Pork Supplies

[robin]

Paul,

How are your butchery skills?

[Paul Kribs]

Robin

I have not boned a side of bacon for a very long time, 36 years to be exact, so my butchery skills could at best be described as 'stale'.. and at worst 'non existant'.

Othmar has some very good diagrams of pork cuts on his site, although we call a few of them by different names.
Look here http://members.shaw.ca/masterbutcher/meat_cuts.html
A good butchers saw would be a help, and I do not own one... but there are ways around that.

I am intrigued Robin, what did you have in mind??

Regards, Paul Kribs

[othmar]

Welsh Wizard

I know it is not the done thing but I thaw my fat, add it to the sausages and then freeze the sausages. I have had no ill effects so far. I cannot understand the bacteria argument regarding refreezing because as I see it, you cook the sausages so would that not kill any bacteria?.. I have no doubt somebody on this forum could explain the why's and wherefor's.

To be honest with you. You speak from my heart. Unfortunatly a lot of stuff that is told today borders on paranoia and hype. To make sausages meat and fat should be worked at a very cool temperature. The freezing and re- frezzing of fat has no ill efect. We do that all the time. And as you stated quit rightly, the sausages are cooked and with that all bacteria is klled off.
As things are, today a completly new branch of industry makes a very good living with the hygine paranoia. It angers me every time when I see a particular sort of TV commercials, i.e when a child tells the mother to wipe the counter first with antiseptic before cutting an apple. Or the one where a voice in the packground screams loud and scared "Stop it" as a housewife wants to cut meat on the countertop. Then the voice asked demanding; "Have you used........to desinfect the surface. Do you know you put your family in harms way if you do not use..... desinfectant which kills all known pacteria that can kill humans."
Patronizing comes to mind readely here to make money of scared people. Unfortunatly for us the hygine bombarded costumers get paranoid and bring it to us in the butcher shop where we have to relax them again and answer many quastions pertaining not to meat quality but to hygine and belived dangers in meat.

Regards
Othmar

Regards
Othmar

[othmar]

Robin

I have not boned a side of bacon for a very long time, 36 years to be exact, so my butchery skills could at best be described as 'stale'.. and at worst 'non existant'.

Othmar has some very good diagrams of pork cuts on his site, although we call a few of them by different names.
Look here http://members.shaw.ca/masterbutcher/meat_cuts.html
A good butchers saw would be a help, and I do not own one... but there are ways around that.

I am intrigued Robin, what did you have in mind??

Regards, Paul Kribs

Hi Paul.
Thank you for mentioning my Website. It is simply amazing, since that Website is running (just a little over a month) I keep nothing but updating it and adding new information. The Website gets bigger by every day.

Do you need a quick leasson in boning a side of pork?
It is really easy to do. Actually there are two ways.

1. With a sharp small boning knife make a cut alongside each rib on either side. Keep the cut very close to the bone, actually scaping along it. Then turn the knife around and with the back of it push back the meat on the cut side of the bone. Next take a pice of nylon string, very thin and strong, and tie it in to a loop. On one end of the loop insert a wooden dowl and the oposite end goes around the bone then pull hart. It is called a home made rip puller. If you de-bone pork sides often you can buy such a gadget in every butcher supply store.
The rips should peal out right away.

2. My prefered method is to cut the rips out with a long knife with the meat on them. Then I cure the rips, smoke them and they make delicious spare rips or cooked together with sauerkraut. Yumi.

A day or two ago I have been talking to my wife, a very good artist and photographer. "Honey, the next time I debone and cut up a pig I would like you to phtograph every step of it with some close ups of the cut lines and so forth." She asked why and I replied. "Darling of mine, I am going to make an easy to follow-step-by-step photo titorial on my Website for all the home sausage makers and home butchers how to completly process a pig carcass. And that is exactly what I am going to di in the comming month.

Regards
Othmar

[Paul Kribs]

Othmar

I actually made a fancy rib puller a few days back and have posted a picture of it on here, it's just as easy to re-post it as to link to the thread.

It originally got posted on a 'pork pie' thread in 'chatter' at the request of Sausagemaker, along with a description of it's use.
It works perfectly, used it on 2 bellies yesterday.

I can 'bone' pork quite well, albeit rather slowly, I am also quite adept at skinning it. I can 'tunnel bone' a leg/gammon as well. I can roll and tie the meat OK. What I do not know are the skills in identifying where to make the cuts to produce the various joints, which is why I referred to the joint pictures on your website.

I bought my pork at a different butchers yesterday and they had 2 large diagrammatical pictures on the wall, one of beef and one of lamb, no pork though. They were similar to your pictures where the carcass is shown in side view and the various cuts shown. If I could source one of those I would have no problem in preparing a whole side of pork. If I were using the whole half pig for sausage making it wouldn't matter, but it wouldn't seem quite right using the loin or leg in that way. It is definitely a skill bought about by experience.
My only real problem is a lack of fridge/freezer space for storage.

I believe Robin, being just 20 minutes from me, was heading towards asking me to prepare a half pig. As I do not have all the knowledge required for the task it had to be said. If I can solve the lack of storage problem I would visit the abbatoir for my pork and prepare it myself, but doing it for somebody else brings the responsibilty of doing it properly.

I look forward very much to seeing your step-by-step pictorial instuctions on the processing procedure.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Oddley]

Perhaps this image will help. Click to make bigger.

