HOW TO CUT UP A PIG.

New Zealand Mail, 30 December 1892, Page 5

HOW TO CUT UP A PIG.

(B. W. Jones, in American Agri-

CULTURIST.)

With a sharp axe and a sharp butcher's knife at hand, lay the pig on the chopping bench, side down. "With the knife make a cut near the ear clear across the neck and down to the bone. With a dexterous stroke of the axe sever the head from the body. •- Lay the carcass on the back, a boy holding it upright, and keeping the forelegs well apart. With the axe proceed to take, out the chin or backbone. If it is desired to put as much of the pig into neat meat as possible, trim to the chin very close, taking out none of the skin or outside fat with it. Otherwise the cutter need not be particular how much meat comes away with the bone. What does not go with the neat meat will be in the offal or sausage, and nothing will be lost. Lay the chin aside, and with the knife finish separating the two divisions of the pig. Next strip off with the hands the leaves or Hakes of fat from the middle to the hams. Seize the hock of the ham with the left hand, and with the knife in the other proceed to round out the ham. giving it a neat oval shape. Be very particular in shaping the ham. If it is spoiled in first cutting no subsequent trimming will put it into a form to suit exactly the fastidious public eye. Trim off the surplus lean and fat and projecting pieces of bone. Cut off the foot just above the hock joint. The piece, when finished should have nearly the form of a regular oval, with its projecting handle or hock. With the axe cut the shoulder from the middling, making the cut straight aoross near the elbow joint. Take off the end ribs or 'spare bone' from the shoulder, trim the piece and cut off the foot. For home use, trim the shoulder as well as the other pieces, very closely, taking off all of both lean and fat that can be spared. If care was taken to cut away the head near the ear, the shoulder will be at first about as wide as long, having a good deal of the neck attached. If the meat is intended for sale, and the largest quantity of bacon is the primary object, let the Siece remain so. But if it is preferred to ave plenty of lard and sausages, cut a smart strip from off the neck side of the shoulder, and make the piece assume the form of a parallelogram, with the hook attached to one end. Trim a slice of fat from the back of the middling, take off the 4 short ribs,' and, if preferred, remove the long ribs from • the whole piece. The latter, however, is not often done by the farmers. Put the middling in nice shape by trimming it wherever needed, which, when finished will be very much like a square in form, perhaps a little longer than broad, with a small circular piece cut out from the end next the ham. The six pieces of neat meat are now reedy for the salter. The head is next cut open longitudinally from side to side, separating the jowl from the top or • head,' so-called. The jawbone of the jowl ia cut

at the angle or tip, and the ' swallow,' which is the larynx or upper part of the windpipe, is taken out. The head piece is next cut open vertically, and the lobe of the brain is taken out, and the ears and nose are removed. The bone of the chin is cut at several place for the convenience of the cook, and and the task of the cutter is finished. Besides the six pieces of neat meat there are the chin, souse, jowl, head, fat, sausage, two spare and two short ribs, and various other small bits derived from each pig. A good cutter, with an assistant to carry away the pieces, and help otherwise, can cut out from fifty to sixty pigs in a day.