Tips on breaking down primal cuts

Food & Cooking
1

I have a new 8 cu ft freezer, woo! Well, “new” we got it used, only two years old, Bosch, bought for about 1/8th the price of a new one. So now I need to put stuff in there.

I’ve considered buying primals (like a side of pig or quarter cow) because 1. it’s cheaper and 2. I can cut it the way I want - THE AMERICAN WAY. Just try buying real st. louis ribs around here, just try it.

So, I have dealt with what I guess you could call ‘sub primals,’ for example shoulder + trotters of a pig, I can find the gaps in the bone and get through the cartilage without killing myself, but what I really want to do is break down an entire side. I know I need, at the very least, a band saw (was going to buy a manual one) and a cleaver - no using my wusthofs on these babys - but what else is there? Is there a guide out there in internetland that can help me step-by-step? Anybody done this before?

2

I’m pretty sure I have that in a few books on the shelf. My suggestion would be YouTube.

3

My extremely limited understanding is that Europeans cut primals a little differently (and generally into smaller primals) than the US. Do you know which you’d rather have?

4

I asked my butcher, and he told me he could do literally a half a pig, cut down the spine with a bandsaw… What I’m looking for basically are a ham to sugar cure for thanksgiving, a side of belly for bacon, ribs for bbq, loin for loiny things, and shoulder also for bbq.

5

Have you seen this Phil?  Maybe your butcher could watch it and learn to do it the correct, American way.

6

A regular hacksaw works fine too. Butchered many hogs as a young man. Heavy cleaver and grandma’s butcher knife.

Meat grinder should be on your list along with a sausage stuffer.

7

I had forgotten about that episode. Awesome. But that video looks excellent! Good enough for me to get the idea of how to do everything… Thanks!

Tubercle, I picked up this recently: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B000RO9WKI/ref=oss_product Meat grinder is great, and it comes with a sausage stuffer attachment which I haven’t tried yet.

8

You should need a cleaver if you have a band saw. We butcher deer every year. I can do it but I don’t think I can describe it. Of course, my way would be the correct Canadian way…

9

Deer…
Nothing over the top is really necesary, if you’ve got good, sharp filet knives.
…Just something tough enough to cut bone.
We use filet knives & a simple hack saw.

10

I meant to say you “shouldn’t” need a cleaver, not should.  Typing faster than I’m reading.