Well it's been a long 16 months, but it's finally over.
When I started, the green weight was 8,790 grams. At 30% reduction, that would put the ending point at 6,153 grams. However, I did have to cut a bit away midway through and that threw my calculations off. Also, I was just too lazy to keep going downstairs to the den/meat room to keep weighing it until now. I have a good friend up from Phoenix this week. He just participated in the STP (Seattle, WA to Portland, OR) bike ride this weekend, and he's been bugging me for updates on this since it began.
So today it weighed in at 5,730 grams; roughly 35% weight loss from the original green weight, but of course I carved a little out, so somewhere in between 30% and 35%. Time to watch umpteen videos on YouTube about what to do next. All the pros in Italy have a knife shaped like a long scoop to cut along the bone (along with decades of experience), and completely debone the thing in a matter of a few minutes. Looks easy, uh-huh, except I have neither the scoopy knife nor the experience, but here goes.
Most of the lard gone, and now to start trimming down to the good stuff.
What a hack job, but there were no off odors anywhere to be found
The pros cut all the way around the bone, a few inches down from the shank end and sort of use that as a handle. I thought I'd try the same and just cut down along both ends of the bone and I'd have two perfect chunks, right? Wrong. There is a knee in there, and I guessed wrong about which way it would be bent. A hack job, but still not bad for a first time, I hope.
After a little more trimming, the two pieces were smaller than my goal, but still not bad. Prosciutto is sliced so thin that there should still be quite a bit for my friends and I to enjoy. Wrapped tightly in plastic and I will break out the big slicer some time this week when we get back together.
About this time I was busy tonight with wrapping up the deboning project and getting dinner on the table (Marinated chicken breasts on the Weber.) But I managed to thin slice some of the scrappy meat off the bone with my knife. I had maybe 3-4 oz. on a plate and brought it to my wife for us to try while I got the chicken off the grill. When I came back in, this is all that was left. Evidently, it was good enough.
Actually, the few pieces I tried were good. Some were a little saltier than others (perhaps closer to the outer edge?) But all in all, it was a rousing success; especially since this was not a special breed of pig or anything. Just your run of the mill Costco pork. Next time, I might try to source something better and see how that turns out, but that won't be anytime soon. I missed the room in my curing chamber for anything else while that was in there.