Breaking down Pigs

[shroomgirl]

What does any chef into charcuterie ask for Christmas? a hack saw!!!
Got my very own butchered pig a couple of weeks ago (195 live weight, small, really small).....
smoked the hams, (sold one, bartered one)
made 4 variations on pork tamales, premade masa, Mexican masa, Central American masa, twice beaten masa....
rendered the leaf lard
boned out the loins
liverwurst
***AND***MADE CAJUN BOUDIN.....THE REAL DEAL
The bacon was too small to cure
Ribs went to my brother.
one shoulder was made into MFS BBQ, man oh man was it good.
cooked down the skin to add to pates
Got pork stock in the fridge.....
It was worth doing again soon, it didn't take long to pay for the pig and (bonus) fill the freezer with tamales and boudin.

So, any of you guys buying whole and breaking down?

[kuan]

Cool! Did you get the belt, sheath, and leather strop too?

[shroomgirl]

nope but I got a very feminine purple handled sabor......
Girlie hacking if you will

[Panonthefire]

good work!!!!

I can appreciate what you did since I did the same but with lamb.

[higjse]

With ducks, lamb, and certain fish almost every week, havent been fortunate enough to have a whole pig... yet... You might have motivated me to do so....

[Jayme]

Shroom-
You go girl!! LOL Glad to hear other folks are getting into meatcutting...
I got the pleasure of doing my own meat cutting this fall for 2 wild pigs and one deer. I sort of lucked out on the pigs, as my hubby stripped the meat and then I just did the cutting, grinding, packaging, and made sausage with some- about 150 lbs of finished meat. The deer on the other hand, we hung at the meat market and then I brought it home and did it all myself. Had a diagram for the primal cuts, and a nice sharp bone saw- it was great! We did alot of ground meat (bambi burgers are a big fav around here), and some sausage. (but sadly, it is all gone now ) Can't wait until next hunting season.

[Panonthefire]

To be able to use every part of an lamb, pig or deer, is chalenging and also personally rewarding. It's the kind of thing that ties you to your craft.

I love it!!!

[KYHeirloomer]

There is nothing like breaking down a whole animal to teach you where all those cuts really come from.

For the ultimate, try scalding and scraping a hog, then breaking it down, curing the hams & bacons, etc. You really appreciate the meatcutters art after that. And you undeerstand why old-timers use every part of the pig except the oink.

[shroomgirl]

kinda like making any cheeses that aren't fresh.....there is an art to making good cured products. I've had really bad chorzio and a whole lotta mediocre bacon. Nuetske's slabs are tops, a couple locals have good products too.

I was expecting more meat on the head.....

for now I'll let someone else kill and scald piggies, but buying the whole for me just makes fiscal sense.