We finally got around to butchering a pig! Well, half a pig - 103lb though. With the help of Hugh and Ray's 'Pig in a Day', we tackled it and to be honest, it was pretty straightforward. I actually found taking the meat off the hand (front leg), was the trickiest bit.
We took off the hind leg, and divided it into a full ham, and a corner gammon - both went into a cider cure...
Then we divided the loin from the belly. We took the tenderloin off, then took some chops from the chump end. The rest, I boned the ribs out of, rolled and tied into a neat loin roast, which we cut in two (skin on, scored, for crackling), and saved the rack of ribs.
There is a small roast to be had from the first 4 ribs of the belly piece, on the bone, leaving the rest of the 'thin end' of belly to be dry cured for streaky bacon. Salt, cracked black pepper, soft brown sugar and shredded bay leaves makes the cure. To be rubbed in daily for three days or so.
That left the shoulder and hand. I boned out the blade bone for a shoulder roast and the rest went into the box for sausage meat, along with trimmings from all sorts of elsewhere.
I ha'ed ma doots that the hand mincer/stuffer was going to do it, but do it it did, do it, it did, indeed, aye. Jane, Cam and I (Breagh is above such peasant pleasures) took a batch of sausage meat each; Cam's was a fairly plain breakfast banger, mace and white pepper and not much else, Jane's was a supper banger with sage, thyme (both from the garden :-) and black pepper, and mine was an evening of debauchery banger with paprika, chili and garlic. They have come out better than I imagined they might, fan-bleeding-tastic.
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