Half a pig - HELP!!!!

hgbels

Hi,

Hoping for some help from all you knowledgeable people. In an order to have more local and 'happy' meat, I have ordered half a pig.

Seemed like a good idea at the time - but now I'm a bit scared. The family love sausage, ham and bacon and DH liked roast pork.

I'm hoping to try making sausages and ham - but am not really sure which bits to use for what

Any ideas?

Hels

KittyBoo_2

Blimey, you're brave.
I was once tempted to do this but ordered a whole lamb instead.
This took up 2 drawers of my freezer so can't imagine what half a pig would need.
I would have to buy one that already had the sausages etc ready done.
Good luck with the sausage making etc.

tattoed_bum

could you ask the butcher to tell you what bits to use for what ,

could i be cheeky and ask how much it was i would love to do this but at the moment i have a whole lamb in the freezer so i would have to convince dh that it would be worth it

i had the whole lamb for £59

onetomany

cool where did you buy from i love the idea wonder if you buy a whloe one choped up?

Sunny_Angel

We have just ordered half a pig too but it hasn't been delivered yet. I got the impression it was already cut up, wrapped and frozen, so heres hoping i can just stick it in the freezer straight away.

We paid £120 from Man Made Meat.

If you have a basic cookbook, (i'm thinking of Delia or a school food science book) it should tell you the best way to cook which part of the animal. Or maybe just do an online search?

thriftlady_2

onetomany wrote: »

cool where did you buy from i love the idea wonder if you buy a whloe one choped up?

Of course, just ask your butcher, he'll be able to tell you how it will be cut or he can butcher it according to your wishes.

Just as an idea of price my butcher charges £1.31 lb for a whole pig (90-110lb) and £1.36 lb for half a pig. He's quite dear and the pork is free range.

There is a thread somewhere about making bacon -apparently it is quite easy. I'm not so sure about curing a ham. It is the back leg you want for the ham.

My advice is to get hold of a copy of The River Cottage Meat Book from your library. That has recipes for curing hams etc. I think The River Cottage Cookbook has one too. Also the River Cottage Family Cookbook has sausage and bacon recipes in it. The RC forums will probably have lots of advice, or I've just come across this on Downsizer.

I'm going to have to get me a pig too now;)

hgbels

Thanks - I think I will have to get the River cottage meat book. I have someof the other River cottage ones but not that one.

I actually ordered the Pig from someone on Downsizer - a complete bargin at £70. I'm not getting the 'uckky' bits though. DH will have the liver - I would like to try pate but think I will be struggling with the sausages.

Hels

tessie_bear

u can buy a sausage maker from argos but its quite expensive...sounds fun though

ariba10

They do say the only part of a pig that you cant eat is the Squeak

wogglemaker

I've got an old fashioned metal mincer that comes with sausage funnels (the brand is Porkert).

I've just googled Porkert and they are available at approx £20.00 and the sausage attachments about £4.00 plus P & P

Hope this helps

PS, sorry but I do not know how to do links but they are both available from Just Add Food.

poppet

Hi we keep pigs - just 2 or 3 a year in our back garden for our own use.

We get them slaughtered and butchered at the abbatoir and they ask us what kind of cuts we would like.

Your supplier will probably do the same, take the pig to slaughter and then either butcher it themslef (if they are qualified) or get the abbatire to do it for them.
So in theory you should have some say in how it is cut up.

How much you get will depend on the size of the pig.

From half a pig (or a side of pork as it is otherwise known) you might get, a shoulder (bone in or you can ask for it to be boned and rolled), some loin either jointed or cut into chops, leg, kidney and belly pork.
Sausages are made up with a mixture of lean (shoulder perhaps) and fatty (belly) pork, we dont make our own, we pay the butcher to make them for us.

We had our last 2 pigs jointed into shoulder, belly, ribs, minced pork, saussage meat (to make stuffing) actually saussages (loads of them) and lots of chops and a few boned and rolled roasting joints.

Bacon comes from a much bigger pig then ones used for pork joints - these pigs used for making bacon are commonly known as "baconers", pigs used for joints are commonly known as "porkers". Im pretty sure you cant get bacon from the same pig you get pork joints from, because once a pig gets to bacon size it is too fat to get decent pork joints out of, so its one or the other. Im not a butcher so i may not be 100% accurate - its a steep learing curve keeping pigs :rotfl: