagree with the convention and think everything benefits from hanging. Some say all grass fed meat should be hung. You’ll note that the top restaurants brag about how long they hang meat. Perhaps the reason commercial high production pigs aren’t hung now is that most pigs that go to slaughter are only five or six months old so the need for hanging was lessened and thus expensive reefer space was conserved.
So what to do with an old lady? Certainly grinding her for sausage is safe. I guess it depends on if you’re doing the slaughter and cutting and thus more willing to take the chance. Then if she’s a tough old sow you can always grind.
There are those who wonder on the sentimentality of life and death, of eating a pig I have known for so long. I liked Little Pig in both life and death. She was a good sow and I knew her well. She is survived by one sister, Saddle Pig. In nature, as on the farm, there is no waste nor would a pig want it that way.
Saturday-Friday Outdoors: 80°F/40°F Mostly Sunny, 1″ Rain
Farm House: 76°F/53°F
Tiny Cottage: 72°F/67°F
i’ve had aged NY strip in a fancy restaurant in santa barbara before and it was wonderful. i was told that they have to cut off the outer meat. i would never risk it at home.
I rember taking my grandma shopping at a supermarket, She tryed to find cuts of meat that had been hanging around long enough to grt a tinge of green onthem. Not only were they cheaper, she insisted they were more tender because of the age. how can you argue with Grandma?
Love this. Answered many of my questions. Thaks!
There’s an issue of Fine Cooking that discusses dry ageing meat in your fridge. I’ve been meaning to give it a shot but I always forget. If it’s beneficial for one type of meat I don’t see why it wouldn’t be beneficial for another.
Hi,
I hope this isn’t a duplicate post. Does the carcass have to hang, or can it just go into a refrigerator? We are going to process some goats in the fall. They are over 3 years old and the temperature here is not cold enough to hang outside. But I can take the shelves out of a refrigerator and probably fit the carcass inside if it’s cut into quarters.
Sasha
Sasha, the fridge should work fine if it is in the right temperature range. The idea is to keep the meat at a low temperature so it does not spoil yet do not freeze it or even take it too low. If the meat gets too cold then the tenderizing stops. I have read recommendations to not go below 34째F. Others say not below 36째F. Some recommend an optimal temperature of 36째F to 40째F. I’m still looking for authoritative research on this. I open or close the doors on the shed to adjust it’s temperature a little and only do this in the cooler weather.
Walter,
I just had chops from my first garden-raised pig. My butcher is family-run since 1930 or so, and they insist on hanging a pig for a week. Of course, my own home-raised pig is better than anything in the supermarkets.
Thanks for your wonderful blog and encouragement — you gave me the courage to grow my own, and it was worth it!
I regularly buy large beef roasts (top lion, ribeye) in the cryovac, and “dry age” them in my refrigerator for two to three weeks before i eat them.
Remove the meat from the package, pat dry with paper towels, and then put on a cookie sheet with two or three paper towels underneath. the outer 1/8th inch of the meat will dry into a crust, which i trim off when I cut a steak off, and over the two to three week aging, the meat will lose about 10% of its total weight.
the economics for my area are as follows: new york strip lion is $6.99/lb. A strip lion roast (the whole lion) is $5.39/lb. What you lose in weight is water, not flavor or meat – it gets concentrated. When I slice off a steak, I allow it to rise to room temperature for 2 or 3 hours. rare beef is 130 degrees — so allowing the meat to stabilize at 60 or so means I only have to raise the temp another 70, which means less cooking (and subsequent loss of juices) to reach the target weight.
I have tried ‘aging’ individual steaks, but do not get a satisfactory result. the best result is for cuts of meat that have a layer of fat around as much of the cut as can be. The lion tens to be covered at least 50% with fat, which ages very nicely.
If it molds, or turns an unappetizing color, just trim that off. As walter found with his 21 day old hanging, the meat on the inside is just fine.
I’m raising 4 weiner pigs now, and plan on hanging the halves for two weeks before they get cut into steaks and roasts and so on.
Walter,
Do you see any benefit in hanging an 80lb roaster for a week? The tenderness is not really a problem, but would it help develop more flavor? Do you see any reason not to?
I have not experimented with hanging smaller roasters like this for varying lengths of time. We currently hang them for about a week. This is because that is one cycle from delivery to the butcher to delivery to the customer with our schedule of driving to the slaughterhouse in Massachusetts once a week. People say they’re really good and come back year after year to buy roasters again so that length of time seems to be working well.
it’s important to keep air moving [fan] when hanging or condensation forms on carcase
the right amount of humidity is also important, I’ve forgotten the amount but google will know