I cut up a pig!
Very lucky for me....not so lucky for piggy.
This little piggy weighed much more than I did, about 1.5 times. It came from the abbatoir in halves, Stuart showed me how to cut it up on one side and I did the other. So technically I struggled with 30 odd kilos worth of dead weight pig which, still, wasn't easy.
And I got to do the half with the head attached, so it was way more than cool.
We did this after the dinner service rush at the restaurant but still the instructions and demo came thick and fast :
"Use the saw for bone; knife for flesh.
First, take the trotters off with the saw.
Measure the width of 2 fingers from the end of the spine. Stick a knife in, cut around it. Use the saw for bone. When this comes off, it's a leg of ham.
Then go back up to the top of the pig, count 5 ribs down, stick a knife in, cut all the way around. That becomes the shoulder."
That was all the instructions I got for the primal cut which is taking half a side of pig and separating it into the shoulder, middle and leg.
Very lucky for me....not so lucky for piggy.
This little piggy weighed much more than I did, about 1.5 times. It came from the abbatoir in halves, Stuart showed me how to cut it up on one side and I did the other. So technically I struggled with 30 odd kilos worth of dead weight pig which, still, wasn't easy.
And I got to do the half with the head attached, so it was way more than cool.
We did this after the dinner service rush at the restaurant but still the instructions and demo came thick and fast :
"Use the saw for bone; knife for flesh.
First, take the trotters off with the saw.
Measure the width of 2 fingers from the end of the spine. Stick a knife in, cut around it. Use the saw for bone. When this comes off, it's a leg of ham.
Then go back up to the top of the pig, count 5 ribs down, stick a knife in, cut all the way around. That becomes the shoulder."
That was all the instructions I got for the primal cut which is taking half a side of pig and separating it into the shoulder, middle and leg.
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| Had to trim some flare fat off which got made into some crackling. |
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| Stuart in the background - left me alone with a sharp knife, a hack saw and a world of possibilities. |
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| We made some head cheese out of this. Didn't see the end result but we are going to make another one again. |
For a job where I could have hacked it more to death, it turned out alright in the end. The edges were a bit rough but I did manage to get it in 3 parts rather than more.
'O I got you Babe....'
