(article, Culinate staff)
Head over to Michael Ruhlman's blog today for an enlightening post on his weekend activity: butchering a "hand-raised" pig that he purchased from a local farmer. If any layperson could take on this formidable job, it might be Ruhlman, author of Charcuterie: The Art of Salting, Smoking, and Curing._ Still, he found the task challenging: "The actual work of breaking it all down, storing it properly, labeling it, using everything — roasting the bones for stock, curing the bellies and one of the two hams, all the shoulder and trim for sausage and pâté, let me tell you, it’s exhausting work and no good on the back." Still, he persevered and found the job "satisfying." Ruhlman had this to say as well: "I can hope that more people who care about good food, good farmers, humane animal husbandry, eating locally, eating less meat of better quality, will consider finding farmers in their state who raise pigs and support them."