Butchering a whole pig

Thought this Flickr slideshow of an entire pig being butchered was pretty interesting.

Michael Dietsch's description of the slideshow:

On Tuesday I went to a butchering demo at Brooklyn Kitchen in, uh, Brooklyn, led by the butcher for Diner, Marlow and Sons, and the two Bonita restaurants. He led us through carving up half a pig, and we all got to take meat home at the end.

The pig is Berkshire, from a small farm in upstate NY. It was slaughtered at a small family slaughterhouse nearby, on the Thursday before the class. So this pig had been dead for less than a week before being butchered.

The only organ meat you'll see is the kidney. The stomach and intestines were shipped offshore for processing, and Tom doesn't know what happens to the heart, liver, lungs, etc.

The meat was divided in this way. Twelve large zipper bags were marked with numbers 1-12. We each got to draw a bag out, and the number on your bag was the order in which you chose your meat. We went from 1 to 12 once, and everyone got one piece, and we repeated that process until everything had been chosen.

I chose a large, lovely chop for dinner that very night, and then I got the fat (for lard), a piece of shoulder, a piece of top or bottom round, some bones for stock, and as a bonus, the sweetbread.

If you want to see the process live, the Schaumburg Park District butchers a couple of hogs a year, generally in October and March.

Sweet! That's a lot closer than Brooklyn... I may have to look into that.

Driving past Chicago Meat today they are featuring a whole pig for $.99 per pound. I wonder if they do the butchering for you.


On edit, I just called, they will butcher the thing for you, free of charge. The pigs are around 100 lbs. This is a fantastic deal. They will even remove the head if it creeps you out.

Whole pigs are always 99 cents a pound at Peoria Packing (or they have been the past 5 summers). Also, there are probably lots of places in and near Chicago to see a pig broken down. Again, Peoria might be one such place. Not sure if they'd mind you watching. Any of the many more rural spots that clean and dress game and hogs would no doubt let you watch what you are paying for, if you used their services.

You can download a PowerPoint photo presentation on how to butcher a hog here

I wasn't sure to which thread to post but this one looked appropriate. My friends at the Green Roof Growers recently decided to butcher a half pig and organize a dinner to educate interested folks on how the pig gets from the butcher to your plate. I'm sorry I missed the presentation but they did a great job of posting some info on their blog (http://greenroofgrowers.blogspot.com/2010/02/butchering-and-eating-pig-part-1.html

From that blog post, you can link to a Picasa slideshow as well.

Enjoy...

Mado restaurant offers pig butchering classes:

"Rob Levitt's pig butchering classes are back at Mado by popular demand, according to the restaurant's website. School is in session on February 8 and 22 at 6:30 and, for a $50 tuition charge, you'll get to see a whole hog broken down and go home with a few of the cuts in your doggy bag. Tickets for this one will go like lightning, so call Mado to save your spot now."

http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/01/h ... to_le.html

Rick T. wrote:Mado restaurant offers pig butchering classes:

"Rob Levitt's pig butchering classes are back at Mado by popular demand, according to the restaurant's website. School is in session on February 8 and 22 at 6:30 and, for a $50 tuition charge, you'll get to see a whole hog broken down and go home with a few of the cuts in your doggy bag. Tickets for this one will go like lightning, so call Mado to save your spot now."

http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/01/h ... to_le.html

I endorse the butchering demo at Mado. An awesome demo that has taken a lot of the fear away from butchering animals even if my kitchen doesn't fit an entire half of pig.

hey for those of you who have attended mado's pig butchering demonstration
how much meat do they end up giving you? is it comparable to what you might end up with if you spent $50 on pork?

jdchurchill wrote:hey for those of you who have attended mado's pig butchering demonstration
how much meat do they end up giving you? is it comparable to what you might end up with if you spent $50 on pork?

In all, I would estimate that you get between a pound or two of pork. I got belly, leg, and loin. If you are looking for $50 in pork and a free demo, this isn't it.

It is invaluable, though, even if you never plan to butcher a half hog. It gave me good insight on how to work with bigger cuts of meat and the pork was just a bonus.