Archived News

7th October 2009

This week’s new experience has been learnig how to butcher a pig!  I attended a two day pork butchery course along with three other students, at Plumpton College Netherfield, Centre for Sustainable Food and Farming.  It was a hands-on course, physically demanding and not one for the faint hearted.

Each stage was demonstrated to us by Dave, the butcher and then we had to complete the following; starting with the removal of the head and cutting the pig into two sides with a saw, then converting a side of meat into various cuts, boning out, rolling and tying joints and skinning meat.

Finding the ball and socket in the shoulder before cutting the side in two

The course gave us the skills to butcher our own pigs and a good basis upon which to build. Some of the group were doing the sausage making course the following day and using the pork which we had butchered and next week it’s ham and bacon curing!

Rolling and tying a joint