So Tuesday last week, killed one of the pigs. Got everything cut/wrapped and in the freezers. Put the bellies and hams in crocks of brine to cure on Friday. Pulled the cured bacon out Wed, and put whole slabs in freezer because it's easier for me to slice if partially frozen. Pulled them out early to thaw some, then mid morning began to slice and wife oven broils slices before we can up. 27 lbs of slabs, minus 5.5lbs of trimmed off fat, minus 2.5lb of fatback meat to cook with beans (when the slab gets down to so close to the slicer blade, I quit and cut into bean meat pieces. Pint jar holds about 8 oz (by weight) of par-broiled bacon, which is enough for 4 servings or 2 meals for two of us. 27lbs of raw slab bacon reduces to 16 pint jars of 8oz each or about 8lbs of 3/4 cooked bacon. Front bowl keeping to season beans, back bowl discarded. Packed in jars, ready for lids and go in the canner.
Thanks for reminding me that I still need to work 20 sides LOL. What brand and model of slicer are you running there? Looks to be a 8" or 9"? Does the thickness adjustment knob lock in place or do you have to readjust it a lot? Asking because my old slicer is petering out and my new one has totally failed to impress me and that looks like a real nice one
It's a Weston Pro-320 10" model (just looked on the tag). The 10" means the blade size, because the carriage stroke is exactly 8". (and good luck finding THAT pc of info on any place selling them) I have to block out my belly cuts into pieces no wider than 8", but length doesn't matter....it just hangs off the end of the meat holder, working it's way inward as it gets sliced. Commercial slicers they use for store packaged bacon must be in the 12" stroke range (or more) to get the size strips they package. This works fine for us...by the time it shrinks down from pre-broiling before canning, the strips fit almost exactly in a wide mouth pint jar....about 5". There is a dial on the end that adjusts the thickness of cut, and so far, it holds the cutting fence fine....no complaints about it moving. No lock as such on it (like say a woodworking miter saw), but it's stiff to turn.....can't adjust it if my fingers are the least bit greasy. We have a Weston 2hp grinder as well, and their Pro-2300 vac sealer. I find their stuff to be top notch for the home/light commercial user. You'd want to go into real commercial stuff (like Hobart) for every day use, but the Weston level does a lot better than the home only use stuff. I'm sure it will outlive us.
I have found that it often better at my scale to buy and use the higher end consumer model stuff than to drop oh say $5,000 on a Commercial Hobart Slicer Although one that moves back and forth on its own would be real nice when shaving and steaking the boned hams. My old slicer, you have to push the knob in to adjust and spring pops it back up and it locks in place. The new slicer is on the loose side and every pass gets a little thicker. LOL the cheap little nesco I carry in the trailer and use for slicing vegetables is better than the bigger more expensive one I got for in the Kitchen. So been shopping around for something on the bigger end of consumer models and saw yers here This is what I pretty much dream of for a new slicer but MRs T5R will veto that one fast for price alone................. Or I would pay for it in having her embedded in my ear about it for the next 5 years Hobart HS7-1PS 13" Automatic Slicer with 10 lb. Portion Scale - 1/2 hp
We've been keeping an eye out for a good meat slicer for a few years. The one we have is home use and it's ok, but I've been stalking the restaurant supply store's used equipment in hopes of scoring a commercial grade one. Lot of restaurants are going under these days, so we're watching to see if some of their stuff turns up for a good price.
And they still don't list the stroke of the carriage in the spec. Says "The product carriage can accept foods up to 5 3/4" x 10 3/4", or 7 1/2" in diameter,".......so maybe the stroke is 10 3/4" ? Hard to say. WAY out of my price range in any case. For that kind of money, it would have to have a self cleaning mode where it disassembles itself, jumps in the sink, self washes, and re-assembles
Neighbor of mine (does dozens of hogs/yr specializing in just sausage) picked up a commercial Hobart grinder real cheap that way. Pain because he had to wire in a phase converter as it had 3ph motor on it, but for the price of the grinder, it was worth it. Be sure you look at that when dealing with commercial equipment.....they often use 3ph motors.
After about the 5 millionth time back and forth that auto feature starts looking real tempting. And very few I have looked at list the stroke in their specs just have to eyeball it and guess from the pictures. And out of my price range as well I can look at a tractor and figure the time it will take to pay for itself, A slicer in my situation, not so much those commercial one keep coming up with around 239.5 years for return on investment lol. Yep Lots of 3phase commercial/industrial stuff..... the grinder, wood and metal lathes 3ph can dig pretty deep into yer pocket. Best for folks particularly folks of a rural nature to look closely at the power type. Best way to obtain used restaurant equipment is to keep an out for who is boarding up and talk with the owner. A lot of them will let you pick and choose at a lot better prices than the second hand resellers that buy them out as a lot for pennies on the dollar will resell things for. And don't forget estate auctions a lot of those old farms had their own home processing equipment and some damn nice equipment. That is how I picked up my big old hobart grinder it ain't purdy but will grind out a couple of boned hogs into ground pork real fast. Also find some other useful stuff like old lard presses, butter churns, sausage stuffers, old crocks lol probably my most used auction find that cost me $3.00 is a ancient cabbage shredder and four 20 gallon crocks with lids for $20.... what can I say I love kraut and that $23 of shredder and crocks to ferment it in have been priceless to me. Don't see many meat slicers at the auctions but do on occasion and they tend to be 1960s and 1970s models now days. Also find very few people big on the food processing equipment, most of the people there are there for the tools, tractors and furniture......... I am the dumb ass that will bid on the mystery boxes and crates just see what misc goodies were tossed in....... usually junk but occasionally a treasure or two.
