The day I tried breaking down a whole pig for the first time took me 7 hours

I figured I'd be done in like 2 or 3 hours max. By hour 4 I was still fighting with the shoulder joint and my back was killing me. Had to watch three different YouTube videos just to figure out how to separate the belly from the loin properly. Ended up with a mess of scraps and uneven cuts that looked nothing like the diagrams I studied. Has anyone else had a first butchering session take way longer than you planned, or was I just really off on my time estimate?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninas701mo ago

Join the club, @valwest already nailed it - nobody talks about the messy first try. Took me 5 hours to mess up a simple pork shoulder once, ended up with more bone dust than actual meat. At least you can still eat the mistakes, right?

valwest1mo ago

That first attempt at anything usually takes way longer than you think. Cooking, building furniture, even learning a new video game - the learning curve is always steeper than we expect. People just don't talk about how much time the messy first try really takes.