Hit 1,000 whole hog breakdowns today... was aiming for 500

I've been breaking down whole hogs for about 4 years now, mostly for a BBQ joint I supply. Started slow, maybe 3-4 a month. Then this year I kept a tally in my notebook just out of curiosity. Counted up this morning and I'm at 1,042 so far. Never thought I'd get there honestly. It's not like a record or anything, just a weird personal milestone that snuck up on me. The reason it matters - I can do a whole breakdown in about 12 minutes now without really thinking. Feels good to see the progress. Has anyone else had a number like that sneak up on them in their shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

emery87921d ago

Wow that's a hell of a quiet milestone! 12 minutes is seriously impressive, I know guys who can barely get a shoulder squared up in that time. The muscle memory thing is real too - I noticed with my own work that after about 800 or so the knife just knows where to go without me thinking about it. Like you stop hesitating on the rib lift and the tenderloin just falls out clean every time. It's wild how those reps stack up and suddenly you're twice as fast as when you started without even trying to be.

the_sean21d agoTop Commenter

Build off that muscle memory point too because the weirdest part is when you catch yourself not even looking at the knife anymore just feeling the bone gaps through your fingers and knowing exactly where the blade needs to go. That shift from thinking to just doing is what really drops the time because you're not wasting half a second on every cut second guessing if you're in the right spot. After enough reps your hands just remember the shape of the animal better than your brain does and that's when the clean stuff really starts flowing.