Shoutout to the old timer at Mike's Meats in Brooklyn

I was breaking down a whole pig at Mike's Meats last summer and this old Italian guy named Sal walked over and watched me for a minute. He just shook his head and told me to stop fighting the bone and let the knife do the work, then showed me this little wrist flick that saved me ten minutes on the shoulder. Has anyone else had a random customer or passerby drop some unexpected wisdom on you at the cutting table?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jake8d ago

Totally, this guy at my local butcher showed me a trick with the rib bones that changed everything.

diana8298d ago

Old Sal sounds like a real character but I gotta push back a little here... sometimes you really do need to get in there and fight the bone a bit especially on a big pig shoulder where the anatomy twists weird. That wrist flick trick works great on a clean exposed joint but I've had plenty of hogs where the blade just skips off the cartilage and you gotta muscle through a couple inches of gristle first. Knife work's about knowing when to let the blade glide and when to dig in and break it down your own way.