In December 2010, I butchered a whole pig in my home with the help of a local butcher, Rob Levitt from Butcher and Larder. It was a life-changing experience, shifting my focus and priorities about food over the course of the five days it took me to butcher and then process the pig and then do the dishes
I highly recommend the project of home butchering to anyone who has the space and fortitude to do so. It is a large project, occassionally overwhelming, intensely satisfying.
Getting all the information down is a process even more overwhelming than the pig itself. There are no real references for regular people and, it seems, a lot of people want answers to just about every part of the process. So the idea of communication the how’s and why’s must incorporate the very basic things such as: “Where does one get a pig in the first place?” and “is it OK to substitute regular salt for Kosher salt?”
On this page, I’ll attempt, over the course of time, to answer all of it. But it will take time so be patient. I’ll link to new information as I write it up. Beware, that’s gonna take a while.
Finding a Pig
Pig en Place
Butchery Day, One
Butchery Day, Two
Processing Day, One
Processing Day, Two
Recipes
