Breaking it down, boys and girls.

Question: What do cooks do with their (little) time off?
Answer: Go to work and butcher animals in the name of learning.

Wednesday of this week, six pigs were slaughtered. Friday of this week, six pigs were delivered, quartered and in barrels, to the restaurant. Today, some of us came in to break down and cut up said pigs. That's fresh.

The pigs we got aren't your standard, run of the mill pigs. These are acorn fed, whey finished Mangalitsa pigs raised for us at Uplands Dairy. (That's how we roll at L*. Everything we do, we do it big!) Mangalitsas are an type of heritage hog orginally bread for lard. They are big and wooly and some of the best pork you could ever be so lucky to get your mouth on.

When the pigs arrived on Friday, the chefs could hardly wait to get a taste of it. Once the first chop was cut off the loin it went directly on the grill. With only a liberal dusting of salt and pepper, it was by far the most flavorful bite of pork I've ever had. Not to say that I have had a lot of pork that could rival it, but this thing was good. The fat was velvety and the meat was tender with a natural flavor that could never be imitated.

Chop

This morning we all trudged into the kitchen after a late night of saying good bye to one of our sous chefs, feeling both tired and excited. On the table, Chef pieced together a half a hog from the head, shoulder, belly, loin, ham and trotter and gave us a quick run down of where all the cuts come from.

Then we all took a chunk'o'pig and got to work skinning, deboning, sawing and cleaning the best we could.

sawing chops off the loin

removing the skin from the ham (hind leg)

 We removed the skin from all the hams, but if we had left them on and had more room in the coolers and freezer, they could have been dry cured, pressed and made into prosciutto!

skin from the ham and the beginnings to my Lady Gaga costume

Trotters aka pigs feet

Trotters can be pickled (Papa's favorite) but these are going to be cleaned and re-stuffed, sliced thin and served on a salad of some sort.

Once things were cut up, we were able to take some meat home for a steal of a deal! I took 2.5 pounds of shoulder home and am going to be grabbing a couple chops when they come out of the brine!

The best part is, this was only the beginning. In a few weeks, we have another Sunday scheduled to learn about making sausage and chartcuterie and will again have the opportunity to get our hands all porky and take home some of our work!