High on the hog: Local butcher makes carving an art (with video)

Milton White, a butcher at Main Street Meats, slices into a halved hog at the shop. Main Street Meats butchers whole animals on site and typically gets in three pigs a week. Milton White, a butcher at Main Street Meats, slices into a halved hog at the shop. Main Street Meats butchers whole animals on site and typically gets in three pigs a week.

By Maura Friedman March 23, 2015 4 min read

There’s barely any blood on the cutting counter. The table’s crisp white plastic is like a spotlight amid all the aluminum trays and tables and walls. And half a pink pig, cut down his spine, is the star of the show.

There is some red splattered on Milton White’s apron, but what he calls “the graphic part” is over. You’re thinking of the slaughterhouse, he says.

“It’s a pretty clean process,” said White, head butcher at Main Street Meats. “Depending on the pig it can be kind of greasy or fatty on your hands, but other than that it’s just cutting stuff.”

Maura “Numbers Cruncher” Friedman

This hog weighs 300 pounds. And Main Street Meats typically processes three whole pigs each week.

“That’s pretty rare in this day and age where everything’s coming in a box,” White said.