My first whole hog breakdown turned into a mess at 6am on a Tuesday

I was working at a little shop in Portland, must have been 8 years ago now. The owner trusted me with a 200 pound hog (I was still pretty new, you know?) and I felt confident. About halfway through, I slipped with my boning knife and nicked the intestine. That smell hit me like a wall, and the whole thing just went sideways. Green stuff started leaking everywhere, and I froze up for a good 30 seconds. My coworker Dave just looked over and said "you gonna stand there or fix it?" so I grabbed a hose and rinsed it down best I could, then had to trim around the damage. It set me back like 45 minutes and I lost maybe 15 pounds of meat. I still cringe thinking about it. Has anyone else had a similar gut spill and salvaged the carcass?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa3689d ago

That 30 seconds of frozen panic is the exact moment every butcher knows they've joined the "smelled the green stuff" club.

jesse_craig269d ago

Bet that green smell hits different when you're the one who sliced the gallbladder open.

the_elliot8d ago

Wow, reading that gave me flashbacks I didn't ask for. That green stuff doesn't mess around, does it? You basically turned a whole hog into a biohazard training exercise. But hey, at least you got to keep that 185 pounds of meat instead of tossing the whole thing in a dumpster, right? Dave sounds like a real poet with his motivational coaching there. "Fix it or stand there" should be on a t-shirt for every butcher who's been through this.