Half a pig - HELP!!!!

thriftlady_2

Just been to the butcher's and collected my pork. This is how it has been cut;

3 leg joints
1 large 'Jamie Oliver-style' shoulder joint (3.8kg)
2 rolled blade joints (that's the rest of the shoulder or front leg)
3 belly joints
20 large chops
hock in 2 pieces
2 trotters
2 kidneys
bag of bones

This was 34.34 kg of meat and cost me £92 (there's a 10% discount this month)

We'll have the Jamie Oliver joint at the weekend -yum yum.

Beki

oh wow thriftlady! that sounds fab!

if anyone's interested, we're picking up two weaners at the end of march. we'll be keeping them until bacon weight.... not quite sure what we're going to do with 4 pig halves... but i'm planning lots of bacon, sausages and roast dinners already lol

not forgetting the hams and chorizos

i've got a thread over on the gardening board, about my veggie plot and piggy adventures

it'll be a long wait to hear about how the pigs turn out (approx 9 months from now!) but we went to visit them yesterday - they're two weeks old today - and there's some pics of them already on the thread

here it is - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1451831

ascot64

thriftlady wrote: »

Just been to the butcher's and collected my pork. This is how it has been cut;

3 leg joints
1 large 'Jamie Oliver-style' shoulder joint (3.8kg)
2 rolled blade joints (that's the rest of the shoulder or front leg)
3 belly joints
20 large chops
hock in 2 pieces
2 trotters
2 kidneys
bag of bones

This was 34.34 kg of meat and cost me £92 (there's a 10% discount this month)

We'll have the Jamie Oliver joint at the weekend -yum yum.

Was this a whole pig or half a pig?

thriftlady_2

ascot64 wrote: »

Was this a whole pig or half a pig?

Half a pig (side of pork) as explained in my earlier post-the extra kidney was a freebie;)

lolarentt

Back in the olden days before the war....no seriously back in the late 60s/70s when freezer first started to get popular there was no frozen food section in the supermarkets, and no local freezer centres. There was ONE freezer shop in the northern home counties, and that was in Edgeware, called 'Bejam Bulk Buying' where you could buy frozen meat fish and veg in various size packs including half pigs, fore and hind quarters of beef, whole lambs etc. (This shop gradually spread it's wings over the years to become the ubiquitous Bejams of course). Other than that one could go to a local butcher with it's own slaughtering facilities and buy much more cheaply, except of course you would have to freeze the meat down yourself. The animal would be cut and packed to your specification. There was nothing in a half pig that got wasted - I even learnt to make brawn (although nobody liked it!) and you can do amazing things with pigs trotters!

lolarentt

thriftlady wrote: »

Half a pig (side of pork) as explained in my earlier post-the extra kidney was a freebie;)

...which reminds me the kidney came encased in its fatty shroud which you could render down to make your own lard - this was a pretty smelly business I recall!

DonnaP

Hi thriftlady

One of my local butchers does half a free range pig at £1.24 per pound (it says approx £85 for half a pig).Out of interest, how much space does it take up in the freezer - I would really like to get one but am worried I might not have enough room

Donna

thriftlady_2

Donna it filled a box about 2 foot x 18 inches and about 6 inches deep;)

jennybb

:wave: Thirtlady. Hope all's well.

I'm not sure what a Jamie Oliver shoulder is, but if you have never tried the "Donnie Brasco" pork recipe in RC meat book, I recommend it - it's based on a delish nigella recipe where the joint is cooked long, low and slow in your oven overnight and in the morning you wake up and "your house smells like a home should" I think her recipe is in "How to be a domestic godess"

It really is wonderful and worth a try with a big joint. I feel hungry now.