{"id":459,"date":"2020-11-28T19:34:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T19:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/tmtaa-portfolio-f20-natalie\/?p=459"},"modified":"2020-12-07T20:31:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:31:30","slug":"day-2-butchery-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/tmtaa-portfolio-f20-natalie\/day-2-butchery-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: Butchery Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was by far the easiest part of the whole process. The pig was cut into four primals: the shoulder, the belly, the loin, and the ham. Then the should was cut into the boston butt, the picnic, the hock, and the trotter. The belly was left as is, the loin was chopped into pork chops, and the sirloin was cut from the ham quarter, and we kept the hock on the ham. We hung the carcass outside over night in the 38 degree temp to let the enzymes in the meat that break down the tightly bound proteins do their job. Myosin molecules bind to the actin filaments once the animal is killed, which is also known as Rigor mortis, leaving the meat tough if you process it before its able to break down. Letting the meat rest before processing it is also known as “aging” meat. First steps were to take out the leaf fat (cavity fat that surrounds the kidneys and other organs), then cut out the skirt steak, and remove the tenderloin. Then we made a cut one vertebrae over a curved spot for the ham quarter and cut straight down and around separating the ham from the loin and the belly. After that we separated the shoulder from the loin and belly by counting five vertebrae’s over and cutting down and around. For separating the loin from the belly, its mainly about choosing how big you want your pork chops and how big you want your bacon. A big rule to follow is only using a knife for cutting meat, and a saw for bone. You never saw meat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process was fairly simple and I was surprised how smooth it went for our first time doing a nose to tail butchery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Four Primals: Shoulder, Loin, Belly, Ham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n