Yesterday I finally tallied up our pork yields from the two pigs we butchered on Monday of last week.

Our total yield was 449 3/4lbs, from two pigs which weighed a combined weight of 682lbs at slaughter. Our friend Holly weighed each package after we sealed it and before it was put in the fridge. Some of the cuts were noted, others weren’t, but we got the info we really needed on yields.

We were able to save 96 3/4lbs of fat, which should render into 12 gallons or so of lard. We put it through our meat grinder before freezing, so it should give us more final lard yield than just chopping it into pieces and cooking it down.

This is how we used to render fat into lard or tallow:

Now, Rachel uses her pressure cooker instead, adding the fat to it and letting it cook down overnight. She then uses a ladle to scoop it out and strain it into mason jars for storage.

The yields on pigs are really good. They were less finicky than rabbits and took overall less effort to process than a comparable amount of Cornish Cross chickens.

The meat is also excellent. We made our own fresh breakfast sausage and it’s incredible.

We’re so pleased with the ease of keeping pigs and the amount of meat we got, we’re looking to buy six more piglets this week.

This project has moved us significantly closer to food self-sufficiency. Now we need to figure out how to grow enough to feed the pigs, in case we can’t get what we need from the local restaurant waste stream!