Processing a pig is a multi-stage project that takes most of a day and yields a tremendous amount of meat. A 275-pound market hog will produce a hanging carcass of roughly 190 pounds, and from that carcass you can expect about 120 to 140 pounds of take-home cuts. The process breaks down into distinct phases: preparation, slaughter, scalding and scraping, evisceration, splitting, chilling, and butchering into primal and retail cuts.
Fasting Before Slaughter
Pull feed 12 to 18 hours before you plan to slaughter. This window improves meat quality and makes evisceration safer because the digestive tract is less full, reducing the chance of contamination if an intestine is nicked. Fasting shorter than 12 hours can produce pale, soft, watery meat. Going longer than about 24 hours stresses the animal and leads to dark, dry, tough meat. Water should remain available right up until slaughter.
Stunning and Sticking
A calm pig produces better pork. Move the animal quietly to the kill site, minimizing noise and unfamiliar surroundings. The two most common methods for home processing are a .22 caliber rifle or a captive bolt gun.
The correct placement is on the midline of the forehead, about 20 millimeters (roughly three-quarters of an inch) above eye level, with the shot or bolt aimed toward the tail. This targets the brain directly. On older sows and boars, a bony ridge can develop down the center of the forehead that may deflect a captive bolt, so a firearm is often more reliable for mature animals. Press the muzzle firmly against the head before firing.
Immediately after stunning, stick the pig by inserting a sharp knife into the throat just ahead of the breastbone, severing the carotid arteries. The goal is rapid bleed-out while the heart is still pumping. This typically takes three to six minutes. Thorough bleeding improves meat color, shelf life, and flavor.
Scalding and Scraping
Unlike cattle, pigs are typically processed with the skin on. To remove the hair, you’ll need a scalding tank or trough large enough to submerge at least half the carcass at a time. Heat water to 145 to 150°F. Too hot and the skin will cook, setting the hair and making it nearly impossible to scrape. Too cool and the hair won’t release.
Dunk the pig for three to six minutes, checking frequently by pulling at the hair on the legs or ears. When it slips out easily, pull the carcass and scrape immediately with a bell scraper or the back of a large knife. Work quickly because the hair sets again as the skin cools. Repeat the dunk-and-scrape process on the other half. A propane torch or handheld butane torch can clean up any stubborn patches of hair once you’ve finished scraping.
Evisceration
This is the step that demands the most care. The goal is to remove all internal organs without puncturing the stomach, intestines, or bladder, any of which will contaminate the meat with bacteria.
Hang the carcass by the rear legs from a gambrel. Start by cutting around the anus (the bung) with a circular cut, freeing it from the surrounding tissue. Tie it off with string to prevent any leakage. Then open the belly by making a shallow cut along the ventral midline from the pelvis to the breastbone. Use your free hand or a hook to hold the abdominal wall away from the organs as you cut, keeping the knife blade pointed outward so it doesn’t nick the intestines.
Once the cavity is open, the viscera will begin to roll forward under their own weight. Guide the stomach, intestines, liver, and spleen out as a unit, cutting the connective tissue that holds them to the back wall of the cavity. Then sever the diaphragm where the muscular portion meets the connective tissue and remove the pluck: the heart, lungs, and trachea. Pull the trachea upward while pushing the heart and lungs downward, and they’ll come free together. Save the liver and heart if you plan to use them, trimming away the gallbladder from the liver carefully without puncturing it.
Splitting and Chilling
With the cavity empty, use a bone saw or reciprocating saw to split the carcass down the center of the backbone into two halves. Start at the tail end and work toward the head, keeping the cut as centered as possible. A crooked split makes butchering the loin difficult later.
Chill the halves as quickly as possible. The internal temperature needs to drop below 40°F within 24 hours. Many home processors hang the halves in a walk-in cooler, an unheated garage in cold weather, or even wrap and pack them in ice in large coolers. Chilling firms the fat and muscle, making the carcass dramatically easier to cut the next day. Most people let the carcass hang 24 to 48 hours before breaking it down.
