Broke down a whole pig wrong and learned the hard way at a class in Denver

Last month I took a whole animal butchery class at The Local Butcher in Denver and totally messed up the first side. I kept cutting against the grain on the shoulder because I rushed past the seams. The instructor had to stop me and show the whole class where I went wrong. Has anyone else had a moment like that where you just froze and made things worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

clairebaker5d ago

... and the whole time I'm standing there thinking about how I once tried to break down a Costco rotisserie chicken for meal prep and ended up with a pile of shredded meat and bone fragments that looked like a crime scene. My wife still brings it up whenever I talk about getting into charcuterie. The worst part was I had the guy at the deli counter slice my pork shoulder for carnitas before I even knew what seams were. Now I just stick to YouTube tutorials and accept that I'm never gonna be the guy who breaks down a whole pig without at least one trip to the ER.

craig.nathan5d ago

You mentioned your wife still brings up the chicken incident, and honestly I gotta say maybe thats not such a bad thing. Some things are better left to the pros or the freezer aisle. I mean think about it - how many of us actually need to break down a whole pig at home? Not many. You can get perfectly good pre-cut meat at the store without turning your kitchen into a crime scene. @clairebaker I bet your carnitas turned out fine from the deli sliced stuff. People act like doing everything from scratch makes you a better cook but the end result is what matters. My wife buys rotisserie chickens all the time and strips the meat off with her hands in like five minutes flat. No drama, no bone fragments, just dinner.