Cutting up a whole hog last week and realized I've been overthinking the belly trim this whole time

I was out in the shed behind my house in Missoula last Tuesday, breaking down a 280 pound Berkshire, and it just clicked that I was wasting way too much meat by trying to keep things too square. Anyone else have a moment where your hands just figured out what your brain couldn't?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey81821h agoMost Upvoted

Hands just figured out what your brain couldn't" - man, that hit way too close to home. I spent a solid hour fighting with a pork belly last fall before my neighbor wandered over and showed me in thirty seconds what I'd been missing. Idk, sometimes I think my knife knows more about meat than I do.

sean_barnes2421h ago

Right? That's basically life in a nutshell - we overthink everything until our hands just do the damn thing and the brain's like "oh yeah, that makes sense now lol.

kai_burns7320h ago

Ask @casey818 what his neighbor actually showed him (you know, the specific cut or angle). I'm curious if it was something about following the natural seam or just stopping the fight against the curve all together. My own lightbulb moment came when I realized I could let the knife ride the rib bones instead of forcing a straight line, which sounds stupid now that I type it out.