Buy A Pig

Pick A Pig

Please let us know you'd like to buy a pig by emailing us.

We work on a strictly first come, first served basis, so as the orders come in, we continually update our list of customers, matching their needs with our herd.

You can include in your email when you'd like your pig to be ready, what preference you might have for a particular breed and if you require any different cuts.

We'll then get back to you to confirm your choice is available. We ask you to be patient, because we might not have the animal you want, but we will get it for you, or we might recommend a breed you've not considered. The idea is that you will become involved some three, to four months before the pig is ready.

Once we have a pig we think you'll like, we can email a picture and give you its number, as well as our order form, and away you go.

Cost

As to cost, we charge roughly £7.50 a kilo. Each animal will weigh at least 40 kilos deadweight (including the head, tail, trotters etc), so the cost to you is a set charge of £299, whether or not the animal is heavier. Delivery is based on your postcode and will be quoted at the time of enquiry.

We ask you to pay by cheque please, made out to The Number One Pig Consortium, providing one cheque for when you order the pig of £74 and then two post-dated cheques of £75, dated during the pig's rearing, plus a final one for £75 to conicide with delivery (total £299). The quoted delivery charge will be added to the final cheque.

Alternatively, you can pay in one go by cheque, or by bank transfer.

If you're buying it for a present, we'll send you a gift voucher, so that you can send it as a present on the day of celebration.

You can of course always join the scheme earlier, with five/six months to go, or indeed, join later and get a pig ready for dispatch within a week. Just let us know what you require.

Pigs

The rare breed pigs we rear are taken from the eight recognised strains that remain in the U.K: Gloucester Old Spot, Tamworth, Berkshire, Middle White, Large Black, British Lop, Welsh and Saddle Back.

About two weeks before the pig is due to be delivered to you - this can vary from the date we gave you, as we don't 'finish' a pig until it's ready - we will send you an estimated delivery date and time, plus a cut-sheet.

Also, bear in mind that your pig will hang for at least five days, allowing the meat to relax and mellow. This is another key difference from factory produced meat, where hanging time is losing money time!

Butchery

Main Pig Cuts

The pig is a superbly versatile animal and is divided traditionally into a number of key joints. Unlike other farm animals, you get to use over 70% of the live animal.

From our experience of providing pigs for hundreds of customers, we prepare the pork in a certain way. And remember that the pig comes back in two sides, so there two of everything, apart of course from the head, the four trotters and one tail.

1. The head is cut down to the cheeks and ears. The cheeks - huge on a large pig - represent some of the tastiest parts of a pig and should not thrown away. Cooked as a small joint, or indeed air-dried, it is a valuable source of high-quality pork. The ears are usually used as a treat for the pet dog, roasted in the oven and allowed to brown. You could of course have the head whole, halved, or quartered, making it easy for brawn.

2,3,4. The shoulder is an under-rated pork joint. Unless the customer wishes to make sausages from the two shoulders (and that's how most are commonly used), we remove the hock (taking the trotter off) and bone one, keeping it as a super size roasting joint, and with the other, bone it out, divided into two, then roll it. Keeping the bone in enhances the flavour, but makes carving tricky, although well worth the extra hassle. And the key thing about the shoulder is that this is the joint that does all the work moving the pig around the field - therefore it has a superb blend of fat and flesh, creating a rich flavour.

5. One loin we leave on the bone and divide into three roasting joints. The other loin is divided into chops.

6. Like the shoulder, the belly has always been viewed as a cheap cut, almost unworthy of recognition. How wrong is that. One belly we keep on the bone as a winter warmer roasting joint; the other, we bone so that you can have a go at bacon making. But, be warned, once you've made your own bacon, you won't go back to buying the pulp in the plastic packets.

7. The rear legs. For many, the reason why pigs exist. These we cut-long and remover the trotters. We then, tunnel bone both, because if you have a go at creating air-dried ham, it gives it a better chance of not spoiling and if you roast one (we recommend it), it allows for great carving. Of course, we'd also recommend making a ham, as it's one of the best things about a pig.

Offal. You don't get the intestines (nor do we, these go for sausage making); the plug (liver etc), which as the pigs hang for about a week, this goes off very quickly; nor the blood, unless you are prepared to be there as they dispatch the pig.