PIG BREAKDOWN

Hi, I'm Lennon Gunter. I'm down here at Heart and Trotter in San Diego, and we're gonna break down this half pig. So we're gonna start off by removing the hind leg, separating the belly, the fore part of the loin, that's gonna have the spare ribs and the baby back ribs on there, and the Boston butt from the picnic shoulder. So first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to cut the belly away from the leg. Now that I've made that first cut, I'm gonna pull off any extra offal and fat. That includes the kidneys and this call fat, which does great for rendering and baking. It makes an amazing pie crust. If you're rendering out lard or anything like that, this is gonna be some of your cleanest rendering lard. It's great for charcuterie to cap anything with fat. All right, now that I have the fat and the kidney taken out, I'm gonna remove the tenderloin. It's one of the nicer cuts on here. Most butcher shops can get a really great price off of them. I'm just following the back of the spine right here, and literally I'm just separating it out, following the seam. So now that I've separated the tenderloin out, I can pull out any extra meat. This is gonna be the skirt right there. All right, so next I'm gonna separate the hind leg off of the actual main body of the pig itself. And for that, you're looking for this last little joint in between the spine and the tail itself. That's gonna be your line right there. Get your knife right in between there, and get my separation. I'm gonna take my saw, go right through it. Now I'm just gonna take my knife, run it through this last little bit, and then there's the leg from the main body itself. So next I'm going to separate the belly from the loin section itself. And to do that, I'm going to start off by counting my ribs on the actual shoulder section so I can find the separation in the joints between the shoulder and the belly itself. For most places, it's going to be between ribs five and six. Butcher shops will typically do that so you get a longer coppa. That'll either be sliced out in the steaks, used as a roast, or cured for charcuterie. Starting on this closest rib right here. One, two, three, four, five, and six right here. So my line is gonna be right here. Just gonna give me a nice shoulder with a nice coppa and a nice picnic that'll do beautifully in the smoker. Then I have my loin section right here and belly right down here. So now we have the belly and the loin with the ribs still intact. So that's gonna be the spare ribs right here. The Boston butt, picnic shoulder on the lower end, and the country ribs right in the middle. So next we're gonna separate the belly section from the loin itself. And to do that, I'm gonna measure the center of the eye with the tip of my knife about halfway through. It's gonna create my line right here for where I'm going to cut my chops. So at this point, I can just draw my line. Now I'm gonna go in with the saw, cut through the ribs, and finish my line. All right, so our next step is working on the shoulder itself. We're gonna start with our first cut, drawing your line with your knife at the base of the spine. If you can see right here where I've drawn my line, this is gonna separate the Boston butt from the picnic shoulder down on the bottom. I'm gonna take my saw, and all I'm gonna do is break through these first four country ribs. Once I'm through, there's gonna be one more bone in here. Take my saw. Cut right through it. And now at this point, we are going to have the Boston butt, picnic shoulder, the loin subprimal, the belly, and the hind leg with the sirloin attached.