My Biggest Butt


 
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Lee-Rowlands

Lee-Rowlands

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Bought a Whole shoulder yesterday and it was big. It was off a Old Gloucester Spot sow and I'd seen it foraging in a field a few weeks ago.
It'd been culled on Monday, hung for three days and then butchered. This is how it looked when I got it <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/images/is/community/this_album_button.gif" BORDER="0">]

In the picture where I've cut the picnic off the knife has a five inch blade to give a sense of scale. Generally the supermarkets in this country don't have meat like this, it's all been cut into little customer friendly pieces so I bought this directly from the farmer.
Unfortunatly the farmer doesn't cull his pigs every week so I'll have to savour this one and look forward to the next.

On with the smokin'

Lee
 
My friend lives on a farm and a couple of months ago a guy down the road slaughtered a hog, and I got a whole shoulder, too, but it's still in my friend's freezer.

You ought to get some of that pork belly and some Buckboard Bacon Cure and you can make some FANTASTIC bacon!

Also...get some of the beautiful snowy white fat off of that farmer and then if you have a not-very-fatty brisket or if you want to smoke some game, you can pound the pork fat fairly thin and then stretch it over the meat to keep it from drying out.
 
Susan,

I've got some fat in the freezer off the shoulder, that breed of pig is quite fatty and good for making sausages so I think I'll have a go at some next time 'round.
The fat I cut off is two inches thick in places so that will keep me going for a while.

I have also found a supplier who hangs his beef for 28 days so, it's brisket for next weeks mission then.
 
Lee
That looks like it will be a fun cook. You still have spine and some ribs on the there, we don't get see shoulders like that often. Leave it whole and trim skin off off the butt portion leaving it on the picnic. This will help keep the moisture levels up during this long cook.

Speaking about sausage, do you have good recipe for making bangers.
Jim
 
That's exactly the kind of fat I ran into when I was trimming up the stuff we got from my friend's neighbor's hog. She bought a lot of loin cuts which were nearly half fat---we were gobsmacked!---but it was gloriously lovely fat as white as the driven snow!

Ask for the brisket from the left side. Legend has it they are more tender because most steer stand up by pushing off with their right legs, not the left....
 
"Ask for the brisket from the left side. Legend has it they are more tender because most steer stand up by pushing off with their right legs, not the left...."

LOL
Jim
 
Jim, the shoulder was far too big to get in the wsm whole so I had to cut the picnic off (it even had the trotter on, cut that off and made some pork stock. The father-in-laws dog is having the left overs for tea today).

Susan and Jim, I have the Brisket in my fridge now. The butcher came out of his cold room carrying both briskets together still on the bone!! I had to leve him for half an hour to cut them off the bone and when I arrived back the piece of meat was as big as a coffee table! I had him cut it in half so that I now have the left and right top section which was the thickest part.

You need to get this book Maynard, Adventures of a bacon curer not only is it a brilliant read but it also includes some old recipies of how things used to be done. I will stick a couple on here in the future.
 
Lee,

I could only find the book in the UK, but I ordered it. It's coming on a slow boat, but I should have it in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the tip!
 
Hi Lee

That shoulder looks awesome, hope you have the time to smoke it!! (and possibly post some details here).
I think I've seen the book in one of the butchers shops in Ludlow - is there a geographical connection or just the trade?
Hope you made it to the food festival, I didn't make it but I'm sure it was busy.
 
Susan- I have heard that legend may times, it makes me laugh every time I hear it.
icon_wink.gif


Jim
 
Susan, it's a fantastic read, you'll have to let us know if you try a recipe from it.

James, there is a geographical link. The business he had is out by Prees on the Whitchurch road and he now lives about 15 miles away from me just outside Shrewsbury.
I didn't get to the Food festival in the end, the weather forecast put me off because it was going to be a family outing and my six year old doesn't like the rain.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jim Minion:
You still have spine and some ribs on the there, we don't get see shoulders like that often. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As Jim noticed, the primal cuts are different here. I've developed a good relationship with a London butcher, it took a few minutes of explaining in butcherese. The cut here contains the regular bones plus a bit of the chime and the first few ribs (about 4). The extra bones keep it pretty moist.

Back to the originating post:
Lee,
You know the score, the supermarkets prepackage the same cuts that normal people (Mr and Mrs Pebbledash) buy. Sounds like your farmer friend is good to know when he's got a pig to kill, for the rest of the time: become real good friends with a butcher who knows what he's doing.
It paid off for me. When I walk in he gives me a run down of the best looking meat he just got in ... I'll go to Tesco to get the charcoal!

morgan
 
Isn't it great to know your hobby, passion, avocation is fastly becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Can we buy stock in Weber?

AR
 
Morgan
I saw a shoulder a few weeks ago, it was a japanese strain of hogs raised for Snake River Farms, that was still in that primal form. Your right about not seeing often, was quite interesting to watch it being worked. Cooking them in this form does indeed help keep them moist also introduces some extra muscles that influences flavor.
Jim
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Susan Z:
Ask for the brisket from the left side. Legend has it they are more tender because most steer stand up by pushing off with their right legs, not the left.... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>For anyone that's interested, see Brisket Selection & Preparation and click on the InfoBullet "The Tale of the Left-Handed Brisket."

Regards,
Chris
 
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