[Paul Kribs]

Thanks Oddley
That will help.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[othmar]

Thank you Paul Kribs for compliment on my meat cut page on the website. My wife, an graphic artist, made the diagrams acording to my instructions.
When you wrote about the joints it hit me like lightening I have not included a skeletal diagram with outlines where a home butcher easely can cut trough a joint with the knife. But then again when I made the website I did not think of the home butchers. But now I will develop a page on my web specially for this section of interest.
Belive it or not, I am Master Butcher for over 30 years, yet when I have to costume cut a carcass I still get a bit nervous. Because I want to do it absolutly right and the costumer is watching me over the shoulder. So I understand where you comming from.
The picture of the rip puller is exactly what I imagined, thank you for showing it.
There are several sources that sell meat cut posters on the web, some are simple drawings, others are protographs with high lighted lines and still others are beautiful works of art. Type the words "Meat cut charts" in your search engine and you will see lots of them.
By the way I visited your Website, very nice.

Regards
Othmar

[Paul Kribs]

Othmar

Thanks for the info. I have stolen 4 .pdf files of cut charts and joint information off the web. Pork, lamb and 2 beef. They are Australian, but a pig's a pig. I only did a quick search but could find no English charts. I will look longer a bit later.
I now feel I am versed enough to make an attempt at a 1/2 pig. Just the storage to sort out now.

Anyone wishing to steal these pdf's can find them here
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/meatcharts.html

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Spuddy]

They are Australian, but a pig's a pig.

Not quite Paul, Aussie pigs are bigger. Everything's bigger in Australia!!

Seriously though, nice charts. VERY useful.

@ Othmar
A skeletal diagram whould be absolutely fantastic but sounds like it could be a big job to do. I assume you only intend to show the common joints?

[Paul Kribs]

Spuddy

I guessed everything is bigger in Australia, my son married one Back to being serious though. The abbatoir I phoned in Kent said they would sell me a 1/2 pig and they range from 110 lbs to 140 lbs, I thought that was big enough

I did come across a few skeletal charts whilst looking for the meat ones. Didn't fancy one of those pigs though, not enough meat.
Didn't save any of the skeletal charts though, but they are out there.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[othmar]

@ Othmar
A skeletal diagram whould be absolutely fantastic but sounds like it could be a big job to do. I assume you only intend to show the common joints?

You are right it is a big job. To do the meat cutting charts took my wife month to do. She uses Corel draw, amongst many others to do all her graphic art on the computer.
But the fact is if you are loving what you are doing then it is a joy too.
When I make the skeletal chart then every bone will be represented. Where the joints can be cut easely with the knife I will mark with one colour and where a saw has to be used I will mark with another colour.

My idea at the moment is to make a complete new additional section on my website just for the "home butcher/sausage maker" in addition to the new Sausage recipe archive. This new section may become in time a new website. The way I think is, that if you know something that others do not then it is my ethical duty to pass this knowledge on so others can benefit too. The small problem is that it does not go very fast because I work six days a week up to 10 hours a day, there are not many butchers in Canada yet the meat consumption has gained considerably and we all work overtime to meet the temand. Any butchers out there that want to work in Canada.

Regards
Othmar

[Paul Kribs]

Othmar wrote

Where the joints can be cut easely with the knife I will mark with one colour and where a saw has to be used I will mark with another colour.

That is exactly the information I am looking for. Full marks for your attitude with regard to passing on your knowledge to those who want to learn. I believe it comes with 'job satisfaction', something I used to have for train driving, but have since lost.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[robin]

Hi Paul,

What I was thinking was that there is a company caled Mid Kent Training in Ashford tel 01233 813688.

They run a range of One Day courses including basic butchery, bacon curing, sausage manufacturing and butchery to add value. I believe the courses are aimed at farmers who want to add another string to their bow. If I remember rightly they were about �95 plus VAT per course and are open to keen amateurs who want to learn more.

To be honest buying large amounts at a time is probably overkill for me but who knows I might take the plunge just out of interest one day.

[Paul Kribs]

Hi Robin

I think that the course would be the right way to for someone starting out in butchery, but as you state it is a basic course. I feel I would not need a basic course, albeit a refresher for bygone years. I now feel confident enough to tackle a 1/2 pig given the information I have received through the forum and scouring the web. If I solve my storage problem I will no doubt visit the abbatoir and purchase a half pig, and butcher it. Especially if Othmar is able to produce diagrams pertaining to joint cuts etc. It can be quite a fussy procedure to get it right, cutting in the right place for best yeild etc.
Also, the �95 course fee would more than cover a 1/2 pig.
I will have to give the storage problem more thought, and a proper butchers saw will be forthcoming in the near future I feel... I don't feel a normal hacksaw would be man enough for the job. I already have a Victorinox boning knife, a slicing knife and a small Jachaw cleaver, all honed to a razor edge but don't like to use the cleaver as it leaves small slivers of bone and that is why I took up making my own sausages in the first place, to eliminate biting into bone hard tendon and cartilage. Obviously I can take more time than a commercial butcher to prepare my meat.
With the meat I bought on Saturday I went through it about 5 times to remove slivers of bone. I had noticed about 4-5 chopper marks on the ribs and experience told me there would be slivers of bone in the meat. Happily my meticulous preparation produced a good end result.
If my storage problem can be resolved and I purchase the 1/2 pig and butcher it maybe we can get together if you do decide to get one possibly assist one another. Or could it be the blind leading the blind.

Regards, Paul Kribs