Monday, April 30, 2007

Pig comes, pig goes

This was going to be a much more interesting post -- last Friday I was planning to help break down a pig, hopefully learning about its anatomy and more wonderful things to do with a pig. So I showed up over in West Seattle with high hopes, and maybe a little trepidation.

And here comes the pig -- actually two halves, each about 122 lbs. Very big pig, and unwieldy. It just flops around, and of course it's somewhat slippery.

Given what we wanted to do with it, having it already cut in half was not a good thing. But it did let me get a look at the structure. And all that lovely leaf lard, which is the long white mass in the center. Finest fat for making pastry! (After you render it, of course.)


Turns out there was more wrong than just being cut in half. The pig had been skinned, and the trotters removed. Now, if you're planning to make prosciutto, or coppa, or many other cured applications of pork, you gotta have the skin on. So this pig just would not do. It had to go back, and my adventures in butchery will have to wait for another day.

Pig Goes:



No comments: