[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys

very confused once again!  (When joining, I did say there would be a lot of daft questions!  )

My sister in law sent me an email on how a 60Kg dead weight Saddleback pig could be divided up at the abatoir (not proffesionally butchered!).

Quote:

Half a Pig breaks down as
Packs 1 and 2:
Leg Joint
Shoulder
6 Chops
Belly
Spare Rib

Pack 3
as above except hand joint instead of shoulder.


The first thing that looks wrong is there are three legs involved. If it were half a pig, would a single leg be divided into 3?!?
If it is a whole pig, two legs divided into 3 also does not sound right. Also, only one hand is spoken about.
Do you really get 18 chops out of a pig?!? (or even half a pig!)

Is anyone able to interpret what is being said here?

Thanks in advance!
Pete

[robert waddell]

any chance your sister  in law is on the wine would be my first question

[Eve]

Hmmm, you may chose to diplomatically ignore your SIL on this matter.

To give you an idea about chops: from our 2 whole 6 month old GOS boars (so 4 halves of big boys), we had a large joint for the farmer (a family of 5), and the rest of the loins were cut into chops for us. I counted 76 chops... 

Sounds like a lot? Have a look at the back (loin) of a pig, where the chops will be coming from.
Say a chop is on average 2cm thick, a bit under an inch.
15 chops x 2cm means you need 30cm worth of loin for 15 chops, about a foot in length.
But there are chops on both side of the pig's spine, so a 1 foot length of the pig's back gives you about 30 chops as you get a set from each side (half) of the pig.
And the loin of a large 6 month old pig is longer than one foot...
Adds up nicely, doesn't it?

So as you can see, with the loin cut in chops and with mince turned into sausages, the meat will go much further than with roasting joints! 

[peteinwilts]

my sister in law was not making up the figures.. this was from a conversation from a junior butcher... obviously something went wrong in the translation.

Sausages from a six month old pig? I read that sausages are better from a pig of a year old. Firmer texture with more flavour. I have grown some on (11 months old now! and they are huge!) and will be meeting the sausage machine next month

...but to stay on the subject, can anyone help on how the pig will be jointed? It is only for friends, family and work colleagues, but i still need to tell them what they will get for their money.

[Leri]

From two 33 week old pigs we had three big HEAVY boxes of pork - one of shoulder joints, one of leg joints one of chops & belly pork, then a box of burgers and a box of sausages. Went back three weeks later for another big box - this time of gammon joints, gammon steaks and bacon. Fantastic!!
Panicked when I picked it up and texted EVERYONE I know to see if they wanted to buy pork. Ended up I could have sold it three times! didn't see a lot of ti ourselves!

Really looking forward to our next lot :-) x

[Leri]

I read lots beforehand too about bacon from an older female etc
I was also told from someone who slaughters a lot of pigs not to take too much notice - that I could have what I wanted.
So I asked for joints, chops, sausage, burgers, bacon, gammon and gammon joints. Got it all - it all tasted fantastic - all my customers said best sausage evertasted! Never had pork burgers before - can't get enough of them now! Next door neighbour had two leg joints - ate one on Christmas day they enjoyed the first one so much

[farmershort]

FWIW, our sausages were always made from our 6 month old pigs. we put the whole of a pig into sausage. I know this probably sounds mental, but I think it made the sausages lovelly and meaty, and also, it worked out more profitable than selling the joints, and making the sausages out of the scraggly bits.

Also, many many people get carried away with the percentage of pork in their sausages. gluten free sausages are about 95% pork, and taste like crap. Too dry, bad to cook with, etc etc... we used to aim for about 75% - 80%, but no more than that. That IMHO allows the right combo of rusk, water, fat, and meat.

anyway, hope that helps. the best advice is to do the sums, and a fair bit of web-based market research of your rivals.

[Eve]

Sausages from 6 months old pigs are fabulous, definitely no better to keep them 'till 11 months!

A whole pig in sausages (and burgers) is not mental, it sounds rather good to me and must financially make great sense given how many sausages you get out of a kilo of mince (and beef burgers are sooo boring compared to pork burgers!).
Except for the bellies, they'd have to go for bacon, that's just divine! 

[peteinwilts]

My 6 month pigs are going for meat on Monday.... my 11 month pigs will be going next month (and they are enormous!)

I read about the 6-9 months = porkers, 9-12 months = cutters, over a year = sausages from an old book about rare breeds.

I am going to have to make two lots of sausages, one with old, the other with young and try a proper good old fashioned taste test! 

[silver swan]

Too bad I live in Scotland - would happily volunteer to be on the taste test panel.  So would OH.  Apparently my OH's granny attributed the success and longevity of her marriage to ALWAYS having cold sausages in the fridge/larder. Can't have too many sausages. (Or in my case, pizzas)! And bacon, come to that. 

[manian]

hi
we recently had 4 go to slaughter
dead weight between 58 and 68 kg
each half was done differently (according to friends family size and preference)the leg was cut into 3 joints the shoulder the same ( the rough ends used for sausages)
belly pork slices at least 20 per half, chops (not too thin) at least 20
the sausages from all 4 was 90lb!!!
i'm sure i have forgotton some stuff
we sold as 1/2 pig so don't have to worry about what they weigh
manian

[Eve]

Old pigs go for sausages because they're no longer tender enough to go for chops. Taste test is a good idea, though, I'd happily turn quite a lot of a pig into sausages and burgers instead of roasts!

[The Mobile Butcher]

I have cut and butchered a few pigs in my time ........................ so if I was to butcher half a pork pig 65kg - 75kg
4 0r 5 joints of leg of pork
5 joints from shoulder - or 3 joints and 5 kg sausages
18 - 20 pork chops depending on where I cut shoulder off.
1 full belly pork - divided into 3 nice size joints
then the head and trotters - head would prob go as sausages
then the liver.
every butcher does it slightly different, or as the customer wants.

Hope this is of help 

and I can travel to do this as I have not got alot on at the moment      well in North yorkshire anyway