Pig Butchering in the Lunigiana (Tuscany)

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Butchering a pig is a traditional winter occupation in Tuscany, providing the owner with lots of meat that can be stored easily, either fresh or preserved, as my neighbor Armando does, making prosciutto or culatello, salame, mortadella, and sausages.

So, on a chilly December afternoon, we spent almost 3 hours with a pig. In the end there was a carcass cut for transportation, sausage casings prepared from the intestines, caul fat, liver and heart.

The next day two men processed the meat in less than four hours. We'll have a slide show on that part of the process as well.