The pig has arrived, well a half of it anyway...

Our half of a pig has been delivered and I must say I am very impressed (please excuse the ignorance as I really didn't know what to expect!). In our tray of meat (which had to be carried by 2 people as it was so heavy) we had...

• Two 1/2 hands of Pork
• Six bags of 2 large Pork chops
• A Pork Hock
• Two big Belly of Porks Joints
• One Pork Loin Joint
• Two Shoulder Joints
• Three massive Leg Joints (one was over 4.4kg!)
• and the kidneys (not sure about this one)

With my experiment hat on, I decided to weigh the meat before it entered the freezer to see if apart from being a better deal for the pig (which had a good life) if it was economical for us too.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I found the equivalent products on the Tesco and Sainsburys websites and using the weight per kg I totted it all up. The cost of buying it in the supermarket was over double what we paid and that didn't include the two 1/2 hands (2.6kg and 2.1kg) and the pork hock as the supermarkets don't seem to stock those cuts of meat.

So now the challenge is on to use the meat in a sensible fashion. Some of the joints are absolutely huge so we are going to plan our pork meals so we use the leftovers the following day in a meal and perhaps freeze any other cooked pork for future meals. That interspersed with the other meat that we use, I think this pig will last us quite some time.