ONCE A WEEK, sometimes twice, in the lull between lunch and dinner, Seattle chef Chet Gerl snaps on blue latex gloves and dismantles a whole pig behind the counter of his open kitchen at Matt's in the Market.
Since Tamara Murphy showed him how years ago, when he was her sous chef at Brasa, he figures he's butchered more than a hundred. At Matt's, he taught his sous chef the skill, too. He prefers a large animal, one that weighs 125 to 150 pounds on average. "Bigger pigs not only yield more meat but allow for more versatile cuts," he says, among them shoulder chuck roast steaks, flank and sirloin steaks. He makes short work of cutting primal, sub-primal and portion pieces, sometimes racing the clock, just to see how fast he can do it. His best time is just under 10 minutes.
Off come the trotters, the belly, the fatback, the tenderloin, the neck and head, the shoulders and rump. If the animal is big enough, he'll make porchetta by cutting a whole piece off the back, skin and all, and wrapping it around the tenderloin. Although Gerl buys chops from Carlton Farm (one pig doesn't have enough to sustain the restaurant for a whole week) when he gets a pig with a nice loin, he might pound out cutlets for pork katsu.
He braises the ham and shoulders for BBQ pork, cures the neck for coppa, the thick rim of fat for lardo. The rump is used for pozole. Trotters, tongue and cheeks go into head cheese. The skin is fried into chicharrones. Ribs feed the employees at "family meal." Trimmings fill chorizo or the stock pot.
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