Roped myself into breaking down a whole hog for a coworker's wedding and it took 11 hours instead of 6
My buddy Pete asked me to cook for his daughter's rehearsal dinner in Modesto, 80 guests, and I said sure, I'll just break down a 240 lb hog myself to save on the butcher bill. Figured it would take me 6 hours tops since I've done plenty of primals, but nobody warned me how much slower it goes when you're fighting a dull saw and your hands keep cramping up. Ended up 11 hours in, 2am, still scraping the jowl, and I missed a huge chunk of trim I had to grind into sausage the next morning. Next time I'm paying the $180 and letting somebody else do the splitting, my back still hurts thinking about it. Any of you take on whole animals solo, and what's your setup for keeping the carcass cold while you work through it?