(Left) Molly hanging up next to William
(Right) Molly from the side
We don't have a scale so we could not weigh her, but I would guess that Molly was probably about 320 or so pounds. As AGHs' are a breed of Lard Hog, Molly was very fatty with less meat than a commercial Bacon Hog would give. But of course we like our pigs to be smaller, slower growing, fattier, (We cook everything in pork lard) and require less food than a bacon hog, so that is what we chose to raise. For being approx. 320 pounds, Molly was about 5/8 fat 3/8 meat.
(Left) Molly's head with a view of the jowls that we turn into 'jowl bacon'.We Like to use as much of the hog as possible. I skin off the whole hog's head, and then I flesh all of the meat and fat off the skull, and we season and cook it like how we cook bacon. In fact, we season the whole hog as we season bacon, with the exception of the organs. I also will harvest the tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, and caul fat, and on occasion, the stomach and/or lungs. We will also skin and eat the four trotters.
We process our hogs quite differently than most people. That is just another thing that distinguishes our farm from many others!
From https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/historypigs:
"Pig breeds were traditionally classified as one of two types, lard or bacon. Lard breeds were used to produce lard, a cooking fat and mechanical lubricant. These pigs were compact and thick, with short legs and deep bodies. They fattened quickly on corn, and their meat had large amounts of fat in it."
More on AGHs': https://thriftyhomesteader.com/6-reasons-to-add-american-guinea-hogs/
~Kathrynn H. Murray
