Daily Telegraph - British diners need to tuck in to deer more

[JTO]

Yes. Having kept pigs all my life, I know that the most profitable thing to do with pork is turn the whole carcass into sausages. Forget all the "high value" fancy roasts and steaks, just put the whole thing into sausages.

This is what prompted my #50 !!!!!

 

[Heym SR20]

Yes. Having kept pigs all my life, I know that the most profitable thing to do with pork is turn the whole carcass into sausages. Forget all the "high value" fancy roasts and steaks, just put the whole thing into sausages.

Even better is high quality charcuterie. I have German friend who makes fantastic wild boar salami and dried ham. The hams are from the hind quarters of mature but still young - the one and two year olds. The rest goes into salami and other similar products. He makes several hundred Euros out of each boar.

I was chatting at the Highland Show to gentlemen who was running wild boar cross old fashioned pigs. He was using clear fell woodland that was fenced for replanting. A year of his pigs and all the seed bed nicely prepared. He did add supplemental feed but he reckoned each pig was being turned into £1,000 worth of product that he was selling to the likes of Harrods. That’s £1,000 to him, not the retail price.

 

[VSS]

Even better is high quality charcuterie. I have German friend who makes fantastic wild boar salami and dried ham. The hams are from the hind quarters of mature but still young - the one and two year olds. The rest goes into salami and other similar products. He makes several hundred Euros out of each boar.

I was chatting at the Highland Show to gentlemen who was running wild boar cross old fashioned pigs. He was using clear fell woodland that was fenced for replanting. A year of his pigs and all the seed bed nicely prepared. He did add supplemental feed but he reckoned each pig was being turned into £1,000 worth of product that he was selling to the likes of Harrods. That’s £1,000 to him, not the retail price.

You'd retail £1,000 worth of ordinary sausages from a decent sized pig, without all the hassle of making charcuterie products. And the thing about sausages is that they're a familiar product that everyone buys. So not much difficulty in marketing them yourself, if that's what you wanted to do.

 

[willie_gunn]

Yes. Having kept pigs all my life, I know that the most profitable thing to do with pork is turn the whole carcass into sausages. Forget all the "high value" fancy roasts and steaks, just put the whole thing into sausages.

Alan Hayward at Vicar’s Game said the same about venison - if he’d had his way he’d have minced the lot of them!