Working a county fair in Ohio changed how I break down a hog

I was at the Clark County Fair last summer, doing a demo for a crowd. An old timer, must have been 80, watched me for a while. He finally leaned in and said, 'You're fighting the seam on that shoulder. Let the knife find the hole.' He showed me. He didn't cut, he just pushed the boning tip into a specific spot I always missed. The shoulder fell open. Took me 30 seconds instead of five minutes of hacking. I've broken down probably a thousand hogs since I started. That one comment saved me hours of work and frustration. Now I look for that natural separation point first every single time. Anyone else have a small tip that saved a ton of effort on a common cut?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wendy2mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, that is SO true. I used to put all my strength into separating the ribs from the spine on a lamb rack. I saw a guy just flex the rack backward over the edge of his table until he heard a tiny pop, and then the knife slid right through that joint. It was like magic. I felt so dumb for all the sawing I used to do. That one move changed everything for me. It's crazy how the right little trick makes the whole job feel easy.

nora862mo ago

My first turkey took three hours to carve.