[Daleswoman]

It's that time of year again, we are soon to say goodbye to our two Oxford Sandy and Blacks, who have had a lovely summer frolicking in the pig pen / orchard and are currently enjoying the windfall apples and plums.

I am wondering if anyone would be willing to share their cutting list with me please?

I want to make a few changes to the one I used last year - we want fewer joints and more mince, sausages and bacon, but am not sure which cuts should go for sausages - would you use shoulder? belly? Does it matter?

Also, last year we didn't get the livers back - is this usual? I didn't query it at the time because by the time I realised they were missing it was too late, but would like to have the livers to make pate.

Any advice or comments welcome, this is only our second time and because we are using a different abattoir and butcher I am feeling just as nervous (and sad) as last year.

[devonlady]

Is the abattoir butcher going to cut your pig up? I would write down exactly what you want eg small joints from legs.Shoulder, belly and any offcuts into sausages and sides into bacon?
You won't get the livers back if, maybe, the pigs were wormy. Don't be afraid to ask!

[Bionic]

Daleswoman, I am no help to you but am watching this with interest.

I don't have pigs this year but will have a couple again next year and, like you, want more mince sausages and bacon.

I did ask for belly of pork last time and that has proved very good. I have cut it into belly slices, marinated in BBQ sauce, cooked it slowly and then put on the BBQ. Yummy.....

[Daleswoman]

Devonlady, last year the butcher's shop attached to the abattoir did the cutting for us, to a list that I provided. They made mistakes, eg slicing up the bacon shoulders instead of leaving them as joints as asked, and all the bacon was thick cut, so now I know to ask for it to be thin sliced. Also am not sure which cuts are best for sausage, I assume belly and shoulder can be used for that, but last time we just had the neck and trim as sausages and it wasn't nearly enough.

This time I've been recommended an abattoir which is nearer to us (I had no problem with the first one, btw) and there is a separate butcher close by where they will weigh and pack  and label the meat instead of just giving us back huge boxes full of raw meat cuts.

I'm just interested in what other people ask for, to compare notes!

[Sbom]

This is how ours are cut up

Joints
Chops
Shoulder into sausage
Half belly sausage
Half belly joint
This seems to get a good amount of sausage. We've had bacon done before aswell,  middle bacon I think it was as you need a decent size to get good back bacon.

When we had a big sow done we had gammon, bacon, sausage and tubes of sausage meat out of the whole (ginormous ) pig. There was tons of sausage but that's exactly what we wanted.

[HappyHippy]

Our kinda standard cut was
Shoulders - mince and sausages.
Loin - one half into chops, other half cured for back bacon. You could have loin joints instead of either of these, or more bacon (can never have TOO much bacon  )
Belly - usually one half used for sausages and hubby likes the other cut into 2" strips, marinated and BBQ'd but you could have it cured for streaky bacon, rolled into joints or used in sausages too.
Back legs - rolled gigot joints (or cured for gammon joints) and pork/gammon steaks or for sausages/mince/burgers if you prefer.
Hope that helps, good luck when the time comes 

[Tamsaddle]

In the good old days when Laverstoke abbatoir existed for small pig producers, they insisted we collected the offal within 24 hours, regardless of when we were collecting the carcass or cut meat.  If we didn't retrieve the offal within their time limit it was condemned and destroyed.   Don't know whether other abbatoirs have the same sort of rules.

[harmony]

You have to tell them you want your liver and they will want you to collect it on the day of slaughter. You can get your food chain information back after slaughter and if the liver was thrown away it is usually due to milk spot, which means the pigs had worms at some point.


Obviously from the abattoirs point of view storing and tracking livers is extra work as they come out at slaughter whereas the rest of your carcass is hung as a whole or two halves.


Always discuss with your butcher and write down what you want. Our butcher always jokes that most people think pigs have four legs!