{"id":8376,"date":"2013-12-27T13:49:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T13:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=8376"},"modified":"2014-09-24T13:10:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T12:10:43","slug":"pig-to-pork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/pig-to-pork\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pig to Pork ~ Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last month of being a pig ‘farmer’ was an emotional roller coaster ride as far as our eating habits were concerned. Having reared our first two free range pigs for the table this year we questioned every piece of meat we bought or cooked and whether we should be eating it at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Free<\/a>Our ten-year old summed the experience up for us “oh Mum I do wish I could be vegetarian as I so love animals and don’t want to eat them, but they taste soooo good!”<\/p>\n

It’s just as well she was thinking that way as we now have a freezer full of pork, over 120 kilo of it to be precise, from rashers to belly, hams to chops, that are set to last us for the next year!<\/p>\n

My last blog post finished as we dropped our two saddlebacks to the abattoir on the Thursday morning. On the Saturday I took myself off to O’Gorman Meats in Castledermot, Co Kildare<\/a> to discuss cuts and ask if there was any possibility that Mr G could either help with the butchering or watch it being done. It was a complete surprise to walk through the doors and instantly recognise the butcher behind the counter. Unbeknown to us, our daughter’s friend’s father managers the shop. What a relief! Several people had asked us how we could be sure we’d be getting our own pigs back. When I said hello to Brendan I instantly knew we would be.<\/p>\n

\"O'Gormans<\/a>O’Gorman’s is a bright, clean and efficiently run establishment and it came as no surprise to see trophies in a cabinet proclaiming that they’d just won Best Rural Butcher Shop and Best Overall Butcher Shop 2013\/12014 by the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland.<\/a> The let downs of butchers a few weeks ago turned into delight as I could see for myself the pride the staff felt for their workplace and the efficiency with which they carried out their trade.<\/p>\n

Although insurance, health and safety etc prevented Mr G from having a go at butchering our pigs himself, Brendan was happy to allow him to watch and talk about the different processes and cuts. He phoned the following Wednesday letting me know that one of our pigs would be butchered that afternoon and Mr G headed off to watch.<\/p>\n

Mr G was impressed how quickly the work was carried out. He mentioned how sharp the knives were (put all of ours to shame!) and how he was happy to leave the butchering to the experts. A short while later he arrived home with two very heavy bags of meat that had been divided, weighed and individually packed into family sized bags for us.<\/p>\n

Eight days later I took another call from O’Gorman’s, letting me know the cured pig was ready too.<\/p>\n

We chose to have one pig for pork and one for bacon, giving us a mixture of cuts. There’s a few pieces in there I’ve never cooked such as the collar and streaky joints so I’ll be scouring the internet for some ideas – where’s a good Pork cook book when you need one?!<\/p>\n

\"Pork<\/a>

4 chops = 2.5kg<\/p><\/div>\n

Bar the kidneys, we left all the offal with O’Gorman’s though did bring one pig’s head home as well as the feet and trotters for my adventurous friend Elaine to make Brawn with. I tasted a slither and am sure if it had been enclosed in pastry and I’d been told it was a pork pie I’d have demolished it but the slither sadly stuck in my throat as I thought of the images she’d emailed me of the cooking process.<\/p>\n

So was it worth rearing our own pigs?\u00a0In answer to some of the questions asked:<\/strong><\/p>\n