Misadventures in Pig Slaughter

So, my friend is having a house warming pig roast tomorrow night. Needless to say, a denizen of the meaty arts like myself could not but step up and do pig duty. As it is not an over huge gathering, I decided a pig of about 30 pounds would be sufficient. This size is not quite a tiny suckling jobber, but also not hogzilla. Pursuant to this, I built a roasting rig (more on this later in the weekend) that would accommodate the modestly sized pig I was expecting. However, does anything in this life ever actually go according to plan? Of course not.

When the gentlemen farmer from whom we ordered the pig arrived, it was with not a 30 pounder but nigh a 60 pound sow! Some sort of mix up I guess. That is still not the hugest pig around but way bigger than what I had planned, and too big for the roasting apparati that I had constructed. As much as I hated to do it, I had to slaughter the hog down into component parts to make it manageable for cooking. At a pig roast one wants to a see a whole pig being roasted, there is a certain psychological impact of seeing a whole creature all crispy brown and delicious. Having to cut it up like this lessens the fun a little, but oh well.

Anyhow, above is an action shot of me cuttin' off a ham. Surely more to follow on this.