Expected Yield
A commercial-cross hog in the 250 to 325 pound range dresses out at roughly 70% of live weight (the range runs 68 to 72%). Heritage breeds like Large Blacks dress closer to 64%. So a 280-pound commercial hog gives you a hanging carcass of about 196 pounds.
From that carcass, bone-in retail cuts average about 74% of the hanging weight, and boneless, closely trimmed cuts average about 65%. For that 196-pound carcass, you’re looking at roughly 145 pounds of bone-in cuts or 127 pounds of boneless meat. The rest is bone, fat, and trim, though much of the fat can be rendered into lard and the trim ground into sausage.
Breaking Down the Primal Cuts
Each half of the carcass gets separated into five primal sections: the Boston butt, picnic shoulder, loin, belly, and ham. Work on a clean, sturdy table with a sharp boning knife and a bone saw.
Removing the Shoulder
Count back to the second rib from the head end. Saw through the backbone and sternum between the second and third ribs, cutting through the shoulder blade as well. Once through the bones, finish the separation with your boning knife. You now have the whole shoulder, which separates into the Boston butt (the upper portion) and the picnic shoulder (the lower portion, including the front leg). The dividing line runs about one inch below the bottom edge of the blade bone.
Removing the Ham
At the rear end, find the aitch bone, a teardrop-shaped bone at the top of the back leg. Make a perpendicular saw cut about two inches forward of the aitch bone, through the last few vertebrae and the pelvic bone. Finish with a knife. This gives you a whole bone-in ham, which can weigh 15 to 25 pounds depending on the size of the hog.
Separating the Loin and Belly
You’re now left with the middle section containing the loin on top and the belly below, connected by the ribs. Look at the ham end and find the tenderloin, the small round muscle just under the backbone. Mark the outer edge of that muscle. On the shoulder end, mark a spot one to two inches below where the ribs meet the backbone. Cut a straight line between these two marks. You’ll knife through the first half of the cut, then saw through the ribs, then finish with the knife.
The loin is the most valuable section, yielding pork chops, baby back ribs, and roasts. The belly becomes bacon or can be slow-roasted as a slab. When skinning the belly, keep the knife as shallow as possible. You should be able to see the blade through the skin. Going too deep wastes meat.
Curing Pork at Home
Bacon and ham are the two cuts most commonly cured. The standard home-curing approach uses a pre-mixed curing salt (often sold as Prague Powder #1 or pink curing salt), which contains 6.25% sodium nitrite mixed into regular salt. This prevents botulism and gives cured pork its characteristic pink color and tangy flavor.
For a basic dry cure on bacon, use about one teaspoon of curing salt per five pounds of belly, combined with two tablespoons of kosher salt and whatever seasonings you prefer (black pepper, brown sugar, maple syrup, garlic). Rub the cure evenly over all surfaces, place the belly in a zip-top bag or covered container, and refrigerate for seven days, flipping it once daily. After curing, rinse the belly, pat it dry, and either smoke it or roast it at low temperature to an internal temp of 150°F.
For a whole bone-in ham, the process is similar but longer, typically two to four weeks depending on weight, and many people use a wet brine (the cure dissolved in water) to ensure even penetration around the bone. Follow your curing salt manufacturer’s ratios precisely. Too little nitrite creates a food safety risk, and regulatory limits exist for good reason: the USDA caps the amount of sodium nitrite going into pumped or immersion-cured bacon at 120 parts per million.
Legal Considerations for Home Processing
In the United States, you can slaughter and process your own livestock for consumption by you, your household, your nonpaying guests, and your employees without federal inspection. The animal must be one you raised yourself. Meat processed under this personal use exemption cannot be sold or donated.
If you take your pig to a custom-exempt butcher (a slaughterhouse that processes animals on behalf of the owner rather than for resale), the resulting packages must be stamped “Not for Sale.” Custom-exempt meat can cross state lines, but it still cannot be sold. If you want to sell pork, the animal must be slaughtered and processed in a USDA-inspected or state-inspected facility. State regulations vary, so check your state’s department of agriculture for specifics on custom slaughter, retail sale, and any permits you may need.