Half a pig questions...

Sligo

We have lambs from our farm and put them in the freezer. Our local butcher does them for us. Anyone who has had roast lamb at our house always says it's lovely!

It's usually 2 leg roast and 2 shoulder leg roast from each lamb. If they are big lambs, then I would get him to take the shank ends of the legs off. Alternatively I get him to cut leg steaks from the other end of the leg.

Then there's a mix of loin chops and shoulder chops and the little rack chops with the long bone. We don't eat stew much and I hate dealing with stewing lamb, so he minces all the stewing bits for me and I have the bags of lamb mince for shepherd's pie, kebabs or meatballs.

It all comes back bagged and labelled. One problem can be if you chuck it all in the freezer together, it's all jammed in and interlocked and all freezes in one big blob and it's an awful job trying to separate it - especially when you're hanging upside down trying to reach the bottom of a chest freezer. I try to fast freeze it a few bags at a time on a tray. It's bit montonous having to remenber to go out evey half hour and put a few more bags in. And it does take up more room as there's bumps and corners on all the bags and they don't fit snugly together.

Can't advise on pork as we don't have pigs. There's talk of getting another freezer and putting a half bullock in. But then the "farmer" get swayed by good prices at the mart and changes his mind!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

the last 2 pigs we took to the abotoir.. killed out at 63 and 65kgs

so half a pig will be approx 30kgs in weight..

£80 seems a really goo price. we charge £4.50 per kg and £2.50 for a tray of 7 sausages.

Before we had pigs When I wash 'flush' I would allways buy a load of meat from our butcher... so then the weeks I was totally brassic, I knew I had good quality meat in the freezer to make meals with...

So also factor in the peace of mind that you have got decent meat in your freezer for those lean times

Jacksmummy-1979

Thank you all for your replies... We have ordered half a pig first to see how we get on with that then we'll order the lamb in a few wks... Thanks again

pigpen

If freezing bags of squishy meat I put them in sandwich tubs .. when they are frozen they come out and stack like bricks.. great for space saving in a rammed freezer

I am always really tempted to buy a piggy and fling it in the freezer, my BIL is a butcher so I know we would get the good stuff too

ragz_2

I have just bought a whole pig, he weighed in at 93kg and has cost me about £230 from start to finish (we pay feed as we go, then transport, sluaghter and butchery at the end, this ended up being more than it was meant to as the other pig refused to get in the trailer so needed two trips!)
so £80 is a very good price, I have seen a 1/2 online for £120 recently.

My pig should be arriving later, will see how much meat we have got... obviously won't be anywhere near the 93kg as I imagine that's the hanging weight.

zippychick

ive merged this with our half a pig thread. Our whole pig thread may also help

Zip