Not for the squeamish...

[Easydrinker]

Man, it was all worth it!
Just a little ground mince, even unseasoned. pressed into a pattie is very,very good.
The sausages, that I have now almost mastered lhe linking of, are as good as any I have ever bought, I want to say better, but I am a modest chap,
I am awaiting some bacon and ham to cure, but am now tempted to put all that is left through the grinder, because the chops are OK, the Stroganoff last weekend was OK, but my ground up piggy is just so good, I want more of that.
There remains the question of his head.
Having been skinned, I don't believe it will make the Brawn of my chilhood, or the potted heid of Scotland, or even manage the head cheese of the USA?
I will boil some other bones and try and get a good jelly thick stock. It might help, it needs gelatin.
I ground some fat and rendered lard.
The residue when fried comes out as Pork scratchings, minus the crunchy bits.
I am not wasting anything that came back, just sorry there wasn't more.
I know for next time.
Alas poor Oxford, you are a tasty chap, and I will eat you well.
Robert.

[Mash]

Sounds like you have mastered this. We always took the filleting knife to the head and added it to the sausage meat.

Have a very simple white pepper sausage recipe.... Yum.

[Easydrinker]

I copied my eldest sister in to this thread, as she had met the piggies.
I thought I would share a line from her response today.

Hi Robert. Just found time to digest your e mail. Read all the links. What a gentlemanly lot you are in your forum!!

I have not explained to her that the admin.team here are amongst the harshest on the interwebs.
She also failed to spot our female members.
The bird twitching forum that she subscribes to, must be an uncouth bunch!

Robert.

[Easydrinker]

Happily this saga has continued.
The other two piggies, left for "professional butchery" on licensed premises, were collected a few days later.
So shittily packaged as to be just put in a freezer and neglected/forgotten about, not even weighed.

Phone call a week later; ' we have found some Pork in our freezer, which by process of elimination is yours'.
Collected today.
Similar amount of piggy, neatly butchered,labelled and packaged.
I knew we were short, but not by that much!
A butcher we will probably not re-use, despite their honesty.

We were then tempted to weigh the total, and yes the butchered weight corresponds to the dead weight from the abbatoir tickets.

We now have enough pork to sell, legally, to cover the cost of all three pigs, the larger pig being pure profit.

Today I was pressure cooking bones for jelly to make Melton Mowbray style pork pies.

Crossing lots off the 'bucket list' this year.

And fine dining along the way.

Robert.

[Mash]

We were then tempted to weigh the total, and yes the butchered weight corresponds to the dead weight from the abbatoir tickets.

Yup. All butchers seem to have biased scales in my opinion. Livestock "jigsaw" always leaves a bad taste in the mouth (hehe). We ended up splitting kill and cut across 2 separate butchers. There is a lot more butchers than abbatoirs! You only need the meat stamped.

[Easydrinker]

It's the missing bits that grieve me.
Trotters, skin, liver etc.
Might just do piggies for home consumption next time, and do it all myself.
And name one Peppa, to prove that my heart and soul belong to Beelzebub.

Robert.