Marc was in charge of the first day when a whole pig was butchered. The pig was a good size, an 86 kg Tamworth x Duroc, supplied by Dan from his herd at 12 Green Acres. Marc butchered the two sides of pork slightly differently,one for pork, and the other side for curing. As well as having a go at some of the butchery, the group cured some bacon from the belly and loin. The nape muscle from the shoulder was cured for coppa.
Day 2, led by Dan, was spent processing all the meat. There was plenty to do, but their excellent team work meant they whizzed through their tasks. By the end of the course the group had produced an impressive range of products - traditional sausages, burgers, chorizo, coppa, streaky and back bacon, faggots, pate, rillettes, pork pies, pork terrine, stock, and some pork scratchings.
During the day, the group quizzed Dan on costings and retail prices and by the end of the course they had a good appreciation of how to add value to meat and just how much work was involved.
Just to liven things up, Lobelia, one of our Kune Kune sows delivered her pigs at lunchtime on Sunday - so perfect timing.
Here are just a few images from the course:
Sausage-making with Dan
The pate, made to Dan's recipe proved to be very popular with the group.
The individual pork pies looked very professional. We used Marc's recipe for hot water pastry. Dan was very impressed and slipped one in his bag to try at home.
Hanging in the chiller at the end of the course - traditional sausages, chorizo, two pieces of coppa at different stages of air drying.
This photo shows the four stages in making coppa - the raw nape muscle on the left, taken from the shoulder, this is dry cured for about 10 days and then rolled in paprika and placed in an ox-bung. This stops the meat from drying out too quickly. After three weeks, the coppa has started to dry out. It will remain there until it has lost one-third of its mass.
And of course, the Kune piglets that caused such a stir at lunch time.

