The venue for this was interesting as it was over at the Seattle Art Institute, so it was a session for the culinary students there. Everyone except me was attired in chef jackets, and I felt very under dressed!
Chef Gabriel used one half of the pig to show off the anatomy and demonstrate taking it apart, then let some of the students work on the other half.
Chef removed the hams with the sirloins attached to do Serrano-style hams, sort of like prosciutto but Spanish. Also of course the pork bellies (seen above with the loin still attached) will make beautiful bacon. After all was said and done, there were about 25 pounds of bones for stock, and about six pounds of other "usable trim" including ears and tail (also for the stock).
Finally all of the pieces got vacuum-bagged, so they can be frozen and then get processed when Chef returns from France next month. Oh, yeah, I'm going to France too...see next blog entry for a little about this imminent adventure!
