Lady Butcher

**WARNING to those of you who don't like gory meat images: there are LOTS of them in this post**

This long January thaw brought the untimely - though not unfortunate - defrosting of Squealer II, who was hanging in Matty's mudroom. Although he had done all the work of caring for them himself (my husband Stuart had gone halfers at the sale barn* and on the day of slaughter), Matty generously gave us our half of the remaining piglet. Squealer I had the honor of being roasted on a glorious bondfire on New Year's Eve and tasted wonderfully delicious, to say the least.**


Stuart went to pick it up  the day before yesterday and since the van was full to the brink with tools and demolition materials, the half of what once was Squealer II had to be strapped to the roof of the vehicle for the journey home.

Hence,  yesterday's assignment was to butcher this giant piece of pork (it was actually pretty small, a mere piglet, but seemed rather large to me, on my kitchen counter), while my dear husband went to earn some money to pay for the oil to heat our furnace.

I should mention that I'm not usually the butchering kind of woman. In my urban past, I bought my chicken boneless and skinless from the supermarket, in fear of having to be reminded by those pesky bones and veins and tendons that I was eating an animal. Now that I live in a place where everyone "makes" these animals that we end up eating boneless and skinless, I've got to stare it right down in the face. Now.

So I brought the carcass in from the cold room into the kitchen and set it on the counter. My heart was beating fast. Emma's eyes grew to the size of loonies when she saw what I pulled out of the bag.

I poured a shot of rum in my coffee and clicked play on the healthy butcher video link that Matt sent. The Healthy Butcher

I soon realized that I needed a saw.

I decided to use a garden bow saw. I cleansed it thoroughly, of course. It wasn't the best choice but it did the job in the end.

The primal cuts:

 

Who would have known?

He he he

I ended up making some mistakes, but I learned a lot in the process and the result was: one fresh bone-in ham (skinless, oops!), a picnic, ribs, shoulder, hocks and loin. PLUS some pig feet and skin for the dogs!

I froze most of it except for the loin (which for some reason, didn't turn out when cooked in a delicious cranberry and orange sauce topped with peach slices) and the ham (which sat in a brine of spiced apple cider, salt and brown sugar for 24 hours before being roasted in the oven).

The dogs ate their pig feet last night and they love us more today because of that.




Footnotes:

* A sale barn is a place where livestock such as cows, ponies, lhamas, pigs, sheep and goats get auctioned off by farmers, to other farmers or restaurants.

** I was forbidden to name the piglets upon their purchase, but I did so instantly anyway, without truly meaning to.