Back in February I bought two Oxford Sandy & Black piglets to raise for slaughter. Tadhg, a committed vegetarian, had repeatedly asked me not to send them to slaughter. In a moment of grief, I publicly vowed to his siblings that the two pigs would receive a stay of execution. Their organic fattening pellets portion size has been decreased considerably, their free-range area has been doubled and they have been named “Wiggsy” and “Woo”. Tadhg was affectionately nick-named “Tiggsy Wiggsy Woo”. I might regret this decision as the pigs get older and much much larger!

However, I’m still a meat eater so I ordered a carcass from Dermot, my pig supplier. I assumed, wrongly, that the pig would be butchered once slaughtered and be delivered to me in neat little supermarket-like packages. Wrong!!! It was delivered in two halves! I had to go to the nearest DIY store, 30 minutes drive, and ask if they had a saw strong enough to cut through bones. They did! So with a little (actually quite a lot) of help from YouTube I set about butchering the pig’s carcass. It was a long, slow process. The two halves were wedged into my fridge. One half was removed from the fridge, the shoulder and leg removed and the remaining part of the carcass half returned to the fridge. The shoulder and leg were separated with the leg returning to the fridge. The shoulder was then sawn and cut into various pieces, each time the larger piece being returned to the fridge. This process was followed for both halves of the carcass, each time me running into another room to review the YouTube video for the next steps. I started at 11am, finished just after 6pm. I was exhausted.

The next day I made various flavours of sausages: Plain; Sage & Onion; Curry; Italian; Honey & Mustard and White Pepper, all of which were neatly packaged and popped in the freezer. I also made Salami and Chorizo; cured the belly for some Streaky Rashers; cured the loin for Back Rashers; and started Coppa, an Italian dry cure for a shoulder muscle, rather like Breasola. The Salami and Chorizo were hung up on the Clothes Airer for 24 hours to dry, this was covered in muslin cloth to keep the flies away. They were then transferred to the, now empty, fridge to continue the cure. They should be ready in a couple of months, whereas the bacon takes just a few days. Can’t wait to try it all!