Pig Class at The Swinery

A friend alerted me to an unusual event in West Seattle, Friday March 12. Pig Breakdown Class. What? The Swinery, a pig-focused (duh!) butcher and food establishment has been renovating its shop. To help fund the project, they hosted a class on how to butcher a pig.

Chef Gabriel, a friendly and enthusiastic character greeted us by offering wine or bourbon (!), and a plate full of his house made charcouterie: prosciutto, 2 kinds of coppa, lardo, guanciale, plus some other salamis. Oh, and when I asked what that black disc was sitting in the meat cooler, he informed me that it was cured pork liver – have a taste – and he offered a small dish with a piece of the liver and some gratings of it on the side – just a pinch will do! Sure enough, a bit of the salty earthy delicacy was all that was needed to appreciate its powerful flavor. He uses it as a topping on pasta, deviled eggs.

Then to pig class. A “small” pig, that had been gutted, was resting on the table. Gabriel proceeded with a presentation full of great facts about fat content, cooking styles, and traditional pork dishes. Within an hour the pig was sectioned into shoulder roast, coppa, tenderloin, leaf fat, ham roasts, trotters, ribs, pork loin, pork belly, jowl, cheek, hock.

Gabriel was quite adept with his sharp knives, following fascial planes when possible, using the hack saw when bones were in the way. A self-taught pig butcher, he claimed at the outset of class, that “there may be other ways to do this, but this is the way that I came up with!”

I have to say a word about the crowd. There were about 25 people, I guess. Food-focused would be the understatement of the evening. All were keenly interested in learning the connection between the animal and the delicacies we’ve all enjoyed. One young woman exclaimed at the beginning of the class as we were mingling and sampling meats, “I couldn’t find anyone to come to this event with me!” and another admitted his office-mates thought this Friday night excursion was a bit odd. But no worries, everyone in the room had an immediate bond around the joy of learning about the origin of great food and how this knowledge expands culinary horizons.

Check out The Swinery!